IceShanty.com's Ice Fishing Community
Montana => Ice Fishing Montana => Topic started by: fishforfood72 on Feb 17, 2009, 05:38 PM
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hows the ice holding up,anybody catching any ling or still doing good on perch
just seeing whats going on up there going to try our luck this week if things work out.
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I was out all this weekend and drove to the pressure ridge and back. Gettin on the ice is really good at the first boat ramp, and ice is at least 16in everywhere i have punched a hole. i have a dodge dakota, so not a full size truck, but there were plenty of bigger vehicles out there. i did pretty decent on the perch, but always a couple of fish from my limit. I heard the trout fishing has been ok, but the bigger fish arn't being caught right now.
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Made a really quick run out to the north end of CF on Monday evening with the kids for the first time this year. Absolutely gorgeous afternoon. Ice was good - about 10" or so. Practically nobody is fishing that end of the lake. We saw an ice house out near Cemetary Island and just a couple other spots folks have tried. We were pleased in an hour of fishing during late evening to pick up 2 perch and one walleye (13"). Of course dad caught none of those. My kids consistently out-fish me.
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The only thing that we may have to worry about is the warmer weather. Monday afternoon while we were coming off the ice we had to go through some slush right at shore. Other than that the ice is looking great.
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My kids consistently out-fish me.
Thats the sign of a good dad! ;D
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thanks ice is still good drove all over but colder temp would help :tipup:
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Is there some structure or something way out by the pressure ridge? I saw the cars out there, but it seemed like a strange place to fish instead of more traditional fish habitat.
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Is there some structure or something way out by the pressure ridge? I saw the cars out there, but it seemed like a strange place to fish instead of more traditional fish habitat.
The pressure ridge is more or less a magnet for fishermen. Some people say the water is more oxygenated there, and therefore the fishing is better, I don't buy that. Strange place to fish? not too strange, perch in CF tend more towards the deeper water. I've caught a lot of perch right in the middle of the lake, but have also done well close to shore, but only in deep water. 35+ feet. I don't know of ANY structure in the lake, although one time while Ice fishing I snagged a log. and every spring lots of debris is floated into the lake by the Missouri. overall there's really not much structure to speak of. every time I've dropped a camera to the bottom all I see is a flat sandy barren wasteland. and perch swimming around? weird as it might sound.
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I got a map of CF from the silos and I got to agree with hogslayer. I was trying to find structure for a place to try to key on walleye, but theres not a thing really that jumps out. slowly and gradually its gets deeper towards the dam and there are a few points, obvious enough to pick out, but thats mostly it, especially the south end, nothing
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Interesting. It looks like I have a lot to learn.
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[ I don't know of ANY structure in the lake,
[/quote]
It's been a few years since I fished CF but I recall finding a lot of underwater structure about 1/2 mile off the mouth of Duck Creek basically in line with The Silos across the lake. There are all kinds of debris piles scattered around when you find the right area. I got some nice perch and ling out of that area at times. Am thinking it was around 40 ft deep there but my memory may be off a little there.
jjT
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hows the ice holding up,anybody catching any ling or still doing good on perch
just seeing whats going on up there going to try our luck this week if things work out.
have spent 4 recent days out at CF,, silo's to the dikes lookin' for trout.. we limited out most days.. in 6-10 feet.. i remember last year it just started really gettin' good about now, til' my last day on the ice .. march 15th. our best trout a couple of days ago was 22 inches..we even bagged a couple of ling on set-lines overnite at the dikes in about 10'... ice seems to be gettin' abit soft in places, but plenty thick for now... but the trout were hittin'. didn't talk to any perch guys..troutguy.
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I went out today (2/21/09) 7:30 to 10:30am.................. ..one mile south of the Silos boat dock. Very slow! Ice is 20 to 24 inches. Every body was driving on it.
Don
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was out perch fishing today, moved around to a few places I've done well in the past, then into the spawning grounds to see if we could get any more action there. Don't know where they all are, but not where we were thats for sure. I got skunked, guys I was with caught 3 perch and 1 nice ling. Ice was PLENTY thick, this warm weather doesn't seem to affect the ice at all! still lots of soft light snow on the ice in places, like it hasn't been getting very warm out there. Plenty of vehicles on the ice, and the shorelines still look as good as they ever do. Ice wasn't cutting any easier that it did in January. Judging by todays conditions looks like we may have another good month of ice fishing!
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what a difference a week makes!!! I couldn't finda fish anywhere today either, so at noon, i took off to ruby reservoir, and low and behold, i got skunked there too. Beautiful day to be outside, but the fishing sure was lousy everywhere.
