On The Ice at Huntington

Friday we headed to Huntington Reservoir to cut holes and fish for Tiger trout. We got on the road at the prescribed time and made it to the lake as the sun was coming up. When we pulled into the lake and it was 9 degrees air temp and a slight breeze. Today we took the tent with us. As we ventured out onto the ice a fisher called out to us that the ice was about 3-4 inches thick and safe. He continued to chat with us as we made our way to our camp site. Friendly fellow with lots of good information about the fishing. He and his son had been there about a hour and were ready to leave after they had limited with good sized Tiger trout. They were in 17-19 feet of water and using a local plastic bait tipped with worms. We set up camp and got our lines in the water with jigs, ice flies and wax worms and meal worms. The ice where we cut was 2-3 inches thick but solid, we felt very comfortable. The Jiffy Pro 4 ran like a charm and cut five holes fast. We set up our flasher and could see we were in 16 feet of water. Fish were all over the column of water so we deployed bait and lures in each segment.

The first hits came at the bottom on ice flies and wax worms. The white paddle bug then caught fire and Parker landed a bunch of the Tiger trout. Most of which we released after a quick a picture or sometimes before we could get a picture it flipped itself back into the water. I finally got the board with a nice 24 inch football sized Tiger trout. Tiger trout are fun to catch anytime of the year but through the ice they are great.

They fight hard and pull drag with each dive and roll trying throw your hook. Some did finally throw the hook just as they breached the hole and we watched them swim back to the depths. Some of those quick releases were hard to watch because they were big brutes but we figured they are big because they know how to get off. We fished until noon and ended the day with 8 beautiful Tiger trout for our smoker. The tent saved us, when we broke camp it was snowing and blowing hard. Also with the tent up we could see about 8 feet down and see some of the fish hit and watch their strikes, good lesson to see how they hit your bait. We caught a number of large fish today and without a strike indicator we would have missed the subtle strikes they were giving us. Parker was the leader of today's total with well over 20 fish decked and a number of them quick releasing at the hole.

I didn't catch quite as many but my larger Tiger was the biggest of the day and that made me smile. We had a great day, but still be cautious when getting on the ice it is still early season and the ice is still changing daily. It is also crystal clear and spikes are recommended when walking around.