Thought I better return and report the trip.
Sun. Rockport
fished in 40-60fow most fish came in at 15' down and a few on bottom.
Mon. Scofield
fished in 15-30fow All cutts. If I remember right, most fish were within the bottom 5'
Tue. Pineview and Mantua
Thought Pineview was going to be a breeze. I was wrong... slow. Finally sent the camera down to see what was going on. On the way down, I saw a tiger at about ten feet off of the bottom. Thought that might be part of my problem with the slow bite... who knows?
On the bottom I saw and caught a few dink perch. My fishing partner had lost all patience. We decided to split and head to Mantua. Before I could reel up, he had all my gear packed and headed off the ice.
Mantua: I have never fished here before and after the slow fishing above, my confidence was lacking to say the least. The lake was packed and we headed toward the crowd. Not wanting to be rude, we kept our distance... all the while I was thinking that the grass sure looked green over there. Drilled about ten holes and fished them until we found a few holes that would produce. The fish were as light biting as I have ever seen. ( I have never caught a gill through the ice before.) Once I was confident we were over fish, I set up the tent and made a declaration of WAR on the fish! Dropped the camera down and it was GAME ON! What I saw was that for every fish we caught without the camera, we missed nine. You could watch them take in the hook on the camera and not even see a change in the line above the ice! (2# line &4mm. tungsten jig) Once we got into the groove, the fish didn't have a chance. Caught a 50/50 mix of perch and gills. saw one bass and one trout as well.
Tue. Clark Canyon Res. Montana (I-15 north of Idaho border)
caught a few trout with my uncle and hit the road for home.
all in all, a great trip!
