Ice fog fishing on a N. central WA lake 10/30/2025

I prefer fishing with my pontoon too. But with the electric motor I have it will go super slow enough to troll/strip flies. Hands free and feet outta the water! I once put it on top of my Outback…..almost had to leave it at the lake! At only 60+ pounds, still a royal pain to lift it onto the roof rack….and that was around 18 years ago! It fits perfectly in my Dakota. I made some sawhorses that allows another pram under mine for transport.
 
Bambooflyguy said:
I prefer fishing with my pontoon too. But with the electric motor I have it will go super slow enough to troll/strip flies. Hands free and feet outta the water! I once put it on top of my Outback…..almost had to leave it at the lake! At only 60+ pounds, still a royal pain to lift it onto the roof rack….and that was around 18 years ago! It fits perfectly in my Dakota. I made some sawhorses that allows another pram under mine for transport.
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I used to put my pontoon boat on the roof rack of my Outback by myself, but at my age, it is now a 2-person job, so I can imagine that lifting a pram onto the roof rack by yourself would be a pain. That's nice that your pram fits in your Dakota. I could trailer a pram, but then I would have to figure out where to store the trailer and the pram. The pontoon boats are nice in that they can be deflated and disassembled to store more compactly. I guess there is the Porta-Boat, which folds up so it can be stored more compactly.
 
I've come full circle and am now back to using a float tube for lake fishing, for all the same reasons. I upgraded from a float tube to a really nice Outcast Pac800 pontoon, which I loved, but couldn't get used to propelling it with fins and using the oars occupied my hands such that I missed a lot of fish. So then I built a nice pram, which was a fun project but at nearly around 90lbs is a beast to wrestle in and out of the truck. At some point I'll get a nice trailer built for it, but for now I just grab the float tube. I love being able to propel with flippers while reeling in for the fish that run right at me.
 
Merle said:
I've come full circle and am now back to using a float tube for lake fishing, for all the same reasons. I upgraded from a float tube to a really nice Outcast Pac800 pontoon, which I loved, but couldn't get used to propelling it with fins and using the oars occupied my hands such that I missed a lot of fish. So then I built a nice pram, which was a fun project but at nearly around 90lbs is a beast to wrestle in and out of the truck. At some point I'll get a nice trailer built for it, but for now I just grab the float tube. I love being able to propel with flippers while reeling in for the fish that run right at me.
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About this time, a couple years ago, I was fishing the Giant Cataract Lake from my pram, @Starman77 was slowly kicking around the launch bay in his pontoon boat and able to quietly move along the reeds and fish with both hands free for the rod and line (and net!). My pram has bronze oarlocks, they're noisy and it's awkward to try to slowly and quietly move and have the rod at the ready. As is the norm, Rex outfished me! ;-) Like you, Andy, I've come to fish from my float tube a bit more often even on lakes where I can launch the pram. I had a decent outing on the GCL several weeks ago fishing from my float tube while slowly kicking along the reeds.
 
Starman77 said:
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Tried a new lake for me up in north central Washington this past Thursday. If you've been there, you'll probably recognize the lake from my photo. That fog is ice fog, which coats everything with ice. It was very cold out there, especially with a brisk east wind! The water temperature has cooled down to a chilly 44 to 45 degrees F and the water had about 4 to 5 feet of visibility. Only saw one other fisherman out there, but he didn't stay long. Although I didn't see a single fish rise in 6 hours of fishing, the fish turned out to be fairly cooperative once I figured out where they were hanging out.

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About a third of the fish were very silvery with few spots, like this one, reminding me of the Pennask strain up in BC:

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The other rainbows had more normal spotting like this one:

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The fish were very good fighters and jumpers. Had one fish that jumped 5 times. About 80% looked like they had never been caught before. Even though I didn't catch any huge fish that this lake is reputed to have, these medium-sized fish were a lot of fun to catch. No fish were retained, so I don't know what the fish were eating. I'm guessing they are eating scuds or glassworms to be as chunky as most of them were, although I didn't see any scuds in the shallows. For that matter, I didn't see any insects at all.

As usual, I was casting and stripping, mostly a small, silver beadhead, black Simi Seal leech pattern, although I don't think the fish were very selective on this outing. I found most of the fish in water depths of about 3 to 12 feet. The takes were solid and definite.

If you can tolerate the cold temperatures, there is still some good fishing to be had before winter sets in.

Rex
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One time in Lenice I caught one of those Pennask-looking rainbows, several years ago.
Jay
 
Starman77 said:
Interesting... Any photos of the fish?

By the way, love your two Sandhill Crane photos on your SmugMug site!
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Thanks. Here is a shot, 2013 I think.

I believe I posted this on the other site back in the day, and someone referred me to BC strains

JayIMG_1713.jpeg
 
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