Saturday, December 27, 2008

Goin South

Fishing Time: 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Location: Otter Creek Reservoir
Weather: No wind, clear skies, teens
Who Went: Me, Hunt, Dave, JJ


We have decided to hit some lakes this year that I have never ice fished before and the first one on the list this was Otter Creek Reservoir. It was a jaunt to say the least! It was a 31/2 hour drive one way with good roads. We had snow packed roads for the last 50 miles so it took us 4 hours! When we got there we decided to stop at a place that was a closer drive than our intended destination! Lesson learned! I will not drive 4 hours again to stop short of where I want to fish! It makes no sense. Needless to say the place we fished first was not producing. JJ and Hunt each caught one fish! Finally at 12:30 we decided to make the move to the other spot. When we got there everyone was leaving the ice with their limits. One guy was even nice enough to rub our mistake in our face by showing us a 5 lb rainbow caught earlier in the morning! They said it was hot in the morning and now it was dying off! Doh! I will not do that again! We stayed there the rest of the day and ended up catching about 15 fish between us all.
I really liked ice fishing Otter Creek but it is a long drive and if I did it again I would probably make a weekend out of it and stay overnight! The fish we caught were all healthy Rainbows and fought really hard! They seemed to like smaller jigs than the Cutthroats we are used to catching at the Berry! Most our success came using ice cutters and whatta crickets tipped with a worm.

Scary Berry

Fishing Time: 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Weather: Windy, cold, snowy, single digits
Location: Strawberry Reservoir
Who Went: Me, Hunt, JJ, Jason Renke
With Christmas day dumping more than a foot of snow in the valleys and 2 feet or more in the mountains, it was probably not a smart idea to hit the road on the 26th to go ice fishing! But, being that it was the first ice of the year it would have taken a large earthquake to keep us away! We left early and still only got to Chicken Creek East by 9:00 a.m. due to road conditions being so bad! When we got there we noticed that the road going down to the parking lot had not been plowed and was covered by snow drifts reaching 3 feet high! We were about to go to the marina until a truck stopped and said they were just over there and they fell through the ice! We drove up to the ladders and noticed that the guys we just talked to had already trudged through the snow drifts and headed down the snowy road to the ladders parking lot! We watched as they tested the ice and once we saw they were good we followed. We weren't fishing until about 10 a.m. and the the wind was a brutal 20-30 miles per hour on top of temps already in the single digits. The fishing was good, but the conditions just wouldn't let us relax. We all caught a few fish with JJ catching the most with 8, but we only lasted until 1:00 when we called it a day and left! The last two years on this date I have had the best fishing days of the year. This year the weather didn't allow that to happen. It was still fun and there is always another day. We also got to try out JJ's new power auger that he got for Christmas and lets just say I'm in love!

Saturday, December 13, 2008

One of those days!

Fishing Time: 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Weather: Clear, sunny, high 50's
Who Went: JJ, Me

It's December 13th and it feels like September 13th! With no ice to be found on any of the lakes, JJ and I thought about Redmond Reservoir. Gas prices have fallen to $1.32 so the 2 hour drive didn't seem as bad as when gas was $4.00 a gallon just a few months ago! We got to Redmond at around 8:00 a.m. only to find that our favorite fishing hole was iced over. Not the whole lake, just the corner that we usually fish! We decided to throw rocks in and break holes in the ice and then cast into those holes. If you look close at the picture above you can see my two bobbers sitting in the holes in the ice! The Pike didn't like our idea because we sat for 2 hours without a bite! We finally put pride aside and moved to a different location but found the results were no different there! We made one more move and I did finally get a bite but set the hook to early and didn't hook up! It was pushing 1:00 and we thought that maybe our favorite spot had thawed out, so we tried it again. As you can see from the pic it hadn't.
We took off about 2:00 and headed towards The Jordan River at the Inlet Park warm spring to see if we could at least catch a fish before sundown. We got there with about 1 hour of daylight to fish. I have never been skunked at this hole, but today was one of those days! I think it was the only day all year that I have not caught anything! I guess that's why they call it fishing and not catching! We left at dark and I was very disappointed! We got blanked on a 9 hour day of fishing!

