Fishing Forum

[cool][font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1][#0000ff]As I neared Jordanelle, on my way to meet Pikeman Friday morning, I kept chanting "Shoulda stood in bed." The wind was pushing my Jimmy all over the road and sleet pellets were going by horizontally in my headlights.

Since we are both diehard fisherguys, we were both there before our appointed 7 AM meetup time. Loaded up the wheeler and the sleds and headed across the lake. One inch of new snow made it tough to see what damage the warming trend has done to the ice. But, Pikeman had been out a couple of times recently and knew his way to a good spot.

It was an E ticket ride, with a bit of puckering as we skirted around a pressure break with open water. It was even worse in the afternoon, with open water on both sides of us. Never heard a splash though so I figured I would enjoy the ride and go fishing.

We were setting up by 8 and the wind died down a bit. Looking good. My balky auger didn't want to roar and just grumbled a couple of holes for Pikeman and a couple for me. 10 inches of good ice. The first holes were enough for a while. We caught a few perch right off.

Also started catching our first of MANY big chubs. Glen is the master. I only got about 8 for the day. He had at least 10...but who's counting. Gonna change his name to CHUBMAN.

Two other guys wandered up, after having trudged all the way to the north end from Hailstone. Masochists. What's worse is that not long after they got their holes drilled the north wind kicked up and started spitting some severe sleet at us. Pikeman popped up his Eskimo and I put my well protected back to the wind and toughed it out.

The two new arrivals were wearing Carharts and they got soaked and chilled. The were starting to load their sleds for the warming trek back to their vehicle when kindly ol' Pikeman offered to shuttle them back, behind his wheeler. He rigged their two sleds in tandem and they jumped up behind him on the wheeler. I guess they whimpered a little too when they bridged the pressure ridge.

By the time Pikeman got back, the worst of the storm had passed, although we kept having quite a bit of wind all day. That did not shut down the fish though. We were dipping in about 35 feet of water, and a few fish at a time would come through. Bites were sporadic. Either nothing or both rods at a time.

I finally got serious. I Swiss cheesed the ice around our area and put up the second rod. I got out my spanking stick, a light baitcast rig, and put some perch on the single hook below one of my glow tiger casting spoons. The, I played "musical holes". I went from one hole to the other, set my chair with my back against the wind and dropped my tiger jig to the bottom. If there were fish there, they bit within a few seconds on the first drop. Often I got two fish per hole before it zilched out.

During the course of my wandering around the ice, I lost one big brown, landed a 16 inch rainbow and had Pikeman's help to scoop my 19" brown out of the hole. I think I ended up with about 30 "keeper" perch, with the largest about 11 inches. Pikeman scored a pretty good load of perch too, and did not have to rely on taking the chubs home to feed his family.

On the way back in we motored by two different deer carcasses on the ice. Evidently there is a group of coyotes that know how to get deer out onto the ice so they can get them down and dine on them. One carcass was reduced to dried picked bones...from three days before, when it was fresh. The other carcass was from the last day or so and still had some red on it...and some eagles doing their best to clean up the remnants.

There was some slush and water on top as we went back in, about 2 PM. But, the access off the ramp was still good. Should hold up for a few more days unless there is a lot of rain and/or warmer weather. The ice all over the lake seems to be solid and at least 10 inches wherever we sampled.

Thanks CHUBMAN for a great day. Also, thanks for taking a few pics. You done good with my camera.
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[/size][/black][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1]Attachments:[/size][/black][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1][url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=21809;"][#000000] SNOW CAMP.jpg [/#000000][/url](98.4 KB) [/size][/black][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][size 1]Attachments:[/size][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1][url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=21810;"][#000000] NORTH X.jpg [/#000000][/url](76.2 KB) [/size][/black][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][size 1]Attachments:[/size][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1][url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=21811;"][#000000] BLANKETY CHUB.jpg [/#000000][/url](133 KB) [/size][/black][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][size 1]Attachments:[/size][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1][url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=21812;"][#000000] PIKEMAN'S SHUTTLE.jpg [/#000000][/url](98.1 KB) [/size][/black][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][size 1]Attachments:[/size][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1][url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=21813;"][#000000] CHATEAU PIKEMAN.jpg [/#000000][/url](121 KB) [/size][/black][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][size 1]Attachments:[/size][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1][url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=21814;"][#000000] ICE LITTERING.jpg [/#000000][/url](129 KB) [/size][/black][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][size 1]Attachments:[/size][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1][url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=21815;"][#000000] TUBEDUDE BENDO.jpg [/#000000][/url](114 KB) [/size][/black][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][size 1]Attachments:[/size][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1][url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=21816;"][#000000] TUBEDUDE PERCHO.jpg [/#000000][/url](146 KB) [/size][/black][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][size 1]Attachments:[/size][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1][url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=21817;"][#000000] BOW BEAUTY.jpg [/#000000][/url](131 KB) [/size][/black][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][size 1]Attachments:[/size][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1][url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=21818;"][#000000] TUBEDUDE BROWNIE.jpg [/#000000][/url](174 KB) [/size][/black][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][size 1]Attachments:[/size][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1][url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=21819;"][#000000] SWEET 19.jpg [/#000000][/url](159 KB) [/size][/black][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][size 1]Attachments:[/size][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1][url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=21820;"][#000000] VENISON JERKY.jpg [/#000000][/url](120 KB) [/size][/black][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][size 1]Attachments:[/size][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1][url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=21821;"][#000000] EAGLE VENISON.jpg [/#000000][/url](121 KB) [/size][/black][/font]
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Wow! Nice Report, nice trip and nice fish.

