A Perch of a Day!

Saturday Parker and I headed East on Highway 40 and stopped at Rabbit Gulch. This is the West end of Starvation Reservoir in the Uinta Basin just outside Duchesne. We got there just before daybreak and started to ready ourselves for the haul. Reports were coming in that the fishing was good and if you found a school of Perch you would be catching fish fast and furious. We got on the ice as the sun started to light up the horizon and we headed out into the lane we troll in the summer. Finding our place we cut a hole and watched the flasher for a few minutes, no fish were coming through so we moved. Cutting holes a few yards apart trying to find the action we made it back into the bank by the boat ramp.

We cut a hole and bam, the screen on the flasher lit up. We set camp and put bait in the water. Being cold and a little windy we set the tent for the day used our new screw driver for the tent stakes, it works wonderfully. Parker had a Perch on in a few minutes on a pink spider tipped with wax worm. He continued to slay them catching well over 50 of them in a little over 2 hours. I finally got on the board with a couple decent Perch. We didn’t keep any due to the fact most of them were quite small. After tiring of the small ones we pulled up stakes and moved to deeper water in hopes of finding trout. We got out into our lane and set camp and fished for another hour or so and got nothing. We changed lures, bait, presentation often but couldn’t coax one to partake of our offerings. Getting hungry and knowing we had a trek to get home and Parker had to work that evening we broke camp, went into Duchesne for lunch at Cowan’s Cafe. Always a good place to eat, down home cooking and large portions with friendly service. A great morning on the ice, fun to get into a lot of fish. I will be down for the next couple weeks, Parker and Jim may get out and give us a couple reports.

Palisade on Ice

Saturday we took the tent south to Palisade Reservoir. A small irrigating lake for the south central valley nestled in a juniper/pinyon pine canyon at the base of six mile canyon. This lake grows Tiger Trout like no other lake in the state. The state record Tiger Trout was caught here last summer. It is not very large and generally is drained to a puddle by summers end. This weekend it was only at 50% capacity, but it had a good 4-5 inches of ice. The edges were a little spooky but we found a place to enter without much problem. Jim got a little freaked out when Parker and I both broke through on our first attempts. We knew it was safe though with all the trails on and off the lake. When the water is rising like this lake does all winter the edges can be soft sometimes out to five feet away from the bank so you have to be careful entering and exiting the lake.

We arrived at the lake around 7:30 right as the sun was breaking the horizon. The day was cloudy and warmer due to the cloud cover. We set up camp off the pump house in 10 – 15 feet of water. The water is stained due to the mineral content so we couldn’t see the bottom and lost our lures only 3-4 feet under the surface. The fish were holding tight to the bottom and in schools. Making fishing hot and cold all morning. We dropped our lines with the normal color of jigs, but the hot color was pink to start off. I got 3 fish immediately on a pink Berkley Powerbait plastic tipped with meal worm.

I continued to get strikes and catch fish on the pink jig most of the day. Parker and Jim were using white tubes and paddles and started catching fish soon after. Jim ended up with the largest of the day at only 17 inches. Parker caught the only Tiger Trout of the day. All other fish were Rainbow trout planters. The UWDR planted the lake just before it froze with a number of 10 in Rainbow trout. Mid-morning the fish started hitting ice flies suspended just off the bottom tipped with wax worms. We had a number of double ups and one triple up. We had a great morning, the bite turned off at 10:30 completely we changed colors, size, tactics and got no hits after 10:30 at 11:00 we packed up and headed for home. We stopped in Levan for lunch at Jakk’s Burger Barn. It is in the gas station, good prices, good serving sizes and good food! We ate small portions trying to stay on our challenge to get in shape for a backpacking summer. The service was excellent. A recommended stop if in Levan. Next week we venture east.

 

Ice Fishing Echo Reservoir

Saturday our adventure took us to Echo Reservoir in Coalville UT. It was an adventure getting to the lake that morning. We hit the road by 6 thinking plenty of time to stop get a treat and make to the lake by sunrise. That was not the case, after a scare of losing a wallet we finally made it on the water by 10 am a far cry from sunrise. After we got on the lake however we had a blast. The crazy thing is we had never been to this lake on the ice and the only time prior was a good 20 years ago for a family reunion. We were in 50 ft of water and thought to ourselves we are too deep. We started moving in and Jimmy stayed in the tent and watched his pole. Sure enough about 3 minutes later he was yelping and excited for his catch. Jimmy started us off with a nice fat rainbow trout. First fish of the day and biggest of the day.

After that I stayed with my holes in the tent, Parker took a little more coaxing to return. The day was cold at -9 degrees but by the time we left it warmed up to zero. Jim was getting nervous even though the 3-4 inches of ice we were sitting on actually started bow a little and water was above the holes! We told him it was fine, but when we got off the spot the water quickly went away….. Anyhow it was a good morning of fishing and yours truly finally broke the skunk and got a few fish! Parker ended up with a few as well. All in all, we landed over 20 fish for the short time we were on the ice. On the way home, we stopped in Coalville at the Polar King and had lunch. Great food and friendly people! Recommended if you are in town. Next adventure will take us south to a lake that we have frequented in the summer but not on the ice, hope we catch some monster tiger trout!

Ice Fishing Strawberry New Years Eve!

Parker and Jimmy wanted to get out on New Years Eve so we ventured up to Strawberry to catch hundreds of fish. At least that is what the reports had been saying. We did get one picture of a very nice 25 inch Cutthroat Trout from a friend. We decided to go into the spot he described for us and give it a shot.

When we arrived it was -17 on the temp gauge. Cold enough the sensors on the truck were malfunctioning. We got dressed and set up and on the water quickly excited for a non-stop fish fest. Didn't quite work out that way. We seen fish most of the day, we were in 21 feet of water and could see the bottom. We watched the fish swim through and most of the time not even look at what we were offering them. Parker and Jimmy did manage one a piece, I on the other hand didn't get so much as a hit. We changed colors, size, depth, bait, and Parker even resorted to powerbait trying to lure them in. To no avail those were the only fish of the morning. The boys had to be back home by early afternoon. We fished until noon making it 5 hours on the ice. We didn't notice anyone or hear anyone else really pulling out fish either. Could be due to the fact it was a city on the shore line and the pressure had shut down the bite or we just didn't have what they wanted. No matter still better than sitting at home wishing we were fishing.

I don't know if I should even put a pole in the water and just be the guide with as many fish I have been into lately....lol. Just kidding I will trick them into biting soon enough. A new lake for us will be our next adventure, wish us luck! We did a very good burger at the marina restaurant The Strawberry Wobbler's Cafe!