Couldn’t talk the wife and kids into driving past Leader lake to go over the pass to Patterson lake in the Methow for some Kokanee ice fishing action. (Shout out to upland sand piper on his video and report). So we hit up leader lake again for some perch. It was beautiful the sun was shining and no wind. Started out at the same spot as last week about 40 yards out in front of the handicap fishing pier. Punched a few fresh holes and started fishing. There is a layer of slush on top of the ice on the north side of the lake. On the other side in the shade we found the snow hadn’t melted. My wife got a nice fish right away. Fishing was steady and really picked up toward the end. Our trip was cut short due to our eight year old belly flopping with his coat open in the slush. I did move around a bit this time finding fish consistently in the 12-20 fow range. Lots of eggs in the females they must be readying to spawn. Small brass jigging spoons with a perch eyeball seemed to work best. I am super impressed with my diy ice auger to drill set up I’m using. It’s pretty slick. I drilled about 10 holes this time and never ran out of juice on the first battery. Ice was 5-6with 2” of crusty slush on top of places. Wear good boots, and drive a 4x4 or at least a Subaru. They don’t plow the way in. Probably 4 parties of ice anglers.

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