12-15-2010, 05:03 AM
Fished Sunday 12/12/10 from 9:00 to 3:00 on the west side in 5 ft of water. Last year it was 8ft deep there so the lake must be down about 3 ft. Three inches of snow, with bottom two inches being slush. Water seeping in around the edge. Ice was 5 inches thick. I drilled test holes as we went out on the ice. By the time we left, we had to walk through four inches of water that had come up through the test holes.
I caught 30, my son 24, and his girlfriend 20. We all missed and lost a bunch. Most were 12-14 inches with a few larger, and a few smaller. All fish were caught in the bottom five feet[crazy]. Girlfriend's first time fishing, and she really enjoyed it. Weather was unbelieveable, so she really has no idea what real ice fishing is.
Mostly cutts, with a few tigers, and only two rainbows. No chubs, but I didn't go looking for them either.
We all used orange eye, white/glow jigheads tipped with crawler all day. It was working well so we didn't change.
Best discovery of the day was finding out how well my new NILS auger works! I picked it up at Cabellas a couple of weeks ago. There was only one in the store(they don't usually stock them). The salesman said he owned one and if he was buying an auger he would go with the NILS. He was right. We let the girlfriend try a brand new 7" Mora(my old favorite) and she was having trouble. Switched her out to the 8" NILS and it ate right through the ice. We were amazed at how easy it was to use. She's 5'5" and just past a hundred pounds and didn't have any trouble drilling holes at all. Anyone have any experience with how long a NILS holds it's edge? I did a search on this forum, and read all the posts on NILS. Are they holding up well? I really like this one! Wish we could get some cold weather to build some thick ice to try it out on.
Anyway back to fishing. Scofield is what it is. Lots of smaller fish. A great place to go for steady action. Good place to take someone new to ice fishing. Plenty of action to learn how to set the hook and get fish through the hole. Seventy-four fish, and not even one with any size, but still a great place to fish in my opinion. Looking forward to more good times there.
One nice addition: two porta potties on the west side!
Calf elk with a busted up back leg standing in the hot spring. Looks like a
ending, but sometimes nature is just that way.
Sorry so long...but the board has been rather slow, tempers have been short, and I figured you could all use something to read tonight!
Till next time
IceAndFly
[signature]
I caught 30, my son 24, and his girlfriend 20. We all missed and lost a bunch. Most were 12-14 inches with a few larger, and a few smaller. All fish were caught in the bottom five feet[crazy]. Girlfriend's first time fishing, and she really enjoyed it. Weather was unbelieveable, so she really has no idea what real ice fishing is.
Mostly cutts, with a few tigers, and only two rainbows. No chubs, but I didn't go looking for them either.
We all used orange eye, white/glow jigheads tipped with crawler all day. It was working well so we didn't change.
Best discovery of the day was finding out how well my new NILS auger works! I picked it up at Cabellas a couple of weeks ago. There was only one in the store(they don't usually stock them). The salesman said he owned one and if he was buying an auger he would go with the NILS. He was right. We let the girlfriend try a brand new 7" Mora(my old favorite) and she was having trouble. Switched her out to the 8" NILS and it ate right through the ice. We were amazed at how easy it was to use. She's 5'5" and just past a hundred pounds and didn't have any trouble drilling holes at all. Anyone have any experience with how long a NILS holds it's edge? I did a search on this forum, and read all the posts on NILS. Are they holding up well? I really like this one! Wish we could get some cold weather to build some thick ice to try it out on.
Anyway back to fishing. Scofield is what it is. Lots of smaller fish. A great place to go for steady action. Good place to take someone new to ice fishing. Plenty of action to learn how to set the hook and get fish through the hole. Seventy-four fish, and not even one with any size, but still a great place to fish in my opinion. Looking forward to more good times there.
One nice addition: two porta potties on the west side!
Calf elk with a busted up back leg standing in the hot spring. Looks like a
ending, but sometimes nature is just that way.Sorry so long...but the board has been rather slow, tempers have been short, and I figured you could all use something to read tonight!
Till next time
IceAndFly
[signature]