How's the Ice fishing been this year?

[fixed blade]

Hi ya'll.   My names Jason I'm from Utah looking to transplant my family to Washington.   We are avid Ice fishermen.   I'm just wondering how the Icefishings been.   I would love to hear some reports and see some pictures.

Here's one of my bigger Cutt's I've caught this year.



Here's a nice tiger trout.

[fixed blade]

Oh yeah, and in case you were wondering about the candy bar in the pictures it was needed for a tournament I was in.

[Rick]

There aren't a whole lot of lakes that ice fishing is an option on in Washington.

The few lakes thats get enough ice to fish generally have good seasons.

[h2ofowlr]

If you move over to the N.E. corner of the state you have more options for ice fishing.  Idaho!

[Quackwhacker]

Its been really wet!   Welcome to the site.

[goosegetter79]

Most the lakes are around Spokane area and north of there.

[Skyvalhunter]

Ice what Ice? Take a boat out there!!

[fixed blade]

Thanks for the replies I think.    Has anybody caught any nice sized trout this year.   I went out today, and Caught one 13 inch rainbow, real dark looks like they're spawning.   

Out here it's not uncommon to catch 10+ trout a day.   Anything like that in washington.   We're looking at the Colville area above Spokane.

[Skillet]

There are some lakes to the south of Spokane that are winter fishing only trout lakes that we've done pretty well at (Hog Canyon, Fourth of July), but few if any that you can expect to get that kind of production out of in my experience during the short "safe ice" season.  A boat is a pretty important piece of winter fishing gear around here.

[goosegetter79]

Don't know about trout but burbot (freshwater ling cod) good places for those are bead and sullivan. Seen on www.washingtonlakes.com that someone was catching some nice trout on sprague lake west of spokane.

[Skycruiser]

It's been a terrible year for ice fishing. My buddy and I did a three-day coyote-hunting/ice-fishing trip over by Moses Lake just before New Year's. We planned another one in late January but the warm weather moved in and never left. Just heard on the news this week that the average temp for January was a full seven degrees above normal.

[C-Money]

How did you guys do out on Moses Lake Skycruiser? Guess perch were hitting off the old states park area when there was ice. I never got out!

[Big D]

Anyone that states that the ice fishing opportunities are limited in Washington probably lives on the West or wet side of the state and doesn’t get to Eastern Washington much. We've got lots of great ice on the Eastern side of the state.

Here’s a little free schooling for ya about Washington State before you get here.

Washington State has two very distinct sides. The West or wet side of the Cascade Mountains (Not much Ice) and the East or dry side of the Cascade Mountains (Lotsa Great ice)
In the Colville area you'll find lots of ice fishing opportunities. We've had warm weather here in Eastern Washington for the last couple of weeks but I was still able to get out on the ice yesterday 02/04/10 and get my limit. The ice was 8" thick with a little slush on top. If this warm weather continues the lake that I was on yesterday will probably be safe for ice fishing for only for another week or two.

[DOUBLELUNG]

Try a search on "Rufus Woods" on this site.  It's not icefishing, but you'll like what you see.

[fixed blade]

Thanks guys.

Big D nice haul, is the limit 5 there?   It's only 4 trout here.   Do you mainly catch rainbows on the hard deck or can you get some other species of trout?