Ice Fishing Central and Southeast Utah

Saturday became a late start day. Parker worked late and I didn't mind the extra sleep time. He texted about 8:20 saying they were ready to hit the road, I replied back that he just woke me up and that I was going to stay close to home. He loaded up and headed south for Huntington North. I took my time and made my way to Deer Creek.

Parker and Jack attack fished Huntington North most of the day and moved frequently and covered the lake looking for bites. Parker figured he walked around, with Jack in tow on the sled, a mile or so looking for fish.  He reported the catching was not so good. The day was great with his son in tow and having fun in the sun. He didn't mark a fish all day on the flasher. So they packed up and came home.

I, like I said, made my way to Deer Creek about 11:30 and made my way out to the island. Talking with camps on my way to my spot. I met up with one camp of guys that had been there all morning and not had a bite. They were from Russia and been in the states for over 16 years. They had multiple poles out, on jaw jackers and buckets. They asked what I was going to use and we talked for a while about baits and lures. I made it to my first spot in about 25 feet of water, usually does well for brown trout which is what I wanted to target. I set up and another camp came over to see what I was using, he said he had caught a rainbow trout earlier in the morning, but nothing since.

I was fishing and the Russian came out to see what I was doing and wanted me to help him with his new Garmin finder, so we took about a half hour and broke down his unit so he had a better understanding of how his unit worked. All the time I was watching my flasher and seeing nothing. I put the camera down the hole and made a few turns to see if anything was in the vicinity. I saw nothing swimming around. So I moved in toward the shore and put in at 8 feet. Again, about 20 minutes and saw nothing on the flasher or camera.

I moved out to 12 feet of water and put down with a Charlie Fox Bait isopod and a VMC paddle. I immediately had a fish come into the bait, swim around the VMC and then swam up to the CFB and hit it. I had a fish on the deck 30 seconds later. A pretty rainbow trout that was a couple years of carryover around 15 inches. A quick pic and release and I was set for the duration. I set the tent and put the camera down to see if there were any more fish around. Sadly no other fish were seen or caught for the rest of the day. I had camps leave and I continued to fish until the storm blew in. I picked up at 3:30 and called it a day and made the trek back to the truck. Still better than sitting in a cubicle. Keep it bent!

Skiing Deer Valley

Thursday turns at Deer Valley. The snow in Utah is at epic levels right now. The latest snowstorm dumped upwards of 73 inches in the mountains. It wasn't the pristine Utah fluff but it wasn't Sierra cement either. Deer Valley had plenty of it and still soft crud with the trees having untracked thigh deep powder. I apologize for the lack of photo's on these post but I'm skiing not taking a lot of pics.

Thursday was a bluebird day after 3-4 days of dumpage. I made it to the Jordanelle gondola later than I wanted to but still found a parking stall. Rode the shuttle to the base and picked up my Ski Utah Yeti pass and loaded the Gondola for a day of adventure.

Today is the first time I have skied Deer Valley. I have wanted to for a long time but couldn't afford it, but the Yeti pass made it possible. Background, in college me and a few other students at CEU decided to create a ski club and we set up our first trip to Park City in 1981 and we stayed at the Homestead in Midway Utah. Upon arriving we checked in and two other gentlemen were trying to check in as well. One spoke broken English and the other not a word of English. We learned that they were there to meet with their life long friend Stein Erickson, who had just created Deer Valley. They were there to look over and help finance the buying of and building of the area called Mayflower. The homestead was filled and they arrived a night earlier than planned and we had just taken the last open rooms with our reservation. We talked with them and the desk clerk and gave them one of our rooms for the night and we would double up in one of ours. Great decision, these gentlemen treated us to a greater weekend than planned. They bought our dinner and all we could drink. They met us that evening at the famed hot tubs and the one that couldn't speak English introduced us to snow diving. He hopped out of the hot tub, ran outside and dove into the snow bank, returned and jumped back into the hot tub. His partner explained that it's a tradition in their country, so we all had to give it a try, with many screams and yelps we all dove into the snow bank and back into the hot tub. The girls that were with us thought we were nuts, but we convinced them to do it and it was great hearing them hit the snow and back into the hot tub with screams. We had a great evening learning of traditions and sharing what stories we could between us. That next morning they met us for breakfast and again paid for us, and invited us to meet them for dinner that evening after our ski day. They took care of us again that evening after their meeting with Stein Erickson. They didn't stay and eat with us just left an open tab for us! Great weekend for poor college students.

