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.