Chesterfield 12/31/05

[BrianID]

I was over by Grace at sunrise for an elk hunt that ended Saturday and didn’t see any elk inside the unit boundary so I decided to check out Chesterfield. I fished Chesterfield starting around 10am and called it a day after a couple hours because I worked a graveyard shift the night before and wanted to get a nap before spending time with my family for New Years. The fishing was only about half as fast as Devil Creek was today but I still keep busy chasing bites on my five poles. The fish also didn’t seem to bite a second time if I wasn’t fast enough to hook them the first time. I put a tape on several of the fish that I caught and all of the fish I caught were 13”-16”. I’m sure there are a few fish an inch or two longer in Chesterfield I just didn’t put in enough time to catch them. Several of the fish I caught were football shaped and they fought harder than fish from Devil Creek that are the same long. I had about half of the fish fall off after I hooked them. I don’t know what I did wrong but I’m guessing that the combination of their more aggressive wiggle and my barbless hooks caused them to fall of.[crazy] I fish in about 4’ to 17’ of water. Didn’t catch any in the 4’ hole but the fish in the 8’ hole seemed to bite just as good as the 17’ hole. I measured my ice auger and I would guess the ice was about 14”-16”. The edge was soft and I would recommend bringing a board.
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[wiperhunter2]

We noticed the same thing in most cases, if you didn't get to the pole on the first bite, the fish was gone. I measured the ice by the dam and it was 14 inches. The first couple of steps by the dam were slush by the third or forth step you would be on solid ice. WH2
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