Friday, December 12, 2008

A Utah Lake Quicky

Fishing Time: 2:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Weather: clear, calm, high 50's
Who Went: JJ, Me

JJ and I only had to work a half day today so I took him down to Utah Lake at the sewer outlet to where my cousin and I had so much success for Bluegill and White Bass a week ago. We caught fish here and there but it was nothing like the day my cousin and I were there. JJ had never caught a Bluegill though, and it was cool to see him catch his first. I know it doesn't look big but these are some really nice sized Bluegill!We also caught a few White Bass and it was amazing how nice the weather was! You would never guess it was December 12th! It's always nice to get out for a quicky and catch some fish!

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Strawberry Twist

Fishing Time: 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m
Weather: Hurricane at the Berry and not a gust at Utah Lake.
Who Went: Phil, Me
We set out for what is probably the last fishing trip of the year at the Berry unless we take an ice auger. We left the boat at home and decided to go with the old school method that has brought much success in the past. Tossing a jig and bobber from the shoreline! We got there just before light and hiked our way down to the shoreline of Chicken Creek East. It looked as if all the conditions were right for our success. There was a slight breeze and crystal clear water. Phil got on the board first with this cutthroat. Soon after, Phil landed another one and I was behind 2 to 0. I finally scored with this cutt.
Things seemed like they were about to heat up as Phil landed 1 more and so did I. That's when the hurricane rolled in. The wind started whipping and the Berry turned into what looked like a bad day on the ocean. The white caps and cold wind was just to much. We hiked back to the truck and were on the road headed for home by 11:00. We were disappointed but there wasn't much we could do about it. As we drove past Deer Creek Reservoir on the way home we noticed that it was perfectly calm. Amazing how weather a half hour away can be so different. It was only noon so we decided to stop and toss in for a bit. After about 5 casts each, we didn't feel the good vibe, so we were back on the road. We were in Provo by 12:30 where Phil had parked his car earlier that morning. We just couldn't get ourselves to be done with the day so early and I told Phil about a spot by Utah Lake (Pleasant Grove Sewer Plant) that I had fished from the boat and knew we could get to from shore. He was in and we were on our way! We got there and were excited to find that the White Bass were stocked up in the tributary as we could see them surfacing all over the place! Or so we thought! We started casting curly tailed grubs right
through the middle of them but couldn't catch them. We caught a White Bass about every twenty casts which is not normal. Any White Bass fisherman knows that if you find them you will catch them about every cast. I switched things up a bit trying to get them to bite and went to a drop shot with a live worm. I instantly hooked up and to our surprise brought in a nice sized Bluegill. The light bulb went on in both our heads and we realized that this is what was surfacing all around us. Bluegill have very small mouths and they were not able to take in our larger jigs. We switched to the smallest jig we had and put it 1 foot underneath a bobber. Then the catching began. We caught Bluegill after Bluegill. We also mixed in some other species as I was able to catch 2 Largemouth and 1 Crappie and Phil also caught a Crappie.
We caught quite a few White Bass and while none of the fish were huge, it was a fun twist to a windy day at Strawberry.

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Another Day at the Office

Fishing Time: 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Weather: Clear, high 40's
Who Went: JJ, Me
Another successful trip to the Berry but with a slight twist. We hit every corner of the lake today trying to locate fish. We started out at the mouth of the narrows with no action. We moved over to the Chicken Creek area and found nothing but moss and no fish. We tried East Portal Bay by the marina and caught a few fish but it certainly wasn't hot! We finally made our way back to the old reliable, in the narrows. We found fish in our favorite spot and stayed there for the rest of the morning! It was here that JJ landed his first ever Rainbow from Strawberry.It was dinky but it was a Rainbow none the less! We continued to catch fish here for most of the morning including a few other small rainbows mixed in with a lot of Cutthroat! Once our spot started to die off we decided to head up to the bay where my dad and I saw that nice Rainbow the day before. We snuck in and started casting and instantly I had a hit but didn't hook up. Soon after JJ had one on and it was another small rainbow. This bay is definitely packed with some Bows! We fished there for about an hour and caught a couple Cutthroats along with JJ's Rainbow. Then we decided to do something a little different than normal and that's where the twist comes in. We ran all the way up to the Soldier Creek side and took a look around! We found an inlet off a deep bay and decided to go in and give it a try! This was the best idea of the day! We instantly started getting hits right after our jigs hit the water. When one of us would catch one and reel it in, three other fish would follow and you could just toss your jig in and they would hit it! It was lights out for two long drifts! Then came the idiots of the year! A group of 6 rednecks, dressed in Ute gear of course, came driving in on a pontoon boat and parked right in the zone where we were drifting about 50 yards from us! It's November and there is hardly any boats on the lake and they chose to park right next to us! They started catching fish and then it was over, they weren't going anywhere! We fished there as long as we could, trying to handle there hillbilly stories, and bizarre music, but it became overwhelming and we decided to leave! I thought about saying something many times but could tell that these were the type of guys that would have loved for us to say something to give them a reason to cause trouble. I still think they dove in on us like that just to see if we would do anything! Uggh! it's making me mad right now just thinking about it! It didn't matter anyway cause we still found more fish to catch along the walls of the narrows and we finished the day catching 49 fish! Just another day at the office!

