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.