Monday, February 19, 2024

Rippin Perch at Rockport with the Kids

Fishing Time: 8:00 am to 11:30 am

Weather: Cloudy, calm, T-20s

Moon Phase: 80% Moon

Location: Rockport Reservoir

Best Baits: Northland Buckshot Spoons tipped with perch eyes

Who Went: Devin, Addi, Dunc

Today is my birthday and for a gift my family said they would all go ice fishing with me.  My buddy Casey has been having good luck for perch up at Rockport, so I figured close to home with fast fishing was perfect for the family.  Unfortunately, Dayton woke up to a 102-degree fever, so Cari stayed home to take care of him and Devin and Addi made the trip with me.

We followed the directions Casey gave me and found his spot but quickly realized I forgot the bait at home.  Luckily mom packed us some string cheese so we added a nibble to our ice spoons and they seemed to like it just fine.  Once the first perch was on the ice we sacrificed him for some perch eye bait.  Devin and Addi each put quite a few perch on the ice, but nothing with any size and we didn’t find any trout willing to bite. 

It was a short but fun trip with Dev and Addi on my birthday. Watching them try to get the ice sled back up the hill to the parking lot was probably the highlight of the trip (link below)!  Thank you to my family for making my birthday great and to my wife for taking one for the team and staying home with Dayt.

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Saturday, February 17, 2024

Fish Lake Mack Fishing

Fishing Time: 7:30 am to 3:00 pm

Weather: Mostly Sunny, calm, T-30s

Moon Phase: 62% Moon

Location: Fish Lake

Best Baits: 6-inch tube jigs (white and rainbow) on ¾ oz jig head

Who Went: Casey Davies, Stuart Dahl, Dunc

My cousins have been fishing Fish Lake and asking a lot of questions on location and techniques to catch a trophy lake trout.  I’ve helped them as much as I can, and finally their efforts paid off.  I got an excited phone call while they were on the ice followed by this photo.  They couldn’t weigh it, but it was the biggest trout they have ever caught. 

This got me excited to get down there myself.  I haven’t been there for a few years, but it’s always in the back of my mind as I’ve had some memorable days at Fish Lake.  A couple buddies from work wanted to make the trip so we headed to Richfield the night before to ensure we got a good night’s rest and were there at first light.

The morning was beautiful, and we made it to the lake on time, but Casey’s gas-powered ice auger had plans to try and ruin our day.  We spent a good 30 minutes trying to fix it but to no avail.  I had my ice chisel, but with 12-inches of ice and 3 holes it took another 30 minutes until we were ready to fish.  An hour or so late, but we were finally setup. 

I dropped my Active Target II down the hole and got it dialed to our depth.  The active target is truly amazing.  We watched fish come in and look at our jigs and was able to gauge their reactions.  This helped to know what jigging techniques worked best.  You can literally see the fish and watch as they swirl or nose down on your jig.  

Once we figured out which technique worked best Casey hooked up with the first mack of the trip. 

We continued fishing, but unfortunately fishing with 3 in the same tent made things a bit difficult.  Stu and I kept getting our lines crossed and we had to cut off and re-rig three times.  We continued fishing and had a nice group of 3-4 fish show up on the Active Target and sure enough, I hooked up with one. However, on the hook set I snapped the butt end of my rod.  I could still fight the fish, but I had to do it with no support below the reel.  Then a few seconds later I realized that I was also tangled with Stu’s line.  Trying to work through the chaos the fish decided to wander over and wrap up in Casey’s line, so now I was fighting the fish with a broken rod and tangled in both Stu’s and Casey’s line.  It was a mess!  Somehow, we got him onto the hard deck only to see that he was barely hooked.  What a crazy fight and a miracle we landed it! The fish weighed in a few ounces shy of 10 pounds.


You can watch the chaotic battle by clicking on the link below:

Fish continued to swim through and I ended up hooking another one only to have it come off below the hole.  It was small, so I wasn’t to upset.  At about 11:30 the fish were gone so we packed up and moved closer to shore to see if any splake or rainbows would play.  We never did find the trout, but Casey found a bunch of perch that kept him busy.  

We enjoyed the scenery watching the bald eagles come down and pick up the fish people had left on the ice.  At one point there were 8 bald eagles on the ice standing next to each other.  It was a gorgeous day at Fish Lake.  We didn’t encounter any wind all day.  It was a fun and successful trip.

Saturday, February 3, 2024

Party at Flaming Gorge

Fishing Time: February 2-4, 2024 (Fri. – Sun.)

Weather: High winds, cloudy, cold T-20s

Moon Phase: 42% Moon

Best Baits: Lake Trout: 4-inch white tube jig, Burbot: glow curly tail jig on ¼ oz jig head

Who Went: Mark, Tim, Tad, Rick, Newt, Barclay, Dunc

Rick Everson put a trip together for his birthday with a bunch of his buddies.  We stayed at The Red Canyon Lodge which is about 45 minutes south of Manila, UT.  Cool part was it has a private pond that holds rainbows and tiger trout, so we looked forward to fishing it.

The lodge was nice and we had two adjoining rooms to fit the whole crew.  The wood burning fireplace was a nice touch and we started some fires as soon as we got there.  Unfortunately, someone left the keys on top of the fireplace and that didn’t go well.  They melted immediately.  However, we did redeem and cook the lasagna by leaving it on top of the fireplace while we played poker.

Poker went late into the night, so we didn’t make it onto the ice until noon.  We also had to find safe ice which isn’t easy this year.  Luckily our spot near Buckboard kept us safe with 3-4 inches.  The bad part was the wind.  It was gale force and never went away.  


It made fishing tough and we didn’t see many fish swim by on our fish finders.  Rick, Newton, and myself went on a little hike armed with a fish finder, ice chisel, and one rod.  We found a few fish and Rick landed one.  This ended up being the only mack caught for the day. 



After a couple hours we couldn’t take the gale force winds any longer.  We packed up and headed to our burbot spot.  We were sheltered a little more from the wind up against the rocky cliffs, but it never really gave up all night.  The burb fishing was fair.  We probably landed 15, but none with any size.  We set out some tip ups and had fun fishing in our shelters.

The next day we decided to try the private pond at the lodge.  Rick has caught some decent tiger trout here in the past with his fly rod. We headed onto the ice and started popping holes.  The entire lake seemed to be about 8 ft deep. 


We searched the entire lake and never saw a fish on our fish finders. We couldn’t find a fish to save our life.  We finally gave up, packed our gear, and headed home.  On the way home we stopped at the overlook of Sheep Creek Bay.  One of my favorite overlooks in Utah.