Fish Lake After Dark

 Two weekends ago Jason and I set out on our first 24 hour ice fishing trip! We headed down to Fish Lake with the intent to fish all night long and all the next day. We got to Fish Lake around 2100 hours or so and set out to find our spot on the lake for the night. The ice was clear and had cracks all over. We drilled test holes as we went further and further onto the ice but it was still pretty scary. We finally found a spot with about 5 inches of ice in about 15-20 ft of water.

It didn't take long before Jason and I caught our first fish. Jason's fish was a perch, I caught a rainbow trout.

The fishing slowed down around 0100 hours so Jason and I decided to take a quick nap. Jason linked two beach chairs together to make a cot then he climbed in a sleeping bag. I used a zero gravity chair as well as three blankets. 

After trying to take a nap for about an hour or so, we finally realized we were not going to be able to sleep because we had fish on our minds and the ice kept making crazy cracking noises! So we did what any other crazy fisherman would do and continued to fish! To my surprise, the fish continued to bite our bait. I even caught my very first Splake Trout! A splake is a mix between a Lake Trout and a Brook Trout. I caught the splake around 0300 hours on a small pink ice fly.

Jason got in on the hungry fish as well. He caught some trout and perch.

 A nice rainbow that was caught in the dark!

By sunrise, Jason and I had each caught around 12-15 fish. My fish were all rainbows and one splake. Jason's fish were a mix between rainbows and perch. As the sun started to come out, so did the many fisherman. It just so happened the Saturday we were there was a perch tournament. The perch tournament ended up bringing over 1700 fisherman to the lake according to the Division of Wildlife.

Fisherman started setting up tents and drilling ice holes all over the lake. 

By 0900 hours, Jason and I decided to move to deeper water to get away from the crowds. We also wanted to target monster lake trout. The spot we picked had about 8 inches of ice and was in 89 ft of water. We hadn't even set up the fishing tent before Jason and I each caught a couple fish. Jason even caught a double (A two hook set up on one pole with a fish on each hook).  

We got everything all set up and found the rainbow trout sweet spot. All you had to do was drop your bait to about 20-25 ft and you were sure to get a bite! For me the lucky lure was a pink paddle bug.

We found this new spot had much bigger fish. The fishing stayed red hot as we caught fish after fish.

Although I wasn't having any luck with the monster lake trout, I enjoyed catching plenty of good looking rainbows! 

When I reeled in this fish, I discovered a larger fish tried to eat this 15 inch rainbow while it was being reeled in! As soon as I got this fish on the ice, I noticed it's stomach and guts were hanging out. It also started spewing fish eggs all over the place. As I looked closer at the fish, I noticed two sets of teeth marks as if the fish clamped down not once, but twice! If only I could have caught the larger fish as well!

We decided to finally clean up around 1600 hours. We finished with over a hundred fish! I caught 51 fish, one was a splake and the rest were rainbows. Jason caught 53 fish, roughly 15 were perch and the rest were rainbows. The crazy part was we probably missed around a hundred fish or more! All of the fish we caught were properly released back into the lake except for the perch, they went home for Jason's dinner!

Jason and I had an awesome time fishing all night and the next day! We decided we are going to make this a yearly tradition!

JOE'S TIP OF THE DAY

For many seasoned fisherman, one of the most annoying things other fisherman can do, is set up their fishing tent right next to other people's tents. As Jason's facial expression indicates, we were bugged because some people set up this huge tent about 10 feet away from our tent. Out of all the spots on the lake, they had to pick a spot that was right next to ours, uncool. 

Then to make things worse, a group of about 6 people set up on the other side of our tent not more than 15 feet away! So a little advise to those of you who are new to fishing, please give other fisherman their space!

Chicken Creek East

Strawberry Reservoir has finally frozen over! This last weekend I had the opportunity to fish Strawberry with fisherman Jason, Shane, and Shane's two brothers. 

When I arrived to Chicken Creek East, the parking lot was full and I found a complete tent village of ice fisherman already on the ice. I had never fished Chicken Creek East before so I was curious as to why everyone would flock to this portion of the lake.

 Shane and his brother's got the early start on the lake. When Jason and I met up with them we found they had already caught some nice cutthroats. One of Shane's brothers even hooked up with a fish that pulled his fishing pole right down the ice hole into the lake! After hearing Shane's report, I felt pretty optimistic we would have a great fishing day!

We found a spot in 13 feet of water. Right off the bat Jason and I noticed a large cutthroat cruising underneath the ice near our bait. This went on for about thirty minutes or so but we were unable to catch the old timer. This spot was cool because we were able to see the bottom of the lake very clearly!

As time went on, Jason and I still hadn't caught any fish so we moved to about 20 feet of water. We fished this spot for a while, but were met with negative results. I checked with Shane and his brothers and found they continued to have success at about 7 ft deep. So, once again, Jason and I moved our tent to another spot in about 9 feet deep. 

Being closer to shore proved to be the difference! Jason hooked on to a nice 18 inch cutthroat. 

Then I finally caught one! This cutthroat was a healthy 19.5 inches.
 I ended up catching a nice fat rainbow to finish off our trip. Even though we didn't catch record numbers of fish, it was nice to get out and enjoy some fishing while surrounded by some beautiful scenery!

 JOE'S TIP OF THE DAY

We learned fishing close to shore made all the difference. Shane stayed near the shore the entire time and consistently caught fish. Once Jason and I moved close to shore, we got in on some of the action as well. At Strawberry Reservoir, location makes all the difference!

First Ice of the Year

 It is finally here!....What's that you say?... That's right, Utah ice fishing season has begun! This past weekend, fisherman Jason and I ventured out to Scofield Reservoir for our first ice trip of the season. 

