01-26-2015, 04:33 AM
We hit the ice yesterday about 7:00 at Soldier Creek yesterday. We never expected what we walked into.
Started in about 25' of water and nothing for 20 minutes. Moved in to 11' of water just over a weed bed and caught the first fish within 5 minutes. They didn't stop biting for the rest of the day. All said and done, we landed 218 fish yesterday between 2 adults and 3 kids! That's a new family record for sure. To top it off, we had at least that many more that we couldn't get through the ice, it was incredible!
Here's what I can tell you that worked for us. The fish were biting on only the smallest ice flies. they didn't want anything bigger than that. We could watch them through the ice holes and watched as they schooled around our baits. If we put anything bigger than an ice fly, they would bump it or swat it with their tails, but never put it in their mouth.
We used meal worms, wax worm and earth worms. All of which they liked, they didn't seem to hit any one harder than the other.
The ice is still a little thin for my liking. there was only about 8 inches where we were. We parked the 4 wheeler on the shore and walked out on the lake. I'm glad we did because at one point, the ice cracked under and around us. I'm sure it was just the normal crack and pop, but the ice was definitely not growing any thicker yesterday. I hope that there is enough ice left after this week of warm weather that is headed our way.
I'm not sure how we got so lucky. I talked with a number of people yesterday on the way out who didn't catch a fish. Hopefully this helps.
All I can figure is that we found the site where the DWR stocked this fall. All but 2 fish were 8-12" rainbows. Hopefully that means that there will be plenty of big bows there by next fall.
[signature]
Started in about 25' of water and nothing for 20 minutes. Moved in to 11' of water just over a weed bed and caught the first fish within 5 minutes. They didn't stop biting for the rest of the day. All said and done, we landed 218 fish yesterday between 2 adults and 3 kids! That's a new family record for sure. To top it off, we had at least that many more that we couldn't get through the ice, it was incredible!
Here's what I can tell you that worked for us. The fish were biting on only the smallest ice flies. they didn't want anything bigger than that. We could watch them through the ice holes and watched as they schooled around our baits. If we put anything bigger than an ice fly, they would bump it or swat it with their tails, but never put it in their mouth.
We used meal worms, wax worm and earth worms. All of which they liked, they didn't seem to hit any one harder than the other.
The ice is still a little thin for my liking. there was only about 8 inches where we were. We parked the 4 wheeler on the shore and walked out on the lake. I'm glad we did because at one point, the ice cracked under and around us. I'm sure it was just the normal crack and pop, but the ice was definitely not growing any thicker yesterday. I hope that there is enough ice left after this week of warm weather that is headed our way.
I'm not sure how we got so lucky. I talked with a number of people yesterday on the way out who didn't catch a fish. Hopefully this helps.
All I can figure is that we found the site where the DWR stocked this fall. All but 2 fish were 8-12" rainbows. Hopefully that means that there will be plenty of big bows there by next fall.
[signature]