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Looking at the Cache Valley forecast, it's loaded with 30's - 40's and rain/snow for several days off and on!
Hyrum had about 17" of ice Saturday , an excellent shoreline, but slushy overall ice surfaces. approx 8" of good ice under the 8 or so of junk ice. Could a week like this be the undoing of the season so soon? Ughhhh!!
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It could be the end, but I expect with 17" of ice Hyrum will hold a while.... Bear Lake on the other hand the end may be in sight... Most years we get about 2 weeks on Hyrum and Porcupine after it looks like this.... So if it gets back to cold the next week, we should be able to prolong the season, however, the ice will be ugly on top for sure, just need to hope it has a strong under layer to keep us floating on top... This will also screw up the edges big time when the new runoff starts raising the levels... This is probably our biggest risk factor to shutting us down after the edge gap gets longer than our planks... So let's hope it doesn't get too warm or melt too much too fast... Later J
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Great perspective. Thanks! Hoping for at least 2 more weeks.
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I think I may have to recalibrate my estimate. The lack of freezing temps at night has made my pond in a lot worse shape than I figured so we're going to have to be very careful and hope the cold returns soon or else we'll be done soon. I didn't expect this much deterioration this soon, it's not looking good. We won't get two weeks at this rate. In fact this weekend will be scary conditions. Sorry for the false hope in my first comment, guess I need to check before I speak. Later J
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No you're just fine. I understand ... this is a brutal stretch of weather for sure!
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It's crazy isn't it? I left for work with 2' snow banks and tonight it's down to 6". Can't believe how much it changed today. Hope there's enough ice on Bear Lake tomorrow? Going to burn a day of vacation. Later J
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I had my Can Am 800 on the ice at Hyrum today. No problems. Not sure with the warm nights and rain this week that I'll do it again. Probably 8" of good solid ice under maybe 6" of slush and water. Fishing was OOOhh so slow. We only caught 1 bow and 3 perch. Marked plenty of perch on the bottom they just had lock jaw.
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I just looked at my records for the last several years, since 2013, for the Uintah Basin. My ice season has ended on February 15th in 2013, 2014 and 2016. It ended on 1/31 in 2015. Those were the last days I was able to get on the ice due to open edges. In 2016 I had fished on 17" of solid ice on 2/15 but couldn't get on the following weekend. So this seems pretty typical so far as my records indicate. The good news is that I was able to get out on local streams within a week or two and then back out on the pond within 3-4 weeks after the last ice trip.
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Yup, February thaw is nothing new. In fact, it's more usual than not.
Looks like I sold my ice fishing gear at exactly the right time.
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[quote RockyRaab]Yup, February thaw is nothing new. In fact, it's more usual than not.
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Exactly. Give or take a week or two, this is normal.
That said, there are still 6-8 weeks of ice fishing left, if you go to the right places. March can be excellent and you have certain popular lakes to yourself. The only problem is spring flyfishing can be good too.
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Just speaking for my many years ice fishing Hyrum specifically, this is way early. On average, I creep out until Feb 28 (my bday).. Guess we'll see after the next few days anyway how it shapes out for sure (as of now still fine!) . But yes, some years the melt is sooner, also depends where you're talking.
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We can only hope it all melts off soon!! Ice off fishing is one of my favorite times.
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I'm with ya, Dave. I get 2 or 3 ice trips into the winter and I'm sick of it. Even went west on Saturday, just to get a float in.
Bring on the thaw!
(A little observation of mine: It's almost ALWAYS raining in the valleys on V-day.)
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