Fish Lake Ice Fishing 2-25-17

Saturday morning I met up with Parker at his place and he invited a few friends to join us today. Cameron and Cody Hunt, and Jordan Hymas. They met us there and we were on the road by 5:30 am. Cameron drove and the trip was nice since I just got to ride along. We arrived at Fish Lake and went to east end of the lake, readied our gear and got on the lake by 7:30.

Trolling Deer Creek 2-17-17

Friday I met up with Gary Daniels to fish Deer Creek. We met at 6:30 and was on the water as the sun rose over the horizon. We were trolling on the 17th of Feb. the earliest I have been on the water in a boat. We thought it would be good fishing, not realizing how epic of a day we were in for. The ice season for Deer Creek lasted a total of 3 weeks.

We launched and I dang near fell in the lake getting on the boat, well I partially did but only got my shoes wet. The state hadn't had time to put the docks in yet. We took off and looked for ice sheets finding a couple, one we bumped up against and it was still two to three inches thick so we decided we would stay away from them. The lake was wide open from outside the buoys toward Heber. We started trolling and went through Rainbow bay without anything and made it to the cliffs where Gary hooked up the first of the day at 14 feet. Not much later I got a hit on the JoD and landed a rainbow. We reset the poles and Gary hooked up two on his side, both nice Rainbows.

The day was starting to warm up as we trolled roadside down through the Island bay. We both got another fish then Gary's second pole got a hit and then my second got a hit so a quad set for the first time. We had a few times where all four poles were active and we had our hands filled with poles and setting hooks. Today we were using downriggers and dodgers with a worm trailing. Luckily we each bought a dozen worms!

The day continued to get better and more fish were landed. Gary had the biggest catches of the day with three fish over 3.5 pounds and another three over 3 pounds. The morning warmed up and became a beautiful day. We fished until we ran out of bait. We caught well over 50 fish in 4 hours. With multiple double and triple catches. Epic day on the lake!!

Ice Fishing Solo for "Fatty"

Today was a special day for me. My best friend and I skied this weekend 33 years ago for the last time. He was skiing at my side when he hit a patch of ice and slid off the trail into a stand of trees. I have a blog post about this called Solo. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of David "Fatty" Whittaker, he was my best friend. You can read the story there if interested. Today I went on my own for the reason to remember and reflect. Fishing was the side product.

I woke up late and didn't mind, made myself breakfast and readied my gear. Getting on the road I headed south to Scofield, Parker told me the ice was deep and solid and I hadn't been there since early season. I drove up and all the way around the lake to the river, looking for an access point that was different than we had been using. I found some but the walkout was deep and farther than I cared to trudge today. I ended up at the scout camp and seen the only other fishers on the ice camped across from the ramp. I turned north and set camp for a bit there in 8 feet of water. Caught a number of chub, which have the lake choked and the game fish in not good health. I figure it is my civic duty to take out as many as possible. I did manage one skinny cutthroat in this first camp.

2 O'clock rolled around and I moved out to a buoy in the middle of the bay. The water wasn't much deeper, but the chub were as abundant there as the other hole. This time I didn't manage landing a trout at all. I fished until 3:30 and called it a day. Again reflection and future was the focus of today. Reflection of what might have been except for that fatal day of skiing, where Fatty and I might have ended up as we raised our families together. Our boys would have been great friends, I'm sure of it.

Tomorrow I go fishing with a new friend and colleague in his boat on DC and the future continues. Love you Fatty, I will always remember you and have you with me.

Ice Fishing - 3 lake day

Parker and I set out for the south central part of the state on Thursday for what we hoped would be an epic fishing day.  We made our way to Price stopping for breakfast and supplies and continued south on highway 10. 

Our first target and only planned target for the day Huntington North Reservoir. We pulled into the state park, went to the boat ramp, where Parker said "park down by the lake." I refused because I could see the ramp was a sheet of ice. After getting things in order we started down the ramp where I immediately started sliding on the ice. Getting to a snow pack and stopping my death slide, Parker from behind, "guess it was good we didn't try to park on the ramp." starting back down the ramp again the sled wasn't cooperating, so I let it go. It slid about 10 feet onto/into the lake! We looked at one another as we watched my sled floating in the water as it broke through. I pulled it out of the water and we started looking for an entry point that would hold us. I went east Parker went west, I took a step onto the ice and broke through immediately up to my knee. Parker started out and got a couple steps and was saying he found a spot, when he broke through up to his thighs! We turned around got back to the truck and started the drying process.

We thought for a moment and Parker said let's go to Joe's Valley. Parker fished it last season and did really well and it is higher up the canyon so we thought it would be safe. We made our way to Orangeville and up the canyon. Along the way mud and rock slides were present and happening, but we continued onward. Noticing the temperature was steady at 36 we thought we were in for disappointment. We arrived at the boat ramp and decided to try it. We found safe ice with about 3 inches of slush on top but the ice was solid at 8 inches thick. We set camp, using Parker's new lithium laser Strikemaster to cut holes. we fished the first set for 30 minutes and moved and moved and moved and moved again. A fisher went by told us he had fished the day before for 6 hours and got one fish, not a good omen. We fished until noon and decided to try another lake. Not a bite, not a blip on the flasher happened and those near us was having the same luck. We packed up and made our way back down the canyon, dodging rocks and debris the whole way down.

