Friday, December 28, 2018

Frozen Boat at Flaming Gorge

Fishing Time: Friday and Saturday (December 28 and 29)
Weather: COLD, calm, Temps were -5 in the morning and single digits in the afternoon
Moon Phase: 55% Moon
Location: Flaming Gorge
Water Temp: 39 degrees
Best Bait: small tube jig fished shallow for rainbows and pup mack
Who Went: Rick, Bobber John, Dunc
Another winter trip to Flaming Gorge and just like the last few years, there is no ice.  No problem, because I have a boat, right?  Well yes, but we were about to find out, boats don’t like temperatures below freezing.  The last couple years have been mild and fishing from the boat wasn’t too big of a deal.  This year taught us a valuable lesson of what boating in real winter conditions is like.

We arrived late in the night to our cheap motel after driving through a snow storm that had us on edge the entire way.  The drive took over 4 hours and I slipped 5 or 6 times on I-80, which is not fun pulling a boat.  However, the forecast for the next two days called for no storms, calm winds, and cold temps. 
We woke up the first morning and were greeted with -5 degrees, but calm conditions.  Everything seemed okay until the motor on the boat would not turn over. I thought my battery was zapped, but for whatever reason after a few minutes it decided to start.  Once the boat was launched it became obvious that everything on the boat was frozen.  The pea hole on my motor wasn’t spitting water which is how the engine cools itself, so we had to use the portable heater to thaw it out.  After that it was the front thruster motor that was frozen.  We need the thruster motor to fish, so we spent time thawing that out.  Lastly, my fish finder seemed to be on the fritz, which wasn’t really a cold issue, but more of an old issue!  Not sure if it’s my fish finder or my transducer, but one of them needs replacing.  Ugh.  We spent half the morning trying to dial in the fish finder just to get a glimpse at what was beneath us.  We ended up getting it to work okay, but not as well as we needed it to effectively fish for big lake trout.

Frustrated, but still excited, we went to work to find some fish.  Not many fish were showing up and doubt started to creep into our minds.  Is it the fish finder, or is there really no fish?  It really put into perspective all the things that must go right to effectively fish for lake trout on Flaming Gorge.  Finally, a few groups of fish were seen, and Rick had two bites, but missed them.  He was frustrated, but it gave us hope.  The hope didn’t last long though, and we ended the long day with no more bites.  Lame.

The second morning brought more cold temperatures and this time my boat was completely frozen.  After pulling it out of the lake the night before I think all the water instantly froze and this morning the boat was an ice burg.  To make matters worse, the cove that the marina sits in was frozen with about an inch of ice.  
We spent the first 2 hours of the morning thawing my steering wheel, throttle, and motor to get them to move.  After that we had to launch the boat into the ice and break our way through.  The boat didn’t seem to want to come off of the trailer, but after some prodding it finally let go and then I realized why… the running board was frozen to the bottom of the boat and finally snapped and came off the trailer with it.  Plus, my tail lights on the trailer were smashed from launching through the ice.  Was this worth it?  Not sure but we were in too deep to quit.  We used an oar to pry and pound the running board off the bottom of the boat and then Rick strapped it back onto the trailer using some large zip ties I had in my boat.
Okay the motor is running, boat is off the trailer, and we fixed the running board.  Ready to go, right?  Wrong.  We had to slowly break through the ice and I worried the entire time as I heard the pops and cracks of breaking ice.  I thought for sure we were putting holes in my boat.  Luckily, the boat survived and we were finally ready to fish at 11:00 am.  
Not exactly the best fishing time for lake trout, and four hours later with no bites, it started to feel not worth it.  We finished the evening by fishing the shallows trying to get the skunk smell off the trip.  We caught a couple decent rainbows and one pup mack to end the night.  We didn’t get skunked and we didn’t drive home in a snow storm.  How’s that for looking on the bright side!

Sunday, December 9, 2018

Bear Lake - Check One More Species Off the List...

