Utah lake strikes again!

Launched boat from Provo harbor traveled to the Provo bay area and tried for well everything threw the tackle box at em fished from ten til 230 main lake water temp 50 mud lake about 60. Rod bent once for a snag. The best moment in this trip was me and joe lighting our cigars! Took some ingenuity lighter ran out of fuel I stole some gasoline from boat tank to fuel up the lifter ;)

Kidney pond 3/24/12

Went down to kidney pond after my dads birthday with Troy the tye dye twin and caught a couple of Bowes action overall was slow then I hooked this delicious 17inch channel cat on powerbait! Who woulda thought!

Starvation 3-22-12

So for the past couple weeks me and jwalker have been wanting to have a trip to starvation. Every time we mentioned the thought over the last couple months we have not had a full day off. The day was a very long and venturesome day that started the night before! We met up to install some upgrades to my boat late wed night. First on the agenda was to try and mount my fish finder and install a couple rod holders. Of course nothing's as easy as seemed and so we got to bed late. not sure what i was thinking or if I was at all but could have been the two or 3 hours sleep and waking at 4 thing but I managed to drive by habit all the way to wanship before I. Had realized my error :/ guess I was used to going toward rockport from park city oops half hour setback. We still arrived at starvation by sun up and got launched. It was a little chilli early on but quickly became so warm and pretty out. Early on I was trolling a pop gear and worm and had a nice rainbow on. I was in the process of releasing the fish when I heard jwalker yell mountain lion mountain lion. I looked up to see on the cliffs about 40 yards away there had been a large cougar watching me have fun catching my fish the lion spooked and was booking it trying to get up over the ridge! Right there the trip was already worth the drive it's not often that you see one of those in the wild as I only had one other time but way further away. We started marking small fish at 60 ft thought these must be perch I had no way to anchor that deep and there was a light breeze that made it impossible to stay over them and jig though I tried we decided to move on and keep trolling We went toward the bridge where we started to see some floating ice and then we were greeted with ice at the bridge. We weren't really marking any fish that way so we decided to leave. The wind died off and the water was glass so I went where I had been marking the perch found they were still there but that's when the engine troubles started. The boat was running like crap and then when we attempted to restart after it died the pull chord was stuck out. :( we drifted around for a bit while I tried to find the release for my engine cover I felt everywhere and couldn't remember where it was. Finally I decided to paddle to shore and get where I can see the back of the motor. As soon as we got to shore and instantly I found it I felt so dumb we just wasted a long part of our day! I was able to fix the pull chord with no tools except a swiss army knife then I decided the motor issues had to have been a bad mixture setting on the carb and a bad low idle setting both were adjusted and we were in business! The fix went well enough that we elected to fish on rather than get home. We trolled into a cove watched the boat and ate lunch. The fishing trip took a turn for the better from here I think it was because my mood it only were we in t shirts but I got some food in my frustrated body nothing like boat troubles to ruin a mood! And jwalker got out his surprise a couple fancy cigars! I think I developed my new superstition after the game changing mood change a full belly and stogy in mouth I was ripping lips with a medium silver deep diving repalla. For the next couple hours I had fish on after fish on! All in all a good trip we tried back trolling for walleye and jigging for perch it was fun to try these other methods all thou there was no success I blame the 40 degree water temps. I would love to return and try for the other species soon but as for now that makes one long day trip to catch rainbows. All fish were released except one trolling casualty that really wanted that repalla.

"I'm on a boat I'm on a boat..."

Was going to fish starvation with jwalker but we decided at 430 am that 2 hr sleep and a three hour drive was a bad mix. I had the idea about noon that we should meet up get some greasy cheesesteaks and get my boat out of storage take it to Utah lake to see how it runs. We got the cover off and it was full of water doh! Next year i will flip it upside down cause apparently the cover leaks. We got it bailed out hooked up and headed for the knolls. I had never been to the knolls but had always thought about it when I drove out that way shooting. I found it to be a pretty pleasant place minus the garbage :( I was pleased to see the rocky shoreline made for easy launching with my Nissan xterra and 14 ft aluminum boat. To my pleasure the motor fired up with no fuss and we were on our way ! The carp were rolling everywhere! Fishing was about what I expected we caught the skunk but a beautiful day to be on the water! We mainly trolled for white bass. I wonder if our luck would have been different if we had some worms or something to go after carp!

Jordan river 3/8/12

After doing some research me and Johnny wanted to try a hotspring that feeds the Jordan river by the outlet from Utah lake. Needless to say we noticed the access to the river on the side with the spring was private property. Frustrated we tried to cast across from the other side to where the warm and cold water would meet this proved difficult in these high fast water conditions. Perhaps this could be good if they slowed the flow of the Jordan ill keep my eyes on it for a few weeks ;) frustrated and biteless we went home!

Echo revenge sat March 3rd?

