09-30-2007, 04:38 PM
I invited Chuck (Fishhound) to join me on what we anticipated to be a "Foul weather fishing trip" to Huntington yesterday. We were surprised at how dry it was as we left SLC at 5:00 AM and also how warm it was. Arrived at Huntington at 7:00 AM to similar conditions to SLC (although slightly cooler because of the higher altitude). I was excited to see that the boat ramp had been installed and we backed down to the bottom of the ramp, and after carrying the boat and all of our gear about 150 feet we assembled the boat and launched. The boat ramp will be a nice addition when the water is much higher than it is now. The water is about 100’ away from the ramp. Nonetheless, it is nice to get a lot closer to the water before needing to unload and carry the gear. With the addition of the ramp, the lower parking area is no longer available, which makes the already limited parking even more limited.
We were beginning to wonder what all the fuss was about until the wind started blowing at 11:00 and at 11:30 the small hail, sleet, or whatever it was began to fall the temperatures plunged. By then Chuck had managed to land two tiger trout and I had gotten one to the boat (all caught trolling while we were looking for a school of fish to vertically jig). We missed several other strikes while we were trolling; several immediately went airborne. We did try vertically jigging and got a few hits, and I had a large one on for awhile before getting off of my barbless hook, but didn't manage to land any vertically jigging. We decided that we would stow the boat away and go shore fishing at Electric Lake.
We had a little excitement on the way over. We were driving along on a snow-covered road, maybe going 35 mph, when the Suburban started skidding back and forth from one side of the road to the other, even though I had it in four-wheel drive. We eventually slid off the left side of the road (gratefully there was no oncoming traffic) took out two of the road markers and came to a stop about 20 feet off of the road. Was able to drive back up on the road and continue on to Electric Lake at an even slower pace. Gratefully, when I checked the Suburban I couldn’t find any damage from when we took out the road markers or when we slid sideways off of the road. I do need to replace my tires before winter.
Drove past the boat ramp at Electric Lake to the end of the road (at least where the locked gate is located). Parked on the point, threw out the minnow trap and started fishing. Chuck caught a nice cutt on his first cast with a rainbow Rapala. Despite many more casts that was the only fish he caught casting lures. I rigged up a bobber with a minnow (frozen minnows to start with until I was able to trap some fresh shiners). Got a few hits on frozen minnows but not many. After we caught some fresh minnows (fished dead of course) the catching greatly improved. Fishing wasn’t red hot, but we did have pretty consistent action. Most fish were caught within 15 feet of shore and many were caught much closer. At Electric Lake we experienced an almost constant snow storm (at least it was snow instead of sleet or hail), and I discovered that my $19.99 rain suit was only good for one trip, and really not even that.
Enjoyable day in the outdoors with great company.
[signature]
We were beginning to wonder what all the fuss was about until the wind started blowing at 11:00 and at 11:30 the small hail, sleet, or whatever it was began to fall the temperatures plunged. By then Chuck had managed to land two tiger trout and I had gotten one to the boat (all caught trolling while we were looking for a school of fish to vertically jig). We missed several other strikes while we were trolling; several immediately went airborne. We did try vertically jigging and got a few hits, and I had a large one on for awhile before getting off of my barbless hook, but didn't manage to land any vertically jigging. We decided that we would stow the boat away and go shore fishing at Electric Lake.
We had a little excitement on the way over. We were driving along on a snow-covered road, maybe going 35 mph, when the Suburban started skidding back and forth from one side of the road to the other, even though I had it in four-wheel drive. We eventually slid off the left side of the road (gratefully there was no oncoming traffic) took out two of the road markers and came to a stop about 20 feet off of the road. Was able to drive back up on the road and continue on to Electric Lake at an even slower pace. Gratefully, when I checked the Suburban I couldn’t find any damage from when we took out the road markers or when we slid sideways off of the road. I do need to replace my tires before winter.
Drove past the boat ramp at Electric Lake to the end of the road (at least where the locked gate is located). Parked on the point, threw out the minnow trap and started fishing. Chuck caught a nice cutt on his first cast with a rainbow Rapala. Despite many more casts that was the only fish he caught casting lures. I rigged up a bobber with a minnow (frozen minnows to start with until I was able to trap some fresh shiners). Got a few hits on frozen minnows but not many. After we caught some fresh minnows (fished dead of course) the catching greatly improved. Fishing wasn’t red hot, but we did have pretty consistent action. Most fish were caught within 15 feet of shore and many were caught much closer. At Electric Lake we experienced an almost constant snow storm (at least it was snow instead of sleet or hail), and I discovered that my $19.99 rain suit was only good for one trip, and really not even that.
Enjoyable day in the outdoors with great company.
[signature]