12ft icebreaker

[billycap]

We had a couple cold snaps early on followed by a massive snowfall then 3 days of pouring rain and above 0 daytime temps for about a week so far. While this really sucks if your into sledding its great for winter expeditions. Snow shoes are not needed as the snow is so hard packed at lower altitudes that its as if someone has filled the forest floor with white concrete. So a couple of days ago i decided to hit the lake shore to check ice conditions and do a little rockhounding. The ice was about half inch and crystal clear so it was looking like ice fishing might be a go in a week or two. All the small pothole lakes have a solid foot of ice already. The sun comes up in this area around 930am and goes behind the mountain by noon. As im hammering away at some quartz i hear this sound. It sounded like cheezy laser beam sound effects from the 80s Or high tension cables about to break. Then a dull roar started and i noticed the whole lake start to move. Once it got moving it cleared the whole lake in about half hour. It was so loud it hurt my head. Although my ice fishing dreams were crushed i did spend another hour smashing my way threw a couple hundred giant panes of mother natures home made glass :)

http://vid864.photobucket.com/albums/ab209/billycap4u/The%20Lake/20141214_122031.mp4

Well today i get the bright idea that maybe i might be able to take the car topper out. Some shady driving to get close enough to the water to launch was required but i managed. There was some slush when i first got out but for the most part it was ice free. I hooked into a small bully near an inlet but other than that i had not even a bite while trolling. The views were great so i decided to go a little further than i should have. At about 1pm the sun was totally hiding behind canoe mtn and i could see these large snow flake looking ice patterns starting to form. Within an hour a skiff of ice covered almost the whole lake. It was forming so fast it was turning white in some spots and starting to bog out the 6 horse. The ice was in hindsight only being kept back by the low winter sun. Got back to the truck around 3pm and i had a full body chill going. Nothing like dragging a tinner, motor and trimmings up a 3 stage embankment to warm you up. Had a great time and i can honestly say ive never fished in a boat around xmas before.
Good luck out there!

http://vid864.photobucket.com/albums/ab209/billycap4u/The%20Lake/20141222_125133.mp4


http://i864.photobucket.com/albums/ab209/billycap4u/The%20Lake/20141222_114506_3_bestshot.jpg (http://s864.photobucket.com/user/billycap4u/media/The%20Lake/20141222_114506_3_bestshot.jpg.html)

http://i864.photobucket.com/albums/ab209/billycap4u/The%20Lake/20141222_121100_8_bestshot.jpg (http://s864.photobucket.com/user/billycap4u/media/The%20Lake/20141222_121100_8_bestshot.jpg.html)

http://i864.photobucket.com/albums/ab209/billycap4u/The%20Lake/20141222_115949_6_bestshot.jpg (http://s864.photobucket.com/user/billycap4u/media/The%20Lake/20141222_115949_6_bestshot.jpg.html)

http://i864.photobucket.com/albums/ab209/billycap4u/The%20Lake/20141222_115849_6_bestshot.jpg (http://s864.photobucket.com/user/billycap4u/media/The%20Lake/20141222_115849_6_bestshot.jpg.html)

[Erik]

Thanks for the share. I have, for some time now, had a deep desire to fish Kinbasket. Your pictures are vicarious living for me at this time. One day, though!! :)

[trainerdave]

Super interesting. I would have thought there would be way more snow there by now. I wonder where all that ice ended up when it just slid away...Glad you made it off the lake and had a story to share...

[Wild&Free]

Very cool. my open water christmas fishing is mostly waist deep in the river with air temps near -25. Been a while since I did that though.

[billycap]

Dave, all the ice that slid away just got crushed and reabsorbed. Usually at this time of year the area is 6-12 inches of ice laying in the dirt. In all the years of coming down here ive never seen so much water held back.
If they dont drain it down soon ill actually have to go buy most of my lures for spring river float season. This area usually supplies me half the 50 or so spoons i loose a year due to sunken river snagage.

Here is a couple pics from early spring in that same area:


http://i864.photobucket.com/albums/ab209/billycap4u/The%20Lake/20140501_154414_7_bestshot1.jpg (http://s864.photobucket.com/user/billycap4u/media/The%20Lake/20140501_154414_7_bestshot1.jpg.html)

http://i864.photobucket.com/albums/ab209/billycap4u/The%20Lake/20140501_154306_2_bestshot1.jpg (http://s864.photobucket.com/user/billycap4u/media/The%20Lake/20140501_154306_2_bestshot1.jpg.html)

http://i864.photobucket.com/albums/ab209/billycap4u/The%20Lake/20140502_154516_3_bestshot.jpg (http://s864.photobucket.com/user/billycap4u/media/The%20Lake/20140502_154516_3_bestshot.jpg.html)