Close to Home!

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!