Anyone been down to Fish Lake lately? I’m headed down in the morning but have some concerns about how the ice will be with all this warm weather we’ve been having.
My dad was down there on Tuesday and said the ice is 20-22 inches thick. Fish Lake has good ice till the end of march.
Awesome. Did he happen to mention what it was like around the edges or how much snow/slush there was? I’m also hoping the roads are plowed. I’m a truckless loser. Thanks for the help.
They generally keep the roads and parking lots plowed to just south of joe bush, you should have no problem getting to most of the lake.
Sweet. Thanks a lot. This site rocks. There are obviously some hot heads just looking for a fight but for the most part you’re a classy group of guys (and gals for all I know). Thanks for your help.
I just spent the last 3 nights (Tues, Wed, Thurs) at fish lake in a cabin. The roads are fine. The ice is 16 inches and the fishing was excellent. There was 3-6 inches of crusty snow on the ice but it was easy walking. The temperature Friday morning at 0800 was -6 so dress warm. good luck.
I will be down there tomorrow by bowery camp ground in a white chev truck if you want to meet up. The snow is about five feet deep, but they do keep the roads clear because people live there year round. You should be fine in a car as long as the wind is not blowing, the drifts get deep if the wind is blowing.
Do they allow wheelers on Fish Lake?
4boats
yes they do.
Great, do you know the snow/drift conditions?
4boats
i was down there a month ago and there was 4 to 8 inches of snow on the ice. as of now, i couldn’t tell ya how the drifts are. you know the w always blows at fish lake. good luck to ya.
From what I’ve heard, it’s pretty tough to get a wheeler to the ice…
Bummer, sure makes for more time fishing and a lot easier on my wore out back.
thanks for the info.
4boats
Just got back from 3 days down there. We stayed in Mackinaw lodge Tu-Fri. First day we fished at Twin Creeks,caught 6-7. Day 2 we fished on the entrance end just out from that little bench on the shore there. It was pretty slow,caught most in close to the shore in 15"-20" on mealies and glow in the dark cutterbugs and grub type jigs. Day 3 we fished straight across from the Marina. I was about 100 yards from the shore in about 80 feet of water. I only caught 1 off the bottom and about 30-35 fish in 10-25 feet under the ice. Glow in the dark cutter bug tipped w/mealie was money!! I also did well with a little gitd ratfinkie with a gitd gizzie bug pulled over it tipped w/mealie as well. Ice was plenty thick,10-12" probably with just a couple inches of slush. We didint have much luck w/the Mac’s. One guy caught a 21 incher but that was the biggest. All the trout we caught were in the 12-16" range. All the Splake were cookie cutter 15" inchers. Lots of fun though, good luck!! Knock em’ silly.
I took a friend down for his first time on Sat. that was a mistake! It was blowing the worst that I have ever seen, and I’ve seen it blow bad!! The wind gusts were 40 mph at least! Some of the drifts on the side of the road were 15 ft. high! We could not keep our big ice holes (LOL)-not really- cleared!! I decided to set up my new tent I got for Christmas, another big mistake! My friend didn’t come in, as we were fishing 2 poles and there wasn’t room. So anyway I had to hold it down with ALL of my body weight (almost 200 lbs.) at times, or risk having the Guiness book of world records Kite, with me in it!!! So I couldn’t catch any fish in there. Needless to say all of the ropes that you use to anchor the tent down, snapped! and I only caught 2 splake, and my friend one rainbow! I marked alot of macks on the finder-which is what we went for, but we didn’t get any!!! By far the worst Fish lake trip ever!!![:(]
[pirate]
Boy I’ll second that. I have always loved Fish Lake. No matter where I live it’s the place I have to make at least a couple trips to every winter. It’s the old fall back. Whenever I try to introduce someone to ice fishing that’s where I take them. The weather is always beautiful, the fishing is always fast, but not on Saturday. It took me over an hour just to get my hut set up in that wind. I drilled one hole and my auger broke. One of the screws in one of the blades just snapped off and so I only had one good blade on there. So that hole was terrible but I couldn’t exactly drill another. We had three guys there and so we ended up just switching off. One would fish while the other two ate and tried to keep the hut on the ice. We each got a few bites but not a single fish. Driving out the wind had drifted the snow all over the roads and I was in a little sedan. It was a blast for me and my brother but my wife isn’t a big fan of driving in the snow. There were spots where we had to hit drifts at 40 because they were over the top of the hood. It was awesome!!! So yeah, the trip was a complete failure but we had a good time and it’s not going to stop me from going back. If anything it makes me want to go back that much more.
**EDIT: **I just forgot to put something in the report I wrote for Fish Lake. The water was murky. Normally I can see down about 15 feet before it gets too dark but this past weekend I’d lose my lure only three or four feet down. What’s the deal? Could it have been the wind? I mean I know the lake is capped over and everything but it’s got to at least shift the ice a little. I have no idea what would cause it and wondered if you had any.