Ice Out Browns

It all started with a grainy picture in a small shop in Duchesne, Utah.  I was driving through the small town after fishing another nearby lake for Tiger trout when I decided to stop by to grab a quick snack.  The picture was of a guy holding a huge brown that looked to be around 15 pounds.  That got my attention!  The word on the street was the fish came from nearby Starvation Reservoir.  Years back I had heard another Starvation story of a monster brown following a lure up to the boat from a reliable source so the lake was already on my radar.

Once I saw that picture I decided to plan a trip out to the lake at ice out.  I would hit Starvation and some other nearby lakes, following the elevation to try to hit the lakes as the ice came off.  I did a bunch of research to try to isolate when Starvation typically iced out so that I could be ready.  My buddy Ryan had expressed some interest in fishing the lake so we went ahead and started to lay plans for the following spring.  Luck was with us as we were able to hit the lake just as the ice was breaking up.

Most of know that ice off is typically a great time to target big browns.  In many lakes the first few days after the ice comes off can be dynamite.  The big fish can be spurred by rising lake temps and movement of forage to go on a binge feed.  When big fish go on a binge feed they will be slightly less wary and more aggressive than normal… a perfect combination for a hookup.

Lakes break up in different fashion, depending on ice thickness, temps and winds.  One must be very cautious when fishing out of a boat during the break up period as winds can shift ice masses quickly.  You can be fishing a clear area one minute and suddenly the ice can shift with the wind and you are trapped.  Many of us brown trout anglers have stories of getting trapped behind shifting ice.

This trip almost became one of those stories.  We had solid intel that the lake was mostly ice free and with the weather forecasted we felt good about our timing.  But when we arrived at the lake in the dark we quickly realized the lake was still frozen near the launch ramp.  We tested the ice with a paddle and saw that that is was just thin enough to punch through with some force.  We were fishing out of a Lund which had an aluminum hul.  Typically aluminum will fare much better than fiberglass when running through thin ice.  Fiberglass hulls can puncture with the jagged edges of broken ice.

We decided to go for it.  We dropped the boat in and began breaking ice with the back-up paddles we carried on the boat.  We broke a trail out of the bay and the further out we got the thinner the ice got.  It was very slow going but we were able to make enough headway to get to an area that we could slowly but surely run the boat up and back to break a trail out to open water.  By the time we were out to open water the sun was already cresting the horizon.  So much for the o-dark thirty bite!

We were the only guys crazy enough to get out on the water so we had the entire reservoir to ourselves.  We had done some research with contour maps and isolated a few areas that looked fishy.  Luck was with us that day and the fish were on a heavy chew.  An AC Stickbait ran on the rigger at 30 feet was deadly on browns to 6 pounds or so.  We ended up with around 30 fish to the boat and every hookup brought a moment of anticipation of a better fish… but that never materialized.  It seemed that most of the fish we caught were the same year class… roughly 4-5 year old fish.  We were not sure why we didn’t catch many fish smaller or larger than that year class but I am sure there were determining factors.  Things such as stocking density, fingerling survival, forage base and other factors were at play.

As the day began to wane we realized that the wind had shifted and the ice flows were beginning to shift.  At one point we were basically trapped except for a thin trail of clear water that we had to run and gun to get back to open water.  We managed to fish until dark and broke thin ice to get back to the ramp.  It was a day to remember!  If you manage to hit your favorite big brown lake during that magical ice out period, don’t be surprised if you hook the biggest trout of your life!

Mark Knoch