Pike

 Pike

     We decided to try for pike, north of Kalispell.  Beautiful time out on the ice.  We caught 5 and lost a few.  The largest was 30".  We caught one on a tip-up, with the secret weapon...hot dogs (bun length).

Local

 Local

     The ice, here in far north Idaho is thick enough for us to fish.  We have been fishing it for the last two weeks.  I finally took a few pictures.  This time, I have my own flasher.  The line above the dark area is my jig.  Once a fish  comes by, there will be another line.  Now to wait...

Ice

 Ice

     Yes, Ice.  We went over to the north-west, Montana, side to check for ice.  There is one, shallow lake that had potential for ice.  The ice was 3" thick, near the ramp.  It got thinner, further out.  

     We kept 9 pike, threw 5 back and lost 3.  Not bad for first ice.  I lost a nice one, but I'll catch him next time.

Spur

 Spur

     We just got back from a Spur-of-a-Minute, fishing trip to NE Washington.  Tom saw there was a cool spell, so off we went.  We spent two days fishing.   We caught 42 walleye.  Quite, a few, 17 - 18" and the largest 20.5" (mine).  

Back

Back

     The three of us, went back to NE Washington to try and catch a few more walleye.  Fishing was slower, not much wind and no current, turned the fish off.  We managed to catch 64 in two days.  Not too bad.  It was a beautiful two days.  

The fish are cleaned and time for a shore lunch.

Red Hot

Red Hot

     It was Red Hot fishing, over in northeast Washington.  We took our neighbor, Tom, to do some walleye fishing.  We caught our limits of walleye, within a few hours, both today and yesterday morning.  We also caught three burbot.  While there, we spied, two cinnamon-colored black bears.

Washington

Washington

     The state of Washington, finally opened it waters to out-of-staters.  Beautiful, overcast day for fishing.  We caught 28 walleye and 2 yummy, buttery-flavored burbot.  The largest walleye was 20" long.