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Seen a lot of guys catching trout today, south of the silos, I got a 2 lber and my buddy got a 2.34, we fished 230 to 530... Missed a few others, we are going to hit it up again in the morning. I talked to the Game Warden and he said he'd measured and weighed a lot of trout today, so they were biting.
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Fished the inlet at the silos boat ramp first thing in the morning yesterday. Was there for about 2 hours without a bite. Went and got some coffee and then headed south some more and just pounded them. Took me two hours to limit out. I really wish I had a friend with. Lost one pole while I was fighting another. I had multiple times where I had more than one fish on at a time. After I lost the first pole I got smart and tied all the others up the various stuff and I was glad I did. I had to pull two rods out of the holes. I was fishing in 6 fow and had every differnt kind of thing on for lures. However the black maribou? jigs that you can buy at the silos bait shop did really good. The fish didn't seem to matter what type of bait was on either they bit everything. Ended up catching 16 fish with the largest being 4 1/2 pounds.
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i was fishing for perch, never tried for trout out of CF.
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We were out at by Duck Creek yesterday the ice was good got a little sloppy in the afternoon but otherwise still 17 inches. We started off way down off the pressure ridge by Confederate with not even a bite. Moved to about 48 feet of water and at least started catching fish about 1:30 or 2:00. We came no where close to our limit but got enough to feed our belly's. Our friends were about ten feet from us and only had about two bites which really sucked. There was one point in time though that they had to help out cause we were busy with other poles.
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On CF yesterday and did so so. North west of duck creek 55 or so feet of water. I got like 7 so it wasn't epic by any means and the guy I was with got like 9 or so. He almost constantly had fish on the vex where I really had to jig for them. I really think that sometimes the most frustrating thing about ice fishing is that sometimes it really doesn't matter what your doing. I had holes less than 15 feet from him for the better part of the morning and I wasn't marking anything. Finally I got fed up and tried new holes and got a few. Funny thing was, we were there later last week and the holes I was fishing were the ones that seemed to hold the only fish.
My personal thought on the ice is that I think its a little spooky. Yeah it is plenty thick, 17-18 inches, but its how fast my auger is going though now. I just have the chipper blade and in the middle of winter you could be sitting there for 5 minutes waiting for that thing. Right now, I could cut all six hole in the same time it might take to cut 1 and 1/2 or 2. Still watching guys driving out there but unless is gets could I think I would only use atv or small cars at most. Thats just me do whatever your comfortable with. sixty degrees in townsend yesterday
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I am planning on going fishing tomarrow at Canyon Ferry-Silos...............has anyone got a current ice and fishing status?
Thanks, Don
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trying to figure that out also herd Little soft around edges snow don't help either
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I was at the silos today. The snow is mostly off the ice. There was some wet spots along the shore but I found my way out easy enough.
There is a pressure ridge on the south end of the park pretty close to shore. I wasn't sure how to get around it so I went north. I didn't catch anything, but that is because I'm clueless.
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Hey i was looking to take my little brother up on canyon ferry tomorrow for some of those trout and im pretty clueless. you guys got any suggestions?
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Hey i was looking to take my little brother up on canyon ferry tomorrow for some of those trout and im pretty clueless. you guys got any suggestions?
Thomas,
Stop by or call the Silos bait shop. They should be able to send you to where the trout are biting. I expect they are shallow now so probably to the south of Silos.
jjT
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I fished today (2/28/09).........7:30am to noon.
Ice: 0-1/2" at shore to 10' from shore. Beyond that 20-25" and good and solid.
Some trucks driving on it..........I would nor recommend that!
Fishing: poor..........I fished beyond White Horse road in 10" of water...one trout...
lots of fisherman...very few catching fish.
I talked to the lady at the silos bait shop..............this is where she recommended.
I am going to tie up some of my own jigs tonight and try it again tomorrow.
Don
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Try Holter we kept these two and released 3 others.
(http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e219/ldoto1/dcp_0580.jpg)
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went yesterday looking for perch fishing pretty darn slow ice seemed to be ok for now.
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Fished south of the Silos yesterday. Ended up doing ok. Took home three decent rainbows and lost easily as many. Also caught a few small ones. Also caught a ten pound carp that barely made it throw the hole. It took 20 minutes to land. Fishing in 6 fow with worms and maggots. Shore ice is getting bad but the main ice is still solid.
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How about the Holding Reservoir? Anyone been out there lately? I heard about good salmon runs earlier in the season, may try once before ice-off.
