Latest Fishing Updates from all the sweet honey holes around the state!!!

[perchhogslayer]

If your reading this, and your not a member, sign up,  its free!!!  you won't get spam mail, no one will sell your info, it just takes a couple minutes, and you can contribute your updates on ice conditions, how the fishing was, good, bad, instead of just stealing everyone else's contributions... You don't have to share everything, but some info would sure be helpful, and help continue to make this site a great place to learn some and teach some great fishing knowledge.   Its fun and a bit addicting.  Even if you don't share much, at least you wouldn't totally be a mooch. 

If your reading this and you ARE a member!  GREAT!  Keep up the updates on ice conditions, fishing conditions,  ect... I LOVE seeing your pictures, reading your stories, hearing your gripes and complaining, and sharing in your ecstasy over an amazing day of fishing.  Thanks for contributing, and have a GREAT season!!

[Walltrout]

Amen!   

[Neptune]

Ditto!

[Seedtree]

Sir, Amen.

[MrMarty51]

May I lurke just a bit longer?? huh,Please.

[perchhogslayer]

Its been a bit too warm here to form anything, but does ANYONE have any ice?  I'm busting at the seams to get out and do some fishing. I can't take it any more!!!

[cutbow_07]

Yeah I have Ice on the Willow Creek Arm of Harrison Lake that is about 1 1/2" but all the way across and down to the mouth of the canyon.  Pond by my friends house that has about 2 inches as well.

[spedray]

Alot of the small mountain lakes in south western part of the state have enough ice to fish on now. They might take a little bit to get to, but there really hasn't been too much snow to make them impossible to go to. I was by Ennis lake yesterday and it looked like half the lake had ice on it, but I doubt that it was thick enough to stand on.

[Mt.Bucket]

going to go fishing on park lake tomorrow and scratch the itch. small trout and grayling as most probably know. was 2 and 3 inches yesterday. it will sure be nice to catch some fish through the ice!!

[wingnutty]

nelson has about 1" of ice on the far east end (as of last sunday).  Most of the lake is open.  Marshes and skinny waters are all frozen.  It'll be another couple weeks probably till fishing is possible on most places up here.

I'm looking forward to it.  Gonna order an ice gator.  All i have right now is a lazer hand auger, never really needed a power auger, but I think I'll be thanking myself for buying one this winter now that I"m fishing nelson 2+ times/week!

[perchhogslayer]

going for a drive this weekend unless it gets real cold real quick wich doesn't look likely,  I can't take it anymore! 

[MrMarty51]

Spotted Eagle is froze over.
Getting the 4 weeler ready to go.DEAD battery so I replaced that,Mounted on the auger rack,checked the fluids and aired up the tires.
Trailers next.
Gonna try to make a run to the Eagle tomorrow and make sure all is working up to par.

[Mt.Bucket]

Hey there MRMARTY,
I use to also live in Miles City and have fished Spotted Eagle as a kid. That was 20 plus years ago. Been there alot since then but not ice fishing. Has it still got alot of fish in it? Peck should be fishable soon?! Well goood luck with equipment and catch some fish.

[rodrunner]

TRR will be another week or so.

[MrMarty51]

Hey there MRMARTY,
I use to also live in Miles City and have fished Spotted Eagle as a kid. That was 20 plus years ago. Been there alot since then but not ice fishing. Has it still got alot of fish in it? Peck should be fishable soon?! Well goood luck with equipment and catch some fish.

Yup there`s still fish in there.Just how plentiful it will be for icefishin............. Time will tell.
If You get to M.C. this winter give Me a call and maby we can link up and give the Eagle a try or another favorite fishin hole I know about.

[Mt.Bucket]

Yup there`s still fish in there.Just how plentiful it will be for icefishin............. Time will tell.
If You get to M.C. this winter give Me a call and maby we can link up and give the Eagle a try or another favorite fishin hole I know about.

 
 I will do that for sure, I think I am going to ND. this winter so if I do I will stop and fish with ya. Or maybe we could Fort Peck.

[perchhogslayer]

Just got back from a blistering cold morning of fishing!  Wow was it cold!  fishing would have been great if we could have stayed longer, but just too darn cold.  We went up to Park Lake near Helena.  road had about a foot of snow at the shallowest.  2 feet or so in the drifts.  It was snowing all morning and blowing hard, so we didn't want to get drifted in so ended up only fishing about 1.5 hours or so.  caught 3 or 4 tiny grayling.  (5-6" maybe)  would have made nice pike bait.  Not a bad first day out for the season.  man I love catching fish through the ice.  Ice up there aparently has been fishable for a while.  we saw about 5-6 good inches, with 2-3 foggy white inches on top of that.  Temp was about 5 above I'd guess.  holes weren't closing off with ice as much as drifting snow. 

Today was my first experience using a fish camera.  I used the Aqua View Scout 2,  with spetral lighting.  took a little fiddling around to get it focused good, and coudln't really see very much, till we lowered it all the way to the bottom.  don't know if it was clearer down there, or if we could see simply because it has something to see (the bottom)  VERY cool seeing the grayling darting around down there.  Those 5" ers looked like monsters up close in the camera. :-)  Very Very cool.  The lights didn't seem to affect them one bit.  they seemed oblivious to the camera.  Guess it didn't seem a bit out of the ordinary to see a blue gill shaped flash light that was about twice as big as they were. :-)  go figure.   VERY fun toy.  I highly recomend it. 

[Neptune]

Perchhogslayer is now Addicted to "Fish Porn"!!!

[perchhogslayer]

Perchhogslayer is now Addicted to "Fish Porn"!!!
[/quote
yeah buddy.  it was pretty darn cool seeing loads of Grayling swimming around.  they were tiny, but on the camera looked pretty darn big.  can't wait to see actual large fish, like a pike! or huge ling.   

[perchhogslayer]

I fished 2 places today (Sunday, Dec. 21)  Started the day out at the Helena Holding Reservoir.  Wasn't fishing hard, mostly just playing with my new toys, getting used to the new fish finder, and Aqua View.  didn't see anything on either, and not a bite.  Was out in nearly 34 feet of water, fishing at different depth.  Fished for 3 hours.  Ice was 9-10" thick!!!

Next, I fished in the afternoon at Spring Meadow in Helena.  Again, just playing with new toys mostly.  My dad and I's first time fishing in a shanty.  WOW, very cool.  I mean, warm,  must have been 20 degrees warmer in the shanty then outside.  it was about 0 outside, so inside was very bearable.  We fished in 20 feet of water and could see all the way to the bottom!!!!  we fished at 5 feet, 10 feet, 15 feet, and just off the bottom, and saw trout at every depth, all the hits came from about 15-18 feet.  Caught a few real big trout, but released them all.  I'll post pics tomorrow.  We were using orange jigs with maggots.  Lots of fun fighting some big trout!!!!!  Ice was much thinner then the res.  At about 4-5 inches!!!, but clear and hard. 

[perchhogslayer]

Just bumping this up so any lurkers can have the opportunity to read and convert.