Fishing Forum

Brett and I fished in the tournament at Scofield on Saturday. We arrived at the check-in site at the turnoff to Madsen Bay just a couple of minutes after 6:00 and checked in and got our bumpboards approved. They all have to be commercially made; most were hi-viz yellow; there were many Ketch Carbonates present and they are highly recommended. I got a doughnut and some blistering hot hot chocolate which hit the spot as it was only 6 degrees. We hustled on over to the Madsen Bay boat ramp and headed out on the ice. We had scouted the area and had our plan to set up where we hoped to catch some tiger trout. We just got a couple of holes drilled when it was 7:00, beginning time. Brett had a fish on the ice almost instantly but I was having trouble with my flasher. I wiggled wires but couldn't get it to power up. I asked  Brett to help me and he took out each plug and reinserted them. That did the trick and I started catching too. We had good luck with both tigers and cutthroats. We each had a number of rods rigged up with different lures and hooks so we were able to switch whenever something wasn't working. Brett caught some really nice fish on his jigging Jaw Jacker. Then my ff pooped out again; nothing worked anymore so I fished the old-fashioned way. Didn't do very well at all. Then Brett told me he had his old unit and I could go get it out of his vehicle. Using it I proceeded to catch several more fish, including a 17.75" cutt to add to the 15.25" tiger I had gotten earlier. Now all we needed was a couple of rainbows to fufill our plan of catching all three species of trout. We were sure that we would start catching some right where we were but it didn't happen. Our plan was to go over to the dam arm about mid morning if we got into that situation. We had caught rainbows over there the week before and felt confident that we could again. Unfortunately we stayed where we were longer than we should have. With a couple of hours to go we headed out. When we got near the ramp the park ranger told us where people were catching nothing but rainbows so we tried there. No good. Then Brett was told by a man who was leaving exactly where he had been catching rainbows. Brett went directly there but again the fish gods did not  on us. There was too little time left for us to boogie on over to the dam arm so we ended up with just the two species. 

We now had two hours to get our fish logged onto the Fish Donkey app and get to the awards. We had to drive over near the dam to find four stars on our phones. The entries we had made could not be completed with out strong internet service. It took a while and it was a little nerve wracking waiting to see if we had posted the photos correctly and gotten credit for our fish. They came in slowly but we finally saw that we were good. We also watched as other fish were credited and the leaderboard changed. When all was said and done Brett ended up in 10th place with 37.25" and I finished with 33" for 21st place. I figured that was not too bad for our first tournament. Since there were 122 people signed up I outdid 100 participants. But I keep going over how close we were to being in the money, "if only."

I hope Brett will add what he wants to. I'll leave it to him if he wants to reveal any other details of where we went and the lures and bait used. There is another Frozen Frenzy Tournament at Strawberry in early January. I encourage everyone to check the details on the FishDonkey app. There is also a Utah Ice Grand Slam that is for 24 species from January 1 to March 30. It's somewhat like the Ice Challenge we have on here. You could do them both at the same time.

Thanks Craig. I think we learned a lot about how to post fish on the FishDonkey app. Will need to add a release video for the Utah Ice Grand Slam.

I had hoped to catch a tiger muskie using chub minnows on a quick strike rig under the jaw jacker. No luck with that, but did catch some nice trout before the bite shut off mid to late morning. Still much to learn and try in the art of ice fishing!

(12-19-2023, 12:02 AM)catchinon Wrote: [ -> ]Brett and I fished in the tournament at Scofield on Saturday.

 What was the status of the Ice?  "How Thick"
 Were machines running the entire Lake?

The ice was about 5" everywhere and I felt perfectly safe, but I stayed relatively close to shore. I didn't personally see any snowmobiles or 4-wheelers but there were a couple of 'dogs growling around.

Do you know what the winning numbers were?  Did you just measure/submit the longest fish you caught of each species?

I was up there on Saturday as well, but we didn't fish the tournament.  Ice was 4-5" where we were.  Didn't see any machines on the ice.  There were a couple of guys that were much braver than I was and walked all the way out to the island.  The ice was very noisy and clear.  It was fun watching fish swim away under the ice after you released them.

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I feel bad because I didn't get into a lot of details about what and how we fished. I don't think we had any supersecret weapons. We used the lures we have for years and the ones that get mentioned all the time to use there. As anybody can tell you, the fish were on the bottom and they liked both jigging and dead-sticking. A funny and shocking thing happened to me. I was using a Paddle Bug which I've hardly ever tried before, so I dipped it a few inches down the hole and was wiggling it about trying to learn what it looked like down in the water when suddenly a trout viciously attacked it. I just reacted on instinct and hauled the cheeky little bugger high up in the air and down on the iice. "Everyone knows that the trout hug the bottom."

The FishDonkey app is set up so that you take photos of your fish and submit them. They go to the hosts of the tournament and they verify them. We didn't have cell phone coverage so we had to wait till the tournament was over then drive to the dam area. It took a while but it was fun watching all the fish come in. You can look at the leaderboard and individual's fish. The goal was to get as many inches of fish as you could from all the species in the lake. The winners had cutthroats, tiger trout , and rainbows. No one got any tiger muskies, wipers, or walleye. One person got a dink chub. The top seven contestants got all three species of trout. The top five had at least 50 inches. The overall winner, Tysen Belnap, had 52.75" with a 16.5" rainbow, a 17.25" tiger and a 19" cutthroat. I believe that the longest fish was over 21". First place got $1000 cash, second got an Eskimo auger setup, and third took home a nice shelter. There was a big drawing at the end and my brother won a bucket with some jerky. A high percentage of the crowd won something. Over 120 people signed up and just under 100 posted fish.

I suspect that the one that they are holding at Strawberry on January 13 will run about the same. They call it the Strawberry Frozen Frenzy. The species that are eligible are chub, crawfish, cutthroat, kokanee, rainbow, and sucker. Everyone should get the FishDonkey app so you can see what's going on. It is set up so anybody can host a tournament. I've fished in three of them now and got second in one. Be sure to check out the Utah Ice Grand Slam. It runs from January 1 to March 30. The objective is to catch as many inches as you can out of 24 species. My brother and I have signed up and will be doing the BFT challenge at the same time. I hope some of you will join us. There is an 85-person max and up to $2000 in cash and prizes, dependent of course on the number of participants. The host expects to return most of the entry fees in prizes.

Hope to see you on the ice!

Thank you for the great info! I think I could have placed well if I would have entered. I guess I'll have to pay to play next time. Sounds fun!