East Canyon on the Ice

My cell phone was dead, so I was unable to take any pictures. But I had a really fun day on East Canyon yesterday morning.

The truck said it was only 4 degrees, and it felt like it. The ice was slick and hard, with a spattering of snow in spots.

My first hole was over 70 feet of water. So I cut another and moved in to only 50 feet. I began here, placing my "nail tail" jig down about 10 to 12 feet, looking for cruising rainbows. I found them. I landed 5, and missed probably twice that many. The bite was rather aggressive, but they only gave you one quick shot and they were gone.

I only stayed about 3 hours. Since I was alone, I saw it as a good opportunity to get home early and do some things. The bite died off about 10:30 or so anyway. But it was my first trip out in several weeks, and I had a great time. Even though the catching wasn't that great. I caught rainbows in the 14 to 16 inch range, and they fought well.

I'm looking forward to going back soon, and possibly arriving a little earlier; before daylight.

It's now late November, and Huntington reservoir is already frozen and has safe ice. Schofield can't be too far behind. In both lakes you can pursue Tiger Trout, pictured above.
I'm ready to head out! But Cindy says we are Christmas shopping this Saturday. Maybe next weekend . . .

Still More "Firsts" In The Family

Jon is rounding out his hunting skills now, and here's his first rooster pheasant. Congratulations! Just don't get too attached to hunting; we've got the ice fishing season rapidly approaching.
I used to pheasant hunt all the time, but with all the houses springing up in the good farm land, it's hard to find a decent place to go. That, plus being without my old hunting dog, it's just not the same I guess. But I'd still like to go out this fall before it gets too cold.

Closing in on Transition Time

It's getting to be that time of year when we cold-footers begin to think about ice fishing season. Some years we're on the ice by Thanksgiving. Other years it's more like Christmas. But I need to go through my equipment and make sure that fish-finder batteries are still good, that reels are spooled up with fresh mono, and that we have some early ideas as to where we want to do our fishing this year. Success rates have been down the past 2 seasons, so I'd like to just think that things will improve this year. We deserve better than we've been getting. Come on ice!

One thing I HAVE to do this year is down-size my load of "stuff" that I try to haul out onto the ice. Too much weight, and I'm getting too old to keep up with the boys as they scoot across the ice with their sleds. I carry too many lures and such. I've got to get a small bag and just place the bare minimum in there for fishing use. Of course, I still need to find a place for Mr. Heater to ride along.

Rainbows at Strawberry

The rainbows were really biting well at Strawberry last weekend. We caught about 4 to 1 rainbows over cutts. And the cutthroats had little size to them. But we weren't upset; Jon, Paul and I all caught some fish. So it was a good day. We used crawfish colored tube jigs early, and then switched to white Rooster-Tails as the sun climbed higher in the sky. The trout were rather shallow, and we only trolled with mono. The bite was pretty continuous, and if we'd have caught all the fish that gave us hits, we'd have caught a bunch! But that's Strawberry. You never know what you're going to get. For example, we had perfectly calm water all morning, and then the wind blew up big time at noon. We had to make our way slowly across the bay to make it back safely to the marina. - We did see some kokanee in the river, by the way. The biggest part of the spawn is over, but a few fish remain in the stream.

Annual Kokanee Run

This picture was taken by an unknown photographer who captured the kokanee salmon run in a place called Taylor Creek. I just had to post it here. The kokes are running up the Strawberry River right now too. I need to get up there to see some of the action.

Meet Trevor

Trevor Balls thanks the duck gods for a good morning on the pond.

He is big into both fishing and hunting. So he fits right into the family! I've been fortunate that way. Above is a picture of his hunting partner, Boomer, and some of the ducks they took early one morning near Willard.