1st ice trip for me this year today. I thought I could probably get on Echo and find some safe ice, and I did. I fished the southernish end. Balmy -4 upon arrival at 730 am.
Walked out a bit, drilled a hole, 5-6 inches of clear ice, was in 28 ft of water and saw a mark pass through. So I set up camp in that location. I never moved.
Perch were plentiful and willing off the bottom. Better quality than I thought I would find. I also set a jig at about 12 ft down tipped with chub, dead sticking for cruising trout. This worked as well, catching 4 nice bows between 16 and 17.5 inches.
Biggest perch were 11", kept 16 between 9.5 and 11". I was picky and threw back everything after a while under 10". I estimate I released 50+. One of the perch burped up a 3" minnow, probably perch fry. So I switched over to a minnow type jigging lure with no bait and continued to catch them.
Only 2 other anglers came after me. Surprisingly both women, arriving at different times and fishing by themselves. I helped the 1st drill her holes close by, and gave her some chub pieces for bait and she caught 4 nice trout. The other set up about 50 yards away, and was striking out. She was fishing for perch, so invited her over close to where I was at. She moved close and proceeded to nail the perch. She also caught a brown trout, which was pretty cool. Funny how the perch weren’t 50 yards away, but we’re where I 1st drilled.
Great report. I have heard from somewhere sources of good but spotty where perch bite on Echo. I also heard a skunk report form Lost Creek but they went up late. Glad you got some lunch meat on the deck
We talked about walking out from that area a couple of years ago but we never tried it but my guess is there is much less traffic coming from that area. They talked about putting in a concrete ramp there but they never did it.
Nice job Paul, that’s a very nice haul and sounds like you made her day, maybe season… way to be a good Samaritan… Nice to hear another pond is fishing well this year… Thanks Jeff
Last year I seen the state parks were trying to charge the summer rate in the winter, but they must have gotten some push back, because I noticed this year even Willard had cut the rate in half for winter users… It’s probably park specific, but I think they went back to a reduced winter rates on a couple spots I’ve been too this winter… but like mentioned when you have the annual pass you don’t pay too much attention to the day rate. I probably should because I don’t think ive been going enough to justify the annual pass the last few years… but it is nice not having to fill out an envelope each trip… Later jeff
Sounds good, thanks for reporting that info back it’s good to know… I think I tried that on line at Bear Lake last year and ended up paying full rate, so good to know they only charge half off season now. Thanks Jeff
