Rockport on Ice!

This morning we went to Rockport Reservoir to see how the ice was. The ice is a solid 3 inches with the cap happening in the last couple days we thought it would be great fishing. We went down toward the dam and found a nice rock outcropping coming down the bank and started cutting holes. We cut 6 holes the first one was in 15 feet of water and the outer one only about 20 feet further out from the back wen to 50 feet. Cutting holes we found the inner depth at 5 feet with 6 feet of distance away from that hole it dropped to 12 feet and then out to 15 ft and then it dropped fast to 30 ft. Thinking we had a great transition point we started fishing. Giving the 15 and 30 ft holes first shot and the 12 ft. holes at the same time. Parker had a fish in the 12 ft hole in about 15 minutes and we were thinking sweet we found a good spot. Another 20 minutes and he catches another fish neither really big but still getting fish quickly was good. We set the tent over the 12 ft holes and cut a couple more holes. We stayed there for a couple hours and Parker pulled in two very nice mature Rainbow trouts. He also caught a couple more dinks. I realized I was there for support and to take pictures for him. I was good with that, we were having fun and watched the Memphis vs. Auburn game while waiting to get more fish. The day was nice, no wind but very little sun and it was a chilly 18 degrees. I kept trying the other holes to see if I could muster up anything. After not getting anything for about 30 minutes and close to noon we closed shop and headed to town for a burger at Hi-Mountain Drug in Kamas. A fun morning and a couple very nice Rainbow for the smoker, well maybe a couple will make their way to the grill on some Wasatch Mountain Planks!

Ice Fishing ECC

Parker did another solo on Christmas Eve and went into East Chicken Creek Bay on Strawberry Reservoir. He said the hike down to the lake wasn’t bad. The trail packed out by the other fishers that were in the bay. He got a slow start on the ice, due to the fact he went searching for ice. He started out at Rockport but it was still ice free and then came back to Jordanelle again still ice free or unsafe ice. He then went up Daniels Canyon to Strawberry and still looking for ice he went to the marina and it was sill open water. What day did I say he was out? That’s right Christmas Eve and still mostly open water on the reservoirs. He tried to get into Mud Creek but it was full of fishers so he made his way around and seen some ice in ECC and went out. He only got to fish for about an hour before he had to leave but in that time he managed a few very nice rainbow trout. ECC is good for rainbow trout on Strawberry don’t really know why but you can always catch a few of them there. Here are some pics he took. Hopefully I will be over this cold and get out with him soon!

 

Cleveland Reservoir Ice Fishing

This weekend Parker did a solo to a lake he has never been to. He slayed them. He fished for a little over two hours and caught over 20 fish. Mostly Rainbow trout and all good sized. He had a couple try to take a pole into the hole but he was quick on the catch and saved them. A bluebird day on the ice and the Jiffy Pro 4 is still working great. the ice was 7 inches thick and very safe. He did report that it was a little bit of a hike to get the lake. Not a bad outing Parker!!

On The Ice at Huntington

Friday we headed to Huntington Reservoir to cut holes and fish for Tiger trout. We got on the road at the prescribed time and made it to the lake as the sun was coming up. When we pulled into the lake and it was 9 degrees air temp and a slight breeze. Today we took the tent with us. As we ventured out onto the ice a fisher called out to us that the ice was about 3-4 inches thick and safe. He continued to chat with us as we made our way to our camp site. Friendly fellow with lots of good information about the fishing. He and his son had been there about a hour and were ready to leave after they had limited with good sized Tiger trout. They were in 17-19 feet of water and using a local plastic bait tipped with worms. We set up camp and got our lines in the water with jigs, ice flies and wax worms and meal worms. The ice where we cut was 2-3 inches thick but solid, we felt very comfortable. The Jiffy Pro 4 ran like a charm and cut five holes fast. We set up our flasher and could see we were in 16 feet of water. Fish were all over the column of water so we deployed bait and lures in each segment.

The first hits came at the bottom on ice flies and wax worms. The white paddle bug then caught fire and Parker landed a bunch of the Tiger trout. Most of which we released after a quick a picture or sometimes before we could get a picture it flipped itself back into the water. I finally got the board with a nice 24 inch football sized Tiger trout. Tiger trout are fun to catch anytime of the year but through the ice they are great.

