Wiperslayer, reelfast and I left for the Gorge at a little after 11am and arrived at Firehole a little after 2pm. There were already three huts on the ice but few had caught any fish, the ones that had, report one rainbow and one burbot so it had been slow to that point. We went around the point to the left were Ryno had reported doing good last weekend. We fished in water that was 31, 26 and 19ft deep and did not catch a fish until 4:30pm. Then it was, as if a switch was turned on and we caught one after another for an hour or so. even one lake trout. Then the switch turned off again and we waited until 8pm before our next fish, we decided to call it quits at 9pm. It must have been below 0* on the lake but as we left and drove down the road temp in the truck had warmed up to 1*[unsure]. I wish I had taken a picture of the frosty conditions of the tents but here is a frosty fish picture instead. We got back to the Ogden area around 1am. WH2
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Thanks for the report, nice mess of fish too!
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Those Burbot look like they are getting some shoulders to them, what were the size?
I've got to go to Rock Springs on friday for work and I'm thinking about taking my gear and hitting the ice when I'm finished, heading to Vernal when I'm done and hitting Pelican the next day on my way home.
If anyone is going to be up that direction next friday let me know and we'll hook up.
Brody, how thick was the ice? How far of a walk is it to the hunting grounds? I've got to take a trailer with me and I was wondering if it was even worth my time to haul the wheeler that far.
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Nice report Curt and good job by the rest of you. Sounds as cold as my elk hunting trip this morning. I know it was easy single digits this morning around the Echo area where I was hunting.
Let me know if they taste as good as they say they do. How was the fight? Any?
RILEY
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Not a great fight until you hit the hole, then they snake around so hard that it is hard to get them through it. I'll let everyone know how they taste later when I try them. How was your hunt.
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Hey! Does anyone have any suggestions on how to cook these bad boys up? I hope they are like cocconuts........Ugly on the outside but good on the inside.[
] I see they are full of eggs to so they will spawn. When does that happen and is there a feeding frenzie that goes with it?
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Hey Dan, what else did you find in your? Here is another picture of one up close:
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i have used egg milk soak filets then bread in flour and salted crackers crushed with favorite seasonings then deep fry .and i dont think thay spwn till feb dont know for sure ash
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just a few crawdads. They are hungry filling up to spawn. Hmmm febuary.......Will keep that in mind.
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Hello reelfast, I steamed some up today that we caught on thursday. Cut the meat up into little chunkls and steam them for about ten minutes and dip them in melted butter. They taste real close to lobster. Enjoy
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Way to go Curt and Ira. I will have to go catch me some of those one of these days.
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I found lots of crawdads of all different sizes and lots of smallmouth. One skeletal remain, I think it might have been a 7 inch burbot but not much was left. Here is a picture of some of the stomach contents.
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Love the picture with the huts. Looks cold!
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Yea, the surrounding area of Firehole has some interesting rock formations. For those that are interested the fish we caught were 18 to 22 inches. WH2
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Nice catch Wiperhunter2! How many did you total? They're pretty fun to fish for, especially when you pull up a laker or two to mix it up! Sounds like you fished where Fishley put the drop on them Thursday night.
What you saw for stomach contents is pretty typical and you can see why it would be a concern. Some of those females are just filled to the max with eggs too. Next year's production of burbot could increase dramatically.
I drove up the East Gorge road on Saturday, to see how far the ice was down lake. There were a few guys icefishing the Confluence, but looking with binocs they looked like they were on the edge of unsafe ice. After the last couple of nights, the ice must be thicker. It's still open water from above Buckboard all the way downlake.
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We caught 15 burbot and the one laker. I was amazed at the number of crawdads and smallmouth in their stomaches, I sure can see how these fish are going to make a big impact on the smallmouth. First they are thinning out the young of the year, then they are eating a lot of their food source. And the huge number of eggs the females had was unbelievable.
We talked to a guy that had been down at lost dog and said the same thing, thin ice around two inches but that was on Friday. I would say it will be next year before it freezes down to the Buckboard area.
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