Goin South

Fishing Time: 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Location: Otter Creek Reservoir
Weather: No wind, clear skies, teens
Who Went: Me, Hunt, Dave, JJ

We have decided to hit some lakes this year that I have never ice fished before and the first one on the list this was Otter Creek Reservoir. It was a jaunt to say the least! It was a 31/2 hour drive one way with good roads. We had snow packed roads for the last 50 miles so it took us 4 hours! When we got there we decided to stop at a place that was a closer drive than our intended destination! Lesson learned! I will not drive 4 hours again to stop short of where I want to fish! It makes no sense. Needless to say the place we fished first was not producing. JJ and Hunt each caught one fish! Finally at 12:30 we decided to make the move to the other spot. When we got there everyone was leaving the ice with their limits. One guy was even nice enough to rub our mistake in our face by showing us a 5 lb rainbow caught earlier in the morning! They said it was hot in the morning and now it was dying off! Doh! I will not do that again! We stayed there the rest of the day and ended up catching about 15 fish between us all.

I really liked ice fishing Otter Creek but it is a long drive and if I did it again I would probably make a weekend out of it and stay overnight! The fish we caught were all healthy Rainbows and fought really hard! They seemed to like smaller jigs than the Cutthroats we are used to catching at the Berry! Most our success came using ice cutters and whatta crickets tipped with a worm.

Scary Berry

Fishing Time: 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Weather: Windy, cold, snowy, single digits

Location: Strawberry Reservoir

Who Went: Me, Hunt, JJ, Jason Renke

With Christmas day dumping more than a foot of snow in the valleys and 2 feet or more in the mountains, it was probably not a smart idea to hit the road on the 26th to go ice fishing! But, being that it was the first ice of the year it would have taken a large earthquake to keep us away! We left early and still only got to Chicken Creek East by 9:00 a.m. due to road conditions being so bad! When we got there we noticed that the road going down to the parking lot had not been plowed and was covered by snow drifts reaching 3 feet high! We were about to go to the marina until a truck stopped and said they were just over there and they fell through the ice! We drove up to the ladders and noticed that the guys we just talked to had already trudged through the snow drifts and headed down the snowy road to the ladders parking lot! We watched as they tested the ice and once we saw they were good we followed. We weren't fishing until about 10 a.m. and the the wind was a brutal 20-30 miles per hour on top of temps already in the single digits. The fishing was good, but the conditions just wouldn't let us relax. We all caught a few fish with JJ catching the most with 8, but we only lasted until 1:00 when we called it a day and left! The last two years on this date I have had the best fishing days of the year. This year the weather didn't allow that to happen. It was still fun and there is always another day. We also got to try out JJ's new power auger that he got for Christmas and lets just say I'm in love!

One of those days!

Fishing Time: 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Weather: Clear, sunny, high 50's
Who Went: JJ, Me

It's December 13th and it feels like September 13th! With no ice to be found on any of the lakes, JJ and I thought about Redmond Reservoir. Gas prices have fallen to $1.32 so the 2 hour drive didn't seem as bad as when gas was $4.00 a gallon just a few months ago! We got to Redmond at around 8:00 a.m. only to find that our favorite fishing hole was iced over. Not the whole lake, just the corner that we usually fish! We decided to throw rocks in and break holes in the ice and then cast into those holes. If you look close at the picture above you can see my two bobbers sitting in the holes in the ice! The Pike didn't like our idea because we sat for 2 hours without a bite! We finally put pride aside and moved to a different location but found the results were no different there! We made one more move and I did finally get a bite but set the hook to early and didn't hook up! It was pushing 1:00 and we thought that maybe our favorite spot had thawed out, so we tried it again. As you can see from the pic it hadn't.
We took off about 2:00 and headed towards The Jordan River at the Inlet Park warm spring to see if we could at least catch a fish before sundown. We got there with about 1 hour of daylight to fish. I have never been skunked at this hole, but today was one of those days! I think it was the only day all year that I have not caught anything! I guess that's why they call it fishing and not catching! We left at dark and I was very disappointed! We got blanked on a 9 hour day of fishing!

