Cold and Slow at "Da Field"

Fishing Time:  5:30 AM to 11:00 AM

Weather:  Clear skies, calm, T-1 degree

Moon Phase:  10% Moon

Location:  Scofield

Bait:  Tube jigs tipped with minnow

Who Went:  John, Alonzo, Rick and 3 buddies, Mike, Me

The annual after Christmas ice fishing party didn’t last long this year.  Someone had the bright idea to leave at 4 AM (Rick and John) and get set up in the dark to be ready to fish the primetime (morning).  If setting up our gear underneath the moonlight and twiddling our thumbs for another 1 hour in complete darkness freezing our butts off was their plan… then we succeeded.  I can honestly say that my feet have never been as cold as they were today.  The temps were around 1 degree, which is actually much warmer than a lot of ice fishing trips I’ve been on, but I think it was just the constant 1 degree in the dark doing nothing for 2 hours that froze them solid and they just never recovered.

 

To add insult to injury, we were bombarded with people at sunlight crowding in on us from each side.  The fishing was very slow and I’m sure the fact we literally had a power auger buzzing within 50 yards of us all morning didn’t help.  Bobber John took honors today with the only decent fish.  

The camera didn’t get much use since I spent most of the morning walking around trying to get blood flow back into my feet.  We caught a few small cutthroats and John’s tiger trout, but that was it.  We weaved our sleds through the crowds and back to our truck at 11:00 AM and called it quits.  By noon we were eating wings and watching football at the sports bar.  Should have saved the gas money and just went straight to the bar to watch football and stay warm.

First Ice at "Da Field"

Fishing Time: 7:30 am – 2:00 pm

Weather:  Sunny, light afternoon breeze, T-20s

Moon Phase:  2% Moon

Location:  Scofield

Bait:  Jig head tipped with chub minnows

Who Went:  Hunt, Bobber, Alonzo, Me

First ice at Scofield was a priority this year and the recent cold temps had us itching to go up there and test the ice.  Our schedules didn’t line up and Rick went a day earlier than the rest of us, so he was the first to step on the thin ice.  It got me very excited when I received a picture message of this 6 pound 10 oz beast that he landed. 

His fishing report was of non-stop action, but very thin and sketchy ice.  With a low in the single digits forecasted for that night I figured all the ice could do is grow!

As I was loading my ice gear the next morning, Bobber and his brother in-law Alonzo pulled up to my house.  I was shocked when my long lost buddy, Hunt got out of Bobbers car.   Apparently those two are Facebook friends and Bobber invited Hunt ice fishing to surprise me.  Hunt was in town for Thanksgiving.  That was a cool surprise.  So we loaded all the gear and arrived at Scofield around 7:30.  There was no snow on the ice and the ice looked very fresh. 

In fact, the only holes we found were the ones Rick made the day before.  One other group showed up for the day, but other than them, we had the lake to ourselves.  No auger was needed today as two punches with the spud bar are all it took to break through to water.

The ice was so clear you could see a good 5 feet down and the shallows were swarming chubs.  We used the spud bar and quickly speared a bunch for bait.  They would get trapped between the shoreline and ice layer for easy pickens.  I realized very quickly that the predatory fish were loving life gorging on all the chubs when I caught the smallest cutthroat of the day with a 7-inch decomposed chub minnow hanging out his mouth. 

We set up shop and instantly began catching fish.  Most were small cutthroat, but we did eventually land a few nice ones.  Bobber marked another species off his list with this nice tiger trout. 

The fish were so aggressive you could pull your jig from the bottom up to your hole and watch the fish follow and swarm your bait. At times, two or three fish would be fighting over the bait.  We were fishing in 11 feet of water. 

We used tip ups and that was fun, but didn’t produce many fish.  When the flag would go up, Hunt and I would run and try to set the hook, but missed almost every fish.  Bobber being from Ohio is more acquainted with the tip up method and he landed quite a few.  Hunt and I never did figure it out.  Hunt even put a 12 inch chub on one of them, hoping a 20 lb tiger trout might come pick it up, but it never happened. 

The fishing stayed consistent most of the morning and while I was watching two fish swarm on my bait about 5 feet below the ice, a big cutthroat blew right through the smaller fish and smacked my bait and ran.  It was a fun battle and I was able to get this nice 5 pound cutthroat onto the ice.

