First Ice at Island Lake
Starting the ice fishing season at Island Lake in Orangeville is something of a tradition for us. Most years it’s the place that freezes up first and it gives me the confidence I need to get back out on the hardwater. I spent the holidays checking the CVC website and Facebook page for updates and on Friday finally saw the notice that ice fishing was opening. Woohoo!
It’s been a long time since I’ve been this excited to hit the ice, and when we drove into the parking lot at Island Lake today, I think I was actually smiling!
The park stated there was 7 inches of ice with snow on top, and that was pretty consistent as we started drilling holes. One of my favourite things about starting the ice season here is that the ice has been monitored by park staff, and although no ice is SAFE, this ice is as safe as it’s going to get.
The east end of the lake is off limits this year and the water level is down. The rental huts were slowly being moved over to the boat launch as we fished, but today was just a sea of pop-up and flip-over huts, with other anglers out there without a hut and fishing through the snow.
We’re lucky to have both a fish finder and an underwater camera for ice fishing, and made use of both to find our spot. With each hole we drilled I would drop the camera down to see what the area looked like, and Darrell would drop the fish finder in to check the depth. We ended up in 6-feet of water, in a spot with good standing vegetation. It looked like an ideal spot for fish to cruise through, and was much better than the shallower, more bare spots we found before that.
It wasn’t long after setting up that we saw some fins at the top of the camera screen. When the fish swam into view we realized it was a bass (very much not in season), and then it was quickly followed by a sunfish. Honestly, that probably would have made my day if that’s all that happened. I just like watching fish.
Fortunately, that wasn’t all the excitement for the day. While I was otherwise distracted looking something up on my phone, I felt weight on my line and pulled up, only to reel in a nice little crappie! THAT was the moment my day was made. I love catching crappie and it had been months since I’d last seen one.
More fish appeared on the camera throughout our time out there. A school of sunfish, some perch, and a bass that couldn’t help taking my lure before I got it away. Thankfully it came off at the hole so I didn’t have to bring it in for a release. Darrell ended up losing a fish just below that ice.
Our favourite little green spoon with the small silver blade was the lure of choice today. It had far more interest than the small jigs and other spoons that we tried.
The bite wasn’t fast or plentiful, but it was such a fantastic day to be out. With snow steadily falling and a temperature around -6C, it was just a nice day on the water. The wind picked up in the afternoon and our old Clam Yukon hut is not as windproof as she once was, so we called it a day and headed in.
Thanks to Island Lake for another excellent trip. I can’t wait to head out again! None of the lakes closer to home had good ice the last time we checked. Too much snow. We’ll see where we end up next.
If you’ve read this post, thank you! I know I say it every year, but I really am going to try to get back into the swing of things here. Writing is so important to my mental health and I love being able to share our adventures here, through the written word and in longer format than on social media. Leave a comment if there are any topics you want to read about! Thanks for checking in.
-Rebecca
argosgirl
Latest posts by argosgirl (see all)
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