Scofield Report - Good Fishing w/Pics 1/7/09

[RyanCreek]

[font "Times New Roman"]Woke up this morning and decided at the last minute to go to Scofield due to the fact that the semester starts up next week. I wanted to get as much fishing in as possible while I still could. Fishing Scofield is always a trip down memory lane. I’ve had many great times there over the years during the many family fishing outings growing up. A couple years back I decided to try out other waters more so I haven’t fished Scofield as much, but now I’m finding myself drawn back to it so it’s coming full circle.[/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"]The weather reports called for a chance of snow, but it turned out to be a bright, sunny day. The weather would have been perfect if the strong and constant chilly wind had been absent. The blown snow kept covering the ice holes and my gear (didn’t use the shelter today, partly because I hate setting it up in the wind).[/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"]I arrived at 9am or thereabouts, and saw absolutely nobody on the entire reservoir. That’s a first. I opted for fishing the dam arm, mostly because of easy access and a perfectly plowed turnoff (quite unlike Pineview), but also because the fishing can be hot in there. About an hour later, two people showed up and also fished the dam arm. The ice was rather thick and covered in snow drifts, but manageable. Still, it was very tiring to drill holes by hand. I found what I took to be a good area in the middle of the dam arm close to the dam in 15 feet of water. I caught a tiger trout the instant I dropped down with a glow ratso tipped with a mealworm under a kastmaster. That combination turned out to be the ticket this morning. I also caught a tiger on a jig tipped with a minnow, but most of the action was coming on the rod with ratsos and mealworms so I used that on both rods. The flash of the kastmaster really seemed to turn them on so I kept both rods moving when I could.[/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"]The fishing would alternate between periods of super fast action and slow, patient waiting. Bites stopped around noon thirty. Most bites were very light, and I presume they were from the small 6 inch rainbows that I caught a few of. Altogether I caught 11 fish, and most of them were tigers under or in the slot limit so they are swimming free to grow up and eat chubs. A couple of the tigers were among the prettiest fish I have ever seen. I got a few small rainbows, and two keeper bows. One of those bows was a big, dark, fat male that measured at 19 inches. [/font]
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[FlyingFish]

We hit Scofield today too. I think we must have seen you leaving your vehicle ahd heading down to the "water." We saw how hard the wind was blowing there and decided to head to the other side of the lake by the boat launch where it was jus a constant breeze.

We worked several areas all between 10 and 15 feet deep. We only had one bite but missed it. Not really any blips on the fish finder either. We moved around about every 45 mins or so but no luck.
We talked to three other guys who were doing as well (or poor as the case may be) as us.

I guess we should have braved the wind by the dam.
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[AFDan52]

I still say that those Tigers are very pretty fish.
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[RyanCreek]

Was it the silver Mazda with EMT plates and decals? That's my car.

I almost fished Madsen Bay like you did, but when I thought about it, I realized that seldom have I had fast fishing in there. My favorite places are the dam arm and the island. When we used to have snowmobiles we would often try all over the reservoir and found that the dam and the island tend to be the best producing areas. The island during late ice is absolutely killer.
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[RyanCreek]

I totally agree. Many tigers are as or more beautiful than high mountain brookies in my opinion. They are an awesome fish.
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[orvis1]

Thanks for the heads up on the glow ratso's I will have to pick up some of those before I head up on Saturday. Glad to see a positive ice fishing report!
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