Friday, November 7, 2008

Fishing with the Old Man

Fishing Time: 10:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Weather: Cloudy, cold, windy, 40's
Who Went: Dad, Me
I finally talked the old man into making a trip to Strawberry with me and we were right on time getting to the lake at 10:30 a.m. (old man time!) Not ideal, but being with my dad made up for it! We started out at the mouth of the narrows and this is where the catching began. I started it off with a couple Cutthroats that were small but they got us on the board! My dad followed by catching a nice 18-19 inch Rainbow, but couldn't quite get it in the boat for a photo. This area started to get slow and windy, so we moved back into the narrows and found a nice point just off a deep cove. We were able to put a few more Cutthroat in the boat including this battle with my dad vs. Cutthroat!


Then we moved into the back of the cove where I instantly hooked up with a nice 17 inch Rainbow. It was the nicest Rainbow I have caught at the Berry since my 7 pound bruiser that I caught 3 years ago!

As I was reeling in this rainbow I noticed it had a follower. It was another Rainbow that I would guess was around the 5 pound mark. This got us excited and we spent the next 2 hours throwing everything we could think of at it trying to catch it! We came up empty handed and finally gave up and went back to catching Cutthroats. I think my dad had a good time and caught a few nice fish.
It's always fun when you get to fish with your dad and I hope I can get him out again!

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Berry with the little ones

Fishing Time: 8:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Weather: Sunny, 50's
Location: Strawberry Reservoir
Who Went: Phil, Dax, Zenger, Zack, Me

I planned on going deer hunting this saturday, but my friends had other things going on, so Phil and I decided to take Dax on a Berry trip. Zenger and his 8 year old son, Zack, tagged along as well. We started out at Chicken Creek East and only found a few fish that would bite. We moved to Strawberry Bay, but nothing was biting there either. We gave Haws Point a quick try and got nothing. We were about to head to the narrows to hide from the oncoming wind but decided to try the mouth of the narrows by drift jigging. Bingo! we finally found some cutts that wanted to bite. We kept seeing large schools of fish that we assumed were chubs roll through on the fish finder. My guess is the cutts were right around the schools feeding on the chubs. We caught around 25 to 30 fish in about 4 drift runs until it finally died down and the chub schools moved on. The wind was worse now so we headed to one of my favorite spots in the narrows. We instantly started catching fish! Well everybody except Phil! The line of the day was when dax, seeing me and Zenger catch fish all day, told Phil, "dad I don't want your help anymore." Not to long after we all looked over and Dax was reeling in his own fish that he caught all by himself! Classic!
Phil had a rough day ending with 8 fish. Zenger and I were both tied at 14 a piece and decided that whoever caught the next fish was the big winner of the day! Just after we said that I missed a good hit, and shortly after Zenger missed one to. Then it ended up where if I got a bite then Zenger would run over and try to steal my fish, and I would do the same to him. It finally ended, when yours truly yanked in the last fish of the day for the big win! It was a blast taking the little guys fishing and I can't wait til my little guy is here doing the same thing!

Monday, August 4, 2008

One Year Wait Pays Off!

