Fish Lake Ice Fishing

Monday was a day of travel and fishing. We left the valley at 4:30 am and travel two and a half hours south to Fish Lake. Parker did a solo there last week and had a great afternoon/evening of fishing. We decided it would be fun to go try it out together.

Today we had Orin Allen with us, Orin and I played ball together at SUU and he now works with Jimmy in Salt Lake. We stopped on the way and picked up some breakfast and still made it to the lake by 7:00 am. Sunrise, at the lake was great we unloaded the 4 wheeler and loaded up the gear and headed for the spot Parker was fishing Tuesday last week. We got to the area and set up the tent in the middle of a wind storm! Trying to set the 6 man tent in that wind proved interesting but we got it done. The auger worked well today, I think we have gotten most of the residue out of the carb and plug. We cut 6 holes and had lines in the water by 7:30 and our first fish on the deck by 7:40. A little rainbow trout suspended in about 15-20 feet of water.

Parker was had the first one and then I soon followed with the same set up. Parker caught three more really quick and then traded positions with Orin to give him a better chance to get on the board. I had three more rainbow trout as well within about the same time frame. Orin was still waiting to get on the board. We dropped lines to the bottom looking for Splake and Mackinaw trout during this time. We changed up bait and presentation all morning long trying to coax a Mackinaw to hit but no luck. We slow retrieved trying to get a splake in the middle of the column but nothing was happening a couple swam in and looked our bait but didn't take it. I had one hit at the bottom but missed it and never got another bite outside the 15-20 foot range.

We fished until 1:00 pm and loaded up after the fish stopped hitting for about a half hour. Orin never did get on the board he watched the hits on the other baits and lines but couldn't get a fish to hit his set up, we offered everything in our tackle set up but he stayed with his set up. For the day we probably had 40 plus fish on the deck keeping a couple of the bigger ones for the smoker. It was a great day, the wind blew most of the day making it colder than normal and we kept both heaters running to stay cozy. The sun was in and out all day. The ice as over 18 inches thick, that's how long our handles are on our scoops, probably close to 24 inches thick. I will be out of commission for the rest of the ice season, but the boys will give us reports on their adventures. Thanks for following our adventures and get outside and create your own.