Joe’s Fishing Hole: Ice fishing on the horizon | Outdoors

With next week’s forecast high’s to be in the 20s and 30s expect more ice to build with many of our lakes becoming covered in unsafe ice. We are also looking at a slightly wetter weather pattern which is good for the water, but may mean a thin layer of insulating snow on top of the ice which will inhibit ice growth making it unsafe for a longer period of time.

What does this mean for anglers? Finding open water to fish is going to become more difficult and with unsafe ice, this might be the time to clean up your soft water gear and prepare your ice fishing gear for safe ice, which won’t be likely until January. South Fork will probably be the best bet for open water over the next week or two, but don’t expect that to last too long.

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WILDHORSEThere is ice in the coves, but still plenty of open water for fishing. Boats may be launched this weekend, but the dock is no longer in the water. However, with much colder temperatures forecast for next week, expect the lake to start freezing over. The forecast calls for one to three inches of snow on Monday. Expect the usual chironomids, leech patterns and wooly buggers are still the best bet for fly anglers but the usual nymph assortment of copper Johns, hares ears, and pheasant tails should also work. Bait anglers have been catching fish with worms or rainbow or sherbet PowerBair. Small spinners have also been effective. The lake level is still holding at 50% capacity. Wildhorse was stocked approximately 50,000 trout this fall. Stocking is done here for the year.

SOUTH FORK RESERVOIRMorning skim ice along the shores, but wide open during the day. Expect ice starting to build on Monday. Trout fishing has been fair to good depending upon the day. Low light conditions (early morning and late afternoon) seem to be working the best. Those fly fishermen that were catching fish report that they have been catching nice fish with a variety fly patterns including wooly buggers, leech patterns, red copper Johns, hares ears and chironomid (midge larva) patterns. Ice cream cones, red butt buzzers, red and silver zebra midges, red brassies and frostbite chironomids should all be working. Anglers are also having some success with spinners, worms and PowerBait fished from shore. The dock is out of the water at the main boat ramp. South Fork was stocked with approximately 39,000 trout this fall. Stocking is done for the year.

JIGGS/ZUNINO RESERVOIRAlmost dry and no fish.

WILSON RESERVOIRNo recent report, but expect similar conditions as at South Fork. This means ice along some of the shoreline with ice building starting on Monday. For the bait anglers, worms seem to be working better than PowerBait for trout. Fly rodders should have some success with leech and wooly bugger patterns. Nymphs include blue copper Johns, hares ears, PT’s and chironomids. This lake often has similar conditions to South Fork and the same techniques and presentations often work. The boat ramp is out of the water and is unusable.

RUBY LAKE NWRTrout fishing has been fair to good in the collection ditch though ice is forming. There is ice in the south marsh and the dock is out of the water. Leech patterns, balanced leeches, crystal buggers, #14-16 hare’s ears, and #16-18 PT nymphs and chironomids under an indicator are probably the best bet. Other flies working include the usual small nymphs, olive soft hackles, red or blue copper Johns, and prince nymphs. A few fish have been taken on egg patterns. Some of the best fishing reported has been on the days that were cloudy and windy. Spin anglers should be using small spinners in black or olive with contrasting yellow or red colors. On brighter days, gold or silver lures seem to work better.

JAKES CREEK/BOIES RESERVOIR

Surface water temperatures have dropped into the mid to high 30’s and the lake was about 70% covered in very unsafe ice on Tuesday, November 30. Bass fishing is done for the year. If you can find some open water along the shore the usual worms and PowerBait, as well as small spinners, rooster tails, and panther Martins should work for trout. Fly rodders should be using black or olive wooly buggers or leech patterns, hares ears, PT nymphs and chironomid patterns. Expect the lake to freeze completely early next week with unsafe ice. More than likely it will be unsafe until around New Years.

Cold Creek Reservoir was salvaged a few weeks ago so that water control structure could be fixed to prevent leaking. When the control structure is fixed, the reservoir will be filled and NDOW will begin rebuilding the fishery in 2022.

The water levels continue to drop at Cave Lake in an anticipation of renovation efforts on the dam in 2022. NDOW conducted a fish salvage this and moved some very nice brown trout ranging in size from eight to 25 inches into Comins Lake. Cave Lake is closed to fishing due to shorelines that are very soft and dangerous due to the complete saturation of the soil as the lake is drained. By draining the lake it should shave a couple of years off the re-building of the dam and cut costs tremendously. It will also make the project much safer for those performing the work.

Comins Lake was about 60% ice covered as of Thursday, December 2. There was plenty of open water along the north and west shorelines for fishing, but trout fishing was just fair due to the cold water temperatures. Anglers can expect to catch Rainbow Trout in the 16-to-17-inch range but shouldn’t be surprised when they hook into fish that are over 20 inches. Water temperatures are in the mid 30’s. Next week’s colder forecast should see this lake ice covered with very unsafe ice. Expect the ice to remain unsafe until sometime in early January. Construction of a brand-new boat launch and shade structures was completed early last month. Anglers, please note that NDOW has placed radio tags in several Northern Pike. These pike will have an orange floy tag near their dorsal fin and a small antenna coming from their stomach. Please return these fish to the water for research purposes. If the pike doesn’t have the transmitter tag, please humanely dispatch the fish. Do not put it back in the lake. Comins Lake was stocked with approximately 14,000 trout this fall along with brown trout salvaged from Cave lake. Stocking is done for the year.

The dry year that has impacted much of the west certainly impacted Illipah Reservoir, with water capacity sitting at about 50% and ice forming on the lake. There should still be some open water this weekend for shore fishing, but expect that to end next week with overnight lows well below freezing and daytime highs at or just above freezing. Anglers will do well on nightcrawlers, mealworms, a variety of jigs, wet flies, and powerbait. Surface water temperatures are in the upper 30’s to low 40’s and while there may be some skim ice along the shoreline in the mornings, fishing should be good. Best flies right now are leech or wooly bugger patterns. Fly rodders will also do well on bead head pheasant tails, wooly buggers, chironomids and parachute Adams. Spinners, PowerBait, and nightcrawlers will do well for the spin casting crowd.

The road to Angel Lake is closed for the winter and the lake is ice covered and there will be no more fishing reports until late spring or early summer depending upon snowfall this winter.

Alpine lakes are frozen over and there will be no more fishing reports until late spring or early summer depending upon snowfall.

Stream flows are down slightly compared to last week and many stations are starting to show ice instead of flows, but there is still open water for fishing. With colder water temperatures expect stream fishing to be slow to fair and to find ice on the rocks and shorelines. As of December 3, the East Fork of the Owyhee is still showing ice expect flows near 15 cfs near Mountain City, the Bruneau River at 14.6 cfs, the Jarbidge at 7.9 cfs, Salmon Falls Creek at 57 cfs, Lamoille Creek at 6.5 cfs, the South Fork of the Humboldt at 7 cfs, Cleve Creek at 4.3 cfs, Steptoe Creek at 2.0 cfs and Kingston Creek at 2.8 cfs.