It was my first time ice fishing this weekend. I bought some old ice fishing gear at a garage sale last year. I intended to head to Spokane to try it out but the weather forecast showed too much snow. I thought I would try it locally at Dalton Lake, more of a pond than a lake. I fished it in the summer with some success trout, perch, and blue gills. The ice was 3.5 inches or more thick, with 1 inches of water on top. It was kind of scary drilling the first couple of holes but the more I tested it, the better it looked. I was the only one out there other than the pheasant hunters along the bank. It looked like someone else was drilling holes out there at another time. I tried all the gear I had. I even bought some maggots and worms. I put the maggots on the ice jigs with no luck. Those things are sure nasty looking and hard to get on a hook. The jigs were set about 1 foot off the bottom. I had and tried a variety of ice jigs and even used some antique fishing eggs. The eggs have been in the jar since the 50’s and were pretty rubbery. I didn’t have one bit but I did have a blast. The old ice auger was spoon shaped and I was wondering how it would work. It worked like a champ. Same thing with the old fiberglass poles that came with it. I jerry rigged a reel on one of the old wind up ice fishing poles. Good enough but it was never tested with a fish, stink. I also drilled a couple of holes in the Yakima river near the mouth of the Columbia River. I wasn’t there long and I only drilled/fished a couple holes near the boat dock. I had no luck there either. The ice was about 4 inches thick. I never ventured off the boat dock. Too chicken with the way I hear ice freezes on a river. This weekend I plan on heading to Spokane and try my luck. I don’t think the ice will be safe enough in the Tri-Cities area with the higher temperatures.
I have some pretty nice old ice fish decoys that came with the ice fishing gear. I was wondering if anyone knows if they will help attract fish. They are all hand painted from the 50’s. There are some painted life like and some painted a variety of colors and shapes.
In addition, I found out real quick how slick it gets out there. For some reason I didn’t even think about that. I definitely need to buy some ice chains for my shoes.

fishdoc

12/30/2008 12:23:00 AM

Courtney,

Save those decoys! Some of those are worth quite a bit to antique collectors. From what I know, those decoys are/were used to attract fish like pike and muskies. Bass and walleye may come in and investigate, but I haven't heard anything about decoys being used for them. They might be good for spokane lakes that have pike, but I would go buy new plastic decoys and save the old ones. If you're into the icefishing scene, we used to go to Soda Lake in the Potholes and fish for whitefish. We would use small white Swedish Pimples and a piece of perch meat and catch a bunch of them. Pretty good fighters and excellent smoked!!! Hope you find this helpful! Good Luck!!

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