They fight hard and pull drag with each dive and roll trying throw your hook. Some did finally throw the hook just as they breached the hole and we watched them swim back to the depths. Some of those quick releases were hard to watch because they were big brutes but we figured they are big because they know how to get off. We fished until noon and ended the day with 8 beautiful Tiger trout for our smoker. The tent saved us, when we broke camp it was snowing and blowing hard. Also with the tent up we could see about 8 feet down and see some of the fish hit and watch their strikes, good lesson to see how they hit your bait. We caught a number of large fish today and without a strike indicator we would have missed the subtle strikes they were giving us. Parker was the leader of today's total with well over 20 fish decked and a number of them quick releasing at the hole.

I didn't catch quite as many but my larger Tiger was the biggest of the day and that made me smile. We had a great day, but still be cautious when getting on the ice it is still early season and the ice is still changing daily. It is also crystal clear and spikes are recommended when walking around.

Scofield Ice Fishing 11/25/15

After 8 weeks of rehab on my thumb it was time to get out on the water, literally. Parker and I went to Scofield Reservoir and walked on water. We did the same thing last year on the same day and caught a ton so we thought we would try it again this year. I bought a new Jiffy Pro 4 propane auger and it needed to be tested.

We got on the water a little later than expected, but when we got there it was a Bluebird day, clear skies and little wind. The wind didn't stay calm for long. We got on the ice walking carefully out about 20 feet and cutting a hole to see how thick the ice was, it turned out to be about 4 inches which was plenty for us to feel comfortable. The ice talked to us all day, and cracked under under our feet all day as well. We cut 4 holes out about 100 feet from shore in 10 feet of water and got our lines in quickly.  

The first fish was on the deck in a few minutes, an ugly chub, but still a fish we through on the ice and got back to fishing. We were using ice flies and paddle bugs for our jigs and meal worms. Parker caught the next fish which was a little Cutthroat trout with good colors. The fishing was fast and furious like last year but it kept us entertained. 

Parker decided to cut up the chub that I caught earlier and started using it for bait. He caught a fish in 2 minutes, I put some on my line and caught a fish. We filleted the chub and loaded our hooks. I caught a couple more chubs and we quickly filleted them and kept a good amount of meat ready for our hooks. We had multiple double ups on the day, all small Cutthroat trout. I caught a Cutthroat trout and the gill was torn off, we thought wow we wouldn't mind catching the fish that did that damage. 

We started noticing a number of them had trauma of some sort on their bodies and figured out it was gill netting marks. The DWR had been up earlier in the month and did some gill netting to check on the numbers and health of the fish. They actually caught a few very large fish when they did the study, we didn't find any of them. We stayed on the ice until the wind was howling and decided it was time to go. We put in 4 hours and caught well over 30 fish for the day and removed another bunch of chubs from the lake. We were the only fishers on the lake all day that we could see. It was great to be on the ice and fishing again after 8 weeks off, Parker still had to tie my lures on and for that I was grateful.

Where have we been?!

Howdy folks! Sorry we have been off grid for a while. Labor Day proved to be a costly one for me. I was helping a neighbor with the sprinkling system and when I reached into the water control box to turn off the water I did some damage to my hand and finished off my thumb. In short I had surgery a couple weeks and this happened..

..a new titanium thumb joint, one step closer to becoming Wolverine. Needless to say it has put a dampening effect on the outings. Not only that my body no longer reacts to anesthesia that well anymore. I have also had to rely on the Mrs. for help even putting on pants. Learning to do everything left handed has been eventful. Especially some aspects of life. I have learned that everything oriented to the right hand person and that using your left hand even with the simplest of tasks can be unnerving. However I am now on the mend and ready to get back out doing things although it will be one handed for the part and trying to type this with the cast on is taxing on the speed and accuracy, when even with two hands it was slow.

