Weather: Clear, calm, 30's
Moon Phase: 5% Moon
Location: Strawberry Reservoir
Bait: White tube jig tipped with meal worm or minnow
Who Went: Hunt and his cousin zack and uncle Darren, John, Newton, Me
My buddy Hunt came in town for Christmas and wanted to hit the ice like the old days, so I tried to make it an after Christmas party and invite the whole crew, but most bailed on me right at the end. We still had a pretty good turn out and had a lot of fun. We’ve had very little snow this year and were surprised to find the road going around Strawberry Reservoir is still accessible with only a few inches of snow.
In my 10 years of ice fishing Strawberry I’ve never seen it where ice is capping the entire reservoir and this road is still accessible. We took advantage and headed around the lake all the way to Renegade Bay. It was my first time ice fishing there and we were excited to fish new territory. Once we had our gear set up, it didn’t take long for everyone to start catching fish. Hunt’s Uncle Darren had the hot hand to start the day catching 8 fish in the first couple hours.
I struggled to get going, but as usual made my late push at the end.
Bobber John was steady all morning pulling in a fish here and there.
Hunt, Newton, and Zack had a tough time finding their groove, but all landed around 4-6 fish.
We fished in 20-25’ of water using standard white tube jigs tipped with a minnow or meal worm. Both baits worked with similar success. We caught 3 cutthroats over the slot limit at 23 inches, and 3 rainbows in the 14-17 inch range.We had a Bald Eagle that was watching us the whole time looking for a free meal. We placed one
of the rainbows that Darren took home for dinner out beyond us a ways to see if he would fly over and pick it up, but he never did. It looked like I was going to be the Fisherman of the Day (FOD) with a one fish lead, but John tied it up at the very end with 11, and then quickly took the lead with 12. Everyone was ready to go so I told him I conceded, but left my rod in my hole as we packed our gear. John showed great sportsmanship as I wasn’t even paying attention to my rod, and hesitantly, he let me know that my rod was bouncing. I grabbed it and reeled in number 12 and tied John for FOD. It was good to get old friends out on the ice and reminisce the good old days, when we were the fastest in our sport and held every manly record Jordan High School ever had. We had some good laughs!
I had a half day off yet again, and figured I would go on another fish hunt with Johnny Leach this afternoon. I was thinking we should try and find a few whitebass for the freezer this time since I’ve already got a shelf full of bluegill. We started on the Jordan River below the pump house at Utah Lake where I know a little spot that is fed by warm springs and usually attracts fish during the colder months of the year. The fish ended up being there, but so were the fishermen. I was disappointed to see so many people there and once again another secret is gone! The fishermen were catching tiny crappie one after another, but none were big enough to eat. I wasn’t in the mood to combat fish so we moved on to the Lindon Boat Harbor in search of some whitebass. The harbor is iced over with this recent cold snap and there were already a few holes pre-drilled for us when we arrived. We fished for 15 minutes with no bites, and that’s all it took to figure out the white bass were not active, so we left the harbor and headed back to our old reliable bluegill spot where we have been knocking them dead. This time I decided to make a sneak attack when we first got there and throw something that might entice a largemouth to bite. My first cast with my Christmas colored (no pun intended) curly tailed grub landed me a nice 13 inch largemouth!
I casted a few more times and was able to land two more small ones. I guess the fish were feeling the Christmas spirit! They soon figured out we were there and the hits subsided. The bluegill fishing was the same as last week with one on almost every cast. I would try and pull my worm away from the smaller ones this time and patiently wait for a bigger one to bite. A couple times I enticed another largemouth bass to hit, and was able to land one more on a worm. We only kept about 15 of the biggest bluegill along with two largemouths, and it was a good thing, because John ended up leaving before filleting them and any more would have been a nightmare to do myself. I added three more zip loc bags of meat to the freezer for a grand total of eight large bags! I think it’s time to have a bluegill fish fry! 
Rick called me and wanted to hit the Bear River as a last ditch effort to catch some big browns this year. He’s been there twice already during the spawn, but with the overwhelming flows on the rivers this year, both times he went were a bust. The flows were 3 times greater than average this fall and he said the river was high, fast, and really muddy both times he went. The rivers have finally settled down for the year, so we gave it a shot. It was snowing during our drive up and the high for the day was in the teens. With no wind it wasn’t too bad, but the river was feeling the cold and had almost completely iced over! The areas that had moving water looked good, but we never did see a fish.
