A Day to Remember!

I bought a boat! I bought a boat! I bought a boat! I finally did it! After a long struggle of whether it was possible financially, Cari and I decided to go for it! Cari's dad helped to put a great deal together that we just couldn't resist! It was an absolute blizzard outside as we left the house to go buy it! We walked into Marine Max and there it was, the boat of my dreams! After all the boring and depressing financing talk was done it was time for me and Cari to throw on our new hats and take some pics by our new Tracker! Our first boat together is a 17.5 foot Tracker Targa. It has a 115 horsepower motor on the back and a Minn Kota 55 lb. thruster motor on the front. It comes with a fish finder and we got a sweet bimini top to escape the sun. I am excited for next year to spend as much time as possible utilizing our new toy!

Fall at the Berry!

Moon Phase:

Fishing Time: 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Weather: Clear, Windy, Cold, Teens

JJ and I against our better judgement decided that we needed one last fall trip to the Berry before the hard deck came. We knew it would be cold but we were willing to live with the consequences if we came out successful! We loaded up JJ's old Mud Buddy fishin boat and headed off bright and early. The temperature in the truck read 9 degrees at one point and we knew we were in for a cold one! There was only one pic taken and the reason was that it was just to cold! Getting the camera out was not our number one priority! We caught a lot of fish drifting and dragging white tubes tipped with a worm in about 30 to 40 ft. of water. The only thing left to do now is to prey for more cold weather to cap this thing with ice! Gotta love ice fishin!

Funny Story!

Moon Phase:
Fishing Time: 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Weather: Cold, clear, breezy, 40's

I recently went on a fishing trip to Strawberry Reservoir and forgot to bring the camera! The problem was that I forgot the camera on purpose! I have quietly been brewing up the idea about purchasing a new fishing boat. My father in-law just happens to sale the exact fishing boat that I want. I finally decided that if I was going to get serious about buying a boat that I better take one for a test run. John said that would be fine so I hurried to call my cousin phil to tag along. He said heck yea, so we were on our way! As you might have guessed I fell absolutely in love with the boat and was asking when I got home, where do I sign! Unfortunately cold feet left me reeling in my dream of someday owning a boat. The reason I forgot to take the camera is because of the evidence of the strange craft that everyone would wonder about me being on. Long story short, Phil and I caught many cutts all within the slot! He doubled me in the fish count, but I blame it on the fact that I spent a lot of time gleaming at every option on the boat! He probably sees it differently though! The boat was unbelievable and I want it bad, but I just have to make sure that all my ducks are in line before making a purchase of that magnitude! Oh well, it will happen someday! Hopefully sooner than later though!!!

A Grouse Creek Twist!

Moon Phase:

There is a reason that my fishing trips tend to die off this time of year and that's because its deer hunting season. We went as a group this year for the second time in a row to Grouse Creek. Grouse Creek is a very small town in the very north west corner of the state only a few miles from the Nevada border and about 10 miles from the Idaho border. We were successful last year hunting this spot with Dave and Bushman both getting deer. We also had a chance at a monster buck but couldn't quite get the job done! We got there on Thursday evening this year to get camp set and ready to scout on Friday. We had 3 four wheelers and 2 motorcycles this year which really helps in the steep rugged country that Grouse Creek offers. We scouted on Friday and got a good game plan together for opening morning. When we woke up for the opening we had an unexpected surprise with 3 inches of snow on the ground and a white out blizzard! Even with the bad conditions there was nothing that was going to stop us from hunting the opener so we bundled up and made it to our spot. Corey and I were on one side of the canyon while Dave and Bushman were on the other. As the sun came up it was tough to spot due to the snow and wind in our face but I was lucky enough to see two deer on Dave and Bush's side of the canyon. After a little concurring with Corey we both decided that they were two nice bucks. We got on the radios and let Dave and Bush know where they were and they instantly spotted them and got into position. After a few shots we had two nice bucks down on the hillside!What an extreme and wild successful opening morning. We hunted hard for the next 3 days and saw a few small bucks but nothing worth killing. It wasn't until the fourth day just before dusk that Dave and I were spotting a hill side and found a really nice tall buck laying underneath some cedars. I knew I didn't have much time til dark so I hauled butt over to a ridge to try to get a closer shot. Once I got to the ridge the thick cedars blocked my vision and I could not find the deer. It got dark and I was unable to get the kill! When I hiked back to the hillside where Dave and our four wheelers were we noticed that the four wheeler I was driving was gone! It was dark and we were disoriented so we decided we would just come back in the morning and find it! When we got there in the morning we did find it, but not where we wanted to! The parking brake had failed and the four wheeler was at the bottom of a 400 foot canyon!!!

Ouch!!! It made for an exciting but very stressful day! We got the four wheeler out and it will be taken care of but what an experience! It was a great hunt and we had a lot of fun! We bagged two nice four points and demolished a Polaris! The trip included; Dave, Bushman, Corey, Newton, Rob, and myself. Can't wait til next year!!!

Some Fall Bassin!

Moon Phase:

Fishing Time: 11:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.