Been a while since I logged in to post so I'm struggling to remember the exact date but we went to see if echo was what we may have thought it to be. Jeff was in town and me Johnny an Jeff met early morning an got to echo. Johnny caught 1 16 inch rainbow and had plenty of missed bites and hook sets including one that drug his pole almost into the hole before he got :) his rod was pretty Bendo but I suppose well never know cause it spit the hook! Jeff had some solid bites even some set that apparently just weren't set good enough. And as for my rod it twitched once with a very disinterested bite :( wtf we fished for 5 hrs quite a bit different then our last outing

Rockport fri 2/24

Me James joe and joes friend McKay from work hit rockport from about 1030 am til 2 or 3 and every last one if us skunked! Not a bite except joe and McKay but no fish! Not even one marked on the finder! No more rockport this season I'm officially writing this place off the rest of this winter!

Echo echo cho cho

On Thursday 2/23 me and Johnny decided to hit echo. As rockport had been kinda a bust lately and echo was only 15 min further. This was Johnny's decision and I will admit I went with a little bit of schepticism. We arrived around 230 or so in the afternoon and left at dusk. The air temperature was 50 degrees at the lake and a decent south wind offered some annoying random gusts. The edges were a little rotten but the main ice pack was a solid foot. I found a piece of 2x6 left on the bank which offered enough confidence to take the leap of faith. There was about a quarter inch of water on top of the ice. Now to the good part we drilled in about 25 to 30 feet of water dropped 15 feet down and 15 min later it was fish on for me and it felt nice it took my ratfinky with a meal worm. It was running my drag was spinning and Johnny was fired up. And then it got off. I realized my drag was a little loose which interfered with a good hook set. Rookie mistake! Then It was the Johnny show with a fat 16 inch then another then a 17 inch then a fat bowe just shy of 18 inches. This was both Johnny's biggest trout through the nice or ever. I missed a bite during this time. Johnny was seeing his success with power bait on a ratfinky. I was feeling the fear of the skunk when the fish finder beeped and the pole went off and this time I set the hook but again had forgotten to retighten the drag after loosening it to pull line. On the set I heard it spin but this time I wasn't satisfied with the mediocre hook set I kept tension on the fish tightened my drag and set the hook again an ended up pulling out this nice big big fish at 18 inches and a hook jaw and sharp teeth to boot it was my meal worm pole. I ended up missing one huge bite my powerbait pole was bent probably 60 degrees down wham wham wham by the time I ran over the fish felt the tension and let go. :( then the bite died we tried moving to no avail we packed up and went home. I'm totally glad Johnny talked me into echo maybe it is a well kept secret that has gone under the radar from ice fisherman. I was glad to see Johnny's best ice fusing day ever. I will be back there was something awesome that we were literally the only people on the lake! It was true solitude not but 10 min from the crowded banks of rockport.

Iceport

Thursday February 16th and Friday February 17th I fished Rockport. The firs trip occured from 3pm til 6pm me and Joe fished the west shore in about 45 feet of water we fished between 10 and 20 feet down. We threw alot of stuff at the mealies powerbait ice flies tube jigs etc. I had several big bites but I was messing around drilling another hole a little to far away to get to my poles in time but joe said they were big bites. After this I decided I was good where I was at. I ended up catching a beautiul fat healthy bowe on a ratfinky under a perch kastmaster tipped with a mealie. This was the only one I kept I fileted it out and plan on beer battering it for lunch today! This setup would go on to catch me another small planter fishing. Joe had lots of bites but couldnt seal the deal he was having "hookset-itis" and consequently was getting really frustrated. This was the maiden voyage of my ice tent, ice sled, and fish finder. The tent was awesome! It was a beautiful sunny day and therefore we sat outside until the sun started to go below the horizon but I was most impressed with the distance that I could see down my ice hole! The fish finder was awesome it has a flasher mode that I could see my lure etc. I didnt quite get to see it work but was really close! Right after we set the tent up after it got cold! I was outside the tent to get something else to bring in when I heard the fish id alarm beep on my finder. I hurried over to the hole was about to look at the screen when I saw my pole bouncing so I just went for the pole instead. I missed the hookset i was at a pretty awkward angle :( I didnt know enough about the fish finder to go back and see if it had been a big one! I think that once i figure this thing out it will be a huge bonus to my fishing! While we were on the lake I recieved a phone call from westminster college saying that they were cancelling my morning flight because they needed the simulator that I was scheduled with my students in. When Joe caught word he said would you like to go tomorrow morning? Of course with the new gap in my schedule how could I refuse! We texted Johnny with the idea and he was in! It was on! Joe was going to go on no sleep after working a graveyard that night I found out that I had a friday morning staff meeting :( consequently we had to wait for me to go to meeting from 8-940. We met in a parking lot below parlys at 10 and piled into my car and we were on our way. The target was east canyon. We drove up parleys exited on the 65 drove past little dell to find that the highway was closed! Oops! Well im not going to Ogden Canyon to hit East Canyon so it was to rockport we headed! We arrived to find a pretty crowded lake but decided combat fishing would beat not fishing! I got on the board first with a baitfish of a planter again on the ratfinky pole this time tipped with crawler. I threw lots more at them and just ended up with one more on the ratfinky pole tipped with a mealie. Johnny wins the day with 3 fish one beautiful colored bowe but nothing of any substantial size either! All the big ones have dissapeared! I believe johnny caught a couple of his fish on a paddle bug and one on powerbait. Joe had several bites but couldn't get the skunk affliction of of him. He even had on dishartening hookset that the fish ran with it and his line cut on the edge of his ice hole! I watched it happen and the look of frustration in his eyes was dishartening! All in all a good day out of the house though the catching could have been hotter! Memories were made and I was proud to see Johnny catch his first fish threw the ice what a milestone! All fish caught on the second trip were released to grow and catch again. Im typing this now from my cubicle at work and joe and johnny are both fishing rockport sounds as though johnnys got the lead but joe got a full nights rest and got his skunk off! Wish I was there! Tell next time!

