Ice fishing and warm weather

The longer daylight and warmer temperatures we get this time of year have made Match one of my favorite times to go ice fishing. On particularly nice sunny days without wind, I’ve sometimes ice fished in a t-shirt, jeans and tennis shoes. On the other hand I always suggest taking gloves, a hat, and a coat — clothing items that can easily be removed if the weather is particularly nice. I usually have my ice fishing sled along, so I can put clothing items in the sled rather than down on the ice.

Since I’d been out of state on a vacation, I asked my friend and fellow fishing guide, Dan Suprak, if he’d been ice fishing lately? Turns out he’d been northern pike fishing 3 times on lakes he could drive to, and also took his wife and a friend fishing on a stocked lake for rainbow trout.

Each of the three pike fishing trips to local lakes Dan could drive his truck to, produced zero pike. Dan and a friend fished Nancy Lake up toward Willow with tip ups and herring for bait. They had one tip up flag go up, but were unable to hook the fish, and that was all the action on that day. He went back to Nancy Lake to try again in a spot that someone else recommended, but had the same results. One pike (presumably) biting at the bait, but not caught and no more action during the rest of the trip. At the third lake he caught a nice sized arctic char on a 5-inch herring, however he did not know what happened. The fish was snagged, and Dan released it —- but no pike.

Northern Pike Dan’s pike reports sounded very similar to what Mike Hudson had told me earlier this winter when I asked him about pike in the local lakes. Mike mentioned that most reports he had been hearing were that ice anglers were not catching many pike in the road accessible lakes, and that conditions had made it difficult to snow machine (at that time) to the more remote lakes in the Susitna River drainage. I have no update on the trail conditions at this time for the more remote lakes near the lower Susitna River or up the Yentna River. In the past these locations have produced some exceptional pike catching in early March, however, I would suggest getting a trail report and proceeding with caution as snow and ice conditions can change.

ADF&F Stocked Lakes

A couple weeks ago Dan Suprak and I went fishing on a lake I was unfamiliar with, but he had fished several times with good success. My hope was to learn where I could take a fairly large group interested in fishing this particular lake and have some success. What we found on that trip was lots of ice fishing holes, where others had been out fishing earlier in the winter. We did catch a few smallish rainbow trout ( 8 inchish or smaller) and Dan also caught a couple arctic char, but it appeared to both of us that the fish population, in that particular lake, may have been fished on quite heavily and likely most of the larger fish may have already been harvested from the areas we tried.

Without giving away the location, I will mention that Dan recently took his wife and a friend to a lake where he had been having good luck most of the winter. That good luck continued as they caught and released close to 20 rainbow trout in the 12- 14 inch range. The difference between these two stocked lakes was a lot less fishing pressure on the one producing the much better numbers and size of fish. These fish were likely stocked by ADF&G as catchable- sized fish last spring /summer.

I will mention that Dan has been moving around and fishing lots of lakes this winter, and that is how he finds new spots worth trying again the same winter. Dan mentioned that the ice was good and solid on the lakes he has been fishing, but if the current warm weather trend continues some Mat-Su Valley lakes in the Palmer - Wasilla core area could develop punky ice conditions, or open water in places. I always expect the sunny (north) side of a lake to thaw out first, and especially if there is a hill on that side of the lake to absorb the sun. The ice next to shore on that north side of the lake is often the first to become poor. I am always careful when first venturing out on a lake, and especially if I have not first been to that location in a while.