I would get a hit almost every time I reeled up four or five feet and then stop for a few seconds. I had a hard time hooking most of those hits because they would slam it hard and quick and then usually not hit it again.
I ran into the same problem as you did, Kent. Lots of hits but couldn’t hook them. Some hits were pretty vicious, but most of them were taps or very light bites. I also noticed on the finder that the fish would swim up, look at my offering (which seemed like forever), and turn away. Switched my offering several times to try and match the mood, but finally settled on a small pink ice fly (rat finky, tear drop, etc.) It was a very nice day with a hint of wind in the afternoon. One of the pics shows my 16" in the foreground and the 14" in the background. Good day on the hard deck!
[reply]I thought that was you when I passed by yesterday . I fished by the dam with the freeform group . Lost a real nice one that I hooked up on only 5’ under the ice .[/reply]
Haahahahaha! thats funny, F R E E F O R M is a swear word on here. LOL
Will post my FF report here once I finish it. Going to be a long one. Spent friday and saturday on the ice.
I found when I was able to discipline myself to snap my wrist, rather than swinging my entire arm, I had better luck hooking them. Looking at the fish finder, it seemed like less than 10% of the fish that swam close to the jig would hit it; however, there were so many fish that I was still getting lots of hits and I landed 40 fish before noon.
I know , I have to watch my mouth here .
How did your new “slush inhaler” work?
My hand auger is 8" and my power auger is 10". The Slush Inhaler is 10", so I won’t be using it until I use the power auger. I was using my hand auger on Saturday, because I have learned that it is much easier to drill holes with the hand auger until the ice gets thicker, than it is to drag the heavy power auger out onto the ice.
I’m glad to hear that there are some 21 inch Tigers in the lake. Did you find any of the larger fish with a green or white jig still in its mouth I had about 3 fish break off as I set the hook on Friday? Next time I fish up there I need to start using heavier line. I also had several fish jump up out of the hole that I had hooked. Last year my boy had a fish follow his jig up and out of the hole but it slipped back in before he could grab it.
Hey Ron thanks again for the minnows and showing us how to catch the big tigers. It was a great day on the ice with you and Tommy. We’ll see later this year at scofield and e-lake!
pics attached
Glad you could make it up there as well Mike. Sure wish I had a day off this week!
Fuzzy,
Seems like last year we just got 4 to 6 good inches of ice at huntington and then got a massive snow storm which weighed the ice down and made it sag and then water got on top of the ice and caused slush and then the snow insulated the ice and slush and the good ice rotted and people started falling through. Seems like with the storm that is approaching tomorrow with reports of 2 feet of snow in the moutains that the exact same thing could happen this week. What do you think?
well with me being one of them that fell through the ice up there last year after the snow hit.. i would say this time i would not even try geting out on the ice tell next weekend or so! the water temp was 35*.. 3* above freezing when i was there the other day.. put heavy snow on top of that and the ice could be soft for awhile affter.. be carefull up there for the next week or two!
This was my 6th time ice fishing. First time was last January with Kent at Strawberry. This was my personal best day for number of fish caught and a tie with my largest trout caught (21 inch cutthroat at Strawberry is tied for first). I love ice fishing! Thanks to Kent and Billy for the invitation. It was a beautiful day! look forward to hitting Strawberry again as well as some new spots this season.
My only dissapointment was that when I caught the 21 incher I already had 3 large fish on the ice. It was still around noon, or 11 so I returned the large beauty back under teh ice so I could keep fishing, instead of limiting out. Probably a good thing too since a young surveyer with DWR stopped by later to measure and weigh the fish. I wish I would have kept the fish, but the other part of me says it was good to put it back and let someone else have a go at him. Probably would have sat in my freezer for months anyway.
Thanks again Kent! A GREAT DAY ON THE ICE!
Good report Ron. With the snow storm now, and it setting on 3" of ice, I prodict slush and sink holes by next weekend. Now the fun realy starts [;)]
Thanks for the pics and reports, they are tasty. How ever with as smooth as that ice looked if the fishing was slow put onth eskates and play a little hockey.
Majja
thanks fuzzy, thats exactly what I wanted to hear! That will keep a few people away from our fishing hole for a week or so!
I’ve had very poor luck at Huntington this year in general. I’ve been there twice and each time I caught ONE fish. I plan on redeeming myself before the end of the year however!
Randy
well you got 2 maybe 3 week left to give it a try.. after that it’s going to slow down again..
good luck to ya
There ya go! 
“How did your new “slush inhaler” work?”
The Slush Inhaler worked great at Otter Creek yesterday. One lift of the inhaler and most of the slush and ice is removed. Only down side to it is that it is large (not heavy) and takes up lots of space in a sled.