Weather: Cold, no wind, single digits
Moon Phase: 71% Moon
Location: Strawberry Reservoir
Ice Thickness: 12 inches
Bait: White tube jig tipped with minnow
Who Went: Hunt, JJ and his friend Dave, Newt and his friend Chris, Rick and his friend Chad, Me
Every year when I put up my new calendar I mark the 26th of December as "the best fishing day of the year". Strawberry Reservoir usually freezes right around Christmas day, and if you can time it right, which is usually around the 26th, the fishing can be rediculously good! I recorded my personal best at the berry on this day two years ago when I landed 51 cutthroat trout, including a nice 24 inch, 5 pound cutt. That being said, this morning started with great anxiety and anticipation to duplicate the years past. This year was a little different though, as temperatures have been very cold and Strawberry has been frozen for almost two weeks now, the ice has already felt the footprints of many fisherman hoping for the same success we have experienced. We got to Chicken Creek East early in the morning and walked out onto the ice in -11 temps before the sun started creeping over the mountains. We set up shop at an extending point where I have had a lot of success in the past. Once the fishing began I instantly hooked into my first trout of the day. Once released, I dropped my jig down again, and before it even got to the bottom I was already reeling in another one. This one was nice and probably hit the 4 pound mark.
Thoughts of a great day started to enter my mind! I dropped my jig down again, but this time I sat there for an hour with no bites. To make matters worse, none of the other 7 guys I was fishing with had any bites either! We decided to go on a fish hunt and hiked close to another half mile out to the island to see if the unchartered territory might bring more success. I managed to catch two more fish out of the area but that was it! We moved again with the same result, only this time I landed one fish. The rest of the group was still skunked! Two guys I was with decided to give Strawberry the birdie finger and left early, while the rest of us made the trek of a lifetime across the entire bay over to a little cove we felt might hold fish. When we got there I quickly hooked up with a fish and the others started to get angry with my success. Soon after though,
Thoughts of a great day started to enter my mind! I dropped my jig down again, but this time I sat there for an hour with no bites. To make matters worse, none of the other 7 guys I was fishing with had any bites either! We decided to go on a fish hunt and hiked close to another half mile out to the island to see if the unchartered territory might bring more success. I managed to catch two more fish out of the area but that was it! We moved again with the same result, only this time I landed one fish. The rest of the group was still skunked! Two guys I was with decided to give Strawberry the birdie finger and left early, while the rest of us made the trek of a lifetime across the entire bay over to a little cove we felt might hold fish. When we got there I quickly hooked up with a fish and the others started to get angry with my success. Soon after though,they all got into the mix each catching a few of there own.
JJ landed this cutthroat that had no color at all! I think it could have been an albino. I took a close up picture to show how the fish literally had no color pigment at all!
The somewhat faster fishing didn't last very long and soon enough the boredom got to us. We decided to have an Ice Auger Championship, "man vs. machine". Hunt is probably the fastest I have ever seen at drilling a hole through the ice with a hand auger, so we put him to the test. This is the results of round one...Since JJ encountered some starting malfunctions we decided to give him another chance in round 2...
It was a tight race, but it looks like if the machine starts quickly it will make it through 12 inches of ice faster than man. After that excitement was over we decided to call it a day. As we crossed over the entire bay to get to our cars we ran into some interesting moments. The crystals on the ice made for some cool pics.
We also ran into some sketchy areas in the middle of the bay that looked to be open water and some very thin ice. It was like a mine field and we had to be very careful all the way back to our vehicles.
It was a tight race, but it looks like if the machine starts quickly it will make it through 12 inches of ice faster than man. After that excitement was over we decided to call it a day. As we crossed over the entire bay to get to our cars we ran into some interesting moments. The crystals on the ice made for some cool pics.
We also ran into some sketchy areas in the middle of the bay that looked to be open water and some very thin ice. It was like a mine field and we had to be very careful all the way back to our vehicles.
One of my ice fishing goals this year is to land a walleye through the ice. I made my first attempt tonight at Utah Lake. I arrived to the warm springs near the "L" at Lincoln Beach around 4:30 p.m. There was absolutely no one around and it felt like I had the whole lake to myself.
First thing I did was walk onto the ice and drilled a hole to check for strength. Ice was a solid 4 inches so I was good to go! Gathered my gear and walked out to an area that looked walleyeish. I drilled about 12 holes in all different depths and locations. Next thing I did was go back to the shore and sit there for 45 minutes. Sounds crazy I know, but I have heard that this is the secret to walleye fishing at Utah Lake. The lake is very shallow and walleye are so timid that you have to be very quiet, so you don't spook them off. You can't be trudging all over the ice drilling holes in 5 feet of water right above their heads! Once my 45 minutes was up I tippy toed as quiet as I could out onto the ice and began fishing each and every hole. I saw a fair amount of fish on my fish finder that came up to my offering, only to move on without a bite. I stuck it out well into dark but it wasn't to be, so the walleye go up 1-0 in the series this year. 
I know it's a little early for ice fishing, but the itch started early this year, and I heard that Scofield was already frozen with the recent cold snap we've had. With that said, we made the trip to one of the coldest places on earth! When we got there I was shocked that my truck said it was a cozy 9 degrees. I was expecting temps in the negatives. I stepped out of the truck and soon realized that with the wind, my expectations were met. It couldn't have been over -10 with the windchill factor! Half the lake was still open water so we were careful as we walked out onto the ice and checked it for strength. It was solid as a rock so we made our way out to a spot that looked good. We set up shop and we were all glad that JJ brought his new ice fishing shack that is about the size of a house. It fits three guys very comfortably and I am amazed how far the ice shack engineers have come in building these things. It went up in under 5 minutes. As soon as we started fishing we began getting hits and seeing fish all over the fish finder. We had a hard time hooking anything for the first half hour until Dave hooked up and we found out why. We were sitting right in the middle of Chub City! We started landing little chubs left and right! We started getting some trout in the mix as well, so we just stayed put since the weather didn't really give us the urge to move. The trout were all small and we caught cutthroats, rainbows and Dave landed one Tiger Trout. 
Once the weather calmed down a bit we decided to venture to some new holes. I think we should have done this a few hours earlier but oh well. We didn't catch as many fish, but the ones we did catch were trout. JJ was having a tough day so he decided he was gonna start fishing out of Daves hole .
We ended the day with a total of approximately 40 chubs and 36 trout. Trout totals were me at 18, Dave at 14, and JJ with 4. The ice fishing has officially started and with the cold weather sticking around the other lakes are probably close already! As we walked off the ice I took some photos of the open water out in the distance. If you look close in these last two pictures you can see it just past the guy in the orange pumpkin suit.
