03-07-2019, 05:55 AM
Yesterday morning I bought a plank and headed to Deer Creek. Pulled into the area near the island and checked the ice. A wide area out from shore had melted and refrozen, way too broad for a plank. Someone else had been there before and turned their sled around and left. Me too. That's $4 I got no use out of. Then I went up to the next turnout. There were three trucks parked there and three people fishing pretty far out. I took my plank down the steep incline and placed it next to the semi-submerged plank that was already there from sometime in the past. It made for a good crossing, but when I went back for my sled I realized that I couldn't lift it over the guard rail, take it down the extremely steep and slick slope, nor drag it back up. If I were twenty years younger and twenty pounds lighter I might have been able to do it but it's doubtful without some help. So with a Herculean effort I pulled and pushed my plank back up the extremely steep slope.
Once I was loaded I headed for my backup spot, Tibble Fork. I was pretty sure it would have good ice since it is at the bottom of a steep gorge and the sun hardly ever hits it. I stopped at the USFS District office in Pleasant Grove to check on conditions. The nice lady said she thought it had good ice but that I wouldn't be able to get up the road until 2:00 because they were "doing something" up there, maybe avalanche control, but I could go up and see if they finished early. The young women at the pay station at the entrance to the Alpine Loop said I could go up and see and that if I decided to stay I could pay on the way out. Excellent, I wouldn't waste another entrance fee for nothing. I went on up the road and came to a spot where construction had one section of single lane. After a short delay I was able to drive up to the turnoff to Tibble Fork where I found the road closed as advertised. I found a place to park and wait for an hour or more. At a little after 2 I was allowed to head up the road and met two snowplows on their way down.
When I arrived at the lake it showed absolutely no sign of melting except where people had built fires on the ice in the past. There is a nice hill down to the lake that is used for sledding, tubing, boarding, taking wedding pictures, etc. More on that hill later. I found a good (the only) spot to get up from the parking lot over the large bank and down to the lake. It was pretty easy going. It looks like the lake is pretty low; I trekked about halfway to the dam outlet, not really very far. I proceeded to drill a hole with my electric drill and Nils auger. I drilled and drilled. I got almost to the limit of my auger and hung up. Hurt my fingers a little when I couldn't hold the drill's torque. Pulled the auger out and put the manual crank on, scooped a ton of shavings out of the hole and gave it a try. The plate that stops the auger from falling through the hole was smack against the 4" of snow above the ice. By cleaning that off I was able to break through the ice. I figure it's close to 36" thick. It was obviously quite layered but I couldn't determine how many inches each layer was. I was just happy to have a fishable hole. I dropped a large hook (that's what I already had on) baited with half a nightcrawler down the hole, pulled it out and checked the depth to be 20' and returned it to near the bottom.
Tried to drill the second hole and had trouble like before. I couple of young guys came over to see if they could help. They were probably less help than otherwise. After the one guy about sprained his wrists we used the hand auger to finish the hole. Dropped a green Ratfinkee with waxworm down the hole and set to jigging them both, then letting them sit with a few wiggles once in a while. I started catching fish, all planter rainbows on both setups. Missed and lost a few because I couldn't get a good hookset from my seated position. Once I even got a double. Final score: two lost in the hole, two returned and three that went home for the smoker. Some came from the bottom but most were hanging about at 10-15'.
No electronics were used or abused in the making of this trip. Maybe next year.
Now comes the fun part. I stayed a little late trying to get that fourth fish to take home. By the time I was headed up the hill I couldn't make out where the spot was to get through the snow berm at the top and as a result I found myself a number of yards off to the side about twenty yards from the summit. To make things more fun my top-heavy sled tipped on its side. From that point I scootched the gear box over to the correct spot. The auger and my chair required two additional trips. Needless to say, I was very tired and very happy to back my pickup into the slot between two giant mountains of snow and load up and get the heck out of there.
This post is dedicated to my friend Piscophilic. Sorry Jim, but I forgot to do an Executive Summary first. You must type about 10 times faster than I do.[
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Once I was loaded I headed for my backup spot, Tibble Fork. I was pretty sure it would have good ice since it is at the bottom of a steep gorge and the sun hardly ever hits it. I stopped at the USFS District office in Pleasant Grove to check on conditions. The nice lady said she thought it had good ice but that I wouldn't be able to get up the road until 2:00 because they were "doing something" up there, maybe avalanche control, but I could go up and see if they finished early. The young women at the pay station at the entrance to the Alpine Loop said I could go up and see and that if I decided to stay I could pay on the way out. Excellent, I wouldn't waste another entrance fee for nothing. I went on up the road and came to a spot where construction had one section of single lane. After a short delay I was able to drive up to the turnoff to Tibble Fork where I found the road closed as advertised. I found a place to park and wait for an hour or more. At a little after 2 I was allowed to head up the road and met two snowplows on their way down.
When I arrived at the lake it showed absolutely no sign of melting except where people had built fires on the ice in the past. There is a nice hill down to the lake that is used for sledding, tubing, boarding, taking wedding pictures, etc. More on that hill later. I found a good (the only) spot to get up from the parking lot over the large bank and down to the lake. It was pretty easy going. It looks like the lake is pretty low; I trekked about halfway to the dam outlet, not really very far. I proceeded to drill a hole with my electric drill and Nils auger. I drilled and drilled. I got almost to the limit of my auger and hung up. Hurt my fingers a little when I couldn't hold the drill's torque. Pulled the auger out and put the manual crank on, scooped a ton of shavings out of the hole and gave it a try. The plate that stops the auger from falling through the hole was smack against the 4" of snow above the ice. By cleaning that off I was able to break through the ice. I figure it's close to 36" thick. It was obviously quite layered but I couldn't determine how many inches each layer was. I was just happy to have a fishable hole. I dropped a large hook (that's what I already had on) baited with half a nightcrawler down the hole, pulled it out and checked the depth to be 20' and returned it to near the bottom.
Tried to drill the second hole and had trouble like before. I couple of young guys came over to see if they could help. They were probably less help than otherwise. After the one guy about sprained his wrists we used the hand auger to finish the hole. Dropped a green Ratfinkee with waxworm down the hole and set to jigging them both, then letting them sit with a few wiggles once in a while. I started catching fish, all planter rainbows on both setups. Missed and lost a few because I couldn't get a good hookset from my seated position. Once I even got a double. Final score: two lost in the hole, two returned and three that went home for the smoker. Some came from the bottom but most were hanging about at 10-15'.
No electronics were used or abused in the making of this trip. Maybe next year.
Now comes the fun part. I stayed a little late trying to get that fourth fish to take home. By the time I was headed up the hill I couldn't make out where the spot was to get through the snow berm at the top and as a result I found myself a number of yards off to the side about twenty yards from the summit. To make things more fun my top-heavy sled tipped on its side. From that point I scootched the gear box over to the correct spot. The auger and my chair required two additional trips. Needless to say, I was very tired and very happy to back my pickup into the slot between two giant mountains of snow and load up and get the heck out of there.
This post is dedicated to my friend Piscophilic. Sorry Jim, but I forgot to do an Executive Summary first. You must type about 10 times faster than I do.[
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The older I get the more I would rather be considered a good man than a good fisherman.
