Dec. 13–WINCHESTER — The deep freeze that finally let up this week appears to have hastened the start of ice fishing season at several area reservoirs.
The lake here Wednesday had a covering measuring about 5-inches thick near the corner where Lapwai Creek exits the reservoir. Most people consider 5- to 6-inches thick enough to walk on.
“The Craig Mountain side is usually the last to freeze and the first to thaw, so if people are out there it might be OK,” said Nita M. Moses, manager of Winchester Lake State Park.
She was reluctant to declare the ice completely safe, and anglers fishing there Wednesday were also hedging their bets. Steve Roesner and Jeff Hasenoehrl, both of Lewiston, drilled several holes in the ice but chose to stay close to a dock just a few feet off the shore.
“We are not the bravest of souls or the craziest,” Hasenoehrl said.
Later in the winter, when the ice is about twice as thick, they will fish in the middle of the lake, he said.
Connie McCartney of the Elk River Lodge said the ice at the end of the dock at Elk Creek Reservoir measured 7 inches thick on Wednesday.
“It’s a long dock,” she said. “It goes out there quite a ways.”
Robert Hand, a fisheries biologist at the Idaho Department of Fish and Game in Lewiston, said the ice at Soldiers Meadow Reservoir measured 10 inches thick last week.
“We probably have pretty good ice just about everywhere,” he said. “Maybe with the exception of Mann Lake and little protective coves (on other lakes), we ought to have pretty good ice.”
Even so, he said the department urges anglers to drill test holes before they venture far from shore on a lake where nobody is fishing.
“You just never know and don’t want to assume and take three steps out and go through a quarter-inch of ice,” he said.
Other popular ice fishing spots include Moose Creek reservoir near Bovill and Spring Valley Reservoir near Troy.
Hand noted that even though the ice is good and thick at Soldiers Meadow, the fishing will be poor. The department treated the reservoir with a chemical this fall to rid it of over-abundant yellow perch, black crappie and black bullhead. It won’t be replanted until the spring.
Fishing was slow at Winchester for Roesner and Hasenoehrl during their inaugural ice fishing trip of the year. By late morning, they had a few isolated nibbles but no solid hits. Normally, they said, a few hours of fishing produces a limit and the action tends to come in flurries.
“Usually when they hit, you’ll get three or four hits at the same time,” Hasenoehrl said.
A brisk wind was blowing across the ice and causing their holes to clog with slush. Even their bait — worms — was starting to freeze.
“The old joke is you keep them in your mouth,” Roesner said. “I’ve never tried it.”
Despite the cutting wind and the slow fishing, Hasenoehrl said it’s still worth it to spend a few hours on the ice.
“You got to get out of the house once in a while,” he said. “You get tired of being cooped up.”
Barker may be contacted at [email protected] or at (208) 848-2273. Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.