We did however take a trip back to Pittsburgh and take in a Steelers game. We had 18th row isle seats in the end zone! As you may have guessed I am a diehard Steeler fan and it was a bucket list item to see them play live in Three River Stadium. We did some seeing and shopping in Pittsburgh. We went to Erie PA, to see Lake Erie not enough time or ability to fish but we have now been to 3 of the great lakes. Monday we visited the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton OH. Overall it was a great trip and the people of Pittsburgh are great. I had a very hard time not breaking the bank on souvenirs in both Pittsburgh and Canton.

Hope to be on the trail or lake next week even in the cast. Learning to cast left handed is interesting to say the least!

Fishing Jordanelle with Joe and LeeAnn

Saturday morning I took Joe and LeeAnn out on the Fish Steeler on Jordanelle Reservoir. We got to the lake and on the water by 7 am and had our first fish on board by 7:15. Running the small boat ramp pattern we fished there all morning until we limited out. LeeAnn had never been trolling before so it was fun to see her get a few fish in the live well.

Joe, LeeAnn's husband, is seasoned at fishing with a fly pole in his hand, actually one of the best nymph fishers I know. He can find fish when no one else is catching anything. He has a little experience trolling, so it was fun having both on board the Fish Steeler. Rainbow trout were the target today and they were plentiful and decent sized. The hit was hot in the morning until about 9 am and then it slowed down. We tried several different patterns in the area and found fish in each of them.

The morning was spectacular, no wind and just a little brisk. The sunrise was great. We fished until 11:00 am and gave up fighting the recreation boats and wakes, but did limit out and the final fish of the day was a nice 16 inch Brown trout with wonderful colors. It was put in the hole so quickly we didn't realize we had caught a Brown trout until we were loading up the stringer for a picture. The morning was kept lively by few mishaps here and there and we had a few laughs at each other. The best was when Joe was being guide and holding LeeAnn's fish for a photo and it jumped out of his hands and tail slapped her.

We were rolling, even LeeAnn got a chuckle out of it. The fall colors are coming in strong right now with the oaks turning fire engine red and oranges. Hope you get out this weekend and enjoy this fall weather. Tight Lines and keep smilin'.

 

Small Mouth Bass at Jordanelle

Went fishing with my brother Kelly on Jordanelle Reservoir. We started off at 5 am on Thursday morning, drove up to Heber stopped for supplies and back on the road. Next stop Jordanelle, we pulled in at 5:45 and the sun was nowhere to be seen so we readied the boat and waited for enough light to see the lines on the ramp without lights. Launched to the boat and noticed the wind had picked up significantly. We planned on fishing for Rainbow trout in the morning and then going after some Small Mouth Bass after we limited out on trout.

With the wind blowing as bad as it was we decided to stay in the marina bay that was protected for the most part. We fished down the south bank into the bays and caught the first fish within a few minutes. The lake is loaded with small mouth bass and has large ones over 4 pounds. They have opened the lake to spearfishing and some fishers think they have devastated the large fish, but each year the UDWR find big small mouth bass in their survey. We fished for about an hour in the bay moving all the way around it and thought the wind had laid enough to go trolling in the small boat bay so we left the protection of the marina bay and found out quickly that the wind was still howling. Three to four foot swells were still rolling with whitecaps, so we went across the main body into another bay that we thought would be protected from the wind, but we were wrong. The wind was blowing directly into the bay we entered.

We still tried our luck at catching some bass but quickly tired of fighting the wind and waves and moved to the dam and into the Rock Cliff leg of the reservoir. Along the dam we got into the fish again catching a number of small mouth bass within a very short period of time. We fished along that stretch for a couple hours and continued to catch fish by the bucket full. Kelly did hook up a nice Rainbow trout and got it to the boat but it quick released as I was putting the net in to land it. Kelly started fishing a big purple worm on a drop shot and started catching fish buy the dozens most of them were small and he could not keep them off the line. We fished until noon and the wind continued to blow and started to come from all directions and down the draws we were fishing and grew tired of fighting the boat to stay in a position to catch fish. Plus we were thinking of getting a nice big garlic burger in Heber, but they were not open so we ended up at the Heber City Cafe at the Heber Creeper station. A great choice for lunch, I had a Cajun Cheeseburger special order and it was great! The day ended with the ride home and telling stories. Until next time tight lines and keep smilin'.