Mammoth on Ice

Parker and I loaded up the sled and went to Mammoth for some hard water ice fishing. We arrived at sunrise and got on the water to find our friends Cameron and Cody Hunt already set up.  They were in 30 feet of water and had gotten anything so we moved in to 15 feet of water.

Parker dropped his line in the first hole and almost immediately got a strike and hook up only to lose it on the way up. but that made us happy to see fish being active in our water column. We cut a few more holes and got lines in.  Parker got the first hit on white so I put on white and blue, and pink on pink. We tipped with wax and meal worms, wax worms worked best. I tried some power grubs but got nothing on that.

I was nest to get a hit on the pink set up. landed a pretty tiger trout not very big but healthy. We fished the morning until 11:30 and to go to a family birthday party.  Cam and Cody and his wife Sky moved in next to us and Sky got a nice tiger in a few minutes and Cody almost lost his pole to a tiger but saved it and landed the tiger. 

Nothing huge and nothing fast. We had fish in and out of the screen all morning, wit a couple hits but no hook ups. We changed colors, presentation and spoons whatsoever we had in our boxes but could only coax those three out of the water. It was a beautiful morning on the lake. By the time we packed it in the lake was covered with camps, best to go on a week day if you can.

12-2-17 First Ice!?

I never know what to log these early winter trips to ice fish. Is it the first ice of the season or the finish of the 2017 ice fishing season.  Regardless we found Ice!! The season is so late this year one of the latest I've seen. We hit the lake that usually freezes over by Thanksgiving and it still had boats on it trolling. So we moved on to the next lake on the trail and it was also wide open and on we went. We pass a little side road that we know goes to a pond.  We stopped turned around and made the short trip down the dirt road to the pond and there it was, ICE! Our first question is, how solid is it? Parker ventures out slowly and then Jumps!! I'm looking for a rocks to throw and he's out there jumping on it. We determine since he didn't break through that we will be okay and take the auger out and cut holes. 6 inches of ice was found, nice thick and hard.

We cut four holes and set up our camp for the morning. The pond is only 8 - 10 feet deep, so we weren't thinking we were going to get much. Low and behold the first hit happened almost immediately after dropping our first line in the water. Parker lands the first fish of the day and season. Not huge but it had fins and gills a nice little planter bow.

I hooked up the second and Parker the third of the day and Jackson got in on the action with a fish caught and he was excited. The wind started to come up so we put the tent up and started to set stakes in the ice and the first one broke through and the ice sank a little! We decided not to sink the other screw but keep a foot on the skirt to keep it in place.

We fished in the tent for a couple hours and caught many fish they were hungry and we were happy. We finished with 50 or better fish caught. Some of them were of decent size but most were planters. We did manage a couple cutthroat.

A great day to start off or end the season with.....I think I will say start the season!!  Hope you can find some water to walk on soon.