Fishing report 2/12 - 2/14 sundown.
2/12 We started fishing in the north at midmorning. I started things off by opening up a half mile shelf, burning through an entire tank of fuel for my auger. I guesstimate about 120 holes. Threelungs chipped in another 20. We fished past sundown and marked plenty of fish but we could not get a bite to save our lives. The gamefish were feeding though. I was jigging a large return in a shad school and bumped something heavy. I reeled up and had a dime sized walleye scale on my jigging rap. Any guesses on how big that thing was?
Anyway, no fish were caught so we moved to a main lake point at 9pm-ish and more of the same.
2/13 We began at burnt wagon and opened up moving south about a quarter mile cutting about 70 holes. No fish were marked so we headed to indian point and opened up around the tip, cutting about 100 holes. Threelungs had a hit on his jig. That was it. We fished untill 10:30pm and saw a few returns but no hits. We were joined by Doublehaul's brother that night after an 11 hr drive. At this time I'm scared he came down for some lousy fishing.
2/14 Here is an artists depiction of how Doublehaul and myself felt.

It was just Doublehaul, his bro, and myself left for fishing. The rest of the group went home for valentine's day activities. Over breakfast we discussed plan B options for fishing, as in going to a different body of water. We decided to grind it out for a few hours on a fellow shant member's recommendation.
We set up and started fishing. Doublehaul and his brother downsized to smaller offerings using macho minnows tipped with minnow heads. Not too much later I hear Doublehaul yell FISH ON!!!!!!!!!!!!
After two days of garbage fishing I never hear more beautiful words.
After one of the best fights I've ever seen a catfish put up it was on the ice. A healthy 9lber.

Not much later I hear the same words yelled! Could it be..............we were on some biting fish?
A nice 8lber

(Sorry for the photo editing on these two pics. Since we went on someone elses recommendation I didn't want to show where we were.)
While Doublehaul scaled down with his presentation, I went the opposite direction. I tied on a rattlin' rap and started ripping it. You could hear it rattling above the ice. Right away I got a hit! After marking a few no-takers this nice 20 incher had enough racket and tried to make it stop.

HT2 Doublehaul for a sweet pic.
We headed to lunch and when we came back we didn't mark much for fish. Once the sun went farther down they picked up again. Doublehaul's bro hooked up on a cat.

Not too much longer Doublehaul caught his first eater walleye out of Glendo ever! I guess with him its usually go big or go home for walleye. Bro caught another cat too. Evening bite was on!
I was still ripping the rattlin' rap and had a return meander in. When I tried to rip it all I had was dead weight. A nice 7lb cat was on the end.

Bottom line is this.........NEVER GIVE UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Even though the fishing was good I had to head home at 6:30 because of that four letter word called work.

I now hand off the rest of the report to Doublehaul.
2/12 We started fishing in the north at midmorning. I started things off by opening up a half mile shelf, burning through an entire tank of fuel for my auger. I guesstimate about 120 holes. Threelungs chipped in another 20. We fished past sundown and marked plenty of fish but we could not get a bite to save our lives. The gamefish were feeding though. I was jigging a large return in a shad school and bumped something heavy. I reeled up and had a dime sized walleye scale on my jigging rap. Any guesses on how big that thing was?
Anyway, no fish were caught so we moved to a main lake point at 9pm-ish and more of the same.
2/13 We began at burnt wagon and opened up moving south about a quarter mile cutting about 70 holes. No fish were marked so we headed to indian point and opened up around the tip, cutting about 100 holes. Threelungs had a hit on his jig. That was it. We fished untill 10:30pm and saw a few returns but no hits. We were joined by Doublehaul's brother that night after an 11 hr drive. At this time I'm scared he came down for some lousy fishing.
2/14 Here is an artists depiction of how Doublehaul and myself felt.

It was just Doublehaul, his bro, and myself left for fishing. The rest of the group went home for valentine's day activities. Over breakfast we discussed plan B options for fishing, as in going to a different body of water. We decided to grind it out for a few hours on a fellow shant member's recommendation.
We set up and started fishing. Doublehaul and his brother downsized to smaller offerings using macho minnows tipped with minnow heads. Not too much later I hear Doublehaul yell FISH ON!!!!!!!!!!!!
After two days of garbage fishing I never hear more beautiful words.
After one of the best fights I've ever seen a catfish put up it was on the ice. A healthy 9lber.

Not much later I hear the same words yelled! Could it be..............we were on some biting fish?
A nice 8lber

(Sorry for the photo editing on these two pics. Since we went on someone elses recommendation I didn't want to show where we were.)
While Doublehaul scaled down with his presentation, I went the opposite direction. I tied on a rattlin' rap and started ripping it. You could hear it rattling above the ice. Right away I got a hit! After marking a few no-takers this nice 20 incher had enough racket and tried to make it stop.

HT2 Doublehaul for a sweet pic.
We headed to lunch and when we came back we didn't mark much for fish. Once the sun went farther down they picked up again. Doublehaul's bro hooked up on a cat.

Not too much longer Doublehaul caught his first eater walleye out of Glendo ever! I guess with him its usually go big or go home for walleye. Bro caught another cat too. Evening bite was on!
I was still ripping the rattlin' rap and had a return meander in. When I tried to rip it all I had was dead weight. A nice 7lb cat was on the end.

Bottom line is this.........NEVER GIVE UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Even though the fishing was good I had to head home at 6:30 because of that four letter word called work.

