Weather: Partly cloudy, no wind, warm, 40’s
Moon Phase: 80% Moon
Location: Flaming Gorge Reservoir
Bait: 7 inch tube jig, burbot green
Who went: John, Rick, Me
John and I arrived in Manila, Utah around 6:00 p.m. on Friday night and checked into the glorious Flaming Gorge Inn Motel, yeah right. It was a dump, but good enough for a few fishermen to lay their heads for a couple nights. Our buddy Rick was meeting us up there but didn’t arrive until midnight. In the meantime John filleted his bluegills from Pelican Lake on our TV table and I watched espn. Once Rick arrived we hit the sack, but I only got about one hours sleep that night after listening to all sorts of interesting noises that came out of John’s mouth! You might as well have stuck an air horn in my ear and rang it off every half second it was that loud! Rick got about the same amount of sleep, but either way we were mack fishing so we were happy as a kid on Christmas! We met up with a local mack expert that I had been talking to on-line, and he took us to his favorite spot to fish through the ice. We fished there all morning with Rick, John and I all landing lake trout from 15-25 pounds.
We then ventured out onto some thin ice (2 inches) trying to be the first ones to fish one of the best areas. John was a little sketch about being the biggest guy on the ice and it got to the point where every step he took cracks would form around his feet. We laughed a little at his expense!
I was the big loser at the new spot missing 3 fish in the span of one hour! After a few cuss words and finally settling down, the fishing completely shut off, which is normal for lake trout, so we gathered up our gear and prepared to move to another spot in search of the dreaded burbot. To fish for burbot your best odds are at night, so we loaded up the ice shack and heater and hit a rocky outcrop and fished in about 20 feet of water. We finally got the technique down after someone fishing the same area showed us that aggressive jigging was the key to catching these ugly things. Most of them were small, but Rick did land one decent sized one.
The excitement for burbot wore off pretty quick so we called it a night. John had to work the next morning so he grabbed a rockstar and hit the road for home while Rick and I went back to the motel and got what felt like the best sleep I’ve had in years! We woke up early the next morning and were on the ice before light. The fish seemed a little more moody than they were the day before, but I did luck out and land a 17 pound fish when he hit as I was dropping my jig to the bottom (complete luck), but besides that we had a rough morning.
I finally got fidgety and decided to move out to another hole close by, and man I'm glad I did! On my second drop down I could see a fish on my fish finder racing up to my jig. As soon as it hit, my pole doubled over and line started racing off my reel. I instantly knew this was not the same size fish we had been catching previously and yelled over to Rick to come over. The fish went on three long runs lasting about 15 minutes before I was able to get him up to the ice. Then we spent another 5 minutes trying to get his head out of the ice hole so that Rick could land him. Once we pulled the fish onto the ice I just sat there in awe!
We weighed him quickly and took some photos and then slid him back through the ice and off he swam to live another day.
It was a trip and a fish I will never forget, and meanwhile this fish has now become famous. Rick submitted it to the local outdoor TV show Roughin it Outdoors and they will be airing it on January 29, 2011. It will also be in the Salt Lake Tribune in the "Away" section as the Hook Shot of the week on February 6, 2011. The tribune outdoor writer, Brett Prettyman, posted the fish and story on his Salt Lake Tribune Outdoor Blog site on January 28, 2011, and an editor from BoatU.S. ANGLER magazine took notice and emailed me saying they loved the picture and want to put the photo and story in there April issue. The recognition for this fish just keeps pouring in! The editor for the magazine told me she would enter the photo into a national contest and if I win they would mount the fish for free. This is by far the most famous fish I have ever caught!!!
It was a trip and a fish I will never forget, and meanwhile this fish has now become famous. Rick submitted it to the local outdoor TV show Roughin it Outdoors and they will be airing it on January 29, 2011. It will also be in the Salt Lake Tribune in the "Away" section as the Hook Shot of the week on February 6, 2011. The tribune outdoor writer, Brett Prettyman, posted the fish and story on his Salt Lake Tribune Outdoor Blog site on January 28, 2011, and an editor from BoatU.S. ANGLER magazine took notice and emailed me saying they loved the picture and want to put the photo and story in there April issue. The recognition for this fish just keeps pouring in! The editor for the magazine told me she would enter the photo into a national contest and if I win they would mount the fish for free. This is by far the most famous fish I have ever caught!!! 
