Palisades Big Elk

[OvidCreek]

I was fully expecting to fish the main body of Palies today; I was shocked to not see a lick of ice on it. It usually freezes by now with the conditions we have had lately. That left Big Elk as the only option; the isolated part, not the bay. Well it was OK we iced 4 cutts, 3 chubs (first ever for me at Palies), and 1 sucker. We fished in 10-50 feet of water from the shore to the depths. I marked a lot of fish in 50 feet of water at all levels, but most were very closed mouthed. Fished till 7:00pm and then walked out with a bright moon. I actually scared myself as the night sky was brilliant; when I got to my vehicle I thought I saw what I was the andromeda galaxy; I had never seen it so large and vivid, well I got my binos out and looked at it and it was perfectly spherical like an eclipsed moon. I looked to my right and saw a great bright moon. I started to panic thinking abduction or the end of days; it took me about two minutess to realize that it was the spherical plane warning device hanging from the powerlines. What a relief; plus yeah I caught some chubs!

OvidCreek
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[CREED]

How thick was the ice where you were fishing?
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[OvidCreek]

8-10 inches and plenty solid!
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[MMDon]

Cool report OC! Usually Palies main and Ririe are pretty close together on a time line. Oh Please, Hurry and Freeze!
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[scorsi]

Not sure if you were just kidding or not but that's pretty funny. I wonder what went through a lot of peoples heads when the huge shooting star or whatever it was lit up the sky in the middle of the night to as bright as day a couple weeks ago.
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[kentd71]

I fished there one spring when the lake ice was poor and caught some nice kokanee. That seemed kind of strange to me. I would like to go and figure out how to catch them consistently. The lake trout would be fun also but I wonder how many there are as the lake goes up and down so much. Someone told me they caught a large mack below the spillway.
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[jimpete525]

I fish from the spillway to swan valley alot in the summer time and I have caught a few mack's around 16" in that section of river.
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[kentd71]

The mack I heard about was over 10 lbs. I do not think that one that size could live going through the turbines. Maybe he lived there for a few years?
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[OvidCreek]

I did cut up a chub hoping for a mack, but no dice. I think I had a school of kokes come through, but no hits. As long as we are on Mack rumors; my favorite was from the World fly fishing tournament 12-15 years ago on the South Fork. I heard a 20 pound mack below the dam won the contest caught by a French fisherman; again just another story to add to the rumors.

OvidCreek
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[kentd71]

I would think that mack fishing in the lake would be tough due to the low numbers when compaired to other lakes. I wish I had the time to sled around and drill alot of holes to find them.
Does the lake get multiple layers of ice like Island Park res?.
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[MMDon]

If you go out from the launch below the dam to the seam where the current and the dead water below the island come together there is some nice Macs. We used to pick them up when you could fish the island and your bait would come out of the current and into that back water. I've caught them to 7 lbs. at night but I imagine there could be larger ones in there!
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[Belasko]

I did catch several macks below the spillway a few years ago when the reservoir was drawn down to about 2-3% in the fall. Most were around 20 inches but caught one that went 24". Don't know the weight but they were all skinny little guys. Not fat like the browns and cutts.
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[MMDon]

Where they hang by that dead water I imagine the Pelicans take their toll on a lot of them!
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