We traveled up to Firehole Canyon yesterday and found hardeck, 3-4 inches, all the way down to Lost Dog. The roads were pretty good, with some areas of snowpack from last weekend's storm.
We fished next to a couple of anglers out of Rock Springs, just off the Firehole boat launch. They had already thrown some burbot on the ice when we showed up and had the technique down. We fished from 4:00-8:30pm, and caught 9 burbot. They left around 6:30pm after catching 11 burbot, which they generously offered to us. We fished pretty shallow, from 17-24ft, off the first rocky point leaving the marina. Fish were caught using 1/4-3/8oz tube and curly tailed jigs in white and glow-n-the-dark tipped with sucker meat. We frequently recharged the glow jigs with an LED light and changed out sucker meat to keep the bait fresh. We also used scents including fish oil and Smelly Jelly (anchovy and shrimp) to entice fish.
The burbot appeared to move through, offering strikes every 20-30 minutes. Light jigging and dead-sticking were effective. Some fish actually came in suspended, about 4ft off the bottom and dropped down to hit the bait. Most of the bites were extremely aggressive, much more than I noticed last year. They've also put on some length and ranged from about 15-28 inches.
We filleted the fish this morning and opened up their stomachs. These things are "pigs", with as many as a dozen crayfish in some, and several smallmouth bass up to about 5 inches in length. We also saw one small burbot in a stomach.
Hit the ice, put some burbot on the deck, and have fun removing these predators from the lake! Hope it helps, Ryno
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