John and I had a trip planned up at Flaming Gorge to fish for lake trout, but decided we might as well head that way a little early on Friday and get in some bluegill fishing at Pelican Lake first. I left my house at 4:00 a.m. to pick up John before making the 3 hour trip with only a few minor stops and arriving at the lake around 8:00 a.m. We had the lake all to ourselves the whole day, and by noon the ice looked like swiss cheese after we drilled hole after hole trying to locate where the bluegill were at. It was interesting because once we found the depth where they were holding (20 ft), every hole we drilled had fish below. Problem was it seemed like we fished out every hole after 4-5 fish, so we’d have to move and drill another hole to find happier bluegill. We ended up repeating this process all day long and kept about 25 of them for John to fillet, but the final tally was much higher than that.
It was a perfect day with blue skies and no wind. This was my first time ice fishing Pelican Lake and it was fun catching bluegill, but I would be lying if I said that Flaming Gorge wasn’t in the back of my mind the entire time. John loves his bluegill though, so he was happy. We hit the road around 2:00 p.m. and continued onward towards Flaming Gorge, but stopped to look at the impressive Flaming Gorge Dam before reaching the small town of Manila, Utah where we were staying. Story to be continued…
In another attempt to land a pike or musky through the ice, Rick and I headed to Yuba Reservoir. Yuba is a lake we have successfully fished for big pike during the summer months, but are eager to land one of these big fish through the ice. We arrived at the lake a little after sun rise and were excited to see that the lake had just recently froze, and even though we have had record snow fall this winter, the ice was covered with only a skiff of snow on top. This makes walking easy, and for us it meant that every corner of the lake was accessible by foot, with a little work. We looked at our map and pointed out a few areas that have produced pike during the summer and we decided to make the trek. According to the map we were looking at approximately 2.5 miles each way! The journey wasn’t bad, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t sore by the end of the day. Once we arrived at the pin-pointed location, we set-up some tip-ups baited with anchovies and sent them down near the bottom in 20 feet of water. We used our fishing rods and tried to entice some perch out in the deeper areas (25’-30’) using ice flies tipped with wax worms. After close to an hour of fishing one of the flags on the tip-ups popped up and it was game on! We ran over there and Rick carefully took the line in his hand and set the hook! At first it seemed as if he had missed the fish, but then he told me there was definitely something there, but it didn’t feel very big. He was right and we were very disappointed as he hoisted out a 12 inch perch!
That’s a big perch, but not what we were looking for. We re-rigged the tip-up and sent another anchovy down thinking the perch was a fluke. After another hour with no bites on the tip-ups or our rods, we went exploring a few other points with only a fish finder and ice auger in hand, hoping to find an area with good pike holding structure. Unfortunately with the lake being so low during the winter, it was almost as if Yuba was like a big bathtub and gradually just got deeper as you made your way from shore to the middle of the lake. The structure was all the same, making it hard to pin-point any areas that would seem more productive than the other. After drilling multiple holes and unsuccessfully finding any structure, we headed back around the point and into the bay we were fishing. As we made our way around the point we noticed that one of the tip-up flags had been tripped so off I ran. When I got there I grabbed the line but the fish was gone. Now we were kicking ourselves thinking we missed our chance at a pike through the ice! We re-rigged with an anchovy and sent it back down. Shortly after re-baiting, the same tip-up tripped and I ran over and set the hook on a fish, but again was disappointed when I realized it was another big fat perch, and no pike. Now we knew the first perch wasn’t a fluke and were discouraged thinking no pike were even around. The tip-up flags began popping up regularly now and every time it was another big perch. I landed one perch on my rod, but the rest were all on tip-ups rigged with a full 6-inch anchovy and being inhaled by 12 inch perch!
We moved the tip-ups into shallow water (10-15 ft) and tried there for around an hour before packing up and making our way all the way back to the car. We stopped and fished at the dam for a few minutes hoping to find some perch in the deep 45 foot water, but all we found were a few non-biters. We dragged the sleds up the hill, packed the car, and left Yuba discouraged, sore and tired as we drove home depressed that we will never land a pike or musky through the ice. I don’t know anyone in Utah that can consistently land musky, pike, or walleye through the ice and the weirdest part is that it is very common on the lakes back east and up north. What makes Utah so different? I don’t know the answer yet, but I do know that my next ice fishing trip will be somewhere I can catch a fish!
