Thanks for the comeback and info. Much appreciated as I'm in Soldotna and "running
mostly blind" when it comes to first hand knowledge of Big Lake and the Valley lakes. I've been told that some folks target pike around the cove there at Meadow Creek and I ran into some info about some guys hitting the area near the Marina and getting some pike there last winter. From the Google Earth satellite image of April 18th, 2011 it does appear there were a number of fishing holes outside of the race track area parallel to the shoreline. I assume those were pike anglers. Strange hole patterns though.
I scouted the big bay at the North Ramp Campground last summer in my rubber raft rowing around and doing some trolling and casting plugs while checking the bottom terrain. Lots of weeds all over that huge area. Was surprised how covered the bottom is with thick weeds there, even in the deeper water. Couldn't find any clear/open bottom anywhere within a reasonable viewing depth. Lots of the area only had 2-4 feet or less of clear water above the weed level and with 30 inches of ice now that probably means the ice is down to the weed tops in many areas and not worth soaking bait in the jungle.
My "preferred" pike water, especially for spearing, is 5-8 feet deep, flat or with some gentle slope, with intermittent weed bed patches but sparse enough to allow the fish some long range visibility of your bait or spearing decoy. Or along the deep water side of a thick weed patch where the fish move along the edge of that corridor. Mirror/Mud Lake appears to have a lot of reasonably shallow water that might have this sort of habitat. And with it connected to Big Lake I'm sure there are pike present there as well as in Flat Lake too. Mirror seems to have the better habitat from a depth perspective.
The campground host at the North Ramp last summer said they keep that one parking lot open all winter for parking and for camping plus one toilet open too. Said it was only $5 a night for camping in the winter as I recall. Do you know if indeed the lot is cleared for campers?
