Well that was an awesome year but it’s time close off 2012 and move on to 2013! Thanks to everyone that contributed reports, stories & pictures last year and we’re really hoping to see even more of you on our … 2013 Fishing Reports post!
Tight lines & good times in 2013!
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info on horseshoe?
Ice off around the aerator only as of 4 days ago.
Herb: Last Sunday I stopped by Horseshoe and it was open from the boat launch to around the aerator. One could get a boat on the water!! Outside of that patch of water the rest of the lake was still frozen and looked like it would need some time. How much time, i am not sure. Hope that helps.
Cheers,
Darryl
thx guys. guessing peterhope would still have ice aswell. any suggestions around the roche,peterhope,merrit area?
Hi everyone,
Just wondering if anyone has any information they would like to share about the turnover conditions at Morgan, Six Mile, Stump, or Jacko? I was also wondering if anyone knew how ice out conditions were progressing for Red Lake? Thanks in advance.
Cheers,
Darryl
The thing about Jacko is that the water is usually murky for approximately 1 month after ice-off. Sometimes it even seems to clear up a bit and then it gets super murky again after a windy day. You can take my word for it as I used to fish the lake 50 days a season “back in the day”.
I fished it the second day that the ice was off and it was already very murky and I would expect it to remain that way until sometime in early May. At some point the lake will actually be turning over and the fishing will slow down but you can always get a few if you perservere.
My point is that it is actually very hard to tell when Jacko is turning over so you just never know until you give it a shot.
Thank you Art for sharing that. I really appreciate it.
Cheers,
Darryl
Yes that was very informative! Thanks for sharing your knowledge Art.
Anyone heard if the ice is off Skmana Lake
I went up to Skmana this evening. The little lake was at least 50% ice off! I didn’t drive around to the big lake, but would assume that it has even less ice. I’m gonna try and fish it in the morning, might have to portage around the channel though.
Thanks Bryon. I have never fished Skmana before but always wanted to give it a try after they killed the perch. Can you launch a boat at the big lake or do you have to go through the channel. How is the fishing in the small lake?
Skmana is a great lake! Their is a road to drive around to the big lake but heard it is quite rough. The small lake has a small boat launch, and is easy to get to from the main road. The small lake is quite shallow, but produces. The big lake has some deep areas, and great shoals as well. I do quite well on both lakes with a black fly with a red head (hellgramites) and a small piece of worm. Head to the island seems to be quite the hotspot. Saturday morning still had ice on the big lake, but should be gone or close by now. Good luck!
Was at Red lake yesterday, about 6 ft of shoreline open, lots of large dark patches throughout lake. I’d guess ice off by May 1st
Thank you Mark. I am going to try and go late next week to Red…probably Thursday. I will report back on the ice-off then. I was hoping to go this Tuesday, but your report suggests it might not be ready by then.
Cheers,
Darryl
Was at jacko yesterday, and a friend that was fishing there said he heard Red and Bleaker winter killed. Not sure if that is correct or not…
Was at Horseshoe and Roche yesterday both still froze up except around the araetorstopped at Edith on the way home open around the shoreline about 6/7 trailers at the site waiting
So im goin tomorrow and i was wonderin what the best lake to go to right now would be, I would really love to go to edith but it doesnt sound like it is quite ready, any info would be great, thanks, jordan
Check out Grants post below … looks like you might get your wish with Edith! 🙂 If not Jacko’s a good bet too ….
Edith at 8:00 tonight. Little bit of ice blown up against the North end, still iced over on the East arm. Everything else is clear!
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As of yesterday afternoon Campbell & Scuitto are good to go. I didn’t get there till 3:45 but I caught a 1.5 lb right @ 4:20,and nothing after. He wasn’t very healthy and thre was a lot of floaters I’m guessing due to winter kill. This site rocks!
Was that at Campbell or Scuitto where you saw floaters? or both?
Hi Ryan, I saw the floaters on Campbell. Scuitto looked ok but I did not fish it because of the big wind.
Hi Chris, I was at cambell when you were there. I stayed about an hour and a half later trying chronomids and then switched over to just trolling a spinner along the edges. no luck! I also saw a few dead ones on top. Hope it,s not a winterkill.
Today I headed out to Jocko lake with my father in-law. We arrived at 0815 and launched our boat. There was already about fifteen boats on the water. The water temperature was steady at 46 degrees when we first got out. We headed to the far east end and anchored in six feet of water. Lots of chironomids hatching and a few swallows but no fish at first. We moved out to deeper water and then worked our way back to about six feet, all without so much as a bite. At about 1230 things started to pickup. The water temperature warmed up to 50 degrees in the shallows and the fishing turned on. We ended up hooking 11 fish in the next two hours on size 16 white bead head chromies with a black rib. Took a throat sample on the first fish and it was packed with about the same thing. The fish ranged from 1-3 pounds with a few bigger lost due to the fisherman being rusty after the winter…………….I’m blaming the 2 pound tippet! There was probably thirty people out on the water at it’s peak and a perfect sunny day to kick the year off with. Both my father in-law and I were wondering if Edith would have been a better choice today but we’re certainly not complaining!
Cheers,
Chris
P.S. Excellent site guys!! Thanks for all the effort and hard work maintaining it. Great information and links from the beginner up to the seasoned vet.
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Great report Chris! Thanks for sharing. And thanks for the kind words re the site! 🙂
2 lb tippet at Jacko! That was a huge mistake. The murky water allows you to get away with much heavier tippet and the fish are none the wiser.
