Fishing with Maxwell!

Some ask why the bigger boat?  Well this weekend illustrates why.  We took Max out with us this weekend and he did great!  He got to reel in a couple fish and enjoy the experience with us.  He was up and ready to go in seconds according to Jimmy, his dad.  Jimmy said, I went and said are you ready to go and he jumped up and ran to the door, that is when Harrison woke up, not a good scenario he was not happy he was not going.  We thought a trial run with Max was in order to see how things would go.  We fished most the morning down by the dam in deeper water but only coaxed a couple to the boat.  Max thought it was awesome and even touching them without hesitation, a fisher has been made!!  We fished until noon then went and got a burger at Jose's in Wallsburg.  A great day with Parker, Jimmy and Maxwell!!

Utah Lake

Once again I have been very slack in keeping my pages up to date.  This post will cover a couple of the Utah Lake outing  we have had this summer.  Lets start with the fact that I bought a bigger boat this summer and have enjoyed it greatly.  It is a 20' deck boat, not the prettiest thing but it runs well and does what we want it to do, catch fish.  I have many things to accomplish on it over the next few months and have started with some small things already.  First big issue to deal with is get the trolling motor mounted by a professional, it is a nice bow mount with foot control and 24v 62lb thrust should work the big boat just fine then for a fish finder.

Fishing, Utah Lake style, we have been out a couple times and have done alright.  First run with the new boat was with Bob.  We went out to Bird Island and tried for a bit there, but came up with a couple white bass.  We went to the reeds on the east bank and started fishing in the small little bays and caught a few cats, mainly channel cats and couple muds but no Big Blues.  We fished in the reeds the rest of the morning.  most of the fish were in the 2-4lb range.

Took the boys out the next week and we directly to the reeds this time and started catching channels right off.  We had a good day with Shrimp, hot dogs were not catching anything.  We caught a few muds and few white bass as well.  We fished the small bay areas inside the reeds all day, moving from spot to spot until it would no longer give us any hits.  Had a couple nice ones take us into the reeds and break us off.

Jimmy was elated he caught quite a few nice channels.  We kept the channels and couple white bass, ended the day with 12 2-6lb cats which yielded 10lbs of fillets for the cooker the next evening.  I found a good recipe for the fillets and cooked them up with some potatoes as well.  The whole family came over and took part in eating them.

A Berry Birthday Fishin' trip

Parker doing his Vanna

For my birthday we went fishing.....I know way out of my comfort zone right.  Took Jim and Parker to Strawberry today and spent the morning trying to locate the lunkers.  We did catch a few but nothing to keep with the regs on Strawberry.  Parker and Jim both caught a couple nice cutts, we returned them after their pictures were taken.  Boat worked great.  Still need to get the trolling motor mounted.  We went home and ate at Chubby's and cake and ice cream for the evening.

Sorry for the blur, my hands were covered in slime :)

First fishing trip with new boat

 Took the new boat out for its first fishing trip.  We learned a few things with this adventure.  First we learned we can't get the boat to troll at pop gear speed.  Second we learned it is extremely comfortable and nice to be able to move around without fear of capsizing.  We fished the evening away and learned the third thing that the lights don't work or we didn't know the trick to them.  The previous owner said they work, will have to look into that deeper.  Getting the trolling motor mounted is paramount in importance if we are to troll with pop gear again.  Parker and I spent the evening learning the tricks of the boat and just relaxed.  We actually hooked up a few fish but landing them became the issue they were quick releasing on us with nice jumps and dives.

Adventures with Dad 83rd bday

I took Dad on an adventure for his birthday it was on July 17th.  I picked him up at 6:30am and took off for the West Desert knowing he had never been out there it would be new for him to see the sights.  We followed the Pony Express Trail out to Ibapah and then headed north on 93 to Wendover.

Our first planned stop and visit was to be to get breakfast at Silver Sage in Vernon, much to my dismay it was closed when we got there.  This was to be a fueling and supply stop.  Not wanting to wait for it to open we pushed on.  Worked our way through the small little town on the edge of the west desert making our way to Lookout Pass.