Fishing Time: All Day
Weather: Warm, slight breeze on second morning, 90's
Who Went: Dad, Me

After many trips to Flaming Gorge chasing the elusive, Monster Lake Trout, I realized that it could take a lifetime to figure out. So I decided to cheat a little and hire a guide to take my old man and I out on the lake, to show us how it's done! I booked this trip in July of 2007. That's how popular this guide is, he has to be booked over a year in advance! My dad reserved a little cabin just outside of Manilla, Utah and this is where we called home for a few days. We met Captain Jim our guide at the docks at 7:30 a.m., where he informed us that we were late and that the best fishing was already over. I was bummed for sure, but he assured us we would still catch fish! After about 2 hours of learning and incorporating our guides instructions I finally hooked up with the fish I have waited my whole life to catch. When I set the hook it was instant zing from my drag! It dove down about 30 feet to the bottom of a 100 foot floor. I didn't even make up any ground for the first 5 minutes he was on. I just held my pole as tight as I could and made sure I didn't give him any slack! I finally got him to give a little and the battle began. I would gain about 20 feet of line and then he would go back down 30! When I finally won the battle and this monster surfaced I was as happy as a fisherman could be. It was over 30 inches long and weighed in at a whopping 26 pounds. My first trophy Lake Trout!
Once you catch a fish like this, the only thing on your mind is, lets get our poles back in the water and do it again! We fished for a few more hours with a couple missed bites and then my dad hooked up with a 4 pound Mack. Not exactly what we were looking for so no pic was taken and on with the fishing. Soon after, I got a hit, and WHAM! The fight was on again. This one fought very different than the 26 pound fish. Although it was an unbelievable fight, I was able to reel him in almost halfway to the boat from 80 feet, but then he decided he didn't like that and ran on me. Now it felt just like the 26 pound laker caught earlier. I finally got him right to the boat and snap! The hook came flying out of his mouth! I was really angry but it really doesn't matter! I was in it for the fight, which I got, and I would have let him go anyway. The only thing I am missing is a picture. Captain Jim said it was around an eighteen pound fish and that he is usually dead on within a pound or two of estimating the weight of these things, so that's what I'm going with! We fished the rest of the day with a few more hits but no hook-ups. We payed and thanked Captain Jim for his services and then we ran back to our cabin, grabbed my boat and we were back on the water within a couple hours! We had one hit from my boat all evening and it produced this 13 pound Lake Trout! It was a gorgeous evening with an unbelievable sunset and I'm hooked on Mack fishing for life!
The next morning we got up early and were welcomed with a stiff breeze! This is exactly what you don't want while jigging for Lake Trout but we gave it our best anyway! I had one really good hit that I missed and that was it for the day! We had fished hard for 2 straight days with only a few bites, so we decided to travel up lake for the evening and try our luck at some kokanee fishing! We caught a few small kokanee and it ended up being a very beautiful evening! This is a trip I will never forget, and I have learned a special art in learning how to locate and catch large Lake Trout! I just want to be there right now!!!

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Strawberry

Fishing Time: 7:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Weather: Warm, 80's, slight breeze
Who Went: JJ, Me

Another successful Strawberry trip with lots of Cutthroats being landed. The story of this trip was the beautiful weather and scenery that I always enjoy on this high mountain lake! We took a few snapshots from behind the boat just as the sun was about to come over the mountains. This pic shows exactly why I love the outdoors. We gazed at the scenery on the boat ride over to one of our well known and successful spots and when we got there we had this beautiful landscape to welcome us. Finally after all the ooh's and ah's we got down to the actual fishing part.
We were moderately successful, each catching around 10 throughout the day! I was lucky to land this Cutthroat that was a hefty 4.5 pound fish that went 23 1/2 inches long!
JJ got into the mix as well with a couple nice fish of his own.

This is a lake that just can't be matched by any other. It's size, scenery, and wonderful fishing make it one of the best trout fisheries in the country. Lucky for me it's right in my backyard!