We made it back to Huntington where we decided to go to Huntington/Mammoth and go for some tigers. Passing a sign flashing "Road closed at MP 13" we stopped turned around and asked a local store if the road was really closed. They were nice enough to call the sheriff office to find out. Sure enough an avalanche had closed the canyon. Back on the road toward Price, we decided to try Scofield, but up the canyon, Parker seen the Duchesne sign and said "I have never been through that canyon let's go to Starvation!" We turned around and made our way through Indian Canyon.

We arrived at Rabbit Gulch at 2 pm, seen one car there and two guys out about 100 yards. Parker yelled out to them "caught anything!" the reply "NO!" We looked at one another and decided we were here and the access is easy we pulled over and got the stuff ready.  56 degrees is what the temp read in the truck. We didn't even put on our bibs or hoodies and decided when we got too cold we would stop fishing. We setup in 15 feet of water, the ice was 4-6 inches and scary looking with standing water of about 3 inches. Fished these hole for about 30 minutes, one of the guys came over and told us he had two solid hits all day but missed them both. He also pointed out they were the only two on the lake the entire day. They left the lake, I took over their holes and Parker move to 10 feet of water.

Parker gave out a yelp and he had hooked up a nice rainbow. By now it was 4 pm and the sun was dropping. I came over to his spot and cut one hole and set my line. We gave it till 4:30 pm and I said fish or no fish I am done. No fish came around. We made our way back to the truck walking up the ramp as river of water flowed into the lake. The truck temperature read 62 degrees now. I believe ice season may be coming to a rapid end, with the exception of Strawberry, if you can get to the lake. We actually tried 4 lakes today but only made it to 3. Great day on the lakes, in the sun and clean air. Still better than any day in the office!

Ice Fishing Jordanelle with Chris

Saturday Feb. 4 Chris and I ended up at Jordanelle Reservoir.  Our initial plan was to fish Deer Creek it got foiled due to rain, we thought then to go to Strawberry only to find out that there was a fishing derby happening with an estimated thousand participants that changed our minds.  We pulled into Jordanelle to find the ramp clear and only a scout group in the marina.  They were asleep when we pulled in so we pulled the gear to northeast section of the marina. We broke through slush pockets 8-10 inches deep in places that did not make for easy or fun trekking.

We set camp and started fishing by sunrise and immediately started getting hits. We couldn't get them to hookup. We kept trying until finally I thought we were in a bed of chubs, not sure however we stayed until we finally got one hooked and to the surface. Perch! We were in a perch bed, we each caught 2 or 3 perch all little dinks but at least they weren't chubs. We fished here for a while thinking something big would swim through, but that didn't happen so we moved into shallower water and set up camp two. Same thing quick hits but no hook sets. Chris broke the ice by landing a small rainbow trout. We each caught 2 or 3 small rainbow out of these holes. The flasher was going crazy with fish moving around but we couldn't find or catch anything over 14 inches.

I moved to a shallower area of water and got a hit quick and missed it and then nothing happened in this hole. We decided to call it a day. We caught all itty-bitties today, talked to a couple other fishers and the scout camp with the exception of one nice brown trout all the reports were the same as ours.

Deer Creek Ice Fishing 2-2-2017

Thursday Parker had the morning off and any time we can get away we do. So for quick trip we decided to try Deer Creek and see if the ice was safe.  We got there about 7:30 and got ready, we stepped on the ice and was quite cautious for the first few steps but seeing people on the ice made us a little more comfortable.

We hiked out to the Island and set up camp where we thought we would catch a few brown trout.  Parker bought a new Strikemaster electric ice auger that we were both excited to see how it performed. This one has a 10 inch blade on it, which is the first one we seen with that big of blade. Parker cut the first couple holes with ease, no pulling mixing of gas nothing just squeeze the trigger.  We cut another five or six holes with ease.

Parker caught the first fish within minutes of setting his pole. Rainbow trout and he was in 15 ft of water I was outside of him and got a hit but missed it. The little planter was kind enough to quick release and return to the water on it's own with a couple flips.

I moved in toward the bank and cut a hole, stating I was going to catch a brown in this hole.  8 feet of water and bush on the floor, I set the pole and left it.  I was out checking my other pole and looked back at shallow pole in time to see it being dragged into the hole.  I moved as quickly as possible and caught it as the last eyelet on the pole was going in the hole. Pulled on it and set the hook.  After a decent fight I pulled a 22 inch brown trout out of the water. After a few laughs, cheers and pictures we released back to the water.

Parker caught another rainbow before we had to go. 9 am the bite stopped we fished until 10:30 and Parker had to get on the road. We were both happy with the days catch and getting out together.