Luke
Well-Known Member
So I was planning to hit the credit with my dad today, but with my daughter being sick and it being -14 this morning that trip got cancelled. Instead I hit one of the eastern tribs this afternoon for a couple hours.
I got there and of course all the pools were frozen only the head and tail ends had flowing water. The water was bewteen pea green and clear, I tried drifting the tail end of what had been the only active pool just days before. Then I walked to a run that I knew was deeper and started drifting right by the ice edge. At the bottom end in the shallower water my float goes a foot sideways and under, I set the hook, nothing but I get hopeful.
2 drifts later float goes down earlier, I set the hook and boom I feel headshakes. I strain the new Okuma to the max to prevent the steelie from taking me into the frozen pool, not an easy task fighting it in a half frozen run.
After struggling with it comes to the surface and I see its a nice chrome hen about 7 pounds. I try to get it to flop onto the ice so I can land it, its not working. The ice is about 10-12 feet off the shore, I try to get it upstream so I can use the net, nope not working. Then it gets stuck on the ice, at this point I am sure its gone as I cant budge my float and the line isnt moving. I mess areound and get it unstuck, its still there, rolling under the clear sheet of ice I try to pull it up to no avail. Even with the new longer rod I cannot reach around the ice sheet, I try to stand on it near shore and it buckles under my 260lbs+ equipment. Nope not going out to get it. Then poof line is limp, fish is gone. I let go a choice word or two and reel in the float expecting to have to retie a hook. Then a few surprises:
1) The hook is still there, apparantly the .205mm redwing fluoro is a billion times better than the berkley vanish junk I was using.
2) Literally 5 seconds after I lose the fish about 50-75 square feet of ice sheet breaks off and floats downstream, opening the water and shore right where I lost the fish. Do'h D'oh D'oh
3) about 30 seconds after that all hell breaks loose on the water, and it looks like all the ice and slush on the river has gotten loose and is flowing downstream. In about 2 minutes the water goes from almost clear to chocolate slushy/frosty. Its unfishable, the pools are now open but there is so much water and ice flowing down that you cannot drift.
I havent seen the conditions change so quickly before it was interesting. I then went for a walk looking for any water that was fishable, nada. On the way up I saw why the water went like that. There was a big blockage that must have burst with the temperature going up a bit. I fished for a while more, eventually the slush subsided and the water changed to a pea green. I continued fishing but by this point the sun was going down and everything including my feet was freezing, I think the massive change in water conditions turned the fish off.
Heres how my float looked like (this is after I drove home, it was worse on the river) everything that made contact with the water was frozen.
I got there and of course all the pools were frozen only the head and tail ends had flowing water. The water was bewteen pea green and clear, I tried drifting the tail end of what had been the only active pool just days before. Then I walked to a run that I knew was deeper and started drifting right by the ice edge. At the bottom end in the shallower water my float goes a foot sideways and under, I set the hook, nothing but I get hopeful.
2 drifts later float goes down earlier, I set the hook and boom I feel headshakes. I strain the new Okuma to the max to prevent the steelie from taking me into the frozen pool, not an easy task fighting it in a half frozen run.
After struggling with it comes to the surface and I see its a nice chrome hen about 7 pounds. I try to get it to flop onto the ice so I can land it, its not working. The ice is about 10-12 feet off the shore, I try to get it upstream so I can use the net, nope not working. Then it gets stuck on the ice, at this point I am sure its gone as I cant budge my float and the line isnt moving. I mess areound and get it unstuck, its still there, rolling under the clear sheet of ice I try to pull it up to no avail. Even with the new longer rod I cannot reach around the ice sheet, I try to stand on it near shore and it buckles under my 260lbs+ equipment. Nope not going out to get it. Then poof line is limp, fish is gone. I let go a choice word or two and reel in the float expecting to have to retie a hook. Then a few surprises:
1) The hook is still there, apparantly the .205mm redwing fluoro is a billion times better than the berkley vanish junk I was using.
2) Literally 5 seconds after I lose the fish about 50-75 square feet of ice sheet breaks off and floats downstream, opening the water and shore right where I lost the fish. Do'h D'oh D'oh
3) about 30 seconds after that all hell breaks loose on the water, and it looks like all the ice and slush on the river has gotten loose and is flowing downstream. In about 2 minutes the water goes from almost clear to chocolate slushy/frosty. Its unfishable, the pools are now open but there is so much water and ice flowing down that you cannot drift.
I havent seen the conditions change so quickly before it was interesting. I then went for a walk looking for any water that was fishable, nada. On the way up I saw why the water went like that. There was a big blockage that must have burst with the temperature going up a bit. I fished for a while more, eventually the slush subsided and the water changed to a pea green. I continued fishing but by this point the sun was going down and everything including my feet was freezing, I think the massive change in water conditions turned the fish off.
Heres how my float looked like (this is after I drove home, it was worse on the river) everything that made contact with the water was frozen.