We continued on looking at the change in landscape and looking for antelopes and wild horses on our way to Simpson Springs.  We seen a few goats but did not encounter any wild horses.  We pulled up to the north of Simpson Springs and I pointed out the new community that has sprung up just west of Dugway.  People in the UFO hunting world seem to think this is the new area 51, it weird how it has come to life over the past 5 years.  We stopped at Simpson Springs and took in some of the history on the plaques and signs and walked through the old station that back 1860 was used by the horse riders to exchange horses get some water and  food before continuing on.  We talked all day about how it must have been when they were riding through this country in the early days and laying down the trail.  This area if you have never been here is desolate, it is a true high mountain desert.  These stops were located at natural springs throughout the desert.

We continued west and more landscape changes,  I learned why my Dad is a "rock hound" his father, Grandpa Salmans was a rock hound as well each time he would come out and visit mom and dad in Colorado Springs he would find a few rocks he really liked and loaded them up and took them home.  Dad feels a connection with his Grandpa when he finds a "pretty rock" and takes it home.  We got to the turnoff for the "Dugway Geode Beds" I asked dad if he wanted to go out there, knowing he did, he said well if it's not to far out there.  I had only been there once before myself.  We took a little detour off the PET and went looking for geodes.  We got off the road a few hundred yards and starting seeing multiple holes dug out of hillsides, looked like a scene from the movie "Holes" kept expecting to see the lizards in the bottom of the digs.  We looked around for a little bit but didn't locate any rocks that look worthy of having crystals in the center of them.  We continued on west.  I kept showing dad other trails that went to other areas in the West Desert that held other secrets and stashes.  He was amazed at the vastness of it all.

We pulled up to the entrance of Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge.  Dad was shocked to find something of this nature so far out in the middle of nowhere.  I didn't say anything knowing what was coming around the corner.  Dad told me of the time he had a water witch on the property he used to own in Indianlola and how that he explained all the aquifers in Utah run east and west and that when the guy had found the river that ran under his property he told him he would never run out of water in the well.  He kept going to tell me about the guys who dug the well didn't believe him until they hit the river some 280 feet below.  The low water year has taken it's toll on the springs and the amount water that was out there.  The areas around the road that are usually filled were dry, Dad just thought that it was normal for the desert.  We continued on to the main visitor area and that is where Dad notice that this place was filled with pools of water.  We went on the tour for a short distance and seen 2 of the pools and the crystal clear water of Fish Springs, he was blown away, that the desert could hold such beautifully crystal clear water.  We seen some birds but not many.  We did see some red dragon flies that neither of us had ever seen before.  Seen a bunch of small fish in the pools, NO FISHING posted everywhere, too bad I had my poles with me.  We looked around for a little while and continued on our way on the PET.

Our next stop took us to Boyd station and then to Callao a very small town at the base of the Deep Creek Range on the west border of Utah.  These granite peaks are beautiful, with some of the best fishing in the state.  Our tour of Callao was short but again Dad was amazed that people lived out so far, I pointed out that Wendover was just few miles from where we were.  He still could believe that people lived there.

Heading north we stopped at Canyon Station and looked back at the valley's we had gone through that day. He was shocked to know how far we had gone.  You could also see the Slat Flats from the station.  This is however where we found his rock, the original rock was to large for either of us to move so he decided on a smaller one right next to it.  A black basalt lava rock with some cool lichen and moss on it.  We loaded it up in the truck and went on are way to Ibabpah.

Ibapah, an Indian reservation town on the west border of Utah.  I was in search of the trading post, remember we didn't get to pick up snacks and drinks in Vernon, ya we were hungry and thirsty.  Found the Ibapah Trading Post much to our dismay it was closed due to "competition" from a nearby store that opened up closer to "town".  We both had to laugh.  We decided that we were close enough to Wendover to just go  there.  While going north on 93 we passed a sign pointing to Blue Lake, I explained to dad that this is where we would come when we went scuba diving out there, again he was amazed that it was located in the desert.

Pulling into Wendover we filled up and went to get something to eat.  We ended up going to the Rainbow buffet.  Got our fill and left for the last stop of the day.  Bonneville Slat Flats International Speedway, dad if you didn't know is a huge race fan, being a dirt track race driver for many years.  He had never been to the actual site of the raceway, a bucket list item for him, I took him out to the marker of the starting area for the 15 mile long stretch of salt that is the Bonneville Salt Flats.  He was in awe of the expanse of salt and the beauty of the contrast of the whiteness and desert scape surrounding it all.  We will go back out to the raceway when the event is actually running this fall.  That is another adventure.  We left from there to home.  380 mile round trip with some side trips.  A great day with dad!  He told stories of his exploits of gold mining ventures to his race days.