11-29-2003, 03:42 PM
Hit woodruff friday.
I was the first person to attempt to blaze the trail to the dam. The road was snow packed and in some places the drifts got a couple feet deep. I had made it about 3/4 of the way up there and had given up on making it to the top when skeeter and his uncle showed up and proved it could be done. Thanks to those guys for not making me drag my ice shelter up that hill.
Anyways, the ice is about 8 inches thick back at the inlet and 4 inches thick down by the dam. All crystal clear solid ice. There was about an inch of snow on top of it, but the entire lake is safe fishable ice.
As the day rolled on about a total of ten guys showed up. I didnt see the IFG. At least I was too busy catching fish to look for the sexual inuendo printed on the back of his coat.
So how was the fishing you ask? Same as all early season ice fishing. Good.
The morning started out slow for me. My old man had five fish before I had one bite. I finally got a couple, but in the afternoon, the fishing really picked up. Big schools moved in and camped out under us at times.
I lost track of how many fish we caught.
All cutts. No whitefish. Most fish were 14 inchers but we caught a few in the 17 inch range.
Either way, one heck of a first ice fishing trip for the year.
As most of you early season ice anglers will know, a lot of fish hang out right under the ice. 1 - 4 ft down where unless the swim right under the transducer, your finders cone angle is not wide enough to see them. So the best technique is to drop your lure about four feet down, and watch your finder, then if you see fish deep, drop down to them.
Half the fish I caught were right under the ice and my finder never marked them. Had I dropped my lure to 20 ft and just left it, I wouldnt have caught any of those shallow fish.
The majority of the fish were caught right under the ice or suspended at 20 ft in 46 ft deep water. A few fish were caught in 10 - 15 ft, and none of the fish that showed up near the bottom, 30 ft or more even bit.
My dad kept one 14 inch fish for my himself and my mom. All my fish were released. And thats important when you consider the size of lake that woodfruff is. Its such a small lake, that early season ice fishing over harvest could easily be done. So, if you go up there, please use wisdom and practice selective harvest.
The bite was very light. Most times it wasnt even a bite, but the fish picking up your lure in his mouth and there was just a slight weight change when the weight of your lure went away. So good equipment was a must.
I was glad to be inside a shelter where you could remove gloves and coats and have bare fingers on the line detecting the ultra light bites.
I suspect that most guys who werent catching fish were either too deep, or didnt have thier pole in thier hands and were missing the bites they were getting.
Its such a long drive that staying most of the day is a must. I believe the road over monte is closed so you have to go around and through evanston. Or over through logan, past bear lake, and down through that way. Either way its a long drive even for those of us in northern utah. 4 WD is an absolute must.
But to those of us who love early season ice fishing, its all worth it.
We used Lip ripperz trout worms, 1 inch chartruse kalin grubs, but the killer lure that caught the fish was as always the white watter cricket. The only place I have seen that has these is hooked in kaysville. But they are one heck of a lure, just about on any utah lake. They always produce big at strawberry, woodruff, hyrum, and they even did real well on fish lake last year.
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I was the first person to attempt to blaze the trail to the dam. The road was snow packed and in some places the drifts got a couple feet deep. I had made it about 3/4 of the way up there and had given up on making it to the top when skeeter and his uncle showed up and proved it could be done. Thanks to those guys for not making me drag my ice shelter up that hill.
Anyways, the ice is about 8 inches thick back at the inlet and 4 inches thick down by the dam. All crystal clear solid ice. There was about an inch of snow on top of it, but the entire lake is safe fishable ice.
As the day rolled on about a total of ten guys showed up. I didnt see the IFG. At least I was too busy catching fish to look for the sexual inuendo printed on the back of his coat.
So how was the fishing you ask? Same as all early season ice fishing. Good.
The morning started out slow for me. My old man had five fish before I had one bite. I finally got a couple, but in the afternoon, the fishing really picked up. Big schools moved in and camped out under us at times.
I lost track of how many fish we caught.
All cutts. No whitefish. Most fish were 14 inchers but we caught a few in the 17 inch range.
Either way, one heck of a first ice fishing trip for the year.
As most of you early season ice anglers will know, a lot of fish hang out right under the ice. 1 - 4 ft down where unless the swim right under the transducer, your finders cone angle is not wide enough to see them. So the best technique is to drop your lure about four feet down, and watch your finder, then if you see fish deep, drop down to them.
Half the fish I caught were right under the ice and my finder never marked them. Had I dropped my lure to 20 ft and just left it, I wouldnt have caught any of those shallow fish.
The majority of the fish were caught right under the ice or suspended at 20 ft in 46 ft deep water. A few fish were caught in 10 - 15 ft, and none of the fish that showed up near the bottom, 30 ft or more even bit.
My dad kept one 14 inch fish for my himself and my mom. All my fish were released. And thats important when you consider the size of lake that woodfruff is. Its such a small lake, that early season ice fishing over harvest could easily be done. So, if you go up there, please use wisdom and practice selective harvest.
The bite was very light. Most times it wasnt even a bite, but the fish picking up your lure in his mouth and there was just a slight weight change when the weight of your lure went away. So good equipment was a must.
I was glad to be inside a shelter where you could remove gloves and coats and have bare fingers on the line detecting the ultra light bites.
I suspect that most guys who werent catching fish were either too deep, or didnt have thier pole in thier hands and were missing the bites they were getting.
Its such a long drive that staying most of the day is a must. I believe the road over monte is closed so you have to go around and through evanston. Or over through logan, past bear lake, and down through that way. Either way its a long drive even for those of us in northern utah. 4 WD is an absolute must.
But to those of us who love early season ice fishing, its all worth it.
We used Lip ripperz trout worms, 1 inch chartruse kalin grubs, but the killer lure that caught the fish was as always the white watter cricket. The only place I have seen that has these is hooked in kaysville. But they are one heck of a lure, just about on any utah lake. They always produce big at strawberry, woodruff, hyrum, and they even did real well on fish lake last year.
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