02-19-2006, 04:32 AM
Drove up to the Berry this morning. It was an adventure getting there. We left Salt Lake at 5 am to meet up with the rest of our party in Heber at 6 am. Weather was clear as a bell and cold when we left Salt Lake. I-80 was closed to Eastbound traffic at the I-215 junction due to an accident so we had to go to 33rd south or what ever that exit is to get up Parleys canyon on the round about. Several police cars and fire trucks had the freeway blocked. The wind at the mouth of the canyon was severe so I suspect that an ice patch and snow drift caused the problem/accident. Temp was -13 in the canyon. Up past Lambs Canyon a big snow drift was across the freeway for several hundred yards. Semi's were stuck all over in all the lanes. They were stopped dead, putting on their chains where they sat. We had to weave in and out of the trucks to get around them. Several cars were stuck and spinning their tires also. I was pulling the wheeler in a trailer. If I hadn't had 4 wheel drive we would have been stuck with them. We arrived in Heber about 20 minutes late. Weather was overcast but calm. As we got to the berry, no one ahead of us or behind us that we coud see turned off the road to the marina. All kept going east. We passed Chicken Creek and the ice was empty and no one was in the parking lot. It was just after 7 am and it was light... prime fishing time. As we passed the ladders, it also was empty. One truck was in the parking lot. We arrived at Soldier Creek and the first bay was empty also. There was plenty of parking available at the dam turn off. A couple of groups were just leaving... walking down the road. No one was visable on the ice. We unloaded 2 snowmobiles and my ATV and drove down the road to the ice. The sleds made it just fine, the wheeler slipped off the hard pack a couple of times but we did not get stuck as I was able to get back on the trail quickly without incident. The wind was blowing slightly and the temp was 13 degrees. Pretty warm! The wind had blown the snow around a lot on the ice, but the wheeler made it without too much trouble. Snow depth was around 6 inches or less with small drifts everywhere, kind of like waves. The snow was a fine grit like material, which made it tough for the tires to get a "bite". I was pulling 200 lbs plus of tent and gear. We set up the tents, turned on the heaters, drilled the holes and went to fishing. The ice measured 16 inches. Too thick for the hand auger, but good for the power auger. I started catching fish immediatly. I fished in 34 feet of water using a white wadda cricket tipped with a wax worm. I caught 3 before anyone else caugt any. It was the same spot I fished 3 weeks ago when I caught 20. It lightly snowed a couple of times, but it was just a dusting. We stayed until 2:30. At the end of the day we had iced 41 fish. My son landed 6, my two friends landed 8 each and I landed 21. A stellar day! I counted about 6 other groups fishing in the bay and only heard 2 snowmobiles run across the ice the entire day. I switched to meal worms about noon as the bite slowed down and I started picking them up again. 6 of the fish were rainbows. I caught 4 under the slot with the rest in the slot, 20 inches being the largest (5 of them). We all had vexilar's and we all marked fish all day. At first, every fish that came in hit the wax worm/wadda cricket combo. Most were caught on the bottom, a few were crusing around 20 feet, so I'd reel up to them and, "wham" they'd hit. The bite was the usual February Strawberry extra light. I used a tip senser to detect the bite. Around 2, it looked like a storm was coming, so we left. On the way out, I counted 7 groups at the ladders, 6 at Chicken Creek East and 6 vehicles at Chicken Creek West. The berry was empty!!! Coming home, we hit the storm in Parleys Canyon, but the roads were good, fishing was good and the company was good. ATV assesment...I'm probably through taking it there this season.
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