fish lake ice?

[kjerstina]

Anyone know how thick the ice is on fish lake? How's the fishing?
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[full-limit]

Had a good friend down there on 1-25-14...Ice was a good 9"-12" depending on location. Fishing was solid as usual.
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[TyeDyeTwins]

Any idea on how much open water there is at Twin Creeks inlet?
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[PBH]

[quote kjerstina]Anyone know how thick the ice is on fish lake? How's the fishing?[/quote]

Ice? what ice?

[quote TyeDyeTwins]Any idea on how much open water there is at Twin Creeks inlet?[/quote]

Last report I heard was: open all the way to the other side of the lake!!





People need to be cautious when exploring Fish Lake this year. Remember, we've had this inversion across the state since December. Fish Lake has been in the 50's most of the winter. Thin ice is all over the lake. What's going to happen when we actually do get some snow on top, and people can't see how thin the ice is?

I won't be surprised to hear about ATVs going through the ice next week....
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[livin2]

I was down there for the weekend, fishing from the center of the lake to the south end. Ice was plenty thick as mentioned (9"-12"), though it was making a lot of noise while the sun was on it. We had a couple of "icequakes" when the whole ice shelf shifted, shaking the whole lake, which was a little disconcerting.

Fishing was great, pulled in a lot of thick rainbows around 16" and perch fishing was really fast when you found the schools. Ratso with a wax worm was the lure of choice.

Open water for probably 50 feet or so at twin creek inlet. Saw a few people fishing near there, but I didn't venture too close.

[gmanhunter]

A group of us fished there saturday. Ice on the south end was 8"-12". Fishing was great for splake and rainbows. Had a hard time keeping the perch biting steadily, but caught a lot of fish. It was like a city there saturday. A lot of side by sides and atvs on the lake also. Make sure you use caution when venturing out towards the middle. Ice seemed alittle less thick than around the outer edges.
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[TroutBumDave]

I love you PBH, but in a totally non-fisherman sort of way.

I've been down twice in the last week and both times there was 8 to 12" of solid ice. We fished in 100 feet of water and had fish all over the finder pretty much all day. The best success was anywhere from 10 to 20 feet down; tons of rainbows in the 14 to 18" size. It is fun to watch them thru the ice hole as they swirl and nip at your bait, or just cream it out of no where. I had a fire-tiger TubeDude special flasher (with no hook on it) that was constantly getting hit. (I seriously would watch the rainbows smack it over and over, ignoring my worm/perch meat/meal worm) I swapped hooks to an actual hook-version of the Tube Dude Special and slaughtered them. They were hitting it both days without being tipped with bait. When I did tip it, it was even faster. So, small fire-tiger jigs would be my suggestion. A small pinch of night crawler on the hook was the best bait, but once you put more than a pinch, they seemed to be scared off by it.

As for perch, I had pretty good luck just walking toward the crowds and drilling a hole. I couldn't keep them off of my night crawler tipped jigs or the wax worm tipped jigs. The trick seemed to be if you went more than 20 seconds without a bite, lift your rod tip up as high as you could and then let it fall again. I don't think I had to do that more than maybe twice before getting bites again. Spring bobbers are a must, in my opinion, because the bite (even with the rainbows) was light.

Lastly, BUY SOME ICE CLEATS! I didn't have any the first day and that was horrible. The second day was far more enjoyable because I didn't fall on my ass and break my elbows a single time.

Take your kids out for perch; the action is fast and fun. I saw a whole bunch of families and you could hear the screams of the excited kiddo's who were catching the fish all by themselves. Truly awesome.

Only caught one splake though, which was kinda .




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[Fishperv1]

Wow I was there Saturday and Sunday but we did not have near as much luck as you a few bows here and there and no perch! Kind of blew my mind sounds like i need to get some spring bobbers.We fished the east side on the other side of the crowds ice was great but we had a few "ice quakes" as well. The weather on Saturday was awesome![cool]. I thought the splake have a square tail and the lake trout had a deeply forked tail? Or is it the other way?
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[TroutBumDave]

Well, since I have never caught either of them, I am probably wrong. It looked like a brook trout to me, so I just assumed it was a splake. You know what they say about assumptions though.

We got as far away from the crowds as possible while still being in 100 feet of water both days. That may have been the ticket? Chub meat and perch meat also worked tipped on white and chartreuse tube jigs.
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[Duckbutter]

The coloration on splake can mimic lakers or brookies, and the easiest way to identify them is not by color, but by how forked the tail is. Splake have a moderately forked tail, lakers have a deeper fork, and brookies look like spongebob's butt.

I would call that picture a splake.
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[Duckbutter]

Example:

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[TroutBumDave]

Alright, I'm not a moron!

Seriously, good to know, thanks.
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[Fishperv1]

Very nice , good job on the splake! Thanks or the info
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[stan55]

Fished north end Sat lots of perch, rainbows, some splake and lakers and one very lost brown. We were on perch the entire day from 20 to 30ft depths. trout were caught in those depths as well as deeper in the 50 to 70ft depths suspended about 20ft . I lost one big fish while fishing the bottom in 70ft. Came undone halfway up after pulling drag and bending my rod in half. Ice was 8 to 12".
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[PBH]

[quote Fishperv1]. I thought the splake have a square tail and the lake trout had a deeply forked tail? Or is it the other way?[/quote]

[quote Duckbutter]The coloration on splake can mimic lakers or brookies, and the easiest way to identify them is not by color, but by [#FF0000]how forked the tail is[/#FF0000]. Splake have a moderately forked tail, lakers have a deeper fork, and brookies look like spongebob's butt.

I would call that picture a splake.[/quote]

Very good.

further: Splake have round spots and lake trout oblong, squiggly, not-round spots.

It is very easy to distinguish between the two when you have one of each laying side by side. The trick is to distinguish between them when you have only 1 fish which displays mixed features. It can get complicated at Fish Lake, especially with larger fish. The lake trout at Fish Lake are characteristically more colorful than those from other places (ie: Flaming Gorge) which very often confuses anglers. Look at the tail, look at the spots -- those two things should help with identifying a lake trout vs. a splake.


Now, if you really want to get , start comparing some brook trout to splake. Here, try identifying the following:



Here's a hint:

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[TyeDyeTwins]

Ok, I will play!

#1 = Splake
#2 =Splake
#3 = Brook
#4 = Brook
#5 = Splake
#6 = Brook
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[PBH]

tyedye -- wrong!


Go back and re-read what duckbutter just recently said! Stop looking at color (including blue halos!!!).
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[redfrog]

fIRST PIC

1-SPLAKE
2-BROOK
3-BROOK
4-BROOK
5-SPLAKE
6-BROOK

It's much easier when you have them in front of you rather than a pic.
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[Duckbutter]

First five are all splake.

Hard to see the tail on the bottom fish in the first picture, but I'm calling it a brookie.
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[Fishrmn]

We have a winner.

Splake
Splake
Splake
Splake
Splake
Brookie



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