Home from fun outing at Hog Canyon. Arrived late morning (11-ish) due to late night and hangover (ha!).

Fished my old reliable white glow jig, hasn't let me down yet (crappie on Eloika last week) and it didn't disappoint today. Dropped till I hit bottom and gave it a few cranks to get it off the surface and then did some slow jigging.

Caught my first within about 30 minutes and lost him at the hole. Guess he got tired of bumping his head on the underside of the ice. He was a nice fat one too, made me sick to lose him. Things went quiet for while before I caught two more. The one on the right went 13.5" and the one on the left 15" and was considerably fatter.

Lots of people on the ice today, maybe 3 dozen or so.

Miscellaneous:

- Only a skiff of snow on some slippery ice. Walk carefully!

- Road is in pretty good shape. Lots of exposed gravel for traction, with some ruts and crusty puddles. I probably wouldn't take anything less than 4x4 or chains on a 2x4 down that final descent to the water. I think you could pretty safely get to that last little parking station above the last grade and walk down though.

- What does a trout eat in Hog Canyon during winter? I found lots of black water bugs and a few snails in their stomachs.

- Heard stories here and from fisherman on the ice that the game warden camps out up top and is ticketing anyone who doesn't follow the unique regs on Hog. You can only have two fish over 14", and once you get those two you're done. Even if you're under the 5-fish limit. Not sure how that works if you catch your first 3 under 14" and then your last two at 14+. I guess he has to take you at your word? Thankfully a friendly "neighbor" came over and measured for me, as I thought I'd hit the limit and was 1/2" shy. I ran out of time before it became an issue.

- Can't remember the name of my jig or where I bought it (Spokane's General Store, I think), but it's exactly like this one, only in glow-in-the-dark.
http://www.cabelas.com/product/Fishing/Ice-Fishing/Tackle|/pc/104793480/c/104735880/sc/104617980/Northland-Bros-Slug-Bug/1160499.uts?destination=%2Fcatalog%2Fbrowse%2Ffishing-ice-fishing-tackle%2F_%2FN-1100503%2FNs-CATEGORY_SEQ_104617980%3FWTz_l%3DPPC%3Bcat104735880&WTz_l=PPC;cat104735880;cat104617980