MAJOR cold front and we be makin ice!

[mjhowe]

Montana is in the middle of a 10-14 day major cold front. It is about 8 below right now, and has not got out of the single digits for several days now. I would imagine most of our lakes are capped now, and will all have fishable ice by the weekend.

I have been out on several of the lakes that ice up early and will be going over to Idaho panhandle this weekend for some early bluegill and crappie fishing. I will post up in a couple days and have full report on area lakes.

If anyone wants to come out to NW Montana and fish some perch, check out my webpage for info on our awesome Perch Assault tournaments. Of course, if you just want to come out and fish, I will be happy to show y'all around,

Hopefully, we will be fishing some big lakes for trophy lake trout in a couple weeks. That is going to be my target fish this year, as we will have good solid ice on many of the lakes that hold good mackinaw populations, but dont always freeze up until later in the season

Good Fishing!

[Fish Toys]

I talked to mark at D&G in Glasgow last week and he said people were out on Nelson Reservoir and Fort Peck was still pretty much open. Maybe with the cold weather they are making ice there also.

[Doop]

Thanks for the update fellas!

I've been watching your weather and my goodness!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If this weather doesn't make ice...nothing will.

Lets just hope that ice hangs on well into March!

[CAJ]

As cold as it is in NE Montana, we should have enough ice to last until the 4 th of July pretty soon. It is still -12 here in the afternoon. We don't have snow to amount to anything, so our ice should be doing well. Pheasants are trying to hide out if they can find good cover. If it doesn't warm soon, it will be hard on them.

[mjhowe]

Most of out local lakes have 5-8 inches of good clear ice...but now with snow on them some with up to 15 inches of snow on them

Our bigger lakes, they still had water temps of upwards of 42 degrees, which meant even with the sub zero temps, the water still had to cool a lot before freezing. I think the cold deep freeze was great, but a little too early to really do much good on the big waters. Now we are going to warm up into the mid thirties, with more snow

Once the barometer settles the fishing might get better!

I will keep you informed!

[Sarpy Creek Boy]

Hey MJ,

Thanks for the report, how is the Flathead?

With the rains we had this spring the Tongue river res. has a little more flow than normal and not freezing up as normal, The south end has good ice but hard to find permission to get access. The north end where the camp ground is, is or was under water, I called a buddy today to get me an ice report but he hasn't called back yet.. Must be spending the holidays with family. Oh well untill I hear back I'll just keep goose hunting and trout fishing the Bighorn..

Later

Sarpy creek boy.

P.S. I posted the Ice reports from the Billings Gazette.. Maybe have to try Lake Elmo.