Fishing Forum

Yesterday, Monday the 15th, I decided to go on a solo (as usual) ice fishing trip to Huntington Reservoir. Weather was good and the roads were free of snow till I got up Fairview canyon. Most people had no problem getting up with their 4 wheel drive vehicles, but I had to stop and put the snow chains on the Mazda. I had other issues with losing my cell phone which took a good chunk of my day out, but that's a long story.

Drive up:
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Needless to say, it was VERY slow going. I spun out once when I couldn't make it up a hill, but it wasn't serious. Some cops on their way to do some training helped me get re-situated, and I put both snow chains on the drive tires. Eventually I made it up.

There were only a couple other guys on the ice, and it was pretty darn cold. Glad I had the ice shelter to keep the wind off, and the catalytic heater to keep my toes warm. Ice was in good condition. I guess it was 5 inches thick which is plenty solid.

I searched for the fish with the sonar from 15 to 30 ft. depths and didn't have much success marking them, and the cold was pushing me to set up the shelter so I just picked a spot at 30 ft. deep off of the dam. That's usually the magic area there, for me anyway.

I fished two rods, one with a large white glow tube jig, and the other with a small white glow tube jig, both tipped with a whole chub minnow (like fuzzyfisher likes to do). This is different than using those little ice flies, but it's a productive approach for aggressive piscivorous tiger trout.

It wasn't the best day I've had, and the underwater camera revealed that the fish were being a little picky, but I still got 6 beautiful tiger trout, brightly colored and in good shape. Only one was was under 16 inches. A couple were about 18-19. They have some good size to them up there. No bites at all from 12:30 to 3pm. I lost a few fish at the hole, and missed some too because sometimes it's difficult for me to get a good hook-up using minnows. Might have done better if I had moved around, but if I did my shelter would wind-surf the ice so I anchored down and stuck to my guns.

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Above is the smallest fish of the day, but still cool to look at. I tried to take a picture with a larger fish, probably the biggest one of the day but for some reason my camera was set on flash and it made the whole image white out, sorry.

Anyway, here's the drive back. And this is AFTER the plows had been through! Yes, that is my wet sock drying.
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wow dude sounds like some tuff fishing! i was going to head up that way yesterday but looked up and seen them clouds stuck to the top of the mounton and said nope.. i just dont need to wade in the snow and slush just yet.. [sly]

was there any slush on there yet?
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I really shouldn't have gone, but I made it home alright. When I left, the roads were bad all the way back to Spanish Fork canyon.

There was a thin layer of slush in some places, but when the cold winds came through it turned to ice. I did get my boots a little wet (hence the fact that I dried my socks), but the slush was only in a few places. It was easy to avoid.

I don't know how cold it was, but everything seemed to instantly freeze outside of the tent. Constantly had to bust ice off the rod tips and clear the holes. My fingers would stick to the metal on my needle nose pliers if I was out of the tent.
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You're a hard core ice fisherman. It is nice to know that there are some out there that are like me.
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Nice report! Sounds like tough conditions, but happily, no slush yet. I was up there last Wednesday and fished one minnow rig and one smaller icefly with a waxworm. To my surprise, the tigers weren't very interested in the minnows, but worked over the smaller stuff agressively. Even the bigger fish. Go figure.
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Fish are different day to day aren't they? I guess that's why there is never really such things as a "magic bait" that works for all fish.

That reminds me of one thing I neglected to mention. One fish did come on the jig above the minnow that was tipped with those artificial berkely wax worms. Above the minnow rigs I had a smaller ice jig that I'd tip with some of those, a salmon egg, or a small piece of minnow. Still they seemed to prefer the whole minnows.
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