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!

Ski The Beav!

Monday morning I woke up in Logan and prepared for a day of skiing at Beaver Mountain. Located 20 miles east of Logan off highway 89 "Top of Utah" Scenic Byway in Logan Canyon. One of the prettiest canyons in Utah. I arrived just before opening, picked up my lift pass and got ready to explore a new resort. The resort is at the top of the canyon with spectacular views. Having never skied here before I picked up a trail map, didn't really need it after seeing it. The resort consists of four lifts with a myriad of trail choices in each difficulty range. Harry's Dream lift takes you to the top of the resort and from there you can get to the other lifts, Facelift chair does not run during the week but is nestled at the bottom of the mountain adjacent to Harry's. Margies Triple is the next chairlift to be explored with diamonds and blues, and one or two greens. Little Beaver lift is just that, the beginner lift, sorry I didn't venture over there.  I skied Margies Triple and Harry's Dream.

Scofield on Ice? SLUSH!!

Saturday Parker and I loaded up and headed south to Scofield. The last time we visited Scofield we had the Snowmobile in tow and we had it again today in hopes of finding better conditions. I loaded up the trailer and picked Parker up at his new house in Springville. Makes for an easy run to any one of our favorite lakes in the Manti-La Sal Mountains. Today we got a late start but we were going to give the snowmobile its first true test and our Flip 3 tent. We stop at Creekside, got breakfast and hit the road.

Rockport 2019 Season Begins

Saturday Parker and I headed for Rockport Reservoir. We met up with the Hunts at the mouth of the canyon and made our way to the lake. We got to the lake along with the rest of the state of Utah. They are having a tagged fish competition on the lake and they were out in droves. The shoreline was packed with tents and camps.

Ice Fishing Starvation 12/29/18

Saturday Parker and I loaded up and took our first trip to Starvation. We didn't know what to expect with the ice conditions so we had a backup plan. We arrived at the lake around 9 am, yep I know that is late but we weren't in hurry today.  Pulling into the gulch it was -9 degrees with a light coat of snow on the ice.

We drove down into Rabbit Gulch and started taking inventory. The first thing we noticed was that there was no one else on the lake. Looked like a white desert. We got out and started looking for rocks to throw on the ice. Parker with the first throw and the rock bounced 3 times and sounded solid. He cut two holes and the ice was 3 inches. We moved to another area more in the shade and I launched a larger rock out onto the ice and again 3 bounces and solid sounding. We cut holes and found it bordering on 4 inches.