Author Topic: Helena Area Fishing Reports--Info Request (Read 3963 times)

perchhogslayer · « **on:** Jan 28, 2008, 12:45 PM »

Anyone willing to post their Helena area fishing reports?

I've been out fishing around the Silos end of Canyon Ferry the past few weeks with some hit and miss success. I'd LOVE to know if anyone has been fishing on the other end of the lake? How's the ice in the bays, and any luck catching anything?
I'm looking to head out somewhere different next weekend and am really interested in how the ice is forming up everywhere. Causeway should be pretty good? How bout Black Sandy area, and all the Bays on the north end of Canyon Ferry? How bout Lakeside on Hauser? Holding Reservoir? ANY info would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks! and tight lines

FishN4Eyes · « **Reply #1 on:** Jan 28, 2008, 01:24 PM »

I went to Holter yesterday morning for a few hours.

Had two trout poles out, three perch poles with maggots and was jigging a buckshot spoon with a crawler.

Fished from 8 am to 11 am and only caught one trout (released) and one pounder perch (released).

Lost two other fish on trout poles (about ten feet below ice) and lost a fish on the buckshot along with catching only perch.

Looked pretty slow out there, saw one other trout on the ice.

It was windy as heck, and tough fishing. I was at Departure Point, which had about 8 inches of ice.

People spread out from BLM dam boatramp all the way to Departure Point.

Saw several people heading way up lake, going around Oxbow bend. Going to try that next time, but ice wasn't thick enough for me to try it yesterday. Going to give it a week or so.

Hope this helps a little, at least you know what not to use.

perchhogslayer · « **Reply #2 on:** Jan 28, 2008, 01:43 PM »

I had about the same success at CF. 2 trout (off the bottom at 32'!!) 3 or 4 perch w/ pimples and maggies. and I tried jigging a buckshot spoon too, but w/ some hunks of fat for ling. no hits on it.

icechick · « **Reply #3 on:** Jan 28, 2008, 02:16 PM »

Went out to the Holding Reservoir on Saturday. The perch fishing was really slow and the ones we did catch were pretty darn picky. I had the best luck on a perch colored jamming jig while jigging pretty vigorously. The ice was about 13 inches thick and clear. Did see some salmon swimming around on the aqua-vu in about 8 feet of water but they did not like the jamming jig. We caught 7 keepers and a bunch of small ones but still a pretty slow day.

i c · « **Reply #4 on:** Jan 28, 2008, 09:52 PM »

tried canyon ferry thursday night ,was my first time but didnt catch anything.fished at whiteearth not much ice,about 2 inches or so,25 to 40 feet.. fished the bottom with tip ups and sucker meat also jigged the bottom with the same,maybe just bad luck?

Coldfinger007 · « **Reply #5 on:** Jan 29, 2008, 04:54 AM »

I was at Log Gulch (Holter) Saturday, not far from the south shoulder where the bay meets the main body of the lake, at about 28 FOW. Ice was about 6-7 inches, some places had a bit of slush under a crusty layer. Very slow all day. Had one good hit with a nice rainbow about 6 feet below ice using a deadpole with a nightcrawler on a jig head. One 11" perch on a tipup 3" dead minnow at the bottom. That was it. I think it was fairly slow for the others at that location as well.

Anyone getting any walleye on Holter?

copperjohn · « **Reply #6 on:** Jan 29, 2008, 04:46 PM »

I was up at Holter Sat. Fished Departure point in 30-40 ft of water. Very slow action. One 12" trout and one 6" walleye, both released. Was busy playing with my new Marcum vx-1 and pak-shak 3. The flasher marked fish well and I teased one for a half an hour before I realized my Hali was missing its chain dropper.

