Flathead and LMR

[wingnutty]

Figured i'd make a new post to update folks as I'm sure a lot of people want to know...

I drove the entire lake today (east and west shores).  The only fishable ice is on east bay.  There is zero ice on big arm or bluebay or skiddo.  Light ice on parts of Somers, but not extending out to fishable water.  I HIGHLY doubt we will have ice to fish on the main lake or bays any time in the near future.  Even if the bays iced over tonight (which I don't believe they will), they most likely won't form safe ice before it warms up again late next week.  Any wave action will surely destroy fishable ice in short order. 

Had this front hit in January or Feb when the lake temps were lower, it might have resulted in fishable ice, but the lake temps probabably just aren't low enough to form ice this early in the year, even if we are experiencing historical lows.  If we get another front later in the year, then I would imagine chances are much better.  But, I do think east bay would be fishable and if i wanted to fish lakers, I would be out there on sat.

LMR:
ICED!  I looked with binos this am and didn't see any open water.  Complete ice cover with now snow on top.  I didn't venture out to drill test holes, but I suspect that it might be fishable in some areas tomorrow and I would put money on being able to at least fish parts of it safely on Sunday. 

So, if anyone heads out, PLEASE post a report to let people know the status of the ice.

Thanks.

[missoulafish]

Thanks Ben! I've been thinking the same thing. We are just getting the hard part done now, cooling down a huge body of water. Gonna take some pretty special weather to get this done. Thanks for the info.

[BigSage]

I can't remember fishing anywhere on Flathead other than East Bay.  I heard is pretty special to fish other parts of the lake when it's frozen

[mtflyfisher]

Almost all of the bays used to freeze over back in the day. I remember my dad landing a 20+ pounder out of Sommers bay and people driving light vehicles on the ice.

[wingnutty]

Almost all of the bays used to freeze over back in the day. I remember my dad landing a 20+ pounder out of Sommers bay and people driving light vehicles on the ice.

    Vehicles!  Wow, that is just straight up hard to imagine.

Took my 4 yo daughter to turtle lake today and iced a bunch of pinkie-sized perch.  The first fish she named 'Sarah'.  'Sarah' was promptly cut into bait and thus was no more.  She came home and told mom about 'Sarah' and says "we caught Sarah, but she got cut up into bait, so then the 2nd fish we caught I also named 'Hanukkah".  We ended up catching one 12" perch, which looked like a 5 pounder after seeing all the 3" fish come through the hole. 

[gamehog]

when I lived in Kalispell in 2000 to 2005 I fished sommers bay many times.it was froze all the way out to the main lake.we fished around the little island out on the left.we killed the macs and big lake white fish and released lots of bull trout.it was a great time.

[missoulafish]

I remember driving out on East bay a ciuple times.

[Batanga]

I remember Somers bay as a kid in the eighties freezeing past the bouey (sp?) every year.  Big bulls and lots of locals driving several miles out.  One guy hand a VW van and drove it like a bat out of hell!  I'm no "climate change" subscriber...but is sure did get cold back then.  This last week sure has felt like those days....