… Official flyguys.net Northern British Columbia, BC Interior, Kamloops Area Lakes & Rivers Ice Off 2014 Fishing Reports post!
… and hopefully we don’t have to add a winter kill section this year! 😯
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Lodgepole was decent yesterday, only one fish landed but the action was fairly steady. The girlfriend pulled her first fish out of the ice, a nice 13′ rainbow
were you fishing by the tree laying on the ice?
Fishing was really good today at little Pinantan.
They were biting really good on dew worms.
Hard to beleive that open water fishing will be upon us in just a few weeks with all this snow. Although it is early days and much can change from now till then I just thought I would post the early ice-off predictions based on up-to-now and predicted weather patterns for the Kamloops region using an ice-off simulator. last year the simulator was pretty close, especially once we were into mid-march the simulated day and actual days of ice-off for the following weeks were usually within a day or two. I should also clarify that by ice-off I mean full ice off, so keep that in mind as lakes are often fishable for a couple of days before full ice-off. I will post in a couple of weeks once more data comes in, but this is the early predicitions:
Six Mile and Morgan – Very end of March to very start of April. Dates right now are March 28 (Six Mile), March 30 (Morgan).
Stump – in or around April 9 – Same for Jacko, however, the model has had a hard time with Jacko in the past – not sure why, but it does (working on it).
Edith – Around April 20th
Red and Pass – Both around April 25th.
So, although these dates are likely to be off this early in the game, if you look at the calendar, these dates are not that far off. Can not wait!! Oh, one more thing. I do not run the data for other lakes, but there is a lot of knowledge out there about when one lake come off another is only a few days behind etc, so you can combine this data with that knowldege and you should get a reasonable estimate. Oh, and if you think this is all just BS, you are probably right. So much can change from now until ice-off, but I thought I would post for those who might be interested in some approximations.
I was waiting for this post! Very kewl thanks Darryl! We will be starting our weekly “ice off loops” soon and will keep you posted with pictures and ice thickness, etc.
Thanks Darryl, I was also waiting for you to post your ice-off information. It was great watching your results coming together last spring, and 2014 will be no different! Look’n forward to seeing the red Toyota at the lakes again this year! Thanks for keeping us posted.
Thanks Joe and BCFlyguy, Yes looking forward to using the truck for what it’s made for…Fishing!! Going to explore a few new lakes this year. Have not done that in a while largely becuase once you have luck at a couple of lakes you keep going back to them all the time. But all the lakes I have stuck with over the past few years are all below 1100 m in elevation with the exception of one lake. I think I am going to explore some 1300 m + lakes this year I don’t get skunked so much in August!! Anyways, looking forward to seeing you guys out at the lakes. I will be at Red for much of my May fishing.
Cheers,
Any ideas when white lake ice off would be?
Too early to tell although one thing is clear…this is likely to be an average to slightly later than average year for ice-offs (although a couple of weeks of warm weather can change that quite quickly). White will not ice-off before late March and if I had to bet I would say the first week of April would be most likely.
Thanks art. We went there early last year a week before stump thawed and did quite well.
Has anyone been out ice fishing lately?? Any good lake that produce and are ice safe to support a quad?? I would be extremely grateful for any info anyone can provide.
Jac…Most of the lakes are ridiculously thick right now, But will be starting to rot very soon, I was at Edith on the weekend and buried my auger almost up to the handle cutting holes, fishing was excellent, we caught over 20 plus fish and a couple were of fairly decent size. Hope this helps
Darryl, I will be interested to see how, and if, the upcoming stretch of warm weather affects the ice-off model.
Art, the latest has Six Mile coming off on March 29th and Morgan on the 31st – which is a couple of days longer then what it gave the other week. This warmth is nice, but it started a little late and the long-term weather models have us warming up for the next 9 days, but then cooling a bit. The nights are still cold, with clear skies, which does not help with the melt. Hopefully things will change with the longterm forecast in the next few days and the predictions will be for earlier ice-off.
This is great. Thanks Darryl. I’m interested in watching this come together, with us all knowing nature and weather is not a perfect science; good on you buddy. The best part is that Vandelay is back, and hopefully we hear from Benny soon. This is probably the best BC Interior blog on the ‘net and those two names are a big part of it. Welcome back spring!!
Thanks Joe. I didn’t realize Art Vandelay was held in such high regard. As for Benny…rumour has it that he has been sighted at Monte Lake doing donuts on the ice in his ’86 Trans Am in an effort to melt the ice more quickly…not sure when we will hear from him; most likely when his Pilsner supply runs dry.
Too Funny. I’ll watch for the ’86 TA with the Jon Boat this spring…
Pretty sure it’s a Camaro Art 😉
Went out to Little Heffley last friday, caught a few very small bows. Ice was still around 16″ thick but the top layer was very slushy showing signs of rot. A week prior to that the ice was around 18-20 inches thick so this warmer weather should knock off a few inches atleast every week. Edith was very thick as someone else has said almost 24 inches in some spots. Cant see that lake being thawed until mid april.
