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Made to Henrys at 5. Started catching fish right off in the dark. Twice i had 3 jawjackers all hooked up at the same time. I landed 38 by noon, the two of us caught 55 total. Not one person fishing near us. We had a horrible ice pressure plate where as the sun warmed the iceice that plate began to move on to the other one throwing water into the air...time to get off. Everything worked. I used a dozen crawlers and almost a whole thing of mealys. The little jaw jacker jigs worked best, then paddle bugs. Here are a few pictures, sorry for the size. I am also putting up two pictures you may have already seen of two monsters caught right after Halloween.
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Looks like an absolutely awesome trip... thanks for sharing!!!
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Glad you had a good day. You are fishing in one of my favorite spots, but there is always a scetchy ice ridge right there. I went through near there a couple years ago pushing my luck.
Windriver
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Great pictures. Great fun. Got to get up there after I cut up my elk.
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Great post! I was at Staley Springs Saturday and there were more people than I have ever seen. We found the bite has slowed down a little. Or maybe it was just all the noise of the crowds that had the Fish scared or something. But we still caught fish. Just not near as fast as I did the first two times I was there. I'm going back probably on Tuesday to see if less people will get them fish more active.
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My dad had never been to staley so i took him over around noon to show him, i would guess 300 people stretched out out from the boat dock all the way to the north of staleys. Your right, that was a lot of people!
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Do you use half a night crawler or just a piece? I am still tipping my paddle bug with small chunk of sucker. But Saturday I caught more on a three inch white tube jig with a whole red sided shiner. Huge bait. I found years ago it worked great on cutthroat at Strawberry. I have taken nitecrawlers with every time but never used them. And in all my years of ice fishing, I have never done well with meallies. So I don't even buy them any more. Thanks again for your great post.
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On the jawjacker thats all you can use is a tiny piece of crawlet, but the paddlebugs or the bigger jibs i will use a third. My dad was tipping shrimp and doing well.
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My white tube jig i use is a 4 inch and they were still inhaling it yesterday
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A third od crawler on the paddle bugs
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Great post! Makes me feel like I need to get up there this week before I get busy again. Never ice fished Henry’s. Hope I do half as well as you did.
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How thick was the ice up there? I want to come up for the weekend but I’m not finding much info on ice thickness and it’s about a 6 hour drive for me to come unknowing. This lake has been on my bucket list for a few years now and it will be my first time up there. Any tips or info would be much appreciated.
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Where i was at it was 5 to 6 inches.
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Awesome thanks for the info. I may head up Thursday night. Know any good places to stay up there?
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I stay at Jareds wild rose. Walk right out and fish there
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Do you pull the heads off the meal worms? We caught 90 fish at Staleys on Thursday. About half on small jigs and the other half on Paddle bugs. We tipped the paddle bugs with mealworms. We pull the head off and insert the hook about half way down the worm to where the hook point pokes out where the head would be.
The fish don't care about the look they care about the sent. I think of it like a little sent packet.
Windriver
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Yes, I pinched the heads off. I tried them many times, and now I just don't have any confidence in them so I don't use them. I have been doing well with sucker meat. So well I can only get 1 to 3 poles out. The bite will be slowing down soon an I will use more minnows. But thanks windriver for good tip. I'm going up in the morning.
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Heading up in the morning. Going to try State Park. Good luck to you all.
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Hit Staley Springs yesterday. I don't know if it was the full moon or if the early bite is just over, but we just caught 7 fish between two of us. Way slow.
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Thanks Randy for the fresh report, makes it easier to not come if it's slowing down... You guys sure had a fun start up there this year... I love first ice... Later Jeff
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