Bobber, not to be outdone, landed another 5 pound cutthroat about an hour later. 

Those were the two nicest fish of the day.  We landed 3 tiger trout and the rest were all cutthroats.  No rainbows.  After about noon the fishing died and the sun came out and got the ice talking.  It started getting a bit sketchy as this short movie shows…

First ice at Scofield brought in two 5 pound and one 6 pound 10 oz cutthroats in two days.  I think (for now) the Berry is dead to me.  Scofield is the new trout paradise, and I love the fact that you can always hope for one of those monster tiger trout that people seem to keep pulling out of there recently.  

Chasing State Records at Scofield

Fishing Time:  8:30 am to 1:00 pm

Weather:  partly cloudy, no wind, T-40s

Moon Phase:  60% Moon

Location:  Scofield Reservoir

Bait:  Jerk baits, rapalas, crankbaits, white tube jig tipped with sucker

Water Temp:  34 degrees

Who Went:  Rick, Bobber John, Alonzo, Me

The state record for tiger trout has been broken a few times in the last year all from Scofield Reservoir and the photos of all these big fish has definitely got my blood pumping.  I fished Scofield a lot growing up in my trout filled childhood, but Scofield has been off the radar for a long time.  I think it's time to rekindle the relationship.  

We were the only boat on the lake today, after Rick's jeep slid down the icy boat ramp and launched us into the cold water.  I read reports that the entire lake was capped with an inch of ice the next day.  Therefore, we were the last ones to put a boat on Scofield in the year 2013.  The temps were not "Scofield" cold and the wind was calm, so it was a perfect day for fishing.  We had high hopes of landing the new state record tiger trout.

I started the day with a nice chunky tiger that got all our juices flowing and we thought it was the start to an epic day.  

We caught quite a few fish, mostly cutthroats, but Rick threw a rarity in the mix for Scofield when he landed this nice brown trout.

Bobber John and his brother in-law Alonzo were on the cutthroat train and landed quite a few of them, but never did get any with much size.

For a moment we all thought Alonzo had the state record on after being was snagged for a few minutes he broke free, but something was still on the end of his line.  Instead it ended up being another fisherman's long lost fishing pole decked out with a sweet push button Zebco reel.

I was able to land one nice tiger trout late in the day, but it wasn't the state record we were looking for.  It's my personal best tiger trout to this point in my life.  We didn't get a length or weight on him, but he was a nice fish. 

Spawning Lake Trout and Slimy Eels at the Gorge

Fishing Time: 9:00 am to 9:30 pm

Weather: Clear, calm, T-50s

Moon Phase: Full Moon

Location: Flaming Gorge

Bait: Lake Trout- jigs and kastmasters, Burbot- glow curly tails tipped with sucker

Water Temp:  45 degrees

Who Went:  Rick, Bobber John, Me

The lake trout spawn has always peaked my interest and I wanted to go up to Flaming Gorge and see if the stories of blacked out fish finders in the back of Linwood Bay were true.  Rick brought his underwater camera and we drove into Linwood Bay mid-morning.  

The night before was an eventful one with I-80 closed east of Evanston due to 30 wrecks over a 5 mile stretch (very icy roads).   We cancelled our room in Manila, Utah, and grabbed the first hotel in Evanston we could find.  Woke up to about 5-inches of snow and slowly made our way to Lucerne Marina.  

I had one hump marked on my GPS/fish finder that was far back into Linwood Bay and as soon as we arrived the blacked out fish finder stories became a reality. The entire lake bottom was covered with marks.  We lowered the camera and watched lake trout swimming around at their leisure.  We dropped jigs down to see how the fish reacted and it's almost exactly what I would have expected  after fishing for them many times in the summer.  They just wander by your jig with absolutely no intentions of biting. Really makes you wonder what finally entices them to bite when they finally decide to.

Rick and Bobber John were able to entice a couple small lake trout into biting, but I missed my only hit for a lake trout skunk (which I'm used to).  Rick and John both look thrilled with there big lake trout catches... or not!

