Fishing Without a Pole!

Last week I took Mike and his wife Laura ice fishing for their first time! We went to Strawberry Reservoir as I did really well the week before. We returned to Lunker Cove in hopes of catching more good sized trout!

The day started off pretty slow but by mid morning we got into some good sized rainbows! Mike caught this fat rainbow.

 

Mike continued to catch fish after fish while Laura waited for her chance to catch a fish too.

Finally Laura started catching fish too! The bait we used was a small glow in the dark tube jig tipped with a piece of a worm.

Before we knew it, Mike and Laura were able to keep a total of seven good sized rainbow trout to take home for dinner. This trip we only caught two cutthroat trout but they were both good sized fish! We released both cuts back to the lake. 

JOE'S TIP OF THE DAY

Before you leave to go fishing, check to make sure you put your fishing pole(s) in the car. On this trip, we drove all the way to Strawberry Reservoir before we realized Mike and Laura forgot their fishing poles! Mike and Laura used my two fishing poles. Instead of not fishing, I tied fishing line to a stick. This method proved to still be successful!

Lunker Cove

The past couple weeks I went fishing at Scofield and Strawberry Reservoir. After catching 56 total fish the first trip of the season, we returned to Scofield the following week with my buddy Brandon. We caught several fish on the second trip. Brandon had only been fishing once or twice in his life but he seemed to have a lot of fun catching several fish! My only regret, not taking more pictures!

The following week Jason and I went to Strawberry Reservoir. We tried a new spot that we named Lunker Cove. This location was an instant success! We caught several large trout, including my very first Kokanee Salmon ever!

It is normal to catch several small rainbows at the berry, this trip however was full of nice, fat, healthy rainbows between 15-17inches long.

 

Besides catching the nice rainbows, we caught several good sized cutthroat trout as well!

Jason caught the biggest of the day with a 22" cutthroat.

When it comes to bait, I have the best success placing this glow in the dark Demon (by Custom Jigs and Spins) a foot or two above a small tube jig.

 

I caught the Kokanee Salmon on this Demon tipped with a small piece of worm.

The tube jig I prefer to use is this pan fish jig. The main body is white glow in the dark and has yellow/green tentacles. Simply place a small jig hook inside and tie it onto your line. To finish it off, place a small piece of worm on the tube jig. Believe it or not, the big fish will eat this as well as the small fish.

JOE'S TIP OF THE DAY

There are several baits you can use for ice fishing. From my experience, the baits that glow in the dark seem to work the best.