Bring on the Hardwater!!!!!

[KFhunter]

Now your sounding like a local!

[Ridgeratt]

I have been accused of worse things.

[KFhunter]

For the record I've never seen anyone burning pallets or trash while ice fishing 

[Ridgeratt]

I might have a 4 person blue tarp you can borrow.

[Southpole]

The cousin did some test fishing today on Cascade. Said there was 12 inches with about 3-4 inches of slush layered in the middle.

[castnblast]

Anyone making holes in the ice yet? Hoping to hit Curlew in the next few weeks. Anyone have an ice report for Curlew?

I measured 4-5 inches of good ice straight out from the state park at Curlew yesterday.  Further north and south it was highly variable.  As little as 2-3 inches of clear hard ice below softer ice.  Had my 9 year old son with me this trip so we stayed on the thick stuff and enjoyed very good fishing.  He had a blast!  We sure love catching those plentiful Curlew perch...and the fish tacos that follow! 

As an aside, we had a WDFW enforcement officer out checking licenses on the ice at Curlew this week. Super nice guy and I appreciated our positive interaction.

Ice fishing keeps me sane until spring bear!
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[Timberstalker]

Anyone making holes in the ice yet? Hoping to hit Curlew in the next few weeks. Anyone have an ice report for Curlew?

Ice fishing keeps me sane until spring bear!
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I hate to break it to you, but you are gonna go insane.
Spring bear is no more in Washington.
Sorry for the threadjack.

[Southpole]

Anyone making holes in the ice yet? Hoping to hit Curlew in the next few weeks. Anyone have an ice report for Curlew?

I measured 4-5 inches of good ice straight out from the state park at Curlew yesterday.  Further north and south it was highly variable.  As little as 2-3 inches of clear hard ice below softer ice.  Had my 9 year old son with me this trip so we stayed on the thick stuff and enjoyed very good fishing.  He had a blast!  We sure love catching those plentiful Curlew perch...and the fish tacos that follow! 

As an aside, we had a WDFW enforcement officer out checking licenses on the ice at Curlew this week. Super nice guy and I appreciated our positive interaction.

Ice fishing keeps me sane until spring bear!
Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

Daggon that looks awesome! Curlew sounds promising. What’s the suggested thickness of ice before walking out on it?

[Russ McDonald]

Anyone making holes in the ice yet? Hoping to hit Curlew in the next few weeks. Anyone have an ice report for Curlew?

I measured 4-5 inches of good ice straight out from the state park at Curlew yesterday.  Further north and south it was highly variable.  As little as 2-3 inches of clear hard ice below softer ice.  Had my 9 year old son with me this trip so we stayed on the thick stuff and enjoyed very good fishing.  He had a blast!  We sure love catching those plentiful Curlew perch...and the fish tacos that follow! 

As an aside, we had a WDFW enforcement officer out checking licenses on the ice at Curlew this week. Super nice guy and I appreciated our positive interaction.

Ice fishing keeps me sane until spring bear!
Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

Daggon that looks awesome! Curlew sounds promising. What’s the suggested thickness of ice before walking out on it?

I had to look it up to verify.  4" is what it is and we normal went out on the lake to fish in MN.  5-7 will hold a snowmobile or atv.  10"  for a vehicle.  Yup we drove on lakes and put full on ice houses on our lakes back home.  Think the movie Grumpy Old Men but way nicer fish houses.  I might have to try curlew.  Wouldn't mind catching a musky through the ice.  Have caught northerns and walleye through the ice.  Biggest fish was a 7 lbs lake trout through the ice.  Was sitting at the depth of 90'.  We caught eel pout or what is known as burbot.  Let them freeze and play ice football with them.

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[Southpole]

Anyone making holes in the ice yet? Hoping to hit Curlew in the next few weeks. Anyone have an ice report for Curlew?

I measured 4-5 inches of good ice straight out from the state park at Curlew yesterday.  Further north and south it was highly variable.  As little as 2-3 inches of clear hard ice below softer ice.  Had my 9 year old son with me this trip so we stayed on the thick stuff and enjoyed very good fishing.  He had a blast!  We sure love catching those plentiful Curlew perch...and the fish tacos that follow! 