Fishing Time:  8:30 AM to 3 PM
Weather: Calm, no wind, partly cloudy, T-20s
Moon Phase:  7% Moon
Location:  Bear Lake
Water Temp: 42 degrees
Best Bait: Any color of small marabou or curly tailed grub
Who Went:  Bobber John, Rick, Dunc
I was scouting a new place to ice fish and came across an online fishing report from Bear Lake stating that the Bonneville Whitefish spawn is at it’s peak.  The Bonneville Whitefish is endemic to Bear lake and just happens to be one of the last species on my list of fish to catch in Utah.  Two other fish I need to cross off my list are also endemic to Bear Lake.  The Bear Lake Whitefish and the Bonneville Cisco.  An interesting lake to say the least.  Bonneville Whitefish are difficult to catch most of the year staying deep, but when they spawn they move shallow into rocky areas and can be easily targeted by fisherman.

I pitched the idea to my fishing buddies and they were down, so away we went with boat in tow.  The drive to Bear Lake was foggy and cold, with temperatures below zero in Woodruff and Randolph, which are known to be the coldest towns in Utah.  Bear Lake wasn’t much warmer when we arrived, but the fishing gods were generous and we experienced a calm lake with no wind all day long.
We started fishing a few known rocky areas near Gus Rich Point, but the only activity we saw was a pile of carp slurping at the surface near the shoreline.  I made one cast into the middle of them and hooked up immediately.  It wasn’t a snag either, the carp actually bit my small marabou jig tipped with a worm.  Rick also hooked up with one cutthroat. 
We moved areas to the east side of the lake to continue our quest of finding some spawning whitefish. We were rewarded for moving at an area called First Point.  The action was immediate and fast.  We all began catching whitefish and each checked them off our Utah species to catch list.  Rick even had a few cutthroats bite including one nice one over 20-inches.
Soon we had our fill of Bonneville Whitefish and tried our luck trolling deeper water for cutthroat and lake trout.  The weather was beautiful and made for some relaxing trolling, but we didn’t find the groups of fish we were hoping for.  Rick, the cutthroat slayer of the day, was able to land one cutthroat, but that was the only fish we caught trolling all afternoon.  The good weather and whitefish bite still made us happy and I got to check one more species off my list!

Sunday, December 2, 2018

First Ice Fishing Trip... Almost a Bust

Fishing Time:  7:00 am to 11:00 am
Weather: Snow blizzard and windy.  (6-10-inches of snow)
Moon Phase: 20% Moon
Location:  Utah Lake
Best Bait:  Marabou jig tipped with earthworm
Who Went:  Bobber John, Dunc

The word was out that Scofield Reservoir has capped with 4-6-inches of ice.  The plan was to beat the crowds and catch hoards of fish still yet to see pressure from the masses.  First ice is always the best.  However, mother nature had other ideas.  I woke up at 5 am to a winter wonderland.  The first snow storm of winter had hit with a vengeance.  There was a couple inches of snow on the ground already, and it continued to come down quickly.  I slowly made my way to Bobber Johns house to pick him up, but as we hit I-15 to head south it quickly came apparent that we weren't making it to Scofield.  Cars were sliding all over the road.  We watched one SUV slam into the freeway barrier.  This storm had no signs of stopping and the plows were just getting started.  By days end there would be 6-10-inches of snow on the ground depending on area.

Luckily we made it to the Provo Boat Harbor unscathed and sat in the dark watching the snow fall until the sun made it's way over the Wasatch Mountains.
The snow was still falling and now the wind was driving it sideways.  We geared up anyway and hit the docks.  There's no ice at Utah lake yet, so we jigged our ice fishing rods around the docks in open water hoping for a white bass or any other species willing to take.  After 20 minutes with no bites we decided it was time to move locations.  We braved the treacherous roads once again and made it to one of our secret inlet spots where the fishing is usually good.

Once there, Bobber slid down the hill on his butt to the shoreline and on his first cast he landed a little largemouth bass.
I slid down to fish next to him and we continued to catch a mixed bag of largemouth, bluegill, and white bass.  I caught one decent white bass and Bobber landed the fish of the day with a chunky largemouth bass.
It's nice to have a secret location in your back pocket when the first planned ice fishing trip of the year goes badly.