A Utah Lake Quicky

Fishing Time: 2:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Weather: clear, calm, high 50's
Who Went: JJ, Me

JJ and I only had to work a half day today so I took him down to Utah Lake at the sewer outlet to where my cousin and I had so much success for Bluegill and White Bass a week ago. We caught fish here and there but it was nothing like the day my cousin and I were there. JJ had never caught a Bluegill though, and it was cool to see him catch his first. I know it doesn't look big but these are some really nice sized Bluegill!We also caught a few White Bass and it was amazing how nice the weather was! You would never guess it was December 12th! It's always nice to get out for a quicky and catch some fish!

Strawberry Twist

Fishing Time: 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m

Weather: Hurricane at the Berry and not a gust at Utah Lake.

Who Went: Phil, Me

We set out for what is probably the last fishing trip of the year at the Berry unless we take an ice auger. We left the boat at home and decided to go with the old school method that has brought much success in the past. Tossing a jig and bobber from the shoreline! We got there just before light and hiked our way down to the shoreline of Chicken Creek East. It looked as if all the conditions were right for our success. There was a slight breeze and crystal clear water. Phil got on the board first with this cutthroat. Soon after, Phil landed another one and I was behind 2 to 0. I finally scored with this cutt.

Things seemed like they were about to heat up as Phil landed 1 more and so did I. That's when the hurricane rolled in. The wind started whipping and the Berry turned into what looked like a bad day on the ocean. The white caps and cold wind was just to much. We hiked back to the truck and were on the road headed for home by 11:00. We were disappointed but there wasn't much we could do about it. As we drove past Deer Creek Reservoir on the way home we noticed that it was perfectly calm. Amazing how weather a half hour away can be so different. It was only noon so we decided to stop and toss in for a bit. After about 5 casts each, we didn't feel the good vibe, so we were back on the road. We were in Provo by 12:30 where Phil had parked his car earlier that morning. We just couldn't get ourselves to be done with the day so early and I told Phil about a spot by Utah Lake (Pleasant Grove Sewer Plant) that I had fished from the boat and knew we could get to from shore. He was in and we were on our way! We got there and were excited to find that the White Bass were stocked up in the tributary as we could see them surfacing all over the place! Or so we thought! We started casting curly tailed grubs right

through the middle of them but couldn't catch them. We caught a White Bass about every twenty casts which is not normal. Any White Bass fisherman knows that if you find them you will catch them about every cast. I switched things up a bit trying to get them to bite and went to a drop shot with a live worm. I instantly hooked up and to our surprise brought in a nice sized Bluegill. The light bulb went on in both our heads and we realized that this is what was surfacing all around us. Bluegill have very small mouths and they were not able to take in our larger jigs. We switched to the smallest jig we had and put it 1 foot underneath a bobber. Then the catching began. We caught Bluegill after Bluegill. We also mixed in some other species as I was able to catch 2 Largemouth and 1 Crappie and Phil also caught a Crappie.

We caught quite a few White Bass and while none of the fish were huge, it was a fun twist to a windy day at Strawberry.

Another Day at the Office

Fishing Time: 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Weather: Clear, high 40's