Thursday was epic and I learned that the resort is huge and it takes you a couple hours to cover it from east to west. The only bummer was by the time I made it back to where I started I was exhausted and my legs were fried, so I didn't make it to the famed Mayflower lift. One more reason I am focusing on my conditioning from here on out so I can make more runs every day.  The folks at Deer Valley and friendly and very helpful. There were no lift lines to speak of I waited maybe 3 minutes in one liftline. The Expressway lifts are all detachable quads and fast to the top. That being said there isn't much rest time riding the lifts between runs, hence the reason I was toasted quickly. The groomed runs were spectacular, non-groomed runs were good and steep with soft bumps. They have courtesy cabins all over the mountain and beautiful lodges. I will make a return trip and ski Mayflower, shoot I may put in an application and work there next season. Miles of trails to ski that I didn't get to. Keep your tips up and ski on!!

Ice Fishing Jordanelle

Saturday Parker met me at his grandmother's and we drove up the canyon. This Saturday no different than any other but today we were going to fish Jordanelle Reservoir in the Rock Cliffs area. This area holds great memories for me, this is where it all began back in the early '80s. My Father-in-Law introduced me to ice fishing here. My first time walking on water and I will admit I was very skeptical of walking out there for the first time. Jimmie took me out and showed me how to catch fish through the ice hole. It wasn't anything fancy, a hand auger, a tent with a floor and two holes in it. No flashers, no cameras, no heater, just his instinct and knowledge of the water and area. We fished for most of the day and caught many big trout. My favorite was large Brown trout on a very small ice fly with a barbell head, I thought to myself, "this can't catch fish!", but with his knowledge and patience we did and a lot of them. Putting the dinks back and keeping a nice stringer limit of big bows and browns.

Today Parker and I headed out a little deeper and further than my Father-in-law and I did that day but we were moving across the water on a snowmobile with our tent in tow. We first put holes down in 10 feet of water and could see on the flasher the movement of what we thought were perch or smallmouth bass. We fished here for about 30 minutes and didn't get a hit. We moved to deeper water and set up out by the buoys. Parker had a nice hit and cranked it up for a few cranks, before losing it at the hole. We fished for another hour or so, then Parker decided it was time to go on the hunt. He moved beyond the buoys and found the ice was much thinner. He moved around for about a half hour, not finding or catching anything and he returned to the tent. At that point, we noticed a fisher walking toward us. He was having about the same success as we were and was hoping that we had been doing better. We talked for a few minutes before he returned to his camp. We moved one more time this time onto the rockpile. This is where things got interesting and fun. We set our tent and camera up and started watching the fish swim all around our jigs.

Parker was on fire! He caught perch for the next few hours, pulling one out every few minutes. At that point, the fisher we talked to returned and we showed him what we were doing. He moved, next to us and used our dill to drill a few holes for his group.  Parker and I stayed in the tent and continued to catch fish quickly.

Parker finally got a solid hit, it wasn't in the view of the camera so we didn't know exactly what it was until he saw it at the hole. He let out a whooop that surprised everyone. I saw the nice sized brown trout in the hole, just as Parker reached down to pull it out on the ice. It was definitely a nice catch and one that made the day.

We fished for a while longer but realized we needed to go. We decked over 60 Perch and left them with the group that was fishing around us, they weren't having quite the same success as we were. Put the Brown trout in there and a couple rainbow to boot and it made for a great day. The snowmobile and tent worked great as did the new underwater camera. Keep the rod bent and have fun!