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!