The forecast for Wednesday called for snow, snow and more snow! Unfortunately for me it was the only day that I could get out and go fishing over the holiday break, so we braved the storm and headed north to Newton Reservoir in search of some hungry crappies and maybe even a bonus Tiger Musky. As we drove north on I-15 passing Brigham City the rain turned to snow and a semi had lost control and sat off the side of the road jack knifed. We slowed our speeds and the hour and a half drive became closer to three. Once we got there we noticed that the edges of the reservoir was a little soft looking and realized after hiking down the boat ramp that there was a ten foot perimeter of slush and no ice around the entire lake. For the next hour we made a make-shift plank out of any logs and branches we could find. It wasn’t pretty, but it got us from shore and onto safe ice. Rick pulled each of our three sleds over the slush with a rope and off we went to find our crappie honey hole.
It was already 4:30 and we left ourselves about one hour to get the ice shanty’s up and settle in for the evening. Rick caught a little 5-inch largemouth bass before we were even set up to fish and little did we know that there would only be one more fish caught all night! Soon after we were settled and finally began fishing, Rick landed the last fish of the night with a wiry looking little crappie. No pictures were taken as I was sure there would be better opportunities to take pictures, but I was wrong. We wasted a good 4 hours sitting in our heated tent catching nothing, with little motivation to clean up all our gear and drive home in the blizzard that awaited us. Around 9:00 p.m. we couldn’t take it anymore and cleaned up our gear and left. One interesting thing did happen to me while we were packing up our gear that I've yet to experience while ice fishing. As we were breaking down our ice shanty my right foot slipped into one of the holes we drilled and I went straight through all the way to my crotch! My right leg was completely soaked and to make matters worse my left leg went in the water while crossing back over our branchy plank from ice to land. I got to drive all the way home in a blizzard with two wet legs. It took us a good two hours to get home and I finally crawled in bed at 12:30 a.m. All said and done I should have stayed home and watched the blizzard of 2010 from my window!
John and I both had the day off work today and wanted to wet a line, but a lot of the lakes are beginning to get that hard icy layer on top so our options were limited. I saw a report late last night about the white bass hitting like crazy down at Utah Lake and supposedly there was a solid 6-inch layer of ice to fish on. The report had us sold and we switched our thoughts from fishing soft water to fishing the hard deck. We arrived at the pump house at Utah Lake around 8 a.m., only to find a parking lot full of cars. The secret is out! The ice was covered with fisherman and I guess we weren’t the only ones reading fishing reports late last night. After talking to a few fishermen and getting reports of slow fishing, we decided to ditch the masses and try a different location.
We landed a few more here and there, and then like a light switch it turned on! We started yanking them out one after another. The instant you sent your jig down the ice hole you were bringing it right back up with a fish on. The size of the white bass was average, but we did get two bonus crappie and one bluegill and perch. About half of them went home as fish tacos and the other half went back to repopulate the lake. This would be a great place to take your kids as they would have a blast catching white bass all day long. The only problem is the white bass bonanza doesn’t last long and then they become very tough to locate. So get down there!
Rick and I went to Strawberry in hopes of sneaking one more trip on the boat before putting her away for the winter. Let’s just say, we were pushing the limits. The day started out with a flat tire on the boat trailer, so bad that the tire un-seated from the rim. We were also pulling the boat with my new Yukon and had too low of a receiver hitch to get the trailer off the jack wheel. On the drive up, we watched the temperature steadily drop down all the way to 8 below zero by the time we pulled up to the ramp.
The boat ramp was icy and covered in snow. Luckily, the other die-hard fisherman that was up there had a plow on the front of his truck and took care of the snow so we only had to deal with the ice. Finally with the boat launched, Rick was able to crawl my Yukon off the icy ramp, and it was time to set off into the thick fog for some fishing….or not.
What we ended up doing was just running the engine until the overheat beep warning sounded, then let it cool for a few minutes and did it again. It cleared after about the third time. Went to drop the thrust motor in the water, and the shaft was frozen to the collar where you adjust the height so we were without its services for awhile.
It finally thawed after a couple hours, but up until then we relied on a little icy wind to give us a drift. We started our day by fishing in Strawberry Bay over near the visitor’s station.
Soon after catching the big one I noticed I had some thick ice at the end of my line and when I went to chip it off I took the tip of my pole with it. Just add it to the list for the day. We continued fishing around the lake hitting various spots including Renegade and the mouth of the narrows. The mouth of the narrows ended up being the most productive area with each of us landing close to 10 fish each. Using the classic white tube jig tipped with a shiner, and dragging it along the bottom in about 25-35 feet seemed to work best. Rick landed one slot buster with a nice 3.5 pound cutthroat, but most our fish were in the slot with a few smaller rainbows. Ugly hat by the way!
