ISU Bengal

Issue date: 1/31/07 Section: Outdoor

Media Credit: Terry Hannah The Twin Lakes before they completely froze over.

Loud creeks and cracking sounds indicated to me that I should not be on this large body of frozen water. However, we had come to Twin Lakes to ice fish, and ice fish we would. Besides, there were several people on the lake ice fishing and they weren't falling through. Still, I was not sure enough about the ice to venture out as far as they did. This is likely the reason why I got skunked my first day ice fishing at Twin Lakes.

A year has past since my first time on Twin Lakes, and I have learned a thing or two now about the ice. It is normal for ice to make cracking sounds as it shifts and settles on the lake. While I now better understand the behavior of the ice in the cold winter, it still doesn't give me much comfort when the ice cracks underneath my feet.

Though I doubt that I will ever get used to the ice cracking, I definitely can get used to the hot fishing action that a place like Twin Lakes can provide while fishing through the ice.

We only went out for a little while last Friday due to the ice-cold, relentless wind on the Lakes, but we were rewarded as my wife pulled in a couple of nice perch. There were only a few other fishermen on the Lakes that day, but one of them told me that the week previous had rewarded he and his fishing buddies with a variety of fish through the ice including perch, trout, a crappie, and a mess of bluegill. Twin Lakes was designated as a "Family Fishing Water" by the Idaho Fish and Game Department, which makes the limit on the water six trout and six bass, without regard to length, and no limit on other species of fish caught. Although we could have kept the perch, we decided to let them go on that day. Our hope was that someone else will have the pleasure of catching them again, or maybe we'll be able to reel them again a bit later in the season.

The ice was over six inches thick when we were out, but the thickness could change rapidly from day to day. As always, use precaution when venturing out onto the ice, especially if you are taking your family out. I heard that recently a little girl fell through a hole in the ice in eastern Idaho, so seriously, be careful.

Twin Lakes is only about an hour away, located between Preston and West Side in Franklin County. To get there, head south on I-15 till the Preston/Downey exit. Then take highway 91 south for about 18 miles to Banida. You will take a right (westward) at the sign for Twin Lakes. I'm sure that we will be headed back out on the ice several times in the next few weeks and hope to see you out there too.

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