Had to boogie by 3 so I missed setting up for eyes in evening. Will be back again soon.

perchhogslayer · « **Reply #7 on:** Jan 29, 2008, 06:47 PM »

Stopped by Sportsman's today to check out the boards. They are ususlly pretty darn outdated, but I read that Black Sandy and upriver by the bridge have ice but dangerous. (who knows how old that is though?) Also looks like Canyon Ferry is fully froze, but only recently so ice is still real thin. Thanks for everyone that has posted a report!!! Keep em up. :-)

MT perch · « **Reply #8 on:** Jan 29, 2008, 10:49 PM »

Fished on Canyon Ferry this weekend. In the tourney on Saturday but no big fish worth taking to the weigh-in. Caught a total of 5 perch and 1 trout (also on a perch rig at 32 feet). Sunday we fished between Hole-in-the-wall and White Earth and did better with a total perch count of 32. A few nicer perch, but action was sporadic. I was using glow jigs with perch eyes primarily.

perchhogslayer · « **Reply #9 on:** Feb 02, 2008, 12:04 AM »

heading out to CF in the morning, we'll try and dykes and pressure ridge. will post with report.

i c · « **Reply #10 on:** Feb 02, 2008, 06:17 PM »

just got back from another all nighter in white earth,ice about 5-6 inches 10 tipups and 2 poles and anly managed one 10 inch trout,caught the trout in about 40 feet but he was at 10 on a minnow,jigging.fished from 2 am till 12 still trying to get a ling,

does anyone have any pointers or possibly something im missing,again i fished about a foot off the bottom,to a couple of inches off with sucker meat ,minnows,some guts from a salmon,and a chunk of shrimp.mostly glow jigs but a few were just regular pink or green.any info would be appreciated.

NONYA · « **Reply #11 on:** Feb 02, 2008, 06:38 PM »

Wait about three weeks,they will congregate and turn on,be patient young padawan linger!

perchhogslayer · « **Reply #12 on:** Feb 02, 2008, 08:42 PM »

Quote from: i c on Feb 02, 2008, 06:17 PM

just got back from another all nighter in white earth,ice about 5-6 inches 10 tipups and 2 poles and anly managed one 10 inch trout,caught the trout in about 40 feet but he was at 10 on a minnow,jigging.fished from 2 am till 12 still trying to get a ling, does anyone have any pointers or possibly something im missing,again i fished about a foot off the bottom,to a couple of inches off with sucker meat ,minnows,some guts from a salmon,and a chunk of shrimp.mostly glow jigs but a few were just regular pink or green.any info would be appreciated.

Ling are just finishing up their spawning season. I think a few weeks ago below the dam, people were doing pretty good on ling. don't know if they are still there, but typically spawning season for ling is January. So give it a few weeks and they may be moving back to different areas.

perchhogslayer · « **Reply #13 on:** Feb 02, 2008, 08:46 PM »

Whent out to CF today near the pressure ridge. We had some great luck with a school of perch, but before that and after that it was pretty slow all day. MOST of what we caught was pretty small, only 1 11.5", 2 9-10", and several 6-8"ers. ice was 17" on the just north side of the ridge. The entire lake is iced over, the only open water I saw was the few feet around the dam. Otherwise lots of snow and ice. Didn't see anyone fishing the north end, but it was later in the day when I drove by there. not sure how thick the ice is there, but looks good from the road anyways.

i c · « **Reply #14 on:** Feb 03, 2008, 03:37 PM »

Quote from: perchhogslayer on Feb 02, 2008, 08:42 PM

Ling are just finishing up their spawning season. I think a few weeks ago below the dam, people were doing pretty good on ling. don't know if they are still there, but typically spawning season for ling is January. So give it a few weeks and they may be moving back to different areas.

someone told me to try below the dam and i drove down there but there was no ice?so i figured it would be hard on the tip ups and drove off.

did i go where i was supposed to?

perchhogslayer · « **Reply #15 on:** Feb 04, 2008, 08:41 AM »

Quote from: i c on Feb 03, 2008, 03:37 PM

someone told me to try below the dam and i drove down there but there was no ice?so i figured it would be hard on the tip ups and drove off. did i go where i was supposed to?

Haha, Yeah, below the dam is correct, I heard from someone that went down there, and I read this a few places online, that when they spawn the males swarm the females and form a big ball of fish. The guy I talked to said he could see a few swarms of fish from the shore when he shined a light on the water at night. If your using tip ups you may need to bring your own blocks of ice, otherwise casting rods seem to be the preferred method. For bait, use the same ol' ling tricks. I think snagging them is illegal.

