More Alaska pictures - Ice Fishing Spring 2006

[hoofinitnorth]

Here are several pictures of my last (and I think my first??) ice fishing excursion with my husband and his late father. We sure had nice weather and the fish on the dinner plate made me want to do it again!

This was off Swanson River Road near Sterling, Alaska (to give you a frame of reference, that's close to the famous Kenai River on Southcentral Alaska's Kenai Peninsula).











The last picture is what we found in their stomachs (what they were eating).

[elkhound]

great pic's thanks for sharing.i lived at petersbug a long time ago.

[Mountaineer]

Very nice! What are the red/yellow ones? So beautiful.

[moonwolf]

looks like you had an enjoyable outing. Nice fish!
snails hmmm. interesting. Is that a common food they eat out of the waters there?

Those rods are long! We fish for lake trout here on the deep clear lakes inland. Some like using 4 ft. rods, but normally 3 ft. is what they use to haul up those fish from generally about 50 to 100 ft. of water column.

I'm guessing some of those fish are dolly vardens? am I right?

my one trip long time ago to the Kenai Penninsula, we stopped to fish the Anchor river. I caught a nice 7 lb. very shiny steelhead, but it wasn't ice fishing.

[hoofinitnorth]

Let's see, some of the fish are arctic char (with the big red spots, similar to dolly varden (very minor difference in appearance)), a couple of rainbow trout, and I think there might have been a lake trout or two in there. Yummy!

Yep, snails are what they eat in the lakes around here. That and sticklebacks or other small fish such as the one pictured with the snails.

The rods we're using in the pictures are just plain salmon rods with spinners I think. My father-in-law never thought it useful to own more than three types of rods (but he had many of them!) - fly-fishing, halibut fishing, and everything else.

[LisaInN.Idaho]

Very cool pictures Heather. How cold was it?

[hoofinitnorth]

Anchor River is south of this area but very close by. Nice place to fish too.

Lisa - that day it was probably about 40F! We had a real nice time - as you can see the hats came off and the sunglasses went on! Weird to think of being on a frozen lake when the temps. are above freezing!

[MWG]

Wow, that is great. I just can't imagine being somewhere that you can walk on a lake/river...

[hoofinitnorth]

I posted some other Alaska shots in the Equine and Alternative Energy forums.

[heather]

beautiful photos! THANKS for sharing!!!!

[Cabin Fever]

I've never seen anyone icefish with fishing poles! We use jigging sticks and tip-ups and do have rod/reel combos amde for icefishing, but the rods are only about 2ft long.

[Charleen]

Originally Posted by Cabin Fever

I've never seen anyone icefish with fishing poles!

That photo made me look twice to see what they were doing! I'd never seen that either.

Thanks for sharing, looks like you had a great feast afterward!

Great pics!

A friend of mine just got spooled at Lake Louisewhile fishing for lakers. He had a med weight rod and 20 pound test. It took all 200 yards of line and kept going. I can hardly wait until spring!!!!

[kasilofhome]

The soldonta Trustworth Ice Fishing Derby is on ----Entry FREE. You know you want to come.

Thanks for all the great pics. Alaska is on my to do list. but I am afraid even now I am sick of living in the north I would want to stay if I went up there

[brownthumb]

I am soooooo jealous.

[hoofinitnorth]

kasilofhome that is hilarious - don't tempt me! Heh, if I could go icefishing right now I'd probably be working. *sigh*

So great to see so many people from Alaska here! Yippee!

brownthumb Residents of 1+ years also get paid annually (google Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend) to live here and the Fed Jobs all pay a 24% COLA (but that is changing, slowly going down).

[whistler]

How thick was the ice? I see you were using hand auger.

Whistler

[hoofinitnorth]

Cabin Fever Great pictures!

whistler all we ever use is a hand auger - can't afford no fancy motorized auger (and who wants to carry it?)

I think the ice was about 3.5-4 feet thick that day.

[whistler]

Originally Posted by hoofinitnorth

Cabin Fever Great pictures!

whistler all we ever use is a hand auger - can't afford no fancy motorized auger (and who wants to carry it?)

I think the ice was about 3.5-4 feet thick that day.

Wow. That's a lot of ice to go through. Some days it is not unusual for 2 guys to drill 20-40 holes before finding the fish here. I can't imagine doing that with a hand auger.

But it looks like you guys don't have to move around much to find the fish.

Cool pics. Keep 'em coming.


Whistler