I was the first Ice Angler to arrive at Hog Canyon this morning, and drilled my first hole through 10" of ice along the eastern shoreline at 9:10 AM. Two young families arrived at 10 AM, but nobody caught anything all morning. I drilled five holes in total (three along the east shoreline, and two in the deeper hole along the western shoreline), but all I hooked was some green Milfoil. My 1/4-oz. silver Kastmaster slab-jig was creating vibrations in the water, but I got no takers. The young families were bait fishing with worms, but got nothing.

The ice varied in thickness from 9" to 12" thick. Although there was occasional cracking of the ice on this sunny day, there was no chance of falling in. There were some soft spots in the upper crust, where meltwater from previous warm days had only partially refrozen. With the air temperature just above freezing, the surface of the ice was very slippery. Bring some Yak Trax or other ice crampons to aid in waddling across the ice.

On the way out, I talked to two guys coming in from Fourth of July Lake. They said nobody was catching anything there this morning either. They thought that High Pressure coming after a cold front turns fish off. I haven't had much luck at Hog Canyon, but other people have on other days. A woman who was worm fishing next to a ice fishing tent said she knew a family who did well at Hog Canyon last weekend.

In today's Spokesman-Review newspaper, columnist Alan Liere pointed out this 7-minute, Dec 24th YouTube video made by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, to highligh Ice Fishing techniques at Hog Canyon Lake: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITZZdNkRXpk .