We hit the ice for the first time this year on Saturday, and it was slower than we expected. Five of us caught 20 burbot and 6 lake trout, fishing a rocky cove between Sage Creek and Firehole in 15-45 ft of water. That same spot produced 28 burbot last year for three anglers in half the time. There was really no pattern to our catch, some on jigs or jigging spoons while jigging or dead sticking. Most of the bites were light and we had several flags on our tip-ups that didn’t produce. Burbot ranged from 14-26 inches.
The ice was suprisingly thick at 11 inches. We even saw a car on the ice at Firehole!
I was at Lost Dog Saturday, I fished in 20’ on 6-7" of ice. There was a huge pressure ridge going across blacks fork that was about 4’ wide. Ice was crackin’ and poppin’ like crazy. 3 bows, 4 burbot and 1 mack on the deck. It was slower than I thought it would be.
Ice was as far south as I could see from LD.
the ice that had started at buckboard is gone, there is a little back in the bay with the gas dock. were i fished 2 days ago is allmost gone.fishing was slow tonight got 4 dinks in an hr.
One other thing, the two larger burbot I caught had HUGE egg sacs. I was expecting to find a gut full of 'dads, not eggs. One had a small rainbow in it’s gut, the others had unidentifiable minnows and what appeared to be a small burbot about 5" long.
Hey Ash, yea I like that spot 2 years ago also, it rocked.
hopefully it will be safe by then. I’ve got a few bags of carp meat so I’m ready. later chuck
Thanks for the report. Glad you at least found some safe ice down there.
We saw similar food items further uplake. Stomachs were chubs, smallmouth, or just empty. There was only a few crayfish parts mixed in. Most of the burbot were also ripe, whether they were male or female. Good to see burbot in burbot stomachs though. I’ve seen that before and it brings a smile to your face! But not as much as a burbot in a lake trout or smallmouth bass stomach…
