01-30-2017, 03:15 PM
As my cousin and I planned a fishing trip for Saturday we thought it might be a good idea to take the kids along. We've both had our kids out fishing plenty and I think all of them have caught their first fish before the age of three. I've even taken my kids out fishing recently a couple of times (and posted about it) and even though conditions we less than favorable the kids were tough. So considering all this, and the partly sunny forecast, we thought we could handle six kids for a day on the ice.
We got off a little later than we had hoped, which wasn't so bad considering the temperatures were a little colder than expected. When we pulled into the beach area of Hyrum Dam around 10:00am and it looked like most of northern Utah had the same idea. After squeezing in a parking space we made the long trek down. Since an entire village had set up in our normal kid fishing spot we opted to set up off of "Big Toe" in 21 ft of water. My cousin brought his ice tent, which wasn't big enough for everyone, but we thought the kids could use it as a warming hut when they got cold.
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It took a while to get everyone's holes drilled and poles set up; A process that took even longer because of crying and complaining kiddos. We did manage a few fish, but after the whole day's worth of snacks was shortly devoured by kids in record time, and little feet couldn't stay dry... and little mittens couldn't stay on, we decided to call it a day around 1:00pm. Kids needed to go home and thaw. Dads needed to go home and pop some Excedrin and something caffeinated. I'm not a drinking man but was sorely tempted to make Saturday the day I started!
We ended up with (I think) 5 planter-sized trout and 1 perch. The trout came mid to upper column and the perch was off the bottom. The effective color seemed to be chartreuse and more fish came on meal worms than the other bait.
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My apologies to anyone fishing near us for the crying kids and the subsequent snapping of frustrated fathers. I hope the kids have selective memories and just remember catching fish, eating snacks and playing with cousins. I know as a dad I suffer from parental amnesia and if the ice season lasts I'm sure I'll have the kids out fishing again in a few weeks. [
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We got off a little later than we had hoped, which wasn't so bad considering the temperatures were a little colder than expected. When we pulled into the beach area of Hyrum Dam around 10:00am and it looked like most of northern Utah had the same idea. After squeezing in a parking space we made the long trek down. Since an entire village had set up in our normal kid fishing spot we opted to set up off of "Big Toe" in 21 ft of water. My cousin brought his ice tent, which wasn't big enough for everyone, but we thought the kids could use it as a warming hut when they got cold.
[inline Screenshot_2017-01-30-08-03-31.png]
[inline 20170128_125849.jpg]
[inline 20170128_094848.jpg]
It took a while to get everyone's holes drilled and poles set up; A process that took even longer because of crying and complaining kiddos. We did manage a few fish, but after the whole day's worth of snacks was shortly devoured by kids in record time, and little feet couldn't stay dry... and little mittens couldn't stay on, we decided to call it a day around 1:00pm. Kids needed to go home and thaw. Dads needed to go home and pop some Excedrin and something caffeinated. I'm not a drinking man but was sorely tempted to make Saturday the day I started!
We ended up with (I think) 5 planter-sized trout and 1 perch. The trout came mid to upper column and the perch was off the bottom. The effective color seemed to be chartreuse and more fish came on meal worms than the other bait.
[inline Screenshot_2017-01-30-08-04-03.png]
[inline Screenshot_2017-01-30-08-04-48.png]
[inline Screenshot_2017-01-30-08-05-38.png]
My apologies to anyone fishing near us for the crying kids and the subsequent snapping of frustrated fathers. I hope the kids have selective memories and just remember catching fish, eating snacks and playing with cousins. I know as a dad I suffer from parental amnesia and if the ice season lasts I'm sure I'll have the kids out fishing again in a few weeks. [
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