We trailered the boat early to game plan for burbot that night and drove north and down a long dirt road to lost dog only to find there is no boat ramp.  Turned back around and launched at Buckboard Marina with 15 minutes of daylight to spare. We found some potential burbot honey holes, but only one of the holes consistently produced burbot under the light of the full moon.  The fishing never did get fast and furious, but after a couple hours we were able to put about 15 burbot in the boat and they were some of the biggest I have seen yet.  Rick and I both forgot our iphones for pictures so we were left with this one awesome photo with Bobber John's phone (FAIL).  We caught a few that were considerably larger than this one.  

The weather during the night was very mild and the full moon made it easy to see.  We could have stayed all night if it weren't for the long drive home and work to look forward to the next day.  I walked in my door at 2 am. 

It was fun to go look at all the lake trout on the underwater camera during the spawn, but I think we all learned that this is not a great time to fish for them.  A cool experience none the less.  After dropping Bobber John off at his house around 2 am to fillet all the burbot himself, I received this picture message from him the next day.  Hes a sick sick man.

Spawning Browns on the Bear River

Fishing Time:  9:00 AM to 4:00 PM

Weather:  partly cloudy, breezy, T-50s

Moon Phase: 97% Moon

Location:  Bear River

Bait: Glow bugs, jig head with worm

Who Went: Bobber John, Rick, Me

It’s spawning time on the Bear River and we made it just in time to catch the tail end of it.  We found beds all over the river, but most of them were already vacated.  However, we did find a few beds that still held some nice fish including the biggest brown I’ve seen on the river yet.  Rick and I used fly rods throwing the old faithful pale orange glow bug and bobber used a spinning rod throwing an orange jig head tipped with a crawler.  Both worked well when we found fish.

I was first on the board after Rick found two fish and directed my casting and told me when to set the hook.  It was a very nice male with beautiful colors and a huge hooked jaw!  It was gorgeous.

Bobber was second to land a really nice fat female floating the jig tipped with worm right through her spawning bed.  The fish here are absolutely amazing.

Rick got on the board with an extremely long cast and hook set that I should have film of, but of course it was about the only cast he made all day that I wasn’t filming.  Go figure.

The last and best spot we found held multiple fish including an absolute monster that we all dreamed of catching.  We threw to him many times to no avail and then moved up river for a bit to give him a rest, but before we left I took some film.  

We came back about an hour later and the big fish continued to ignore everything we threw at him. I casted to him for about a half hour straight to end the day and was basically practicing my casting at this point when Rick yelled at me to set the hook.  Sure enough I had him on the end of my line and Rick jumped down from the bank to help me land him.  I was able to get him right up near shore, but he was a long way from being exhausted and took a very hard run to deeper water.  My amateur fly fishing skills had me fumbling with extra line and trying to control the drag with my fingers. I put a little too much tension on the fish and snap! Gone!  I was devastated.  This was a fish of a lifetime.  It was a heart breaker for sure, but that’s the life of a fisherman.  It’s very tough to land fish of that size on a fly rod with light line.  Either way it was another great and successful day on the Bear River for spawning browns. 

Lonely Fly Fishing on the Hams Fork

Fishing Time:  6:00 pm - 8:30 pm

Weather:  Rain, Cloudy, T-70s

Moon Phase:  1% Moon

Location:  Hams Fork River - Kemmerer, Wyoming

Bait:  Assorted nymphs, dry flies, and streamers

Who Went:  Me

I was able to sneak out and go fishing one evening while working in Kemmerer, Wyoming and drove up to Lake Viva Naughton where I parked and walked down to the Hams Fork River below the dam.  

It was a warm cloudy night with light rain showers and the bugs were out in full force.  Lucky for me, not many were mosquito's, but I think the fish were in seventh heaven with a constant dinner buffet floating on the water.  It made for some tough fishing as I used dry flies and nymphs to no avail.  I finally landed one small brown on a streamer, but that was it.  The weather made for some awesome views though and the scenery on this river is worth the walk.  I may be working up that way again in the near future and I can’t wait to give it another go.  Hopefully the bugs will have subsided by then and give me more of an advantage.

I fished a community pond near the Naughton Power Plant the next night for a few minutes, but the wind blew me and my fly rod off the lake.  Imagine that... wind in Wyoming.  One of my work contacts up there is a local of Kemmerer and told me there are some big browns in this pond that come shallow and get active in the fall.  Not a horrible spot to try as its 5 minutes from my job-site.

I took a couple nice photos of the storm moving in over Lake Viva Naughton right at sunset...