I now hand off the rest of the report to Doublehaul.
My brother (zooangler) and I plan an annual February icefishing trip. Normally we go to Fort Peck for a week and have done very well in the past. Unfortunately Northeastern MT has had record amounts of snowfall creating unfishable conditions via ATV. Over much deliberation we had to cancel on our MT trip. Zooangler being the best fishing partner ever, decided after much discussion to drive 11 hours from MIssoula MT to fish with me for 4 days. I was really nervous the day he was driving due to poor catch rates the first 2 days on the water. Fortunately fishing picked up enough to scratch up a few HAWGS.
Just to give you an idea how much time and effort we put in every day. We were fishing new areas/structure every day and moving all over the lake. I would give a rough estimate we were drilling between 75-100 holes every day. If we weren't marking fish on any holes we'd pick up our gear and open up another spot. We spend between 9-10 hours a day on the ice fishing hard. It's a little technique I like to call ice trolling. Highly effective, but not easy.
"you guys earned them" may be an understatement
As stated in the above post the edge ice is going fast, but main shelf remains 12 inches everywhere. To pick up where Trogdor left off......
2/15
The weather pattern finally settled and we got an entire day without wind. There seemed to be a positive connection between the windless day and our catch rate. We called it quits that evening with 11 cats and 2 eyes. During a 45 minute period at roughly 9 PM Zooangler hooked and landed 6 catfish. It was amazing-One hole and 6 big cats. I couldn't even fish because I kept hearing "FISH ON!!!"
2/16
The wind blew and blew and blew and blew. Bite shut off a little but managed to catch a few anyways. I broke my all time Glendo catfish record on this day. A 13.8 lbs. cat!!!!!! This fish made my whole trip worth it.
2/17
Last morning of fishing. The ice was so rotten at the edges we were no longer able to get the ATV on. We made a long hike that day, but it was worth it. The wind was howling up to 40 MPH gust. The good news is that the temp dropped.
Stats for the 5 days:
Channel cats- 20 total Highlights 9.3, 9.8, 9.9, and a whopper at 13.8 lbs!!!!!
Walleyes- 8 total Highlights 4.8 by zooangler and a 5.0 by me.
Productive lures- Clackinrap, Macho minnow, PK Lures in various glow colors.
Here's a bunch of pics. I hope everyone enjoys them.

The evening Trogdor took off

Nice cat by Zooangler

PK lure at work

Another beautiful channel cat


9.8

9.8

One of the few eyes caught

5.0 Walleye

5.0 eye

4.8 lbs eye

Carp baby!!!!

The highlight of my trip. an absolutely fatty 13.8 lbs. channel cat. He was 30 inches long on the dot.

I just can't stop looking at this pic

Just to give you an idea on the girth this big girl had!!!!!
This is my favorite WY reservoir to ice fish. One of the very few bodies of water in the U.S. that one can consistently ice HUGE channel cats. The fishing was not hot by any means, but we made a decision to put in the time and fish hard every day. At the end of the day our efforts paid off big-time. It always helps to be in good company to keep your spirits high. Thanks a bunch Laramie crew and my brother for spending some time on the ice with me this year. These experiences are priceless and we truly are blessed to have such an awesome reservoir in our state. Good luck this late ice season and stay safe out there.
Just to give you an idea how much time and effort we put in every day. We were fishing new areas/structure every day and moving all over the lake. I would give a rough estimate we were drilling between 75-100 holes every day. If we weren't marking fish on any holes we'd pick up our gear and open up another spot. We spend between 9-10 hours a day on the ice fishing hard. It's a little technique I like to call ice trolling. Highly effective, but not easy.
"you guys earned them" may be an understatement
As stated in the above post the edge ice is going fast, but main shelf remains 12 inches everywhere. To pick up where Trogdor left off......
2/15
The weather pattern finally settled and we got an entire day without wind. There seemed to be a positive connection between the windless day and our catch rate. We called it quits that evening with 11 cats and 2 eyes. During a 45 minute period at roughly 9 PM Zooangler hooked and landed 6 catfish. It was amazing-One hole and 6 big cats. I couldn't even fish because I kept hearing "FISH ON!!!"
2/16
The wind blew and blew and blew and blew. Bite shut off a little but managed to catch a few anyways. I broke my all time Glendo catfish record on this day. A 13.8 lbs. cat!!!!!! This fish made my whole trip worth it.
2/17
Last morning of fishing. The ice was so rotten at the edges we were no longer able to get the ATV on. We made a long hike that day, but it was worth it. The wind was howling up to 40 MPH gust. The good news is that the temp dropped.
Stats for the 5 days:
Channel cats- 20 total Highlights 9.3, 9.8, 9.9, and a whopper at 13.8 lbs!!!!!
Walleyes- 8 total Highlights 4.8 by zooangler and a 5.0 by me.
Productive lures- Clackinrap, Macho minnow, PK Lures in various glow colors.
Here's a bunch of pics. I hope everyone enjoys them.

The evening Trogdor took off

Nice cat by Zooangler

PK lure at work

Another beautiful channel cat


9.8

9.8

One of the few eyes caught

5.0 Walleye

5.0 eye

4.8 lbs eye

Carp baby!!!!

The highlight of my trip. an absolutely fatty 13.8 lbs. channel cat. He was 30 inches long on the dot.

I just can't stop looking at this pic

Just to give you an idea on the girth this big girl had!!!!!
This is my favorite WY reservoir to ice fish. One of the very few bodies of water in the U.S. that one can consistently ice HUGE channel cats. The fishing was not hot by any means, but we made a decision to put in the time and fish hard every day. At the end of the day our efforts paid off big-time. It always helps to be in good company to keep your spirits high. Thanks a bunch Laramie crew and my brother for spending some time on the ice with me this year. These experiences are priceless and we truly are blessed to have such an awesome reservoir in our state. Good luck this late ice season and stay safe out there.
