Warm Water Fish and Weather in February

Fishing Time: 8:00 am to 5:00 pm

Weather:  Sunny, calm, and very warm, T-60s

Moon Phase: 22% Waning Moon

Location: Sevier River, DMAD Reservoir, and Gunnison Bend Reservoir

Best Baits: Blue Fox Spinner (firetiger), ice fly under a slip bobber

Who Went: Chad Fuller, Dunc

The weather forecast showed near record breaking weather, so ice fishing just didn’t feel right.  I decided to make a drive south near Delta to fish the Sevier River and I dragged my buddy Chad along for the day.

I had some pre-marked spots on google earth along the river that I wanted to try.  The first spot looked good, but we came up empty handed.  The second spot looked better, but no bites.  The third spot was called Fool Creek Reservoir, and it definitely fooled us.  We had to park and hike a short distance in only to find a dry lakebed.  The reservoir is gone. 

The fourth area was on Gunnison Bend Reservoir, and we finally got on the board with a little white bass.  

After that we were back on the river and found our best producing spot where we landed a few small pike. 

After hitting all my river spots, we tried fishing DMAD reservoir in search of white crappie but had no luck.  The weather made the day a success even though the fishing wasn’t great.  Still caught my first pike from the Sevier River, so that was cool.  Miss the days when Yuba produced some monsters.  We also saw thousands of snow geese on Gunnison Bend...

Chasing Walleye through the Ice

Fishing Time: 1 pm – 7 pm

Weather: sunny, clear, windy (constant 20-25 mph with gust up to 30)

Moon Phase: 85% Moon

Location: Starvation Reservoir

Best Baits: buckshot jigs

Who Went: Casey Davies, Dunc

It’s February and the walleye bug is starting to hit me.  Not sure why as I still can’t consistently catch them, but a little research says that people have been catching them through the ice at Starvation, which got me a little excited.  I have never caught a walleye through the ice.

Casey was dumb enough to fall into my walleye delusion and committed to going with me.  The idea was to arrive to Starvation early afternoon and hike to our spot then prep for the last hour of daylight during walleye prime time.

We did find a few rainbow trout that wanted to play in the afternoon that kept us happy, but the wind was a consistent 20-25 mph and that wasn’t fun. 

My research said the walleye will show up just before dark cruising the bottom, and the crazy part is, that is exactly what happened.  We didn’t see a fish on the bottom all afternoon, but about 30-min before dark the bottom came alive.  

Now for the annoying part… we couldn’t buy a bite!  The wind didn’t help because it was tough to detect bites, but either way we could not hook one.  This frustrates me so much because everything went as planned and I just want to know if they really were walleye!  Unfortunately, I will never know…

Big Rainbows and Wild Times at a Private Ranch

Fishing Time: 10:00 am to 4:30 pm

Weather: Beautiful, sunny, calm wind, T-40s

Moon Phase: 85% Moon

Location: LC Fly Fishing Lodge

Best Bait: 2-inch yellow tube jig tipped with worm

Who Went: Rick Everson and 10 of his buddies, Dunc

Rick has a connection with the owner of the LC Lodge and invited me on a fishing trip up there for his birthday with all his buddies.  We arrived late Friday night and fished on Saturday.  There is a total of 20 different ponds, and they all hold a variety of trout.  The ice was anywhere from 6-12 inches thick depending on the pond.  Rick had a good birthday outfit for his ice adventure and the party started quickly.

Saturday morning, we fished 3-4 different ponds with only one fish to show for it before moving to the honey hole pond where we were able to land close to 15 nice rainbow trout.  They were all around 20-inches long and fat and healthy.  Ricks buddy Pulver had the hot hand and caught 8-9 himself using a yellow tube jig tipped with a worm.  We tried a few other ponds once the honey hole died down, but never did catch another fish. 

It was a wild trip with some wild dudes and the fishing came second to the partying, but still a fun experience and such a cool place.  The earthwork to create all the ponds was incredible.  I imagine it’s even prettier in the summer.  It had 3-4 different cabins on the 1,100-acre property all stocked with side by sides for your personal use.  Our cabin had 4 bedrooms and was beautifully done in dark woods and western décor.  Rick’s brother came who is a professional chef and cooked for us every meal.  We were not roughing it by any stretch.