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It\u2019s officially ice fishing season! Cold temperatures have brought ideal conditions to several popular fisheries, and others will be fishable before long. I love ice fishing, so my next couple monthly reports will be dedicated mostly to hardwater options (I will occasionally throw in an open water option or two). Conditions listed below are as of this writing (December 19). As always with early-season ice fishing, drill test holes as you go and stay safe out there! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lake Cascade (Perch, Trout) <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Cascade froze early this year, and the entire lake is fishable.\nPoison Creek, Boulder Creek and Blue Heron are the most popular winter access\npoints, and Idaho Fish and Game added a new parking area off Stonebreaker Lane\nnear Sugarloaf Island this year. Anglers have been catching nice trout, and\nperch fishing has been fair (it usually picks up as the season moves along).\nPerch pattern lures tipped with red worm, waxworms or cut bait are always a\ngood place to start at Cascade. It\u2019s been mostly foot traffic so far, but I imagine\nsnow machines will be good to go by New Year\u2019s. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Horsethief Reservoir (Trout) <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n While Cascade offers trophy opportunities, nearby Horsethief\nprovides easy access and steady catch rates for pan-sized trout. It\u2019s the\nperfect place for families, beginners and kids! Small, brightly-colored jigs\nand spoons tipped with a mealworm, waxworm, Power Bait or nightcrawlers are the\nticket. The whole lake is safe for foot traffic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Riddle Lakes (Trout) <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n These high desert gems offer sneaky-good winter fishing for\nLahontan cutthroat and rainbow trout. I love the quality trout opportunity, but\nit can be technical fishing. The lakes are crawling with crayfish, so keep your\nbaits off the bottom. Access can also be tricky on bumpy, snow-covered roads.\nFour-wheel drive and all-terrain tires are a must. Cut bait, shrimp, worms, jigging\nspoons and Rapalas have been effective options. One word of caution if you fish\nGrasmere, which is the most accessible lake\u2014there is some runoff\/melt causing unsafe\nice conditions around most of the shoreline. You can see the clear area extending\nabout 10 yards from shore. Stay off of it! There are a few areas where you can\nget out to the white, thicker ice and fish safely (it\u2019s 5-7 inches thick,\nwhereas the clear, thin stuff is only 1-2). Stay safe! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Salmon Falls Creek Reservoir (Walleye, Perch, Trout) <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve never ice fished Salmon Falls, but boy, there are some\nnice early-season reports this year! Anglers have been catching all three\nspecies\u2014walleye, perch and trout\u2014in good numbers. The trout are really nice,\nand the perch are certified jumbos. The walleye are on the small side, but\nstill great eaters. Jigging Rapalas and spoons tipped with worms or cut bait\nare what I would start with. Drill test holes if you go, as the ice thickness varies\ndepending on your location. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Henrys Lake (Trout) <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Henrys is the best trophy trout lake in Idaho, and one of\nthe best in the Northwest. I recently caught a once-in-a-lifetime fish there, a\n30-inch cutbow my friends and I nicknamed Walter. Having said that, the prime\nwindow for ice fishing is behind us, and heavy snow makes access trickier as\nthe season goes along. A monster can hit anytime, but anglers will likely have\nto work hard for their bites going forward. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Warm Lake (No ice!) <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Warm Lake takes a little longer to freeze because of its\ndepth and heavy snowfall. I expect it will be fishable next month. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dog Creek Reservoir (No ice!) <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It sounds like there is a skim across most of the lake, but it\u2019s\nnot fishable yet. Give it a few more weeks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Payette Lake (No ice!) <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Payette is almost always the last ice fishery to freeze. It\nwill probably be at least another month. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Stay safe out there, have fun, and tight lines! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s officially ice fishing season! Cold temperatures have brought ideal conditions to several popular fisheries, and others will be fishable before long. I love ice fishing, so my next couple monthly reports will be dedicated mostly to hardwater options (I will occasionally throw in an open water option or two). Conditions listed below are as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2136"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2139,"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2136\/revisions\/2139"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}