NONYA · « **Reply #16 on:** Feb 04, 2008, 02:21 PM »

The will hit big heavy bucktail jigs down there.

perchhogslayer · « **Reply #17 on:** Feb 06, 2008, 08:38 AM »

Here's My Helena Area Report from the weekend.....

Ice is good...Saturday I fished North of Hole in the wall on CF, Ice was about 18" around the pressure ridge. I took the drive back to Helena via around CF and over th Dam. There's complete ice cover on the lake. saw some people fishing the north bays, Chinamans, Kims, ect... Also heard there have been people fishing off yatch basin. Sunday I fished the same area, then whent over to the Holding Reservoir. Regulating Reservoir doens't have quite as much ice. Can't remember exact numbers but I want to say over 12". Fishing was ok, we were only there for about 45 minutes but were getting lots of bites and lost 1 salmon. We were getting bites on pimples mainly.

Anyone else head out this weekend to Helena Area Lakes?

?

ManStorePatrick · « **Reply #18 on:** Feb 06, 2008, 08:56 AM »

I went out to try holter this weekend. There is about 8-9 inches of ice so you can take the 4 wheeler out. I drove to the last boat ramp to put on, and went straight across to the opposite shore. I tracked quite a few fish on the vexilar, but couldnt get them to bite. It was really frustrating. I heard that if you go down towards the dam from there, closer to indian trails, you will find the perch. Anyone else have any luck on holter?

NONYA · « **Reply #19 on:** Feb 06, 2008, 12:14 PM »

Fished Hauser yesterday morning,hooked one fish in 20 feet and lost it,other than that it was COMPLETLY dead,marked trout 6-8 feet under the ice but Im not interested in trout.It was cold as hell with the inversion and lots of drifts down below the powerline.

perchhogslayer · « **Reply #20 on:** Feb 06, 2008, 07:33 PM »

How thick was the ice on Hauser/Causway? Anyone venturing much further then the power lines?

IllynPayne · « **Reply #21 on:** Feb 08, 2008, 03:49 PM »

I was out on Canyon Ferry about a week ago. We put in at about 8:00, about 300 yards out from shore at the Silos, and had one hit in four hours of fishing. There were loads of people on the ice, and the general consensus was that the fish stopped biting right around 8:30. The fish that were caught prior to that time were good, healthy trout, in about 4-6 feet of water. Jigs tipped with maggots seemed to be the ticket for what fish were being caught. All in all, few fish came out of the water at all that morning. I'm going to hit it Sunday at about 6:30 and see what happens. I'd like to get into the perch, but I'm not really familiar with the lake, so any pointers would be fantastic.

perchhogslayer · « **Reply #22 on:** Feb 08, 2008, 04:46 PM »

Coming up from Butte? Ambisious to want to be out there at 6:30, but that is always a good Idea. earlier is better. I've had mixed results on CF this season, one day I'll limit out in 45 minutes, the next I'll hardly ice 6 perch all day. At CF for Trout.... go to the silos, then go right (south east twards townsend) about .5-1.5 miles twards the "dikes" shallow water, and lots of trout. for perch... typically I've found them in much deeper water 30-50feet, but always right off the bottom. from a couple inches to a foot off the bottom. Walleye... much harder to target and I've found in order to be successfull you'll need some technology (flasher and camera and such). But generally in the same local as the perch... from 6" to 2' off the bottom. actual location on the lake doesn't seem to matter all that much, I've found its more about depth. Hole in the wall (north of silos about a mile?) just happens to be around 30ish feet, further north at the pressure ridge is about 45'. I've caught lots of perch both places and all over in between. Its a HUGE lake and plenty of fish to go around so I wish you all the best luck, but most importantly at CF, the better fishing I've had seems to be FAR away from the crowds, so be creative and find some ice that suits ya. if they aren't biting, try moving, sometimes it will only take a few feet. Last weekend, I didn't have a bite for the first hour, I moved all 6 of my holes about 10 feet away and limited out in about 30 minutes. while my first holes remained bitless, a friend that had holes only 4 feet away were getting nailed. BTW, limit on perch is 15 at CF, not 50 like on many other close by lakes.

