As usual, the real story surrounding a given issue is mostly devoid of facts.  Such is the case with the new gate recently installed near the dam creating Porcupine Reservoir.  In the interest of clarity, I called the Cache County Road Division for clarification.  Ownership of the road to and around the reservoir belongs to Cache County – it is, in fact, a county road.  According to the Cache County Road Department employee I talked to this morning, the gate was installed because the county does not have the capability to maintain the road during the winter season.  The employee also said the gate is temporary and will be replaced later with a permanent gate that will allow passage of OHVs (snowmobile/ATV) when it is closed and locked.  The employee also indicated that the gate is not currently locked.

The reservoir itself is owned by a private irrigation company.  The county road department employee also told me there is an interest by the State of Utah to obtain ownership of the reservoir from the private irrigation company.  I have no further information about the purpose or the timeline for acquiring this property.

For this ice fishing season, the road past the dam at Porcupine Reservoir has a temporary gate installed that may, or may not, be locked.  I’m not going to go check for sure.  There is a walking, pass through opening in the gate that may, or may not, allow passage of an OHV.  I’m not going to go check for sure.

If you need more information about this subject, call the Cache County Road Department at (435) 755-1560.

Been a bit out of touch with BFT lately. Final few weeks for Mario ( the Wookie) our German Shepard. Tried to do a few things with him. But Saturday I laid him to rest on the ranch near his friend Buddy the Beagle. Had at least one dog for the last 35 years as my adventure companion. Now it is pretty quiet when I come home.

Little video of our times togther. Mostly for me but I know a few our you have these attachments and will appreciate it.

Cheers

https://youtu.be/uOEGHu_lSC8?si=o8Q51sMFFiMwsexH

Returned to Provo harbor yesterday hoping to get some fish like I saw caught there two wks ago, where I had met a gal who was yanking crappie, bluegill, perch and even a largie off one of the south docks.  My very 1st experience seeing a FFS doing its thing.  Amazing.  I'd been working the open water around the docks on the N end, pretty much fishing the bottom, while she was concentrating 4-5' down, where the fish were.  I fancast all the open water with a slip-bobber rig, but nothing doing yesterday for me or for the other 3-4 groups that were there.  Western half of the harbor capped with maybe 1/2", while there's still open water on the E side.

A short while ago wiperhunter2 started a thread on powered trailer dollies. Got me thinking about how tricky it is to get my boat back to my shed without crunching the house or the shed.  Started researching and ended up getting the Trax TX6000 electric trailer dolly. This is just a brief first review. I got it a week ago and gave it a try yesterday.  The good: has 3 lead core 12 volt batteries for weight and power, a port to plug in trailer to deactivate surge brake and power trailer backup lights, optional wide tires for traction, three wheels for stability, very nicely built, low and higher speed, worked great on my driveway.  The less good: quite expensive, not sure how well it’s going to work on my lawn.  When I tried it yesterday the lawn was wet and a little frozen.  The TX6000 struggled to move the boat because the wheels started to spin.  I helped by pushing on the handle in the direction I wanted to go. I angled the boat back and wanted to swing the  over but the wheels just spun. The problem isn’t power, it’s traction.  It should work much better on dry grass. Also, deactivating your surge brake is important if on grass. On my first attempt I didn’t plug the trailer into the dolly’s plug and the trailer brakes activated and the dolly wheels just spun.  For now I think the TX6000 might be a really great electric trailer dolly.  Can’t give it 2 thumbs up until I use it more this spring.

Scofield
12/21/24


Rainbow trout - 17.5 inches
Cutthroat trout- 19.5 inches

Jon and I had kitchen passes for the 14th and the ice was still off most of the Provo Canyon lakes, so we planned a trip to Jordanelle. Last minute I suggested we hit Rockport since neither of us had been there and recent reports were favorable. The real reason was I wanted to try to get a few perch in the freezer for next spring.
 
No perch were harmed, but we had fun with the trout and the weather, ha ha.
 
Got the boat launched around 8, only boat on the lake all day. Water temp was 36 and the air 34, Air warmed to almost 40, but the water stayed the same. The first hour was steady as we trolled from the ramp toward the dam. The wind went from calm to 15-20 MPH during that time. We got half a dozen rainbows 12-15 inches and released them all. We had set 16” as the minimum.





 
When the wind got steady at 20, we pulled off into the cove by the dam and set the spot lock. Tossed lots of things trying to entice a perch, but we couldn’t cast far enough, or they just didn’t like us.
 
I told Jon that this weather might be all we were going to get, so we either go home or try trolling into the wind with the 150 idling. It was one of those days when I’m glad the boat is 20’ plus and built for the great lakes.


At the “blusteriest” part of the morning, our trolling speed was 1.3 to 1.5 and the trout cooperated. Weather didn’t bother them. By noon we had kept 4 bows between 16 and 18”. Boat control was rough so only one guy could reel in a fish at a time. Several got off waiting to be dealt with. With the rough water and boat control issues we forgot all about kokes and perch, but there were enough willing trout to have fun with.
 
A couple hours of that and we could tell the wind was backing down, trolling speed got to 2+. As it calmed it, the intermittent rain turned to snow, and we were just reaching the shallow end of the lake. Most of the “perchy” looking stuff we had seen was between the ramp and dam, so we pulled the gear and ran back to the dam thinking we could hunt for them in the calmer water.





 
What we found first looked like Kokes on the finder so Jon put in a downrigger to see if they wanted to play. We had thought after the snow squall that it was going to clear off and let us chase perch for an hour or two, but mama nature was in a playful mood.
 
20 minutes after we got the downrigger in the sky was clear, and the wind was back at about 20. I fired up the 150 and we started trolling for the ramp. We hit one spurt where we got 2 bows about 17 and a nice cutt about 16.5. I didn’t know they were in there and Jon said he thought it was a bow, so it went into the well. We finished our limits just before we got to the ramp.
 
When I got home, I took a closer look and IMO it was clearly a cutt. It must be a different strain than the ones in Scofield and Strawberry because of the coloring and it was a lot heavier than any cutt that size I’ve seen from the 2 S’s.
 



The cutt is the second one from the top. Anybody know what strain it might be?
 
As we loaded the boat around 4, the sun came out and the wind started to die down but we ahd already been fooled once and as we left teh ramp a flock of turkeys was crossing the road.







We had plenty of fish to keep us interested and it seems to be a fun lake. We plan to try it again sometime, hopefully when the weather is better.

Ran down for an afternoon of trolling while the weather is holding out.

Water temp was 42 degrees and fishing was steady from one until dusk for the pile of planter rainbows that were released this fall. Caught three on the down riggers running flasher and squids. The other 18 were caught long lining a spinner and a perch colored flicker shad going 1.5-2.0. 

On a side note we found out that you are allowed to take you dogs with you on the boat of sit with you on the shore line as long as they don't get into the water.

Maybe I’m missing something but I swear there was a Willard post on this page last night and this morning.  Great post and congrats to anglers….but really remove a post.    Why???  Kinda a Grinchy move IMHO.

Is the spawn still going on? I'm thinking of giving it a try on Monday (Christmas Adam), but I don't wanna make the drive up to Bear Lake if it's done.

I am off work all of next week and plan on getting out 3 times, I know about Henrys and Chesterfield, but also considering places like Twin Lakes, Magic, Blackfoot, Mackay any ice up dates on those lakes or any other safe ice in the region would be appreciated.