Flaming Gorge Catch Report 2/9-2/10/08

The wind blew like crazy up here on Saturday, but at least it was warm. Picking a fishing location was a blend of trying to catch fish and trying to find some protection from the 20-30 mph winds. We ended up south of Brinegar Ranch where the ice was about 7 inches with some water on top. The edges were good, but some of the pressure ridges appeared to be opening up.

We perforated the surface and found the mack pups willing to strike, while suspended 10ft off the bottom in 45-52ft of water. Fish were caught on 3/8 oz. tube jigs (crayfish, glow) and Spro bucktails (blue/white) tipped with sucker meat. We stuck around for an hour or two after dark to try and ice some burbot. We only caught two, one 20-incher and one 24-incher, in 28 ft of water.

Sunday morning we turned to rainbows, fishing north of Antelope Flat in 14-22ft of water. The rainbows were active, and we caught 9 fish ranging from 17-20 inches. We even caught one 17-inch Bear Lake cutt. Small 1/4oz. curly-tail jigs in white or Foxee jigs in green, doubled up with a chartreuse Ratfinke tipped with meal worm worked well. Ice was 14 inches thick.

Hope it helps.

Thanks for your report. How large were the mack pups?

Nothing bigger than 24 inches. Good luck.

Thanks for posting your report Ryno, we sure haven’t read many reports lately from the Gorge. Sounds like you had a good weekend on the ice, except for the wind of course[crazy]. With this warm weather do you think the ice is in trouble where it froze last? Sounds like the ice is plenty think in some areas but fairly thin in others.

This weekend is supposed to be warm again. It will get sloppy, but I would guess it will hang on uplake through most of March. Last year it went off quickly in March, with warm temps and strong spring winds. As of last weekend you could launch a boat at Mustang Ridge. Good luck!

It is good to know about the open water, I thought everything was frozen, thanks for the info.