Ice-fishing conditions vary — once you make it onto lake

It was, in the beginning, a perfect winter for ice fishing. Cold temperatures and limited snow cover created ice caps that were solid and thick, even on some waters — like Deer Creek and Jordanelle — that often never freeze solid.

Then came the warm temperatures, a little melting and runoff and suddenly there's a little glitch — getting from shore to solid ice. Some reservoirs have stayed solid. At others, however, open water and thin ice have made the jump from land to ice difficult. Some anglers are taking boards to bridge the gap. Others are taking the leap.

Once on the ice, fishing has been good this winter and is expected to remain good for a long time because of the thickness of the ice. Depths range from one to two feet.

As cooler temperatures and more snow moves into Utah this week, conditions could change.

Looking at individual waters, fishing has been good at Strawberry, especially in the early morning hours. Fish are moving into shallow water, anywhere from 10 to 15 feet deep, then moving into deeper water — 30 to 35 feet — in the afternoon.

Access to ice on Rockport, Pineview and Deer Creek has been a problem in some places.

There are reports of good fishing for perch at Pineview and for crappie around the dam.

Perch fishing at Jordanelle has been good, but the fish have been on the smaller side. According to Byron Gunderson of Fish Tech Outfitters, fishermen are reporting that for every 10 fish hooked, between two and four are keepers. The perch at Pineview are larger, but fishing is a little slower.

Earlier in the year the perch fishing at Rockport was good but has slowed considerably. The best fishing has been for rainbow.

There have been reports of browns in the 17- to 19-inch range being caught near the inlet to Deer Creek by Charleston.

Bear Lake has been giving up a lot of lake trout and white fish this winter.

Flaming Gorge has been good for small lake trout or pups, as they're called, and small rainbow.

One of the secrets to winter fishing is to remember that fish get cold and aren't as anxious to move quickly in very cold water, so often when they do bite it's more of a halfhearted attempt to tease. Sometimes it's impossible to detect a real bite from a gust of wind. The shorter winter fishing rods help, as do little tricks like holding the line on the index finger.