Henrys Lake is producing fish through the ice
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ISLAND PARK — “How’s fishing?” I asked three fishermen fishing through about four inches of ice on Henrys Lake near the Henrys Lake State Park boat launch area, Wednesday morning.
“Not near as good as it was yesterday,” answered one of the fishermen from the Rigby area. “Yesterday, we could not keep them off our hooks, but today they are a little slow.”
My fishing buddy Mike and I moved out a little further, about 100 yards away from them, drilled our five holes each and settled down. As I was jigging two rods, I noticed one of my set rods had a slight movement of the line going around the hole without moving the tip of the rod. I moved over to watch it closer — something was chewing on the piece of sucker meat on my jig. I set the hook and hooked the heavy fish, but lost it about a foot under the ice. Mike also had two “light” bites in the first few minutes of fishing.
One of the three fishermen saw us trying to hook the light hits and came over to see us.
“That’s what we have noticed the last few times we have been here, they are really hitting the bait light. You have to wait until they really take it,” he told us.
We were fishing in water about five feet deep, so I finally put the bait right on the bottom of the water and then let out about two more feet of line. That allowed the fish to pick up the bait and not feel any resistance until it swam away with it.
That was our most effective way to catch the large cutthroats that we reeled in on Wednesday.
The inconsistent weather patterns have made safe ice a rarity so far this fall. Henrys Lake froze over about two weeks ago, and then most of the ice melted. On last Monday, most of the lake was open water, but the ice near the state park did not melt.
The fishermen fishing next two us had fished on Henrys last Saturday and again on Tuesday, while most of the lake was open. They had also fished in the outlet, in Goose Bay, where the ice was deeper. The warm temperatures on Thursday and Friday have made the ice very unstable around the lake, leaving the southeast corner, near the state park, the safest area to fish.
We are going to have to get more than a couple of cold nights before the area near the Frome County Boat Dock and Staley Springs area develop safe ice. Be very careful while ice fishing, as there is about two inches of snow on the ice — insulating the cold from penetrating through the snow to develop good ice conditions. Do not fish alone, and take precautions to be safe. Hopefully, we will get enough cold weather so we can soon fish through the ice on Island Park Reservoir, Ririe Reservoir and Mackay Reservoir, along with Henrys.
Be extremely careful while driving to Henrys because there are a lot of elk and deer crossing U.S. Highway 20. We saw six carcasses that had been hit from Ashton Hill to Last Chance. It is still not too late to get your winter songbird feeders out to attract birds to enjoy.
I hope all of you have safe outdoor outings as you celebrate the Thanksgiving weekend. Make some pleasant memories with your family and friends!!!
