Ice Fishing Has Begun

Ice fishing is finally here! This last week, I went to Scofield Reservoir for my first time. Most the lakes in Utah don't have much ice yet so I decided to play it safe and go to Scofield. Scofield had about 6-8" of ice so I decided to go there. Plus there is always a chance you will catch a large Tiger Trout or Cutthroat Trout.

Last year I bought the Eskimo Quickfish 3. This purchase has turned out to be one of the best fishing purchases I have made. An ice fishing tent changes the game when it comes to ice fishing. Gone are the days where I freeze on the ice and question why I choose to fish in the winter. Instead, I honestly look forward to ice fishing season.

Without an ice fishing tent this is what your ice fishing hole looks like.

This is what it looks like with an ice fishing tent. Please click on the link below.

Ice fishing with a tent

 Jason caught this nice chub. Surprisingly, I have caught thousands of fish over the years but have never caught a chub.

Jason ended up catching five chubs. We filleted one of the chubs and used it for bait.

Jason caught a few fish with the chub meat. However, we seemed to have more success with a piece of a worm on our jig or ice fly. Jason caught 29 total fish. I caught 27 total fish. Only three of the 27 fish I caught were rainbows. Next week I will share photos of the bait we use for trout.

JOE'S TIP OF THE DAY

When it comes to ice fishing, you don't necessarily have to fish near the bottom of the lake to catch fish. In fact, 90% of the 56 fish we caught were only 2-9 feet deep. Many of the fish were good sizes! 

Debunk the Skunk

Last week I took on the challenge of...Operation Debunk the Skunk. 

Meet fisherman Justin. When it comes to fishing, he has the curse of getting skunked. Justin explained he had a family curse in which his family seems to never catch fish when they go fishing. When I heard about this I thought it would be fun to help Justin try and break the curse!

My location of choice was of course, Strawberry Reservoir. When we arrived, it was a whopping 18 degrees F. 

We fished for a while but had no luck. We tried my favorite lures, my favorite fishing spots, but nothing seemed to be working. I remembered we brought worms just in case the lures wouldn't work. So we rigged up a water bubble with a hook, Salmon Eggs, and a worm. I had never tried a worm or Salmon Eggs with a water bubble rig before. 

 After just a few minutes with the water bubble/worm rig out in the water, Justin caught a fish! And just like that, the fishing skunk curse, had been debunked!

Justin's fish ended up being a nice rainbow trout!

We fished for a couple more hours until I finally caught a fish as well! I caught this rainbow (photo above) with a gold Joe's Flies and Lure. We ended up only catching one fish a piece but had fun being up in the mountains!

JOE'S TIP OF THE DAY

Always take your camera fishing. You never know what wildlife you might see while fishing! This trip we saw some deer and two Bald Eagles!