02-08-2017, 04:47 AM
Well since I heard the 
news yesterday about the end is near. I took today off work and went to big blue. Made it through the 11" of new snow on the roads in time to beat the two avalanches. Was the only person foolish enough to go today. Hit the marina about 7:00 and there was at least a foot of new snow there but 4WD got me to the end of the north jetty. Scouted a path but the south end was open water so I had to make a new trail to the north, after falling in several holes between rocks until I was high centered and singing a high pitched tune, I finally got down the ice. It looked terrible and I was all alone so I got all my self rescue gear set and started out on drilling holes every little ways. There ended up being 7" of ice but the top 5" was cloudy nasty stuff with 2" of good black ice on bottom. After the check trip I went back and got my light weight gear and headed out. (Fell between two more rocks but got out). Anyway once on the ice it continued snowing most of the morning until there was 8-10" more snow then I got a hit and hooked up and it was a good fish I could hardly get it off bottom and it took two runs on me and the second time it spit the hook out. I was major bummed. As the day went on the snow turned to rain and the slush monster attacked. Before long there was 3" of water on the ice. I got 5 more hits and drops through the day and finally nailed a 23" beautiful native cutthroat, after a couple pics I sent him back. He really didn't fight much at all. Around noon my day got really good other than the hurricane winds that kept scattering my gear. I had a fish come in under me on the finder and it kept chasing my jig up and down. It hit twice and I didn't hook it and then it was gone. Couple minutes later it came back and nailed my jig and I set the hook and the battle was on. Took me about 15 minutes to finally land it but as it swam by I thought I had a king salmon on, at least it looked like they did in Alaska. It was a totally beautiful fish and I was really lucky to land it. But that's when my luck changed, my phone fell in the slush/ water so I couldn't get it to take decent pictures. The native cutt measured just shy of 28" but I couldn't hold it still and flat to get a good picture. The one I got it's middle had sunk in the slush so it only showed 27" and then the phone died and I had to let the fish go. Wish I would have measured the girth so I could try a mount. Anyway I stayed till 2:30 and the wind was so strong and I finally soaked through so I quit. BTW love my Frabill gloves and jacket and striker bibs well worth the money. As I was leaving there were 3" of water on top melting all the snow and the ice was really deteriorating fast. As I got to shore the wind had opened a 6-8" crack I had to hop over and I was afraid the edges would give way. Luckily they held. After finding the canyon was closed I headed home through strawberry canyon. On the way I seen open water at Lakota and ice clearing fast. The whole north end appeared to be open water so I'm afraid the end is very near, maybe tonight. It was a long 2.5 hour drive home but I'm sure glad I took one more chance. Figured the cutt was around 10 lbs at least. Later J
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news yesterday about the end is near. I took today off work and went to big blue. Made it through the 11" of new snow on the roads in time to beat the two avalanches. Was the only person foolish enough to go today. Hit the marina about 7:00 and there was at least a foot of new snow there but 4WD got me to the end of the north jetty. Scouted a path but the south end was open water so I had to make a new trail to the north, after falling in several holes between rocks until I was high centered and singing a high pitched tune, I finally got down the ice. It looked terrible and I was all alone so I got all my self rescue gear set and started out on drilling holes every little ways. There ended up being 7" of ice but the top 5" was cloudy nasty stuff with 2" of good black ice on bottom. After the check trip I went back and got my light weight gear and headed out. (Fell between two more rocks but got out). Anyway once on the ice it continued snowing most of the morning until there was 8-10" more snow then I got a hit and hooked up and it was a good fish I could hardly get it off bottom and it took two runs on me and the second time it spit the hook out. I was major bummed. As the day went on the snow turned to rain and the slush monster attacked. Before long there was 3" of water on the ice. I got 5 more hits and drops through the day and finally nailed a 23" beautiful native cutthroat, after a couple pics I sent him back. He really didn't fight much at all. Around noon my day got really good other than the hurricane winds that kept scattering my gear. I had a fish come in under me on the finder and it kept chasing my jig up and down. It hit twice and I didn't hook it and then it was gone. Couple minutes later it came back and nailed my jig and I set the hook and the battle was on. Took me about 15 minutes to finally land it but as it swam by I thought I had a king salmon on, at least it looked like they did in Alaska. It was a totally beautiful fish and I was really lucky to land it. But that's when my luck changed, my phone fell in the slush/ water so I couldn't get it to take decent pictures. The native cutt measured just shy of 28" but I couldn't hold it still and flat to get a good picture. The one I got it's middle had sunk in the slush so it only showed 27" and then the phone died and I had to let the fish go. Wish I would have measured the girth so I could try a mount. Anyway I stayed till 2:30 and the wind was so strong and I finally soaked through so I quit. BTW love my Frabill gloves and jacket and striker bibs well worth the money. As I was leaving there were 3" of water on top melting all the snow and the ice was really deteriorating fast. As I got to shore the wind had opened a 6-8" crack I had to hop over and I was afraid the edges would give way. Luckily they held. After finding the canyon was closed I headed home through strawberry canyon. On the way I seen open water at Lakota and ice clearing fast. The whole north end appeared to be open water so I'm afraid the end is very near, maybe tonight. It was a long 2.5 hour drive home but I'm sure glad I took one more chance. Figured the cutt was around 10 lbs at least. Later J[signature]