This year Jason and I upgraded our tents from the Eskimo quickfish 3 to the Eskimo Fatfish 6120. This tent comes equipped with six walls, ten windows, and a whopping 80 sq feet of fishing space! This has three times the amount of space of the quickfish 3. Lets just say, we are both excited to put our tents to some good use this year!

When we got to Scofield, we discovered the lake had mostly frozen over. We fished in two different spots. The first spot had about 4-5 inches of ice. The second spot had close to three inches of ice. The spot we really wanted to fish had very unsafe ice so we will have to wait a few weeks.

Fishing started off great, we started pulling fish after fish out of the lake. We used small tube jigs, ice flies, and pink colored paddle bugs.

We caught a total of about 40-50 chubs between the two of us. 

The sad thing was, we only caught a total of ten cutthroat trout. That's right, no rainbows or tiger trout this trip. All of the cutthroat trout were very small.

This trip was the first time I have ever ice fished with a fish finder! I spent a lot of time reading the instruction book to learn how to use it. All in all, it was a great first trip of the 2014-2015 season!

JOE'S TIP OF THE DAY

Always ice fish with a buddy at the beginning of ice fishing season. Also bring emergency equipment in case some one falls in. The ice can be very unpredictable and dangerous. However, if you can find safe ice, the fishing can be excellent!

Feeding Frenzy

This fall I was able to make it up to Strawberry Reservoir a few times. Although the fishing varied each time I went, I was still able to catch fish! One week I caught 11 fish in two hours of fishing! The fish were healthy rainbows between 15-19 inches. The second trip I only caught 3 but one was a large cutthroat around 20 inches. Both of  those trips I used a Lucky Craft Pointer(Rainbow and also ghost colors).

I saw some bright red kokanee salmon swimming near the shore line but they were not interested in any of my lures.

 This last week when I went to Strawberry, my friend Shane and I were not having much luck other than a few bites. I moved further into a cove and could see several schools of fish swimming near the surface. Some fish were even flying about four feet out of the water at times! They were either hunting for food or were being hunted by larger fish! Shane and I used Joe's Flies and Lures with a few sinkers. We caught fish after fish. In about forty minutes, we caught over fifty fish! The fish were small, between 5-12 inches, but it was still a lot of fun!

JOE'S TIP OF THE DAY

If fishing success is slow, don't be afraid to move around the shore line or to a different part of the lake. Right now the fish are moving all over the place as they try to build up a fat supply for the winter!

River Cats

I have not been able to get out fishing very much the past few months so I decided to fish close to home. My buddy Jason told me the white bass and catfish were biting at the Jordan River so I had to go give it a try. I ended up catching some white bass, including this monster!

 This white bass is the same fish in the first photo! I caught the bass with a Joe's Flies and Lure: Trout poacher.

I went back to the Jordan River a few days later with Jason and caught some real nice Channel Cats!

 This channel catfish was 23" long. I'm not sure how much it weighed!

This is a 21" channel catfish! 

Jason and I caught all our catfish by putting bait on a hook and attaching a bobber to the the line. It can't get simpler then that!

JOE'S TIP OF THE DAY

In Utah Lake and the Jordan River, it is legal to use white bass for bait. To catch the catfish, we caught a white bass and cut it up for bait. Within a few minutes of having white bass on our hook, we had our first fish! Remember to always check the regulations for the body of water you are fishing at.

The Hunt for Kokanee

Well it has been one full year since I started this blog! I've learned a lot about fishing and have had fun on all my fishing adventures. As much as I would have liked to have caught more varieties of fish, I've learned, it just takes time!  

This last week, I had the opportunity to go fishing with Captain Kerry and his crew on his fishing vessel, Blue Lightning. I haven't had many opportunities to fish from a boat so I jumped with excitement at this opportunity.

 Captain Kerry wanted to target Kokanee Salmon at Strawberry Reservoir. So we combined his knowledge and experience catching Kokanee, and my knowledge of Strawberry Reservoir to make a great Kokanee team. Captain Kerry opted to try a 5 pole set up.

 We rigged one pole with leaded line down the middle of the boat. Then we put two poles off the left side and two poles off the right side. Both the left and right sides had one pole with leaded line, and a pole with a down rigger to keep the lines from tangling.

Each pole was rigged with a dodger with some sort of pink, red, blue, or purple on it. After the dodger, we added about 12-18 inches of line before putting the lure on.

It didn't take too long before we started reeling in fish.

We caught fish with pink colored squids, red wedding ring with a worm, pink/purple squid, purple apex, light pink squid, and a red apex.

We had fun catching cutthroats and rainbows but couldn't seem to find the kokanees.

We moved to a different part of the lake where I have seen plenty of Kokanees in the past. It didn't take too long before I reeled in a 17.5" Kokanee! The Kokanee was caught on the pole with the pink squid. The pole was on the left down rigger which was set at 45 feet.

 The arrival of our first kokanee brought a new burst of excitement as we hoped to find more!

Two fish later, First Mate Preston reeled in another kokanee on this red apex. 

We weren't able to spend all day  fishing but we all enjoyed our time on the water! Fishing with Captain Kerry, First Mate Preston, and Deck Hand Eric ended  up being a great success. We caught a total of three rainbows, ten cutthroats, and two kokanee salmon. There was a tie for the biggest fish. Both kokanees measured in at 17.5 inches.

JOE'S TIP OF THE DAY

In the summer months, kokanee salmon are usually found suspended over deep water. The first kokanee we caught was 45 feet down in 90 feet deep water. The second kokanee was 60 feet down in about  110 feet deep water.