Gonna be an extended spring breakup

Was out at Sport Lake in Soldotna doing a bit of ice fishing for chinook and rainbows. No joy even though ADFG dumped 2000 12" chinook in the lake on Feb 24th for the elementary school kids Ice Fishing Day event.

Decided to measure the ice. Damn its going to be along time before open water on many lakes. Ice was 26 1/2 inches from waterline to bottom side and another 2-3 inches above the water level. Looks like my only early freshwater option will be the outlet of Kenai Lake for lakers, dollies and rainbows.

Hopefully Whisky Gulch will provide some fair weather opportunities to nail some flatfish in late March or early April. The bad news is the entire Cook Inlet shoreline from Bluff Point to Anchorage is closed to king salmon fishing from the beach to a mile out due to poor expected returns and heavy restrictions on every river system this season.