DC - Mostly Ice

[LOAH]

With the cold weather and daytime temps remaining below freezing lately, I was sure that Deer Creek would have fishable ice in my usual hard deck spot by now. Recent reports that I'd read stated that much of the lake was open water as late as Wednesday, however I had a hunch and I'm usually one to act on that.

Once I crested the dam, all I saw was white with darker stripes from cracked ice. Only one open spot stuck out to me, which was near the main State Park area, where the Wallsburg arm meets the main body of the lake.

My usual spot was inaccessible due to piled up snow from the plows. If I'm to fish it this year, it looks like I'll need to bring a shovel and take a walk to clear out a spot for my car, unless I want to pack my gear a long way before and after a steep hike to the ice. After today, I'm not so sure that will be necessary...

After searching around for a good place to pull over, I found a nice, plowed area and got onto the ice to test the thickness. I could tell it was new ice and had my fingers crossed that it was at least 2.5" thick.

The first hole was drilled within a few feet from shore while the ice sang to me from several directions, shooting that crackling noise up through my body. Once I punched through, I checked the thickness and it was only 2 inches.

Given the popping sounds directly related to my footsteps, I opted to walk right next to the shoreline rocks until I reached an area that appeared to be frozen longer than the death trap I was standing on. The first hole there had 3.5" of good clear ice with a light dusting of crystalline frost. That'll do.



Notice the clear marking of thick vs thin ice.

There were some other ice-holers on the lake, but they were concentrated in the bay at Island State Park and near the inlet of the Provo River. The Wallsburg arm had only 2 parties, that I could see.

Despite the thicker ice where I settled down, it still made its fair share of hair raising noise. There were two different times that I felt the need to make a dash toward the shoreline when the popping had a prolonged, creeping sound that seemed to come from a distance and head straight for me, almost as if it was chasing me.

Last year, I had fished on only 2 inches of ice without incident, so I was sure it was just paranoia. The fishing was pretty good, so I went back to my holes and continued to pull up fish in bursts about 20 minutes apart.

My holes were only about 20 feet from shore, but the water was plenty deep to find some rainbows. Nothing huge, but a few of them filled up my hand nicely.











Notice how thin the ice looked on the rim of that hole. Add about an inch and that's how thick it was. Kinda scary, but it held up just fine. That being said, I didn't really dare to go out much further than I was.

So it was nice to take advantage of the ice on a lake that usually serves me a steaming plate of disappointment in the soft water months. I'm a fan of DC ice and will surely hit it several times this winter.

Happy Fishing, Humans.

[ilanimaka]

Grats on a good day out.

[wes242]

Looks like a good trip. Looks like the lake is amost 100% coverd. Pasted on our way back from Strawberry today. Going out again Tuesday and finally my fish Deer Creek for more then an hour this time.

[ibenick]

Sketchy man. I'm way too heavy to be out on ice like that!

[offpiste]

[accadacca]