This week, I had a hunch that a certain spot "on" Deer Creek was frozen and the only way to check was to take a walk with some gear.
When I arrived at the spot, I saw about 90% ice covering the water, 80% of which was safe to walk on. Don't get too excited, it's not on the main lake and we've still got quite awhile before that caps.
So I drilled some holes to find several different levels of thickness. First hole had 1 inch of clear ice. Drilled right next to shore, I didn't trust that at all, even though it was supporting me. Second hole was 3 inches. Perfect. The next two holes were the same.
The deepest water I got over was about 25 feet and I spent a few hours trying my luck all over the area. I even found ice up to almost 5 inches. Sadly though, there was NOTHING going on. For all that time, I got only one bite, which I missed since I was standing a couple of feet away when it hit. Bummer.
Oh well, I had a goal to fish that spot on DC through the ice and I did. Accepting my failure, I decided to try the open water, even though my afternoon luck at DC has always been pretty bad. If worse came to worse, I could try to squeeze out some river fishing.
The first places I stopped to cast were fishless deserts until I finally settled into a good sized bay, where I started hooking into some nubby rainbows.
It was nice to chase off the skunk. Most of them tricked me into thinking they were bigger by the way they fought, so that was fun. 6 of those came to play until I finally stuck a good one.
Right away, I knew I had a bigger fish on and I was delighted to see some fins on this 19 inch rainbow weighing 2lbs, 4oz.
Right after that, I lost my Blue Fox and settled for my Heddon Sonar (gold), which I hoped would work out.
Second cast and BOOM! There was something nice on the line and it wasn't happy! Fighting it in was a riot, complete with aerials, drag peeling runs, and nervous moments near shore before taking off again.
Even though it was only an inch longer than the last one, it was a lot stronger and fought at least three times harder. It was a bit of a surprise that it was only 20 inches, but certainly not disappointing.
That was great and left me really smiling.
So yes, there's a tiny area "at" Deer Creek with fishable ice, but it takes some work to get there and it doesn't seem to have much going on. It's a little over a mile up the lake from the dam, along the parkway trail.
Happy Fishing, Humans.
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