Who Went: JJ, Me

Another successful trip to the Berry but with a slight twist. We hit every corner of the lake today trying to locate fish. We started out at the mouth of the narrows with no action. We moved over to the Chicken Creek area and found nothing but moss and no fish. We tried East Portal Bay by the marina and caught a few fish but it certainly wasn't hot! We finally made our way back to the old reliable, in the narrows. We found fish in our favorite spot and stayed there for the rest of the morning! It was here that JJ landed his first ever Rainbow from Strawberry.It was dinky but it was a Rainbow none the less! We continued to catch fish here for most of the morning including a few other small rainbows mixed in with a lot of Cutthroat! Once our spot started to die off we decided to head up to the bay where my dad and I saw that nice Rainbow the day before. We snuck in and started casting and instantly I had a hit but didn't hook up. Soon after JJ had one on and it was another small rainbow. This bay is definitely packed with some Bows! We fished there for about an hour and caught a couple Cutthroats along with JJ's Rainbow. Then we decided to do something a little different than normal and that's where the twist comes in. We ran all the way up to the Soldier Creek side and took a look around! We found an inlet off a deep bay and decided to go in and give it a try! This was the best idea of the day! We instantly started getting hits right after our jigs hit the water. When one of us would catch one and reel it in, three other fish would follow and you could just toss your jig in and they would hit it! It was lights out for two long drifts! Then came the idiots of the year! A group of 6 rednecks, dressed in Ute gear of course, came driving in on a pontoon boat and parked right in the zone where we were drifting about 50 yards from us! It's November and there is hardly any boats on the lake and they chose to park right next to us! They started catching fish and then it was over, they weren't going anywhere! We fished there as long as we could, trying to handle there hillbilly stories, and bizarre music, but it became overwhelming and we decided to leave! I thought about saying something many times but could tell that these were the type of guys that would have loved for us to say something to give them a reason to cause trouble. I still think they dove in on us like that just to see if we would do anything! Uggh! it's making me mad right now just thinking about it! It didn't matter anyway cause we still found more fish to catch along the walls of the narrows and we finished the day catching 49 fish! Just another day at the office!

Fishing with the Old Man

Fishing Time: 10:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Weather: Cloudy, cold, windy, 40's

Who Went: Dad, Me

I finally talked the old man into making a trip to Strawberry with me and we were right on time getting to the lake at 10:30 a.m. (old man time!) Not ideal, but being with my dad made up for it! We started out at the mouth of the narrows and this is where the catching began. I started it off with a couple Cutthroats that were small but they got us on the board! My dad followed by catching a nice 18-19 inch Rainbow, but couldn't quite get it in the boat for a photo. This area started to get slow and windy, so we moved back into the narrows and found a nice point just off a deep cove. We were able to put a few more Cutthroat in the boat including this battle with my dad vs. Cutthroat!

Then we moved into the back of the cove where I instantly hooked up with a nice 17 inch Rainbow. It was the nicest Rainbow I have caught at the Berry since my 7 pound bruiser that I caught 3 years ago!

As I was reeling in this rainbow I noticed it had a follower. It was another Rainbow that I would guess was around the 5 pound mark. This got us excited and we spent the next 2 hours throwing everything we could think of at it trying to catch it! We came up empty handed and finally gave up and went back to catching Cutthroats. I think my dad had a good time and caught a few nice fish.
It's always fun when you get to fish with your dad and I hope I can get him out again!

Berry with the little ones

Fishing Time: 8:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Weather: Sunny, 50's
Location: Strawberry Reservoir
Who Went: Phil, Dax, Zenger, Zack, Me

I planned on going deer hunting this saturday, but my friends had other things going on, so Phil and I decided to take Dax on a Berry trip. Zenger and his 8 year old son, Zack, tagged along as well. We started out at Chicken Creek East and only found a few fish that would bite. We moved to Strawberry Bay, but nothing was biting there either. We gave Haws Point a quick try and got nothing. We were about to head to the narrows to hide from the oncoming wind but decided to try the mouth of the narrows by drift jigging. Bingo! we finally found some cutts that wanted to bite. We kept seeing large schools of fish that we assumed were chubs roll through on the fish finder. My guess is the cutts were right around the schools feeding on the chubs. We caught around 25 to 30 fish in about 4 drift runs until it finally died down and the chub schools moved on. The wind was worse now so we headed to one of my favorite spots in the narrows. We instantly started catching fish! Well everybody except Phil! The line of the day was when dax, seeing me and Zenger catch fish all day, told Phil, "dad I don't want your help anymore." Not to long after we all looked over and Dax was reeling in his own fish that he caught all by himself! Classic!

Phil had a rough day ending with 8 fish. Zenger and I were both tied at 14 a piece and decided that whoever caught the next fish was the big winner of the day! Just after we said that I missed a good hit, and shortly after Zenger missed one to. Then it ended up where if I got a bite then Zenger would run over and try to steal my fish, and I would do the same to him. It finally ended, when yours truly yanked in the last fish of the day for the big win! It was a blast taking the little guys fishing and I can't wait til my little guy is here doing the same thing!