Green worm suck!

This will be a post on 2 different trips. The first occurring Monday the 13 th with James on the Jordan river 4800 spot. James caught a Utah sucker with a worm on the bottom. We ended up buying weird green worms that I had remembered trying once on rockport trolling and did significantly worse on and for having made 3 previous trips to this spot in a week the action was significantly slower. I blame green worms! James snagged his rig was too lazy to re tie as we weren't staying long so he claimed one of my 2 poles he had a couple of little bite and runs and one hard bite with a missed set on my pole. I got skunked. The following day I only had one morning flight and was done by 10 so me and Johnny decided we would try to get revenge on the one water that had continually skunked us non other than the Utah lake. We were trying to fish somewhere new but somehow we ended up at the American fork boat harbor. I tossed out one rod with a worm on the bottom I still had green ones from the previous adventure. With my other the target was white bass I tried curly tailed jigs and article fox spinners with no avail. We decided to move out of the windy cold harbor we relocated to the pump house Jordan river outlet and decided not to go look at the lake as the river looked good there. We tried the same tactics and both ended up skunked. Damn you Utah lake I swear we will figure it out one day! We fished 1 til 4 on Utah lake the trip with James was prob like 1 til 3.

Jordan river

Fished in the sleet today with joe at the same 4800 s location for a few hours before dark. Tried corn bait and garlic power bait with no interest. The weapon of choice again was the Carolina rigged worm on the bottom. I caught a mixed bag today 3 mud cats 2 Utah suckers and 1 white bass all with the worm on the bottom. One of the mudcats was all beat up with scars and open wounds possibly from fighting? The white bass was a dink joe caught a Utah sucker and then we think another sucker. But this one ran and got into a snag. He had a fish get off right by shore as well. We both had tons of missed bites and hook sets. If I capitalized on every opportunity id be double digits for sure! It was good to see the white bass and I may target them soon.

Revenge of the Jordan River

Today was my full day off and I received an email from Cabellas that my Ice fishing sled I ordered was in the store. I decided I would go pick this up. While I was down there I bought some night crawlers and thought I'll see how the Jordan is this far south while I'm down here. I ended up driving around and getting kinda turned around and lost before I found a promising spot. I thought I'd just be walking down to try it for a minute so I didn't change my shoes. Needless to say I ended up in a bog with wet muddy feet. I just went back to my car and drove toward home. I joined up with the "tye dye twins" from the fishing forum I am a member of at the same 4800 south fishing location as yesterday. The fishing was slow we only fished from 4:30 til about 5:30 the Tye dyes came up empty handed I had one bite and was successful in hooking a big carp with my ultra light rod! This was another first species for me! It was a good thing they brought a net or I don't think I could have gotten it up on shore. I fished for an extra half hour from 5:30 to 6 and only got one more bite I got a little nuts with my hook-set and ended up fowl hooking a small utah sucker. The Jordan river has served as a great escape from the winter time blues. I can't wait to hit the suspected channel cat section of the river late spring this year!

Jordan river challenge

So me and johnny hit the Jordan river for the "Jordan river challenge" which is basically just a fun way of saying lets see how many random species we can catch! We hit the river between 2 and 4 pm today. It rained for the second half of the time. Johnny tried some rooster tails with no avail. I opted to go with a Carolina rigged worm on the bottom. I ended up catching 3 mudcats or bullhead catfish which is a new species for me! And one Utah sucker which is also a new species off the bucket list! Johnny switched to the worm and received a quite a few confirmed bites but couldn't seal the deal! Guess he had hook set itis! We fished on the west side of the river at 4800 south I used about 36 inches leader and 3/8 ounce weight a number either 4 or 6 hook with a whole crawler. We will be back for some more Jordan river challenge!