Over Zealous!? Perhaps

Friday night we went to bed thinking if the storm breaks we will be on our way. Saturday morning came in dry and cold. We packed up the boat with our trolling gear and hit the road for one of our favorite lakes. We haven't been able to fish this lake for a few years due to the quagga mussel infestation. Over the past three year the Utah DWR has followed it and kept records on it and deemed it clean for this summer. We are excited to get back on this lake. Sorry, I won't divulge the name of this lake in this or any other article on this blog, if you want to know come and go with us.

Snow and ice on the road

We hit the road by 5 am and was excited the mountains still had plenty of low hanging clouds on them and the further we went we could see they were heavy and dark with moisture. We still felt if we could get on the water for a couple hours we would be rewarded greatly. We traveled up the canyon and the further we went the deeper the snow got and the colder the temperature dropped. We weren't too surprised when we reached the summit the roads were not plowed and they were filled with ice. Towing a boat made it fun! We continued on with hopes being able to still make it to the ramp. Low and behold we finally made it to the turnoff for the ramp. It was buried in snow, now the mule could do it we thought but with the boat in tow we thought better of it. We came so close to our destiny it hurt and we could see the open water just a few hundred yards away and the road in was buried in 2 feet of snow. We decided to go over the top to the next lake and as we ventures toward that summit it began to snow on us, we turned around and decided to hit yet another lake in the vicinity. On the way back to the turn off we noticed a truck on the road to the ramp nothing in tow and they were up to their differentials in snow and locking in their hubs. We thought they were probably looking at us thinking those "Nut Jobs, up here with a boat" probably more colorful phrases were used. We continued on after seeing them start to move again. We made it back to the summit and headed toward the other lake on our hit list. The clouds closed in on us and we couldn't see more than a 100 feet of road. We again turned around and headed for the canyon and went to the valley.

So close yet so far

At this point and time I was thinking I should have stayed home and relined my reels and got somethings ready for the rest of the season. Parker on the other hand was thinking we have the boat in tow and we were going to fish. So we turned south hoping to get away from the weather. Didn't work we ran into ran heading to Yuba Reservoir. We again had heard the fishing was good for Pike and some perch even. We made it to the ramp by 9 am and launched the boat in pretty strong winds and white caps. Headed over to the islands to get out of the winds and we pulled into the bay and the wind was buffered and the fish finders were going nuts. We felt good about our choice and started throwing lures and jigs and spinners and spoons and, and, and you get the idea we threw everything they had said was the hot ticket and then fell back to our favorites. We fished until noon, again Parker had to work that afternoon so we had to be back early. We fished the cliff lines the sand bars, the drop offs, the points, the changes structure and so on and so on.....Nothing but we saw what we figured was buzzing the finder so much when we noticed big clumps of Carp around us gulping air.

We marked this weekend up to another blank, no excuses we both hate getting beat by lakes. Mother Nature wasn't cooperating and maybe that moved the fish off the charts and changed their hits. Notes were taken and marks were made in our journals. Water temp was still 50-51 degrees but the barometric pressure was all over the place Saturday with the storms rolling in and out.

Grilling with Wasatch Mountain Planks!

Our friends at Wasatch Mountain Planks are making a great product and we love grilling our catch and bounty on the open fire.  One way we truly enjoy our fish fillets, game meat and steak and chicken is on Wasatch Mountain Planks.  These are seasoned cedar planks that you place your meat or vegetables on and put it on the grill.  These seasoned planks come in many different flavors and they have one that will meet your taste buds liking!  We use them with all our meats and vegetables when grilling to get the most out of the experience.  Check them out and buy some to try we promise you won't be disappointed!

New Waters - D.M.A.D. Reservoir

Saturday morning came early for us at 4:30 am, loading up and preparing for new waters. I had been looking at this water for some time now because it holds Walleyes and Catfish. D.M.A.D Reservoir, I still haven't learned what it stands for, is a shallow basin lake on the Sevier River drainage. Being shallow, and I mean shallow average depth today was 4 ft., it is also a warm water lake with Walleye, White Bass, White Crappie (one of the few lakes with them), Catfish and Yellow Perch. Parker and I were on the road by 5:00 am to our new destination about 2 hours from our home we arrived there around 7:00 am and fish were actively jumping. We thought this is going to be a good day on the water. On the water and lines in by 7:15 we started with what the reports said were the hot tickets, Catfish we had shrimp on the hook, and we casting chartreuse green jigs and rapalas. We fished up the lake toward the inlet thinking early spring the walleye would be stacked up, fished for about hour slowly moving and positioning ourselves where we saw the right structure on our electronics and reading the bank for points, brush, and rock out cropping’s. We threw different types jigs and rapalas all day as we moved around and tried different presentations for the set lines we were using for the Catfish. 

We fished until noon, Parker had to get back for work and having not so much as a sniff at anything we were throwing at them we decided to chalk it up as a Bluebird day on the pond and go get lunch. Not a single fish was hurt in today's adventure, but we did have good time at a nice desert lake with high cliff walls and sandy shore lines. At its deepest I doubt the lake gets over 8 ft. in depth on average, some pockets of deeper 20 feet and river channel but mainly flats with some reeds along the banks. We worked our electronics to find what we felt were great holing spots for the fish we were targeting. Sometimes, time given isn't enough for time needed to find the pockets on new waters. No excuses we bombed on our first outing to D.M.A.D Reservoir we will return with a better scouting report and better understanding of the layout of the lake. 

The lake is primitive in that there are no services available and the ramp is a single wide quite steep drop in. Reports said that it is a recreational lake but I don't think I would put my ski boat on it. We had UTV's riding the banks and lots of water fowl with us all day. We pulled into one of the reed islands of the lake and started pitching jigs and out of the middle of the reeds a big Canadian goose came blasting out, we almost jump out of the boat not anticipating having a big Canadian explode out of it and so close to us, we had a good laugh at each other as we calmed back down after the adrenaline rush and focused on the fishing again. Wish I had the video camera rolling it would have been a good clip.

As we were leaving we had 5 Black Hawk Helicopters come right over us at low altitude doing practice maneuvers, we waved and took a couple pictures of our brave and unselfish military in action, thanks for all you do for us and our country!!