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!