All of the lakes around Mackenzie BC are full of fish, and ice fishing is a very good way to catch them. If you decide to go ice fishing in Mackenzie BC, there are several ways to go about it. If you live in town you already know that you can go ice fishing in the morning and skiing, or sledding in the afternoon or you can go sledding to the lake and go ice fishing.
If you live within a few hours drive of Mackenzie, which means you live in Prince George, Chetwynd, Dawson Creek or Ft St John you can go to Mackenzie for the day and get in some great ice fishing. You will find several places to eat and a gas station so you can fuel up and if you decide to go the picnic route, you will also find a couple of grocery stores to stock up on your favorite foods and snacks.
If you are coming from further away, you may want to plan for a three or four day weekend. You will want to have a day to travel to Mackenzie, and another day to get back home and 1 or 2 days of fishing. I you decide on the long weekend trip there are rooms available at the Mackenzie Inn Hotel.
The best lakes to fish on a short trip to Mackenzie are Morphee Lake and Gantahaz Lake. These two lakes are easily accessible from town and are full of fish. Morphee Lake has a healthy population of Rainbow Trout, Lake Trout and Bull Trout. There have been several Lake Trout caught in Morphee Lake in the 20 pound range. In more than a few cases the fishermen were quite surprised to find that the hole they had cut in the ice was not big enough.
Gantahaz or Leech Lake is located a few miles North of Mackenzie on the road to the rural sub division. If it is not plowed out, you can walk in, or skidoo in for the short distance. This lake has a very healthy population of Brook Trout and catching a 3 pound fish is not unlikely. These fish are like footballs from feeding on the plentiful leech population in the lake.
As with any ice fishing trip you can keep it really simple or you can go high tech and take lots of gear. If you fish mostly on lakes that have other people fishing them, you can get away with a very minimum of gear. All you really need is your parka and snow pants or a skidoo suit and warm boots, your line, some bait, and an axe or bar. Put all of your gear in a 5 gallon pail and you will also have a place to sit while fishing. Since you will be using holes drilled by someone else, you will need the axe or bar to reopen them.
You can of course set yourself up with lots of gear and make your ice fishing trip a very comfortable experience. When you want to take lots of gear you will need a skidoo and possibly also pull a sled to carry everything. If there is not too much snow you may be able to get away with using a quad or in many cases you can also drive your truck or SUV on to the ice. Be careful when taking your truck out on to the ice. Especially if it is late in the season. I have seen more than one truck that was going through the ice or had to be retrieved from the lake in the spring.
Here is a list of the ultimate ice fishing package;
• A skidoo or Quad made by one of the most popular manufacturers like Arctic Cat, Skidoo, Polaris, Yamaha.
• A sled to carry all of your gear.
• An ice auger. There are several on the market that are either motor or hand driven.
• Ice fishing lures, rods, and bait.
• A shelter. You can get several on the market. Everything from a small 1 man emergency shelter to a shelter that will house up to 12 anglers. And on some lakes you will see a bunch of wooden shelters on skids that are actually small cabins with all of the amenities.
• A fish finder with an ice transponder.
• GPS unit to plot your location so you can come back to the same spot later.
• A heater and a propane tank.
• Portable camp chairs.
• If you really want to get carried away you can also take along a satellite dish and a flat screen TV. My attitude is that if I want to watch TV, I will stay on my couch instead of going ice fishing.
• Beer fridge
• Portable Generator.
Archive | February, 2012