One of Ricks fishing buddies, Josh, came with us and even though the fishing was miserable, the trip was fun as usual with good talk and a lot of laughs! Hopefully we don’t get pounded by snow this winter and can actually fish some rivers next year. 2011 was crazy! The Great Salt Lake rose over 5 feet in 2011, which is a record, but just one of the many records that were broke this year. Don’t get me wrong, we need the water and I’m glad the lakes are full, but we could have spread it out over a few years instead of getting it all in one. It’s time to start looking forward to ice fishing.
I had a half day off yesterday, so I talked to Johnny Leach and mulled over a few areas we could go to wet a line for a few hours and land some fish. I’m on a new kick to fill my freezer with fish after realizing that I eat more fish than any other meat and have always bought it from the store, all while releasing the fish I catch myself! Duh!
I figured it might be full of bluegill this time of year and I ended up being right. We caught them almost every cast! They weren’t small either, measuring 7-10 inches!
We kept 32 of them and hit the road early to make sure we had enough daylight to fillet them all.
After filleting them, John asked me if I was down for round 2 the next morning. I thought about it and figured why not fill the freezer while the opportunity is there! 
We harvested 60 bluegill, which filled one 5-gallon bucket, and kept us busy with the fillet knife for about an hour and a half.
When we were done we had 2 overfilled gallon baggies full of fillets. We divided them up equally and with all the fillets I got today, plus the ones from yesterday, I had enough bluegill to make about 6 large family size meals for the deep freezer!
True to tradition any time I fillet fish at my house, we always treat Duke to one fish and watch him suck it down in about 3 seconds. That dog will eat anything!
I told Cari my goal is to become a fish hoarder and have nothing but fish in our big freezer in the garage! She didn’t go for it! 
I had the opportunity to go down to the warm state of Arizona for work from November 13 through the 22nd. I flew into Phoenix then drove 3 hours southwest to Yuma, Arizona. The lucky part about this trip is one of our subcontractors (Jonathan) was local and an avid fisherman. His favorite target is the flathead catfish that are found in most lakes and rivers in the area. He doesn’t just go for any catfish though; his goal is to break the state record! Unfortunately I was there in the off season for big catfish, but he told me he still catches them occasionally. I tried to fit in some bass fishing after work the first week, but only had a couple nights where I actually finished work before dark and was able to get in about 15-30 minutes of actual fishing.
I caught tons of bluegill and largemouth, but none of the bass were very big. My camera decided to crap out on me after 8 years so most my pictures are pretty poor taken from my camera on my phone. One spot I fished right after work was below the diversion of the Colorado River into the All American Canal.
This canal sends what looked like 60-70% of the water in the Colorado River straight to California! The river above the diversion is impressive, but the river below is a third the size. The diversion ran down multiple concrete shoots before turning into one big canal.
The next night of fishing I had about 30 min. before dark and fished further down on the All American Canal where you can literally just drive the canal looking out the window sight fishing for bass and bluegill.
It was a lot of fun, but got dark way to fast. I caught a lot of bass, but they were all small in the 1 -1 ½ lb range.
I was working at the Yuma Proving Grounds Army Base and they do not work Fridays, so Jonathan and I planned a 3 day straight fishing adventure for flathead catfish. The way Jonathon fishes for these flatheads is at night! He shows up to the canal Thursday evening just before dark and catches a few bluegill to use for bait. He uses live bluegill for bait! Then he fishes all night Thursday for flatheads until the sun comes up on Friday and he begins fishing for Friday night’s bluegill. Once he has a few bluegills he goes home and sleeps until just before dark. He repeats this process through Saturday night and then sleeps most of Sunday before waking up and dressing out the catfish he caught over the weekend. He told me he has done this every weekend all year long with the exception of only a few where he had other commitments. Dude is a freak and I loved it!
Jonathan warned me that this was a tough time of year to catch bluegill, but that this was a good spot. I fished hard during the hour of daylight I had left and caught channel catfish and largemouth bass, but was only able to land one measly bluegill for bait.
