The ice has been slow to develop here in SW Montana at 6,000' elevation this year.
So yesterday was my first ice fishing venture this winter.
The ice on our local reservoir is up to 10" thick now.
My partner and I both limited out on Rainbow Trout (we put the Brown Trout back) and I caught one Fresh Water Ling Cod (Burbot) on top of those.
It was pretty fast fishing as we limited (3 Rainbows apiece) in about 3 hours (from 8:00 AM to 11:00 AM) - we also put several smaller Rainbows back along with the less tasty Browns.
I think I may have caught 10 fish total including the putbacks.
The highlight of the day was the size of some of our fish - we had 4 Rainbows we kept that measured between 20 and 21 inches in length!
I am guessing these size fish were 3 1/2 pounds apiece.
We fished in 14' of water.
The hot bait of the day was a combo of maggots and red salmon egg.
It is like a fish war trying to get a feisty 21" Rainbow up and out of a 12" ice hole.
Normally I catch and release all the Trout and Grayling I catch but in the winter I do keep several Trout for table fare - they are especially scrumptious during the January to March time frame.
I hope to get out again next week
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

12" ice hole is frik'n huge.

FAIR_CHASE: The biggest trout I have caught to date from this local spot is 7 pounds 8 ounces!
Many 10 pounders are caught from this lake each year and the larger holes help the landing percentages on the biggest fish.
My friends don't move their ice houses very often at all so they put down short sections of huge PVC pipe (from the floor of the ice house to the top of the ice) and thus we don't have to drill new holes every day.
The large diameter PVC pipes also help the holes from freezing over so often/quickly.
The larger holes also give our monofilament a little more leeway before the line comes into contact with the ice hole lips.
Sometimes I can conduct a whole fish fight with the line never having much contact with the ice at all.
Had one more trip since posting last and got three more nice fish - although these were in the 16 to 18 inch sizes - still nice bright fish though.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Varmint:

Send me your browns. . they do very well in the smoker, or marinated in soy sauce and brown sugar. . I used to fish Clark Canyon reservoir in the fall. Awesome rainbows, and the browns would teach you respect! If you have issues with mono on the holes, try a braid (Powerpro works great for me) with a flourocarbon leader. Here in MN I can catch toothy pike that rub the hole and not have issues.

Damn I miss those football rainbows!

Whenever I look at maps out west there's not much water out there compared to here in MN. How popular is ice fishing out there?

Agree with using braid and a fluorocarbon leader. Only issue with some braids is that they hold water so they can ice up on the reel easier. Probably less of an issue if you are in a heated hut. Those braids that don't get water wet tend to require heavier hooks. Light perch hooks take forever to drop any depth as the line tends to float in the hole a bit. You can weight them up to drop faster, but you loose some sensitivity if you deadstick. The fish feel the weight and spit the hook before you can set it.

SS

Careful spooling up with braid if it's very cold out when you fish. If you don't use a mono backing the spool will shrink when it gets cold and spin inside the coil of line, slipping and not reeling the line up. Use a 20' length of mono on the spool and then splice it to your braid with a Uni knot and fill your spool as usual.

I've made this mistake twice and discovered it when I got to the fishing hole and the ambient temp was around 10. Handle crankee, line no spinee. Really sucks when you've got a 22" rainbow on the other end!