We worked the shallower water for a bit with some crank baits and swim baits, but that only produced 2 or 3 fish. By 1:00 the fishing had completely shut off and even though we continued fishing for 2 more hours we didn’t get any more bites and the fish finder went blank, so we called it a day.
My buddy Corey has been boasting about the Hams Fork River in Wyoming for a few years now, and has pictures to prove there are some big rainbows and cuttbows living there. We finally planned an outing and wouldn’t you know it I got sick two days before our trip. I invited Rick to go along with us, but he and Corey don't know each other and I felt like I was the glue holding the whole trip together, so I toughed it out and went anyway. The forecast for weather was ugly with a 40% chance of snow, a high of 31 degrees, and winds up to 30 mph. We were on the road by 5:00 a.m. and reached the Hams Fork by 7:00 a.m. The winds were already whipping and the temperature gauge on Ricks Jeep read 26 degrees. We rigged up our fly rods and by the time we were done we couldn’t feel our hands. We jumped back in the jeep to warm them for a minute and then made the hike down to the river. Once we made our way down to the river, Corey and Rick immediately started fishing and I sat on the river bank trying to catch my breath. I suddenly got very nauseated and felt like I was going to throw up. I dry heaved a few times, but to no avail and then sat on my knees as darkness started closing in around my vision. Right before I was about to pass out the darkness started to disappear and my vision went back to normal. Thoughts of why I even made the trip started crossing my mind and I knew I was going to have to take it really slow. Rick and I made our way down river looking for some deeper holes to fish. The river was very low and filled with moss. Corey went the opposite direction and headed upstream towards the dam of Lake Viva Naughton. We didn’t see Corey again until the end of the day. Rick caught one small rainbow just below some riffles on a somewhat deeper stretch, but besides his one fish we traveled a long distance downriver without seeing or catching anything. We finally came to a spot on a bend where the river looked fairly deep and Rick and I both felt there had to be fish there. We tied up some streamers and began casting towards the opposite river bank and within no time Rick had a hit, but missed. Finally after a few more missed hits, Rick landed a nice 18-inch rainbow and it gave us new confidence that there were fish in this river.
As more time went by Rick continued to catch fish while I struggled with my casting and became very frustrated.
I tried many different streamers trying to replicate exactly what Rick was doing, but it didn’t seem to matter.
I finally had a few hits, but missed horribly and the frustration only got worse. Rick hooked up with a nice cuttbow (we think) that put up a good fight and took big fish honors for the day.
We didn’t measure or weigh the fish, but my guess is 20+ inches and around 3-3.5 pounds.
It was a gorgeous fish with dark red gill-plates and a body covered with dark black spots.
The fishing in the deep hole finally began to slow down and I knew Rick had fished it out, so we headed downstream a little further, but never found anymore deep holes to fish. We headed back upstream hoping to find that Corey had found a few deep holes to fish, but when we finally met up with him he announced that he was fishless just like me. We knew the fish were holding in the deeper holes, but there just wasn't any around with the water being low, so we made our way back to the jeep and drove down river a bit to find some deeper water. We ended up stopping right below Kemmerer Reservoir to fish the deep pool that was right below the dam. Rick had one hit with no hook up and Corey and I were left with the ugly skunk smell on our hands! By the time we made it back to the jeep the snow began to fly and dropped a few inches in less than a half hour. It made for a slow drive home, with cars off the side of the road and snow packed roads. Welcome to Wyoming! Rick ended up catching about 8-9 fish and proved that his fly fishing skills trump my beginner skills tenfold! The weather and fishing were miserable and I probably never should have left the house feeling the way I did, but looking back on it, I’m glad I got up there!
Rick let me work the first group and it wasn’t long before I worked out the rust on the old fly rod and landed my first fish of the day with this 25 inch, 5 ½ pound female with a belly full of eggs!
I couldn’t believe it and I already thought my day couldn’t get any better, but once again, I was wrong! We worked a lot of good areas and missed a bunch of hook-sets and had fish spit our hooks consistently, but we also worked some more successful areas where we caught a few fish each and all were over the 24 inch mark and in the 5-7 pound range, with the biggest being this bruiser that Rick caught. We didn’t get a tape on him but he was a big hook jawed male that was probably around 27 inches long and around 7 pounds!
I don’t know what my biggest fish of the day was, but it was probably another big male going around 26 inches and probably 6 pounds.
The whole time I was fishing this river I felt like I was in heaven or living out a dream in my head. Fishing doesn’t get any better than what I experienced and I want to thank Rick for letting me in on an unbelievable untouched secret on the Bear River!