Last day of kayak fishing before the lake freezes

This is an awkward time of year for recreation.  I already filled my deer tag, and I don’t need any more meat.  There isn’t enough snow for backcountry skiing, the rivers are full of floating ice, and there isn’t enough ice on the lakes yet for ice fishing.  But the Lindbergh Lake webcam showed that ice hadn’t formed yet on that lake, so I decided to go kayak fishing one more time. 

As I drove to the lake Saturday evening, the Blackfoot River was full of floating ice, and shelves of ice were forming on the sides of the river.





A thin sheet of ice covered about a third of Salmon Lake.



Ice was just starting to form on Seeley Lake.



As I drove to Lindbergh Lake Sunday morning, the temperature was 9-15 degrees, but as shown on the webcam, the lake was free of ice.



The water temperature was 37-38 degrees, but the air was mostly calm, so I didn’t get splashed with water. I had the lake to myself.





As the day progressed, the temperature rose to the mid-30’s.





Alpenglow on the Swan Front on the drive home.



Now it's time to store my kayak fishing equipment for the winter and get out my ice fishing equipment.

Beautiful photos, man... I was going to ask how you did, but it looked like you did all right.

Fred "True" Trujillo

Great photos. Thanks!

Nice!! No issues with cold temps? Any observations?


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Looks like a gorgeous place!

Beautiful pictures! A good reminder that sometimes a good day fishing has little to do with catching fish. Really pretty - thanks for taking the time to post.

Nice!! No issues with cold temps? Any observations?

The cold air wasn't a problem.  I was quite comfortable.  I'm used to being out all day in much colder weather while ice fishing, hunting, backcountry skiing, and snowmobiling.  I wore a couple of layers of sweaters and fleece under my dry suit, and so I would have some flexibility if the weather got colder or warmer, I had additional clothing over my dry suit. An easy way to prepare for colder or windier weather when kayaking is by bringing a thick insulated hat and/or a balaclava.  If the wind comes up or the weather gets colder, you can easily pull one or both of them out of a hatch or a drybag.  That's way easier than adding or taking off layers of clothing when you're out on the water.  I have an oversized pair of wet suit booties so I can get a couple pairs of socks under the dry socks on my dry suit.  If your dry suit has ankle gaskets rather than dry socks, buy a pair of Seal Skins waterproof socks and wear them under the ankle gaskets, with a pair or so of regular socks underneath them.  It's almost as good as having a dry suit with dry socks.

I had some minor problems with iced up line guides and frozen braided line, but other than that icing wasn't a problem, for the following reasons:

1. The water temperature was 37-38 degrees, which is why the lake hasn't frozen up yet, and as predicted the air temperature was a few degrees above freezing for most of the day.  If there had been chunks of ice floating around in the water, and the air temperature had been below freezing all day, icing would have been a bigger problem.

2.  The air was pretty calm, so I didn't have waves splashing me or breaking over me.  When whitewater kayaking in cold weather, you repeatedly get soaked with water as you go through breaking waves and holes.  If the air temperature is below freezing, this water can quickly freeze into sheets of ice and icicles. 

3. I used my Hobie Revolution rather than a paddle kayak, which kept me drier.  When paddling a kayak, you get your hands wet, and water drips onto your legs.  You can stay a lot dryer in a pedal kayak.