Smith Morehouse 1st

[dubob]

Other than being a bit chilly when I got to the parking lot at 7:45 (-3* on my truck temp gauge), it was a great day to be out on the ice.  Severe clear and no wind.  All the other players were already out on the ice due to my miscalculation on how long a drive it was to get there - 98 miles from my house.  Anyway, got the Dog unloaded along with the 3 sleds and hooked everything together.  It all pulled just fine on the packed down road from the first lot (next to the dam) to the boat ramp lot.  When I hit the snow on the ice, things slowed down a tad in the 5/6 inches of fluff.  Quickly learned that it would run faster and with less effort in somebody else's track. 

Ran through some exposed slush pockets and slowed down a little, but never booged down to a dead stop - thankfully. 

Swung by Kent and Shawn (EyLayo) to say my 'Howdy.'  Then over to Matt & Skyler.  They were already tearing them up in 12/13 FOW.  Talked it over and I decided to go closer to the dam to try some deeper water for a bit.  Stopped by Burley's setup just in time to see him catch the monster of the day.  The line broke as it was about half out of the whole and his immediate scramble to save the day - worked.  Well done. 



Finally got setup about 9:15 and discovered I was in 30 FOW.  Stayed there until 11:00 and had 1 smallish rainbow iced for my efforts.  Not good.  I could see that the other folks were still where they started, so I packed up and headed back to Matt & Skyler's location.  They were already up over 20 fish total to my 1.  Ouch!

Set up in 13 FOW and immediately started marking fish.  BANG - fish on!  Half way to the hole, BANG - fish on the other rod.  Nice double to start things off.



I did manage to add a couple more of the smallish rainbows to my total for a total of 5.  One came on one of Skyler's rods as he was off helping Matt with something and I was sitting there watching his Garman Livescope.  It was almost a lost fish.  Why, you ask.  I'll tell you why - he has his spinning reels setup for a RIGHT HANDED crank.  Who ever heard of such a thing?    My left hand was just cranking air.  Matt & Skyler got a huge laugh out of that fiasco.

I saved the best for last - a grayling.  My first ever in Utah.  According to Matt & Skyler, it was the biggest of the day for our group.  It also put up the best fight of all my fish.






That's it for the fish porn on this trip.

Post log on the Dog.  It does what it is advertised to do; pull me and a ton of gear around on the ice.  The steering is going to be a learning curve.  There are no skies up front to keep it tracking true like there is on snowmobiles.  It takes a little more effort and body english to keep it going straight.  Not an extreme amount, but a little more than with a snowmobile.  Also, the sled that I stand in to drive is extremely slick when cold and covered with a little snow dust.  I will be placing a rubber/foam pad of some sort in the bottom of that sled to stand on to prevent sliding around while moving.  I also need to do some reorganizing of the amount of gear I take along with me - DOWNSIZE.  I'm thinking a couple of Rubbermade packers in the back sled should be all I need.  And take out one of the seats in my Clam Nanook.  I can always put it back in for the rare occasions I take a novice with me.