I'm just curious as to what you got the Venison Jerky on. Bucktails??? lol[cool]
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[cool][#0000ff]"DRY FLIES"...silly.[/#0000ff]
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Wow! That was a great report. The prose is as good as the photography. Thanks for sharing TD.

z~
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[cool][#0000ff]Thanks, Z. How are things in your bailiwick? Been kinda quiet lately. I suspect that it is not all "weather related".[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Doctor TubeDude prescribes more fishing.[/#0000ff]
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Yeah, I've been fighting a case chronic bronchitis. I'll spare you the unpleasant details. I'm into the ninth week. The steroids the doctor has me taking speed me up, which feels pretty good, but then I can't sleep at night, which slows me back down. Haven't felt much like getting out. Fishing would certainly be good therapy but aside from sneaking off down to the river here in our town for a few hours to try to catch a passing winter steelhead, I've been AWOL from the water. I have big plans but I'm short on the execution.

BTW, I purchased a mold for roadrunner (pony) jigs so I could duplicate the steelie sized ones you sent. I poured some last week but haven't painted them yet. I need to get some liquid paint. The powder I normally use for the ball head jigs doesn't work on these due to the swivel. Looking forward to getting it done before the springers and summers start showing up in May and June. I also have most of the flyrod sized ones you sent dressed with feathers and ready to go for the ponds which, by now, ought to have fish ready to eat. (The fish eating, that is. It's all C&R.)

We had a beautiful 60 degree sunny day here today. Could almost watch the daffodils jump out of the ground.

z~
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[cool][#0000ff]Hope things improve soon...both for your health and for fishing. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Sounds like you like the pony head jigs. How about some pics of your "patterns".[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Spring is lurking in the near future. Hope it finds you well and with plenty of good times on the water.[/#0000ff]
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Thanks. Me too.[] I appreciate your kind words.

I'll get you some pics when I have something finished that is worthwhile.

z~
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The only fishing pics I have this winter is of my neighbor at the city lake in his drill and chill shelter. (Taken from the safety of the cab of my car with the heater on full blast.) Hopefully the worst of this unfishing friendly weather is behind us. (although the ice cubes say that this has been the best fishing for them in a long time - and I imagine auger sales and frost bite treatments are through the roof)

Today was 40. Yay! I almost broke out the speedo.

BTW -- Those trout that TD caught in the pics above make it look almost worth it! Nice fish.
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I hope you get better Uncle Z. I miss seeing you awesome fishing reports. Be sure to save some of them steroids for your next tubing trip. They can sometimes work better than eating beans on the night before.[cool]
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Thanks TN2. Right now the beans sound better. I'm supposed to go off this stuff sometime next week. Maybe I can return to some type of normal soon. I'd love to have a nice fishing report to write up.

BTW, something I've been interested in lately is podcasting - or more specifically something called "sound seeing." It's making MP3 sound files of fishing trips. I already have a portable recorder I use from recording my work. Just need to get out there and try it.

z~
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That should be interesting. Especially with some of the sounds that I make while fishing.[laugh] A few grunts, groans, and ppffffffffft forgot that I ate beans.[shocked]

At least it didn't leave a hole in the waders.[cool]
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[black][size 3]I guess you were in good company with Poky-mon! He made it home safe and sound, but we got 4" wet white stuff this morning and still waiting reports from the Chubbuck man.[/size][/black]
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He must have taken that little rain storm that was lingering over us all day and dropped it off in your area.[cool]
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