Keep safety first as ice fishing season begins

MAT-SU — If you like to fish as much as we do, you can’t help but feel short-changed after this last season. We all know the details (lack of fish, flooding, etc.) so we won’t beat a dead horse.

But as one season closes another opens, and this season is looking to be very promising. Ice fishing season in the Valley has officially arrived and hopefully will offer fisherman plenty of opportunity. If you’re like us, you jump at the first sign of freezing puddles that often leads to standing along the shore of our favorite lake looking through thin ice saying “you first.”

Making sure newly frozen lakes are safe to venture out on is always our first concern, so we never push our luck. Insert “better safe than sorry” here. Besides, shopping for more tackle or eating a meal at the Windbreak are much more appealing than bobbing in a lake in sub-zero temps. This year, ice thick enough to safely fish is forming sooner than we anticipated and every three to four days that goes by another lake is added to the list of ones are safe enough to venture out onto. This is good news.

This past Sunday we found ourselves standing on the shores of Finger Lake eager to drill our first holes of the season. Although there were a few people on the lake, we were a little hesitant to run right out. This covers our first recommendation: determine ice depth yourself; never assume the first guy did his homework. So in making this decision for ourselves, we drilled a hole near shore to test the integrity of the ice and were surprised to find 10” of ice, which is more than safe enough for foot traffic. As a rule of thumb, these are the guidelines we use for ice safety:

• 5 inches of ice for foot traffic.

• 8 inches of ice for snowmachines.

• 10 inches of ice for one car or small group of people.

• 12 inches of ice for multiple vehicles or larger groups of people.

Some other factors like amount of snow, weather fluctuations and natural springs will affect the ice depth and strength, so if you are unsure, don’t walk out on it to test it out. Always drill test holes and bring another person along in case of an emergency.

In this early part of the season, hand augers work great for drilling test holes. If you do not have a hand auger, you can also chop a hole with an ax or ice chipper fairly easy. As the season draws on and the ice and snow get deeper, a power auger can save not only energy, but time if you’re drilling holes and moving often to find fish. We often drill 20 holes in an average day of fishing in order to find fish so using a hand auger with ice depths greater than 10 inches would be challenging. With that said, this year power augers are blazing new trails and now Jiffy Ice Drills offers a gas-powered four-stroke auger in addition to the first ever propane-powered auger released last year. We are testing out both models this year, and although the ice wasn’t at its thickest, we are already impressed with the performance of these two models.

If you are wondering where to kick off your ice fishing season, we always recommend Finger Lake. It provides easy access and enough real estate to accommodate a large number of anglers without feeling crowded. High catch rates and quality fish make this a great place to take children and those with varying skill levels. During our first trip out to Finger Lake, the bite was on from the second we dripped our lines in with good action from rainbows, Dollies and landlocked salmon.

We were using Berkley Soft baits with Gamakatsu jig heads. On this particular trip, the fish didn’t appear to care what colors we were using as long as you fished them about 4 to 5 inches off the bottom (although fish were even active right under the ice). We prefer to fish the bottom as we were targeting Dollies and rainbows, and that’s where they do most of the feeding at this lake. When we fished the middle of the water column the landlocks would destroy our jigs and definitely keep you busy releasing fish. If you are looking for information regarding lakes, we recommend the ADF&G website as it has detailed maps and information on access, stocking number, species and depth. On Finger Lake, we recommend staying in the 6- to 15-foot depth range if you want to increase your chances of success. Remember to always have your fishing license on you at all times and check local regulations for bag limits and bait restrictions.

With just a little bit of research and planning, any of the Matanuska Valley Lakes can make for a truly unforgettable ice fishing adventure.

If you have questions regarding ice fishing or would like information on testing Jiffy’s newest models of ice augers. Email Ehmannoutdoors@gmail.com or find them on Facebook at Ehmann Outdoors.