Ice fishing Alaska 2023/24

[Mark Knapp 0]

This year, I put my "Big House" on Birch Lake instead of the regular thing of starting out on Quartz Lake. The fish are bigger in Quartz lake but there is some abuse of the regulations going on in Quartz, and we now have an extra species in Birch to fish for. Besides rainbows, silvers, kings and char, there is a reproducing population of burbot in Birch lake, they are getting really big and, are lots of fun to catch.

The fish house on Birch Lake, and some buddies. From the left is Steve, my cousin Dianna and her boyfriend Erik. This was my second day fishing this season. The first day my Nephew helped me put the fish house out and fish, we caught 29 that day. We caught rainbows, kings, silvers and char but I didn't get a "Birch Lake Grand Slam" because I never get a burbot to the top side of the ice. I did have a really nice one on, and up to the bottom of the ice, but it rolled around under the ice until he was able to get the hook out.

The fish are starting to get pretty nice sized in Birch. We have consistently caught 17 to 20 inch fish in there with an occasional 24 incher. The burbot have been up to 37 inches long.

These have been our most successful jigs. These are white jigs with chenille, a tiny bit of flash and some kind of feather or fur that I tied up. I buy the jigs, paint them, glue in the eyes and tie them up with marabou or fur. I've used about every feather and fur. The bottom one is arctic fox, but we've used polar bear, badger, skunk, hackles, deer hair and everything else I can think of. They all work but marabou has been the best for us because it adds a lot of action to the jig.

I usually fish one pole with one of these jigs but without bait. I jig it almost full time. Then I fish another stick with a jig that has a bobber, home cured bait and a lot less feathers or fur on it. My theory being that, on lakes with a lot of pressure, those fish have seen every store bought lure and bait so we use stuff you can't get in a store and we don't bait everything up. We make baits with salmon eggs, shrimp, and squid and/or octopus.

Some views inside the house.

Noah, Toby and Tony with some fish that we saved for eating.

So far, the fishing has been pretty good but not great in Birch. We've gotten 122 fish in three trips but no burbot yet. We've had our chances on them but just haven't been able to keep any yet. Occasionally we bring home some of the bigger ones for eating, and we always have a good time.

Best of luck to everybody. Have fun, and stay safe.

 

 

[cphubert 0]

Nice Mark, prospects for ice is looking dim this year so far. May be traveling north, the Jetstream is keeping us in a warmer and wetter position in southern New England.

[RickZieger 0]

Nice report and fish.

Rick

[niveker 0]

Looks like good times in the 'big house'. 

[Steeldrifter 0]

Looks like a fun time had by all as usual Mark.

[Heff2 0]

Hi Mark, looks like a great spot.  Do you have any other patterns you tie for the ice?  Hasn’t started freezing here in my part of Ontario but the steelhead season shuts down.  Also,  you keep many burbot to eat? Dems some fine vittles.  

[Mark Knapp 0]

Thanks everyone. Good times were had by all. We're going again tomorrow.

[Mark Knapp 0]

3 hours ago, Heff2 said:

Hi Mark, looks like a great spot.  Do you have any other patterns you tie for the ice?  Hasn’t started freezing here in my part of Ontario but the steelhead season shuts down.  Also,  you keep many burbot to eat? Dems some fine vittles.  

Hi Heff, yep, I've tied a bunch of stuff for under the ice, these outfish every other jig in this type of lake. I certainly tie other jigs for other species of fish/other lakes. We do keep burbot to eat, they are really good.

[Mark Knapp 0]

My ice fishing motto is, "If you're suffering, you are doing it wrong". I can add, if you are bored or cold, you are doing it wrong. We fish down to 35 below and we fish in "T" shirts. My big house has seating for 12, a real good heater, vented to the outdoors and a ceiling fan. Our feet are as warm as our heads. I keep it about 70 degrees in there.

Pictures from a day I fished by myself. I caught 126 fish and had 10 doubles that day.

Going to move the house to a really good spot tomorrow, now that the ice is thick enough.

[Mark Knapp 0]

I moved the house but, like normal the "really good spot" isn't really that good. According to the GPS, I'm dead on. Instead of catching hundreds of fish a day, we're still only catching 30 to 50 a day. Still, having loads of fun taking uninitiated people fishing. Here's some pics from the last trip.

Matthew and Cassie came fishing. We didn't break any records except that Matthew caught four burbot in one day, we can usually only count on one a day. No one else caught a burbot and because of Matthew's inability to catch a large fish, all of his were small. We ended up catching and releasing fish as no one want any to eat.

[MuskyFlyGuy 0]

Mark,

Only 30-50 fish a day. Welcome to a great day in the rest of the world. The late Charlie Brooks said that during his time in Alaska he went from fishing, to wanting to catch a lot of fish, to catching big fish, and finally catching them the way he wanted. 

[Mark Knapp 0]

Thanks Musky

On 2/1/2024 at 8:08 AM, MuskyFlyGuy said:

Mark,

Only 30-50 fish a day. Welcome to a great day in the rest of the world. The late Charlie Brooks said that during his time in Alaska he went from fishing, to wanting to catch a lot of fish, to catching big fish, and finally catching them the way he wanted. 

 

[Mark Knapp 0]

The last day of fishing in the "Big House". Alas, all good things must come to an end, we pulled it today.

The ice is starting to go away, and I have some hunting to do on Kodiak with a friend so we pulled the fish house for the winter.

Before we did that, we had a pretty good day of fishing.

Two of my buds with the fish we kept. A mixed bag of rainbows, kings, char and a burbot. A Birch lake grand slam.

My biggest char of this year, a 23 incher.

We each fished a hole with a baited jig on a bobber and a hole with no bobber and just a jig. On this day the baited jigs with bobbers did the best but on some days, unbaited jigs and jigging does better.

Along with my nice char, Dave caught his first burbot. Everyone had fun and another fishing season in the "Big House" comes to an end.

 

 

 

[Heff2 0]

Looks like a great way to wrap up the season.  

[Sandan 0]

Hats off to a great ice season and many more!