As an aside, we had a WDFW enforcement officer out checking licenses on the ice at Curlew this week. Super nice guy and I appreciated our positive interaction.

Ice fishing keeps me sane until spring bear!
Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

Daggon that looks awesome! Curlew sounds promising. What’s the suggested thickness of ice before walking out on it?

I had to look it up to verify.  4" is what it is and we normal went out on the lake to fish in MN.  5-7 will hold a snowmobile or atv.  10"  for a vehicle.  Yup we drove on lakes and put full on ice houses on our lakes back home.  Think the movie Grumpy Old Men but way nicer fish houses.  I might have to try curlew.  Wouldn't mind catching a musky through the ice.  Have caught northerns and walleye through the ice.  Biggest fish was a 7 lbs lake trout through the ice.  Was sitting at the depth of 90'.  We caught eel pout or what is known as burbot.  Let them freeze and play ice football with them.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk

I’ve always thought that would be fun to have a real ice fishing shack. Grumpy old men…


The Green Hornet has caught more fish than you’ve ever lied about

[castnblast]

Daggon that looks awesome! Curlew sounds promising. What’s the suggested thickness of ice before walking out on it?
[/quote]


I feel safe with 4 inches of hard clear ice.  It is good habit to check as you go out farther and farther from shore or around the larger lakes. I use a heavy breaker pinch point pry bar to smack the ice...number of blows in the same spot generally correlates with thickness...less than three and I'm staying off.  Then drill some holes to verify the quality and thickness.

Check this Google maps link for ice conditions
Washington Ice Fishing Conditions
https://goo.gl/maps/4Tb87ukFLwdCZrHD8.

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[castnblast]

Anyone making holes in the ice yet? Hoping to hit Curlew in the next few weeks. Anyone have an ice report for Curlew?

Ice fishing keeps me sane until spring bear!
Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

I hate to break it to you, but you are gonna go insane.
Spring bear is no more in Washington.
Sorry for the threadjack.

I already had to seek 'medicine' from elsewhere to get my spring bear fix.  Not drawing again for 3 years after having an amazingly fun Wenaha hunt just about killed me.

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[KFhunter]

Well I freaking did it, got an Eskimo 650 XD ice shack! Good luck finding one, I bought the last one 

Buddy goes all over ice fishing in Montana, N.Dakota etc and I'm gonna jump in and go too.   Sucker fits two full cots inside.

I was gonna get a Kodiak canvass tent for early elk and winter wolf hunting but I'm gonna multipurpose this ice shack, mabr even set up on a lake and wolf hunt and pop holes in tbe ice too!

Can't wait try it out, already got everything else just need a few ice fishing poles, I think he uses 6 in Montana

[Stein]

Well I freaking did it, got an Eskimo 650 XD ice shack! Good luck finding one, I bought the last one 

Buddy goes all over ice fishing in Montana, N.Dakota etc and I'm gonna jump in and go too.   Sucker fits two full cots inside.

I was gonna get a Kodiak canvass tent for early elk and winter wolf hunting but I'm gonna multipurpose this ice shack, mabr even set up on a lake and wolf hunt and pop holes in tbe ice too!

Can't wait try it out, already got everything else just need a few ice fishing poles, I think he uses 6 in Montana

Sounds like fun for sure!

I wonder how much the 5 extra pole endorsements cost in Montana.      That alone would be $74 if WDFW even offered it, plus dealer fee. 

[Southpole]

Well I freaking did it, got an Eskimo 650 XD ice shack! Good luck finding one, I bought the last one 

Buddy goes all over ice fishing in Montana, N.Dakota etc and I'm gonna jump in and go too.   Sucker fits two full cots inside.

I was gonna get a Kodiak canvass tent for early elk and winter wolf hunting but I'm gonna multipurpose this ice shack, mabr even set up on a lake and wolf hunt and pop holes in tbe ice too!

Can't wait try it out, already got everything else just need a few ice fishing poles, I think he uses 6 in Montana

Did you buy it direct from Eskimo? They were pretty limited in November too. We looked at other brands but kept going back to the Eskimo. Congratulations on the purchase!