Back

Back

     We went back for another limit of trout.  High pressure was moving in, so fishing is a little slower and the a little colder.  Once the  fishing slowed down, we had to fish a little deeper.

Trout

Trout

     There are a few lakes, safe enough to crawl out on.  This one has 6" of ice (4" of clear and 2" white).  We thought we might go for some catfish and trout.  Yum, smoked catfish.  We didn't catch any cats, but did catch our limit of trout (6/each).   We had our two mouse-jackers and eight spinning poles, going off at various times.  Looks, like we are going back, tomorrow.  Need to fill the smoker.

Better

Better

Fishing went a little faster, today.  It snowed, over night and snowed/rained/snowed, while fishing.  Sometimes, that's the best time to catch fish.  There's 4" of ice and we kept 35 nice blue gills and crappies.

Mouse Jackers

Mouse Jackers

     Tom made a couple of hair-trigger, mouse jackers.  We caught 14, assorted panfish.  It was hard fishing, today.  The fish, barely bit or not at all.  We had to do a lot of hole-hopping.

Fishable

Fishable

     There's finally, fishable ice.  2.5 - 3" of ice, up here in North Idaho.   We caught a few gills, a bass and crappie.   Going in the morning to catch supper. 

Bucket List

Bucket List

     We had three things on our, ice fishing, bucket list:

     1.)   Catch a pike through the ice.
     2.)   Catch a pike with a tip-up.
     3.)   Pull out a "monster pike" through the ice.

    Today we met, all three items.  We were fishing in NW Montana on 3" of ice.  

One of the small pike.  Check #1 off the list.

Checked #2 and #3 off the list.

This "Beast,"  was 36.5" long.  

Woo Hooooo…..way to go Tom!!

He had a hard time, trying to get the pike's head, through a 6" hole.

Ice

Ice

     Out checking ice....

Tamarack

Tamarack

  Beautiful, fall day, at the local fishing hole.  The tamarack are turning yellow and cooler mornings.  We kept 15 crappie and perch, enough for a meal.  

Tried

Tried

     We tried, for Mackinaw, again.  This time, Tom caught a nice 24."  We brought out neighbor, Tom, for good luck....looks like it worked.

Mac's

Mac's

    We went, Mackinaw, in NW Montana.  A beautiful morning to go fishing.  Tom, out fished me.  He caught the only two.  They were 18" long, caught on a glow-in-the-dark curly tail, tipped with Johnsonville Maple Sausage.  

Finally

Finally

     Finally, it cooled off and it rained, to rid the smoke from the air.  There is so many fires, around, was getting hard to breath.  We went to one of our favorite lakes and caught 10 nice trout.  They went into the freezer, until we catch a few more for the smoker.

Update

Update

     Update.....we went back, last night, and caught another 21 kokanee.  A great night to fish.

Salmon

Salmon

       We decided to try some evening fishing, in NW Montana.   We took our neighbor, Tom, along to show him the ropes.  We went out, about 5pm and stopped about 8 pm.  We caught 17 kokanee with maggots on a pink skirted hoochie.  With all the heat, the fish are down deeper.

 While we were there, we watched a full moon come over the horizon.

Evening

Evening 

     It was a beautiful, evening to fish, one of the little, local lakes, up here, in north Idaho.   We kept 17 larger crappie, within an hour.   The temperature was cooling down, no wind and peaceful.