Weather: scattered clouds, 70's

Even with the weather starting to cool down, finally, I thought I would give the I-80 Pond one more chance to see if I could pull out another lunker. The pond was very low and the water temp has dropped dramatically. I caught four bass all the same class as the one in the picture. I did however see many large bass swimming in the shallows but could not get them to take anything! There are some monster bass in there! I think its time to put up the bass rod and focus on some fall trout fishing.

Unsuccessful at Bear Lake!

Moon Phase:

Fishing Time: 8:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Weather: Warm, clear, 80's

Well I wish This post was a little more exciting to write about but when you don't even get a bite it doesn't leave to much to the imagination! My dad and I decided while on our annual family Bear Lake trip to rent a small 16 foot fishing boat with a 15 HP motor. Even though most of our fishing trips in Bear Lake this time of year have not brought much success we thought we would give it another shot! We should have stayed home in bed! It was Labor day weekend and we have had some of the warmest September weather I can ever remember. This made for a busy weekend at Bear Lake. I wanted to show my dad my jigging technique that has brought me a lot of success and that I keep bragging to him about. I don't think he was to impressed when we didn't get so much as one bite. We didn't dare go to far in this big lake with the small boat we were on and so we stayed close to the marina and there were boats flying by us one after another! This made it tough to fish!

We also tried trolling with no success other than my dad getting one bump with no fish to show for it! I think we learned our lesson on Bear Lake this time of year. The guy who works at the marina told us that the fish go to 100+ feet this time of year to find colder water. I think he is right because we fished in water up to 80 feet deep and never saw much on the fish finder. It was still a good time when you get to go fishin with the old man and Bear Lake is a beautiful lake to be on.

Monster Bass!

Moon Phase:

Fishing Time: 12:30 p.m. - 4: 30 p.m.

Weather: sunny, clear, 90's

I missed the feel of having a bass on the end of my line after catching all those trout at the berry so I headed to the old faithful I-80 Pond. When I got there I was a little nervous about the conditions. The moss has overtaken half the pond and it has lost almost half its water. This didn't leave many places for good fishing but luckily my favorite place to fish was not mossed over and is the deepest part of the pond. I started out throwing my trusty I-80 set up by drop shotting a powerbait minnow. It was a good choice as I started catching bass one after another! I caught this dink to start things off! After a few more dinks about this size I upgraded to a little larger bass and pulled this medium sized bass out. I then started catching this size one after another until my arm was about to fall off. A few bluegill got into the mix also. I then decided that maybe switching techniques that maybe I would be able to keep some of these smaller bass away and get into some of the larger bass. It turned out to be a great move! I put on a Senko with a weighted hook like shown in this picture. I started casting and noticed that I wasn't catching anything. I wasn't sure if this was good or bad. Just as I was about to give up on my new tactic I pulled in the nicest bass of the day with this 17 incher. Now I was thinking

maybe I had found the ticket to the larger bass. Another long period went by with no bites and I was working my way back to where I entered the water when I saw a chunk of old plastic lying in the water looking almost like a little bass home. Well I think it was because as soon as I casted to it I was slammed by what seemed like a monster. It was! I saw him surface and new that this was the bass of a lifetime. I fought him out into open water where he tried to go strait down into the weeds. I knew I couldn't let him get into the weeds or I would never get him out so I heaved as much tension as I could without snapping my line. I was able to get him close to me and I just threw my hand down his throat not caring if I got hooked, I had to get this big boy! I lipped him and held him up and he was huge. Instantly I started thinking about the fact that I was alone and would not be able to get good pictures. I weighed him and he came in at 6 pounds. I couldn't believe what had just happened and I was shaking like a leaf. I took the best pictures I could but I have already been questioned (my dad) on the size of the fish due to the poor quality of the photos. I knew this would happen and I was angry but I don't have to prove it I was there and it is the truth. The only way to scale this fish at all is to look at it compared to the size of my fist, still not a good comparison but the best I have to offer. Believe it or not this fish was a MONSTER in real life.

Berry again!

Moon Phase:

Fishing Time: 6:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Weather: sunny, clear, 70's

After having a successful day at the Berry on Friday I got a phone call from Barclay who wanted to go Sunday. Him and his father in law Todd have fished here many times never really having any spectacular success. I was hoping that my knowledge of the reservoir might change this. It did, we had a great day and landed many Cutthroats all ranging in between the slot limit which is 15-22 inches. We caught around 40 fish in all, but Barclay had the biggest day catching at least 15 of them! I caught 10 or more, and Todd did the same. We fished over on the west side of the knolls in the morning moved to the narrows mid morning and then ended up back at the knolls around 11:00 because that's where the most fish were holding. We used white tube jigs tipped with an earthworm. The fish were anywhere from 30 to 60 feet deep. Our best success was finding 60 feet of water and dropping our jigs all the way to the bottom, then slowly bringing it up about 10 feet. Most of our hits were right when we started reeling up from the bottom. This was one of the many Cutthroats that were caught!

We left early due to the predictable 12:00 o'clock wind that is famous at Strawberry. It got so bad that we couldn't jig anymore so we called it a day. It was a great day and we are spoiled here in Utah with the average size of trout we can continuously catch out of this reservoir.