02-18-2019, 04:37 PM
Woke up in the morning with full intention of going to Big Sandwash and then just got a itch to try Joe’s Valley.. I haven’t been there in a few years because I never do that good there and just went on a whim for some reason. Was -7 when I got to the lake, plenty of ice with about a foot, foot and a half of snow on top, walking was a pretty good workout in that. Got holes drilled to find the depth I wanted, ended up in about 36’, cleared the snow for my tent and decided not to put the tent up, wasn’t that bad, first time I haven’t fished in my tent for a long time as well.. Then I remembered why I do, much less problems with the cold and water freezing my line, my rod eyes, and bait, but I stuck with it! Marked a few fish to start, no takers.. Then I changed my jigging technique and started to get hits.. Ended up with 6 fish on the ice, a perfect split between cuts and splake, nice big footballs.. Every fish I caught was over 17” with the biggest splake coming in at about 23”. All good fighters and I would say not one under 2.5 lbs. All fish were released to keep on growing, I did miss quite a bit too. But overall, I was happy with my last minute decision, definitely would take those quality of fish over quantity and not bad for 3 hours of fishing.. Some of the fish I missed came up of the bottom like a rocket, big marks too, just couldn’t hook them properly, maybe was my chance for big tigers I figured, but I will be back.. All the others were caught about 20’ down..
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