It was a great Christmas at our home this year. I traveled to Seattle to bring my daughter home for the Holiday. In spite of the heavy traffic going over the passes it was well worth having her here to see so many of our family that she hadn’t seen for quite a while.
I hope everyone had a great Christmas and traveled safely back home. The really cold weather and conditions like freezing rain put a damper on getting outdoors for most people. I checked in with Keith Roe at North 40 Outfitters in Omak, to see what anglers in that area were doing. He said that very few people had stopped by the fishing department in recent days. He said that was weird, as there are usually people in for supplies for a Holiday fishing trip with friends and family.

He was getting reports from ice fishermen saying that the ice fishing had been good at Curlew and Bonaparte lakes. He also said that he has seen people going into Leader Lake to fish. Also, Patterson is certainly covered with a good layer of ice, but he hadn’t talked to anyone that had been fishing there. I looked through my photos to see what I was doing this time of year last season. I found a great photo of Tom Verschuren holding a nice triploid at the net pens on Rufus Woods. There wasn’t any snow in the background. This is a very different year. Warmer weather is in the forecast, and I hope to get to Rufus soon. This week’s photo is of Tom with his fish.

When the outside temperature drops to below freezing for a good period of time, I start logging onto LakeWenatcheeInfo.com and check out the web cam at Fish Lake. This is one way to see if there is any ice fishing going on up there. I had been looking at the web cam for days, expecting to see anglers out on the ice. The weather had been darn cold, but I still didn’t see any evidence of anyone drilling holes. I thought that maybe the road into the Cove Resort hadn’t been plowed.

There is only one way to find out. I drove up there on Thursday morning. The drive up the Tumwater Canyon was beautiful. The morning sun made the scene look like a picture postcard. I found that the road into Fish Lake had been plowed and the parking lot cleared, and there was one truck in the parking area. There were two anglers out in the middle of the lake. The ice is covered with a layer of light, fluffy snow, so walking should be easy. I would still approach the ice with caution, but if it isn’t thick enough to support anglers right now it will be very soon. 

I have mentioned some of the things that I have done to make my ice fishing more fun, like the electric drill auger adapter. There are some other things that I do to make spending time on the ice more comfortable and efficient. A trick I learned many years ago is to get a few carpet samples from a local flooring store. I throw these on my sled and after I have drilled my holes and set up my rod holders and chairs near the hole, I lay down these small carpets to put my feet on. These keep my boots from being directly on the ice and really it helps keep my feet warm. Having a portable propane heater is another nice piece of equipment to have along when ice fishing. I have one of those Fishing Buddies. They aren’t very large and fit on my sled and make a huge difference on extremely chilly days.

I got something for everyone in my family this Christmas, that will come in very handy during the ice fishing season. They are call Yacktracks and that attach to your boots, so it is like having chains on your tires, but on your feet. This will be great for walking across the frozen surfaces of the lake when ice fishing this season.

We definitely had a white Christmas this year. We got another big shot of snow up in Leavenworth. When I was traveling over the passes to bring my daughter home for the Holiday, it had me thinking about past Christmases. As you can imagine, our families are heavily into fishing. My brother and I were always in trouble, well not really, for taking our father fishing prior to the big family get together, and we sometimes were a wee bit late for dinner. One of my favorite photos, which you can see on the Fishing Magician.com Facebook Page, shows me holding up a bright steelhead. The time stamp on the photo at the bottom right hand side says December 25th, 1991. Yup, my brother Rick took us steelhead fishing off the mouth of the Columbia that morning. It was a really cold day, and we were happy to get to my Dad’s place to get warm and partake of the Christmas feast. This is one of my most favorite memories.

Conditions are far from ideal for getting outside in the region. The freezing rain has put a coat of ice on everything and just walking around is treacherous. I hope it will melt off soon so I can get to some of my favorite winter fishing spots.