I hope it’s true keep us posted!! anyone been or have a sense of how much ice it has so far?
i cant find any verifiable link, but here is the picture along with the story. what im being told is it was caught in the deeper channel near the damn on a tiny little grub with a piece of dead cut bait, and thats all im being told. i say no way, no snow on the ground in the pic, again this is all hear say im passing along so please dont shoot the messanger if you see me up there this weekend lol
there was something going around about a large one being caught towards the end of october. cant remember were i saw it, nor how big but it was around 11-13 if i remember right.
Although my story sounds pretty glorious, I guess I should mention that none of the walleyes we caught were even big enough to be worth taking home and filleting. Kinda weird. We were mostly doing it as a matter of principle, just to say that we had accomplished it. So that coupled with the road police, has been why I haven’t ever bothered going back. Best of luck to ya fellas.
I’ve fished up the narrows since I was a young boy. Typically in the late winter/early spring they will occasionally close the road when the conditions get bad. Even if you can make it all the way to the dam in your rig doesn’t mean that you should. I imagine that Pacificorp puts a fair amount of money into that road to maintain it. I also agree that they have every right to close it if they feel it is needed.
I’ve ice fished Oneida a handful of times. I’ve caught one walleye and a few small perch. It seems like it would be a much better walleye fishery, but I’m yet to talk to anyone who has it figured out. In the early 90’s there was one group that we talked to regularly caught nice fish, but that’s about it.
ya, they are the ones who eat the cost to maintain the road, it is about safety, and they do have every right to close it. I just wish there was some kind of recreational bulletin that you could call and get info before you make the trek. it wouldn’t be that hard. alot of similar places have a # you can call with a fairly recent recording. One place I go actually gives you the number to the control room in the dam, where you can talk to a live person 24/7 to find out water release information.
Getting walleye out of onieda was my goal last year.
I went up several times. Caught walleye every time except one. (the last trip)
Here is what I found.
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It doesnt get ice fished much. I bumped into other ice fishermen twice.
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You can catch walleye through the ice there.
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Its not worth worrying about gear. Lures, jigs, ect will only hinder your success.
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You will get a bunch of large bonus perch.
I never had any issues with the ice, or guys from the power plant, or anyone else. The only problem I had was the road in is a dirt road and can get icy. They plow the road up to the dam.
As far as fishing for eye goes, this is what I found.
I went out and bought a ton of lures including $10 salmo chubby darters that guys were using back east to get eyes, jigging rapalas as seen on ice videos for eyes, plastics, ice flies, ect. You name it, I figured I needed it.
I only ever caught them on a octopus hook with a half a nightcrawler on it.
None of those jigs and lures, and stuff ever worked for me.
What I learned about walleye is that they were always within 1 foot of the bottom. Read that in Al Lindners walleye books. He was right.
So, I rigged up a drop shot, suspeded my octopus hook about a foot up, slipped on my crawler, dropped it down so the weight was sitting on the bottom and the crawler was freely drifting about.
Then just sit and watch the sonar.
It was that easy.
The next thing I learned was that location is critical.
The three places on onidea that produced eyes through the ice that i saw were the small rock point on the east side, just up from the boat ramp, the floating docks that are on the dam just south of the boat ramp, and the round point of land that sits between the dam and whatever that thing is that sucks and bubbles over on the west side, across from the ramp.
Any of those places held eyes, and are within a couple minute walk from the parking lot.
The best fish I caught wasnt a large eye, but I did walk over and talk to a guy who was fishing by the floating docks on the dam and he had caught a seven pounder.
That was when I learned that it was a good spot.
He basically mirrored my technique. Fishing right on the bottom.
The next thing I learned is that you gotta go early in the season. Think about the walleye spawning habits. Walleye spawn ealry in the spring. Waiting around until february to try and ice fish them will only get you finding moving fish.
I found that out the hard way. I fished them several times last winter and found them fairly easy. Until the end of the year ice season got close, they simply vacated.
Then I realized the spawning habitat was mostly up in the river end and I was miles and miles away. The fish had begun to slowly migrate up towards the spawning grounds.
Sure catching them in their spawing grounds would be easy, but fishing migrating fish through the ice, at the farthest point (near the dam) from thier spawning grounds, is slow fishing.
I found walleye fishing on onieda worth doing, I never caught a ton of them, but the large perch make for a nice combo.
Thats my advice to you guys, looking to get into them.
Drop shot a crawler right near the bottom, Stick to the obvious structure, and go before the eyes move out.
Great post, makes me want to go. To get to Oneida, go to Cleveland and head to Maple Grove Hot Springs. They keep the road maintained to their resort, after that it is anyones guess, hope this helps.
Great info, confirms alot of my thoughts on where they would be.
Awesome report pred. will take your advice on rigging and areas and give it a try soon. One last detail though was this during daylight hours you were fishing or at night?
sweet!
Snake river, I never tried at night. Too much of a fair weather chickensh*#!
All my trips were during the day.