One of the most popular lakes in the winter is Curlew Lake. This lake is northeast of the town of Republic, so it’s pretty remote. Perch fishing is very good here and I have talked to several anglers who drive up and come back the same day. It is over 180 miles from Leavenworth to get to the lake. I am going to try to hit two or three lakes, including Curlew to sample some of the better ice fishing lakes in the region. I made some calls to the resorts on Curlew Lake and found that Fisherman’s Cove Resort is closed. No one answered the phone at Black Beach, but Carley at Tiffany’s said that although the resort is closed they are renting cabins to ice fishermen. When I talked to Carley she reported that there is at least nine inches of ice on Curlew. There were three groups of anglers out on the ice when we spoke, and she said they were getting lots of nice perch. One of the reasons that people will make the trek to Curlew is that the perch average about 10 inches, which is much larger than those taken at the other winter lakes in the region.
Here is a selection of Kokabow blades and some jigs I want to try for kokanee through the ice.