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after doin' so well a week ago... we drilled 18 holes north of the christmas trees on 2-28-09, and hung around for 6 hours... 5 trout (total!). it was very slow for 3 guys, with the best bite about 7:30 AM. we were still in that 6-10 foot deep zone.. several weak spots and a little standing water near the shore was a sign of things to come as the weather warms and you need to pick your get-on spot alittle more carefully (keep your nose to the wind and watch the shore)..i think we will move up the lake abit more, back to the dikes area again i suppose, as that ice is usually the last to start rotting and pullin' away from shore.... it seems i do best on cloudy days and it was blazin' sun after a cold saturday mornin'.. i've been icefishin CF since 1981 you'd think i've have it figured out by now... no way.. but the fun is the tryin'...TG-out
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hows the ice holding anybody been out lately.
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the boy and i went out saturday (3-7-09) and were pleasantly surprised that we had just enough trout action to tolerate the cold AM and afternoon wind.. we had our limits by 2:30. we lost several at the holes... we each had maybe 12 bites. we were near the christmas trees again. the ice was 17 inches last week, yesterday it was 12... the shore was abit tricky with some standing water here and there. i didn't see any vehicles bigger than a small atv on the ice. still workin' that 6-10 fow zone, mostly green-black woollies or rubber jigs, tipped with maggots /mealworms or worm. TG-out
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the boy and i went out saturday (3-7-09) and were pleasantly surprised that we had just enough trout action to tolerate the cold AM and afternoon wind.. we had our limits by 2:30. we lost several at the holes... we each had maybe 12 bites. we were near the christmas trees again. the ice was 17 inches last week, yesterday it was 12... the shore was abit tricky with some standing water here and there. i didn't see any vehicles bigger than a small atv on the ice. still workin' that 6-10 fow zone, mostly green-black woollies or rubber jigs, tipped with maggots /mealworms or worm. TG-out
glad to hear someone got out and caught something. my buddy went on the south end and didn't catch a thing. When you say "christmas trees" I'm assuming you mean the ones off the silos? The FWP has dropped trees off of pretty much every major bay on the lake, and in SEVERAL locations off the silos. up till 2004 (I think) when they just started floating them out on ice bergs. They've gone back to strategically dropping them in the spring when ice is off, but don't know when that started again.
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yes, we were abit north of the big shore stack which is south of the iceboat ramp...we talked to a guy at the christmas trees and he said they were waitin' for some open water and then they will helicopter the trees to areas off shore... like you said, they have had marginal luck puttin' the trees on the ice...as they tend to float off. hopefully this cool weather will button-up the shore abit and we can sneak out a couple more times. TG-out
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Can't wait to see what comes of the latest round of FWP management meetings regarding the Helena Missouri chain of lakes. I've been trying to stay updated by reading meeting minutes, and so far it sounds pretty positive. I think they are aggressively trying to really make the lakes world class fisheries like they used to be.
In case your interested, Here's the link to the FWP page with those meeting minutes
http://fwp.mt.gov/fishing/management/upperMissouriRiver.html (http://fwp.mt.gov/fishing/management/upperMissouriRiver.html)
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh181/keepitjazzy/treedrop.jpg)
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh181/keepitjazzy/treedrop2.jpg)
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Has anyone been having any luck on the perch or is it just time to wait till open water up there? Never really fished CF and was interested in some late ice perch. Any info is very much appreciated. Thanks
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I haven't been out lately, but everyone I have talked to thats been going out regularly has had terrible luck with the perch for about the last 3 weeks. they just all of a sudden quite biting, everywhere. searched shallow and deep. Think they are probably done for this year. I know they spawn just before and right as the ice starts to break up, guess they quit biting around that time too.
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Hmmmmm.......I c. Well I appreciate the info 'slayer' and will probably be just emptying gas outta the augers and storing it all up this weekend then maybe......... :-\. I hate this time of the year :'( :'(
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Went fishing today (3/14/09)....The ice around the Silos at shore line is very questionable. Only saw two fishermen out on the ice at one of the inlets north of the Christmas trees. South of the trees there was an SUV that had gone through the ice and was parked in about 3 feet of ice/water.
I ended up fishing further south at the end of White Horse road. Ice is good and at 100 yards out it is 2 feet (+) thick. Fishing is slow....1 nice rainbow in three hours of fishing............8:00 to 11:00 am. Saw some four wheelers on the ice....no cars or trucks. Wind is a problem.
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well i suppose we were one of the groups you saw (4 groups in the area) north of the christmas trees...ice was between 9-11 inches and the shore was marginal... the fishin' went from slow to too much wind for us, real quick... we could see several folks down at the dikes (white horse)...unless i go to hyalite or hebgen i suppose i'm done for the season.. this season was odd, we would just spank-um' one day, go back the next and hard to get a fish to do more than a 'hit and run'...that's fishin'...last year my last day on CF was march 15... this year march 14. back in the 1980's-90's we fished several seasons into april. global warmin' i suppose. any you guys hear about pike at toston? see ya next year. TG-out