The Good, Bad, and The Ugly

Fishing Time:  1:30 pm - 7:00 pm

Weather: Partly cloudy, windy, T-80s

Moon Phase:  7% Moon

Location: Bear River

Bait:  Bobber- gold blue fox spinner, Rick and Me- white and green streamers on the fly rods

Who Went:  Bobber John, Rick, Me

I met up with Rick and Bobber John on the Bear River as I was heading from my family vacation in Bear Lake to Kemmerer, Wyoming to work the next week.  The weather was sporadic with light rain, wind and clouds throughout the day.  The wind made it tough with a fly rod.  It didn’t seem to matter for Bobber John though as he hooked up with the first Bear River brown of the day using a worm underneath what else… a bobber. 

After Bobbers fish we went through a long stretch of river with no fish to be found or caught.  We finally came across one deeper stretch of river that ended up being our best producer.  Bobber John had switched to a gold blue fox spinner and Rick and I were throwing streamers on our fly rods.  Bobber and I both hooked up at the same time and brought in two beautiful Bear River browns, although John’s put mine to shame.  The size and beautiful colors were awesome.  

It was Bobbers first day catching brown trout and he started with a bang.  Bobber landed one more nice brown off the spinner in this hole.

We worked the rest of the river without a bite and made our way back to Rick’s jeep where we always end the day by fishing a large slow moving area of the river where it has been partially impounded by large rocks and chunks of concrete.  We always see monster carp jumping in this area and we know there in there.  I casted Bobbers spinner for a minute while he threw out his trusted bobber with a white marabou jig, tipped with a worm.  Within a few minutes Bobber was in a long battle with the biggest, and ugliest carp I have ever seen landed on rod and reel.  It weighed 20 lbs and looked like it had eaten two basketballs.  

Rick and I both dropped our fly rods and threw out the bobber set-up hoping to duplicate his success, but there can only be one master of the bobber, and Rick and I fell short.  The Bear River was stubborn as usual, but the few fish caught made the trip.  I will always take quality over quantity.

On a side note… In the last couple months, Bobber John has landed his Personal Best fish for four different species:  35 lb lake trout from Fish Lake, 6 lb brown trout from the Bear River, 3 lb Brook Trout from the Boulder Mountain, and a 20 lb Carp from the Bear River.  Not a bad few outings for the bobber!  Congrats buddy.

Full Moon Delight

Fishing Time:  7:30 am – 10:30 pm

Weather:  mostly sunny, breezy, T-100

Moon Phase:  Full Moon

Location:  Yuba/Community Pond/Deer Creek

Bait:  Yuba- crankbaits, 7-inch tube jigs, swim baits, rapalas.  Community Pond- Jig/trailer.  Deer Creek- mid to deep diving crankbaits, curly tailed grubs

Who Went:  Rick, Bobber John, Me

We all took the day off work to avoid the crowds and fish the full moon at Deer Creek, but figured we might as well make a day out of it before the full moon came up.  My boat is currently in the shop, so we fished from the S.S. Everson for the day. 

Morning:  We started at Yuba where Rick had two pike in the boat within the first 15 minutes. 

It slowed down quickly though and we only put a few more in the boat while working the shorelines with crankbaits, tube jigs, and swim baits.  

We tried targeting a little deeper water by trolling large crankbaits and rapalas in 15-20 feet of water and landed the two biggest fish of the day. 

Mid-Day:  We hit a pond that we’ve all been scouting for largemouth bass this year.  Rick landed one decent largie and I added one more that wasn’t picture worthy, but that was it for the day.  

The temperature was a balmy 104 today, so the fact that the bass weren’t hitting in the middle of the day wasn’t all that surprising.  I did see a very nice bass tucked up under some logs and I’m still very anxious to fish this pond during next year’s spawn. 

Evening:  We launched at Deer Creek around 6:30 pm and started by drifting jigs inside Rainbow Bay in 15-25 ft of water.  No bites were detected so we began trolling the shorelines with crankbaits in hopes of some full moon walleye.  We ended up catching quite a few planter rainbows, but the walleye never showed up.  The sunset was beautiful, but once again those damn walleye got the best of us!  Worst part was hearing success stories from some of our Rocky Mountain Angler buddies fishing for walleye up there the night before.  The walleye curse continues on…