Let me tell you, having the pressure to catch your bait before fishing is something that is very new to me and I loved it! I’ve never been more focused on catching a bluegill in my life! I would miss a hit and it was devastating!
After that we sat there until 4:00 a.m. without so much as a nibble! It was all I could do to stay focused, but not Jonathan, I could tell that he knew what the possibilities were at any given moment. It reminded me of my lake trout fishing experiences where most people I take want to call it a day, but I stay focused as ever because I know it only takes one hit to catch the biggest fish of your life! Just after 4:00 a.m I couldn’t deal with it anymore and called it quits, so Jonathan did to. I went home and slept until my internal clock made me get out of bed at 10:00 a.m. Crazy as I am, I got up and went bass fishing all day, only to return to my hotel room and receive a phone call from Jonathan telling me he’s heading out to catch bluegill for tonight’s fishing! That said, I headed back to the canal where we fished for bluegill until dark.
It was tough fishing again, but I was able to land two and Jonathan one, so we at least had a few bluegill for bait.
By this time I was exhausted and Jonathon began talking to me about Saturday nights fishing. In my mind I was thinking, there is no way I’m staying out all night again to watch a rod that never moves. So I ditched out and drove to Phoenix instead, to visit my buddy Shain Jorgensen who moved down there a few years ago. When I woke up at Shain’s house on Sunday morning I had a new picture message on my phone from Jonathan that read… “why did you leave lmao!” with this picture attached…
I couldn’t believe it! All that time spent with no bites and he lands a 25-30 lb catfish the moment I leave! This got my juices flowing again and I told him we had to try one more night! I left Arizona on a Tuesday, so Monday night before leaving I talked him into going out for one last chance. We started fishing around 5:00 p.m. for bait and were able to land a couple bluegills for the night. Once it was dark we threw two rods out hoping for one last chance. At 8:30 p.m. I finally had a bite.
I grabbed the rod and it was bouncing vigorously. I asked if I should set the hook and he firmly told me no way! He directed me to free spool my line and let the fish run, so I did. I free spooled my reel and wow did the fish run! He must have taken 50 yards off the spool when Jonathan told me to slow him down with my thumb until bringing him to a complete stop. Once he was stopped we let him run one more time breaking him down to a stop with my thumb again. By this time I couldn’t stand it any longer and felt I had to set the hook. Jonathan told me to wait for one good tug and then to set it. I felt a few minor tugs and then my line just stayed taunt with no play. At first I thought the fish was just holding it in his mouth, but after 30 seconds I realized something wasn’t right. Jonathan shined his flashlight down into the canal and my line was heading straight down the bank into some big rocks! Still not worried with 80 lb test, Jonathan tried to get my line untangled until he fell flat on his butt as the strong line finally gave and snapped in half. My spirits were at an all time low, and to make matters worse, Jonathan began telling me that based on how the fish was running he felt it was a good catfish in the 30-40 pound range! I was in pure depression. We still had one pole left with a live bluegill and I patiently waited until around 1:00 a.m. but the next bite never came. I can’t get the big fish out of my mind, but with more work planned in Yuma next year, I don’t expect it to be my last chance! The bass fishing was fun and the bluegills down there are huge! All in all I had a good time, but can’t wait for another chance to join the 40 pound catfish club!
We went to Willard Bay tonight in search of some boiling wipers and hopes that Rick could check them off his species to catch list. Jason Willard from Rocky Mountain Anglers joined us in our pursuit and we were on the water by 4:00 p.m. From the reports we read prior to going, the boils hadn’t been starting until right before sundown and that ended up being accurate. We spent the first 2 hours motoring around the north dike trying to find boils or fish on the finder. There wasn’t much going on anywhere other than two lonesome channel cats that Jason landed dragging a chartreuse jig with a worm.
It started getting close to dark so we decided to go boil hunting. We trolled the shorelines and found a few wipers surfacing for shad, but never could find a consistent boil to land any fish. It was disappointing as the sun went down and we were left with one fish and a bunch of missed opportunities. Rick will have to make a return trip to get wiper off his species caught list.