12-06-2021, 05:21 PM
On Friday I was able to go with my dad up to the Uintas to try some high country ice fishing. We ended up stopping at Trial Lake first (we intended to go elsewhere later, but didn't get around to it). It was a gorgeous day! Sunny, not a lot of wind so it was really pleasant. Not a lot of people there, so we set up relatively close to the dam and had holes drilled in 14-16 feet of water with our lines suspended between 10-12 feet jigging to get attention, but then also deadsticking it.
Got the first line in the water around 8:45am and it didn't take long for the first hits to come. It was just the two of us, but the hits were coming pretty fast and constant. First jig I had out was white w/ red specks. It was quite a bit bigger than I thought would do well, but it was getting constant action. We also used smaller jigs that were green, pink, white and orange. It seemed that color did not really matter much. The fish were taking just about everything and we had them tipped with meal worms, night crawlers, and shrimp. The fasted action came on the shrimp and at times it was hard to keep the lines in the water. Nightcrawlers also did really well and mealworms ok. Towards the afternoon, the orange ratfinkie was doing really well with anything on it.
We called it a day and packed up around 1:30pm. Not sure how many we caught, didn't keep track, but it was a lot. We didn't really have any boring moments during our time on the ice. Most of the fish were the expected 8-12in rainbows, tigers and brookies that you always catch in the Uintas, but we had a couple that were close to that 14in range. Couple fatties, but most looked quite skinny. Overall, we were doing quite a bit better than the others around us it seemed. I told them what we were using an how deep we were fishing, but they couldn't seem to replicate the success we were having. Not sure why. Either way, my dad and I had a blast. I'll definitely be looking to do the Unitas early season again in the future.
Got the first line in the water around 8:45am and it didn't take long for the first hits to come. It was just the two of us, but the hits were coming pretty fast and constant. First jig I had out was white w/ red specks. It was quite a bit bigger than I thought would do well, but it was getting constant action. We also used smaller jigs that were green, pink, white and orange. It seemed that color did not really matter much. The fish were taking just about everything and we had them tipped with meal worms, night crawlers, and shrimp. The fasted action came on the shrimp and at times it was hard to keep the lines in the water. Nightcrawlers also did really well and mealworms ok. Towards the afternoon, the orange ratfinkie was doing really well with anything on it.
We called it a day and packed up around 1:30pm. Not sure how many we caught, didn't keep track, but it was a lot. We didn't really have any boring moments during our time on the ice. Most of the fish were the expected 8-12in rainbows, tigers and brookies that you always catch in the Uintas, but we had a couple that were close to that 14in range. Couple fatties, but most looked quite skinny. Overall, we were doing quite a bit better than the others around us it seemed. I told them what we were using an how deep we were fishing, but they couldn't seem to replicate the success we were having. Not sure why. Either way, my dad and I had a blast. I'll definitely be looking to do the Unitas early season again in the future.
~ A bad day fishing is better than a good day in the office ~
.
Haha! Kidding... I suppose the fish were really liking what we were presenting.