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Tough Decisions

Fishing Time: 5:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Weather: Cloudy, breezy, 80's
Water Temp: 70-73 degrees
Who Went: Phil, Me

My cousin Phil and I planned an evening trip to Jordanelle for some more smallie catching so I got the boat and everything ready to go. Then it happened! I got a phone call in the morning from my friend/Real Estate Agent, Dave. One of the homes we went and looked at that I really wanted was being pursued and we had to make a quick decision. Cari had still not seen the house so we had to get her approval before making an offer. With all this hoopla going on most fisherman would probably stay home. Not me! I met Phil as originally planned and told the wife if you like it, then get-er-done! Once fishing we immediately started getting hits and I landed the first one of the day while on the phone with Cari dealing with the house. After that the hits continued but the catching did not. We both had issues getting them into the boat. Phil finally started figuring it out and began putting a few in the boat including the nicest one of the trip at 17 inches and 2 pounds. He caught it in the nook by the dam.I caught a few here and there but missed 80 percent of my bites. Not sure if it was because of how small the fish were that I couldn't hook them or if it was because I was just stinking it up! Probably a little of both. We ended the day by catching a couple a piece off a rocky point then called it quits. I also ended it with a phone call from Dave saying that we are probably owners of a new house, and now residents of Riverton City. It was another beautiful night to be on the lake fishing, oh, and to buy a home.

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Life is Good

Fishing Time: 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Weather: clear skies, 80's, afternoon breeze
Who Went: JJ, John, Me
It's July and the temperatures are consistently in the hundreds now and the valley lakes had no appeal when planning this weeks fishing trip. We wanted to head up in elevation to somewhere with mountain scenery and cooler temps. What better place than Strawberry Reservoir. We arrived at 7:30 a.m. to temperatures in the low 40's. It was a little cold but felt great compared to the 80 degree mornings in the valley. It was a gorgeous day with sunny skies and no wind. We headed into East Portal Bay to start the morning and immediately John found the first fish. It was one of about 6 fish we caught in this area before moving on to new water.

We headed over to the mouth of the narrows and by Rainbow Island. It was here that we had the most success all day. We were fishing in 60 feet of water and the fish were suspended anywhere from 25 to 55 feet. we each caught 5 plus fish from this area.

When it finally started to slow down we cruised across the lake to the island near Chicken Creek East, one of my most productive spots based on passed experience. Not even one fish was caught! This shows what I know. We didn't stay long and we found ourselves with the rest of the world at the back of Strawberry Bay. We figured with that many boats in the area it must be good. We caught a few fish here but it wasn't enough to fulfill my greed so we moved on. I decided to cruise back across the lake and back into the narrows cause JJ and John had never been in there before. It was absolutely gorgeous and that's where we spent most of the afternoon.

We found a nice looking shoreline with a deep drop off and submerged pine trees all along the bank. There were a lot of small chubs swimming around and I figured there had to be some cutthroats hanging around this chub buffet.
When we would find a school of chubs we would drop our jigs right below them and would usually pull out a cutthroat or two. We continued to look for chub schools along this steep shoreline and consistently landed cutthroat with this method.

We also saw a sight you don't see to often on Strawberry Reservoir and that was some recreational boaters. With the hot weather in the valley I can't really blame them.After our excursion in the narrows we headed back to our spot by Rainbow Island to see if the fish came back. They were there but not in the numbers they were in the morning. We spent an hour just drift fishing our jigs in a light breeze picking fish up here and there. I caught one that looked very different than any of the other cutthroats we had caught. I thought it was a kokanee at first but I think it was just a different looking cutthroat. It was really silver and had a blue back unlike most the cutts that have a dark black back and a lot of color and spots on their sides. It also had teeth unlike any cutthroat I have ever seen and no cutthroat markings. I'm still not positive on what species it is but after looking at the DWR handbook it sure looks a lot like a Bear Lake Cutthroat. The Cutthroat planted in Strawberry are the Bonneville Cutthroat. I don't know, but it was different looking!


We were starting to run out of time for the day so we ran back into East Portal Bay near the Marina where we started our morning. JJ took control of the leader board and took a 3 fish lead that I couldn't recover from. He took honors for fisherman of the day! This trip helped me to realize why Strawberry is one of my favorite lakes to fish and that I need to fish it more often. We caught a ton of fish with a few just over the slot limit, and it is beautiful up there with cooler temps and unbelievable scenery. Look forward to doing it again!