Adam D – So far ice-off for Edith does look like mid-April – April 17th according to this little ice-off simulator I have been working on. Of course there are lots of bugs to work out, but last year it did not do to shabby. Cariboo Chris, sorry, I have nothing for the north. One day I will have to time to expand this model, but right now I am swamped with work. Right now it looks like Six Mile may be ice-free for the last Sunday of March. If this is true, I am predicitng a gong show that Sunday. Long-term forecasts are changing every day, so I will try and keep on top of things and post again shortly. Cheers everyone.
Yup, April 17th sounds like a good guess for Edith. The earliest that I have ever seen ice-off at Edith is late March and the latest was April 30th after a long cold winter. Mid-April is average for Edith.
Darryl, does your model stretch any further north? Interested in predictions around the Cariboo, Hwy 24 and north to Williams Lake. Im in Lac la Hache area, but more interested in fawn, drewrey, ruth, hathaway, greeny, sheridan etc. We are looking at about another 6 weeks by my estimation. Lower elevations last week of April, and higher in first week of May would be a guess. First signs of rot at Lac La hache and Williams Lake the last few days.
If this is a current photo I am totally amazed. There were vehicles parked on Swan Lake in Vernon yesterday (not that I would consider that a bright thing to do at this time of year) which has to be at a lower elevation than Morgan and 6 Mile. Oh well, hopefully this photo is the real deal!
Oops sorry Art, should have noted the pic is from mid March last year 🙁
Anyone know if Lodgepole is still safe to walk on or should I be drillin’ a hole off the side of my pontoon boat?
I suspect that you could land a jumbo jet on the ice at Lodgepole and not have to worry about going through the ice. Lodgepole SHOULD (always check before jumping out there) be safe to ice fish until sometime in April. It is a high elevation and does not typically ice-off until close to the middle of May.
thanks Art!
Sigh…. worst time of year waiting for that first drop. Williams Lake showed its first spot today, so will crack in 2 weeks and clear in 4ish. So looks like Im unfortunately going to be pretty close saying I wont be able to get a boat in the water for 6 weeks. Worse than waiting for xmas as a kid!
Cooler temperatures over the next week or so mean a slight delay in ice-off. As of this morning I am getting the following for complete ice-off dates from that ice-off simulator I am working on:
Six Mile = April 1
Morgan = April 4
Stump = April 10
Jacko = April 12
Edith = April 22
Red = April 27
Based on last year’s ice-off dates it seems we are 7 to 9 days behind compared to last year and maybe 2 or so days behind 2012 dates.
Hello Darryl
I was wondering if you might have any information on burnell ( sawmill ) lake close to Oliver ?
Until now , each year it was at least fishable at the first weekend in april , but for some reason i have a bad feeling for this year .
Me and a few friends have a trip planed for april 5th and 6th, and would like to avoid showing up at a frozen lake since it is a 2 hr drive for us to get there .
Thanks in advance
David
CoolDown
Sorry no information on lakes outside of the ones I have listed. As a general rule of thumb I would add 7 to 9 days to the date of thaw last year. Not sure when Sawmill melted out last year, but if someone knows I would add a week or so as a minimum. It really needs to start warming up. Next week looks somewhat hopeful.
Thanks anyways darryl
I gues we are just going to give it a shot anyways and see how it looks there
Thanks
David
April 05th last year the ice was half off at Edith. I was fishing the south end from shore that weekend and fish were rising. Soooon, very sooon.
I wouldn’t count on that happening this year…Edith is going to be close to a month away unless we can string together some 20+ degree days soon.
Last March the average temperature in Kamloops was 6.1 C, which means most lakes up to about 1000 m had at least started to melt. This March the average temperature has so far only been 2.0 C, which means hardly any lakes have really begun to thaw. Warmer days may have had some impact on Six Mile and Morgan, but Edith will have a ways to go. Mid to late April this year for Edith.
I agree, I also don’t think six mile will be off until April 10 or so. It was starting to open along the old hwy as it usually does but the cold nights re- freeze it. Very rotton though I cut a chunk of ice out with the axe with only a few whacks but it’s still 12 in thick or more. Last year it was half off last year around March 22.
Just to let everyone know we are catching some fish out of red lake. But their backs are touching the ice and we have seen plenty of dead fish in certain areas of the lake. Let’s hope it doesn’t kill completely
Dave – Just out of curiosity, what thickness of ice did you find at Red lake? I have an elevation of 948 m. for that lake, and an ice off date of April 19th last year.
2 feet easy. Cold and snowing up their yet. She’s a long ways off yet. Unless the weather changes drastically
Pretty unlikely to happen by April 19th this year. It will more likely be close to the end of April; again a nice warm spell will change things quickly.
Also keep in mind when using elevations to judge ice-off timing that lakes on the north side of Kamloops that are in forested areas will ice-off later than lakes at the same elevation in the more wide open grassland areas to the south (i.e. Pass is only 70 m elevation higher than Jacko but the ice usually comes off a good 2 weeks after Jacko). It is just something to keep in mind that ice-off is affected by a couple of other factors other than elevation, namely wind and sun exposure and other localized climatic factors.