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Moon Phase:

Fishing Time: 7:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Weather: perfect, high 30's to 40's

With no one to hit the ice with this weekend I decided that I would save some gas money and hit Utah Lake for a change of pace! I got there early and started my journey out onto the ice. I wanted to get as close to the Saratoga Warm Springs as possible without falling through. I made it pretty close with 2 inches of ice under me and decided not to push my luck any further! As soon as I got there two guys came and started fishing right next to me saying how they do really well here for Largemouth bass and White Bass. I got talking to them and pretty soon we were all drilling holes all over trying to find fish! We were sharing ice augers and everything! Amazing how some people feel right at home after meeting you for 5 minutes. I was fishing in anywhere from 4 feet to 6 feet deep and was seeing fish all over. Then I started getting hits left and right but they felt like little perch hits and then they were gone! I finally pulled one out and sure enough it was about a 5 inch perch. As soon as I had it out of the hole the guy next to me grabbed it and started cutting it up to use as bait, so no pics! It was pretty funny! I continued to get bites all morning but couldn't land anything. Then I got hammered on a larger Sonar jig tipped with a minnow and I know it was something more than a perch! I jerked so hard that my jig came flying out of the hole like a rocket! I forgot its not like last week catching Macks at 80 feet! About an hour later I finally hooked up again and pulled out another dinky perch, and I took some pics of him.

Those were the only two I pulled out from about 40 bites! I need smaller jigs I guess. They also seemed to like when I tipped with a minnow over an earthworm. It was a beautiful day and I was shedding close off when the sun came out! Not the best fishing but easy on the wallet!

Flaming Gorge Ice Fishin!

Moon Phase:

Fishing Time: 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Weather: breezy, partly cloudy, 20's to 30's

Another year and another great trip! We all showed up Friday night to Green River Wyoming, where the beautiful Coachman inn awaited us. We had intentions of a long day of fishing to come on Saturday! We were on the ice before sun up and off the ice well after dark! When we got there we used the GPS to locate ourselves right on top of a 55 foot hump surrounded by 80 feet of water. Once we finally found it, we set up shop and sent our lines down the hole! Dave was the first one on the board with this nice little Mack! He didn't stop there either, he had a 4 to nothin lead on all of us before I even got a bite. It didn't take Hunt long though to get himself on the board and go on a run of his own! He led the group by catching 7 Lake Trout and 1 Rainbow! Dave ended up catching 6 Lake Trout, JJ caught 5, Ed had a career high with 3, and Barclay and Newton also caught a couple each! I ended the day with 4 Lake Trout, 1 Rainbow, and 1 Burbot. The picture of me below is of the Rainbow I caught at 80 feet deep! He was Mack lunch waiting to happen!

The ice was about 6 inches thick and cracking all over. It made for an exciting but somewhat scary day! We fished just south of Buckboard Marina. All fish were caught on tube jigs mostly white in color. JJ caught one Mack that was carrying an interesting tag along! This mack obviously decided to have Burbot for lunch and the Burbot had other ideas! It looks like the
Mack ate the Burbot and the Burbot tried to slither out threw the Macks gills but got stuck and died! It was really weird! Right before it got dark we decided to high tail it back to the truck and we drove to Lost Dog which is at the very north end of the lake. This is where the Burbot supposedly hang out. We heard it was better to fish for them in the dark, so we pulled up to Lost Dog just before the last ray of sun went down. We fished in 15 feet of water and used 3" glow in the dark tube jigs tipped with a chub, and sprayed with craw/anise smelly jelly! right as we put our lines down, I had a hit and we all got excited to pull in one of these ugly things! A hit was all I got, but then out of no where Hunt had one on! He fought it all the way to the hole and it got off! Dang it! We were not sure if we were getting hit by small Rainbows or if it was in fact the Burbot we were looking for. Soon after I finally set the hook on one and pulled in the ugliest thing I have ever seen come through an ice hole! The dreaded Burbot!
It had been a long day but a very successful and fun one too. The only thing I am still missing is the wall hanger Mack that I just can't seem to hook! Someday it will happen! I will continue to fish new humps and drop-offs until I find where the big boys hang!

A New Year!

Moon Phase:

Fishing Time: 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Weather: mid 30's, sunny, no wind

I hope this new year doesn't continue like the first trip of 2008. I started it off by forgetting my camera! Then I finished it off by only catching 4 fish! Dave and JJ each caught 2, and Ed threw up another skunk! I know with no pictures the posts can be pretty boring but I had to talk a little about how popular ice fishing is becoming! We have been hammered with snow this winter and there is about a foot and a half of snow on top of a half foot of slush on Strawberry Reservoir. This does not make for easy traveling across the lake. Most are very limited to where they can fish unless you have a snowmobile. This being the case it has shown how many people ice fish! We went to Chicken Creek East and the parking lot was full! people had to park along the road and walk down! 5 years ago if you got to the lake at 7:30 in the morning you might see 2 or 3 cars in the whole parking lot! When I first started ice fishing in 1999 I thought it was the neatest thing ever because you could show up to a lake on a Saturday and be the only ones on the lake! Things sure have changed, but like everything else in life you have to adapt! A lot of it has to do with the size of fish that Strawberry continues to produce, due to the slot limit rule. The slot limit rule means you can keep 2 fish under 15 inches and 1 over 22 inches but everything in between must be immediately released. This rule only applies to Cutthroat while all rainbows and Kokanee Salmon can be kept up to the 4 fish bag limit. The idea behind the rule is to allow Cutthroats to reach a large enough size to maintain their steady diet of small chubs in which Strawberry continues to be plagued. This in return, helps in minimizing the chub population and ending the boom and bust cycle that Strawberry has dealt with for years. This law has been in place since 2003 and has had a drastic effect on the fish size and catch rate! It is very average to catch over 20 fish in one day while having the average size of fish at over 21 inches! The only problem is that the large Cutthroats make it hard for smaller salmon and rainbows to survive making Strawberry primarily a cutthroat fishery only! It has become known as the greatest trout fishery in the United States, and while it is awesome to have a lake like this only a little over an hour away, the fishing pressure it receives makes it less relaxing to fish than many of the other lakes with less people! With all this said, you might see me fish some different lakes this ice fishing season. Even though the size of fish on average at other lakes might not be as big as Strawberry, its time for some variety in species and scenery! Plus there are plenty of big fish in other waters also! That's my rant!!!