Was out at Jacko today as well. We hooked about 30 between 3 guys. Sounds like a lot but found it was kind of slow and steady all day with short bursts here and there. The water was very clear, not murky at all – very strange. We were fishing by the woodpile for most of the day. Visited one of the inlets and there were about eight boats in there. They were hooking fish pretty good but upon further inspection they were all smaller. Nice day all in all. Mix of sizes, good weather, and great friends. 5lb flouro worked just fine. Caught most of our fish in about 2 – 3 ft of water.
Hi Mark,
Glad you guys had a good day out at Jacko. It was just my second time fishing it and I wasn’t too sure where to go. It seemed like there were boats everywhere. We were anchored between the two bays by the big old stump with a beat up old Lowe 1648 jon boat. I’m heading back again on Wednesday with Dad and wanted to know where the woodpiles was? Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for the info on the Tippett as well Art. I just figured with the water so clear and only in 2-3 feet the lighter stuff would be better. Sure wish I had five pound on as I broke off four with the light stuff. I was expecting fish around 1-2 pounds only……….I guess that was a mistake too.
Cheers,
Chris
Here’s a quick shot of the KKK with black midge floss for the rib that worked great at Jacko yesterday.
Cheers,
Chris
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Hi Chris
I was one of the guys with Mark. I saw you two there. We were the three guys that pulled up into that bay a little later in the day in the Lund. The spot we had the best luck was at the woodpiles at the far side from where you were. When you launch your boat go to the far right corner past the first bay to the right, and into the second bay with the old branches in the water. Most of the fish were very close to the old trees in the water, just left of where the shore meets the water, and the branches start.
Hi Brian,
I remember you guys pulling in and hooking three fish in about three minutes! Thanks for the info on the woodpile, we’ll head over there this week when we go back. Beautiful boat and 20hp Honda by the way.
Cheers,
Chris
Anytime. Good luck and tight lines!
Bigger fish were over by the woodpile and by the boat launch. Brian hooked a couple nice ones by the boat launch around 5:00pm. A small school of 5 or 6 fish were porpoising around like dolphins but they were hard to hook. I did well last year a couple days after ice off in the bay that we pulled up into behind you. Hooked about 9 fish all + 22″ right up into the head of the bay. Nothing much there at all this time.
here is a pic of last years fish. We hooked a couple like this this time but most were aroun 16 – 18″
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Hey Mark,
Sweet looking fish in the picture. I had no idea Jacko had fish that size in it! We’ll try out the wood pile this Wednesday & Thursday as well as the other bay at the end we were fishing. Hopefully the last few days of 20-25 degree weather will have a positive improvement on the good fishing already. I fished Jacko twice many years ago in the late Fall and didn’t make out too well and that’s been my only experience fishing it. Nice to have an early season lake close by while the ice is coming off the “regulars”. My wife and son are keen to head out this weekend for their first open water trip of the year.
Best Regards,
Chris
My Bud and I also fished Jacko on the same day water was 46F . We trolled for about 3 hrs. fishfinder indicated fish at 70 ft but nothing close to the surface. Got skunked that day.
Peterhope today …
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… maybe next weekend ❓
Thanks for the picture! Hopefully next week. Its hard to tell, how much of the shore line there was free of ice??
Absolutely none!! As you can see, some of the water between the rushes and the road was open, but the shoreline of the lake was not at all. There area certainly some dark spots, but lots of bright white as well! I really doubt it’ll happen by weekend, but probably next week some time.
Thanks for all the updates everyone. Anyone know how the Kane Valley lakes are doing? Thanks in advance and tight lines.
Lunbum mountain lakes will be close this weekend with Kane valley lakes coming the following week. I’ll give more of a report tomorrow when I go look after work.
Apparently all still frozen as of yesterday…
From what I saw today, they all look like they need a week or so.
Just went by Kidd, courtney, and corbett. All look very close, a few days, probably good for the weekend! Courtney had about 1/4 fishable water already!!
Fishable water on kid?
I heard somewhere that Kidd was closed until may 1?
Can anyone confirm?
Yes anyone that can read the regulations can confirm. page 77. Kidd lake. No fishing Dec 1-April 30.
Ouch. Clearly it’s much easier to get people to give up their super secret fishing holes, fly tying techniques and ice off dates than it is to ask about regulations.
Good to know. As I recall, the last time I needed to look at them was some time in the fall and the book got soaked and I didn’t pick up another one. I will remember not to ask here for quick confirmation on anything lest the SNARK MEISTERS rear their heads 😉
Cheers.
Denise, some people are just short on cool. The recent “harmonization” of the regs is doing a good job confusing folks. They told us that all the resources put into the reg simplification was to make it easier for people, but they achieved no consistency amongst regions!! So here you can now hit lakes at first ice-off, but in the Ok you have to wait until May 1st even if the lake’s been open for a month. Certainly not intuitive.
Hey guys, I was up at Jocko on Saturday all day and I ended up misplacing a new Apple I phone somewhere around the boat launch, I know my chances are few but it has a lot of valuable information, anyone who happens to know any information I would appreciate a phone call at 250-682-5846 a $150 reward is being offered for it’s safe return, thanks alot for keeping your ears open
A report from my travels today:
Kane Valley – all lakes are frozen with very little open water even around the edges. Ice is starting to look rotten but not dark yet.
Courtney – Iced off today (with me on it). Only the extreme east shore was still iced up by the time I left at 6pm)
Corbett – Half of the lake cleared over the course of the day
Marquart – Frozen with no open water at the edges yet. I didn’t bother driving to Lundbom.
So, 1000m lakes in the Merritt area seem to be clear or clearing, but the ones in the 1150m range probably need a week still.
I was up at marquart and lunbum last weekend and both had 5 feet of water around and had dark ice, usually Courtney and marquart are thawed out at the same time…
I think that there was some re-freezing in that area overnight. It in the morning yesterday it looked like Courtney had started to break up the day before, but all the frozen chunks were frozen up in clear ice again.