NONYA · « **Reply #23 on:** Feb 08, 2008, 05:11 PM »

8 slabs and a wally today,then the wind came up and run me off.

IllynPayne · « **Reply #24 on:** Feb 10, 2008, 05:38 PM »

Went out to Silos this morning, and I tell yah, I have the worst luck out there. Between myself and two brothers, we had three hits, (one was nearly landed, but snapped my line in the hole, call it rookie error...) We moved about the Silos a bit and couldn't find a groove, so we moved to White Earth for a bit. White Earth yielded the same results for me. I'd like to go back in a week or two. In the past I have done better as we get closer to March and the trout move closer to shore. It was a very nice day to be on the ice, not much wind for the better part of the morning, and the sun made a few appearances to help us along. We could see a few other groups doing fairly well on what looked like pink jigs in shallow water. Again, I'd like to hit CF again in the next few weeks, and certainly hope to do better. Going to hit GT this week for some salmonoids. Hope to have better luck there.

perchhogslayer · « **Reply #25 on:** Feb 10, 2008, 09:50 PM »

Quote from: IllynPayne on Feb 10, 2008, 05:38 PM

Went out to Silos this morning, and I tell yah, I have the worst luck out there. Between myself and two brothers, we had three hits, (one was nearly landed, but snapped my line in the hole, call it rookie error...) We moved about the Silos a bit and couldn't find a groove, so we moved to White Earth for a bit.

Where on CF around the silos did you start the day? How thick was the ice at White Earth? If your targeting trout... try pinks and red jigs. don't jig them, just set them around 8-10ft below the ice, tipped w/ maggots. I like the Swedish pimples w/ the single hook loaded w/ maggots. Also the trout colored Kastmasters work pretty well, generally anything pink or red does well though. Try deep water 30-50 ft. target perch w/ a few poles and set a few more for trout. I generally get a few trout bites wherever I go on the lake, but hard to catch lots of trout until they are ready to spawn. Hope that info helps and you have better luck next time out. Any day ice fishing always beats a day at the office.

IllynPayne · « **Reply #26 on:** Feb 10, 2008, 10:34 PM »

Quote from: perchhogslayer on Feb 10, 2008, 09:50 PM

Where on CF around the silos did you start the day? How thick was the ice at White Earth? If your targeting trout... try pinks and red jigs. don't jig them, just set them around 8-10ft below the ice, tipped w/ maggots. I like the Swedish pimples w/ the single hook loaded w/ maggots. Also the trout colored Kastmasters work pretty well, generally anything pink or red does well though. Try deep water 30-50 ft. target perch w/ a few poles and set a few more for trout. I generally get a few trout bites wherever I go on the lake, but hard to catch lots of trout until they are ready to spawn. Hope that info helps and you have better luck next time out. Any day ice fishing always beats a day at the office.

We started about 250 yards out from shore, about 1/2 mile down the beach toward Townsend. After a time I walked off and drilled a few test holes in various places around us. It seams to me that I most likely need to update my tackle box, seeing as how others were doing decently in the same relative vicinity as us. The ice at White Earth was very cloudy and drifted, with about 3 inches of ice on top of 2 inches of slush, then about 8 more inches of ice below that. I definitely would trust anything heavier than an atv on that part of the lake. Thanks alot for the info, should definitely help in the not-so-distant future. Like I said before, it was a great day to be out on the ice. I only wish I could do it more.

D_FLACK · « **Reply #27 on:** Feb 10, 2008, 11:02 PM »

Headed out across silos around 7:00 a.m. this morning started out slow so we moved around quite a bit until we found some perch. My fiance and I each limited out on perch in about an hour and a half, from 2:00-3:30, about half way out across from hole in the wall. We also caught 2 nice trout on dead rods about 6 ft down. Beautiful day! New to the site, dig all the info!

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Author Topic: Helena Area Fishing Reports--Info Request (Read 3963 times)