02-17-2007, 01:29 AM
[cool][#0000ff]As I neared Jordanelle, on my way to meet Pikeman this morning, I kept chanting "Shoulda stood in bed." The wind was pushing my Jimmy all over the road and sleet pellets were going by horizontally in my headlights.
Since we are both diehard fisherguys, we were both there before our appointed 7 AM meetup time. Loaded up the wheeler and the sleds and headed across the lake. One inch of new snow made it tough to see what damage the warming trend has done to the ice. But, Pikeman had been out a couple of times recently and knew his way to a good spot.
It was an E ticket ride, with a bit of puckering as we skirted around a pressure break with open water. It was even worse in the afternoon, with open water on both sides of us. Never heard a splash though so I figured I would enjoy the ride and go fishing.
We were setting up by 8 and the wind died down a bit. Looking good. My balky auger didn't want to roar and just grumbled a couple of holes for Pikeman and a couple for me. 10 inches of good ice. The first holes were enough for a while. We caught a few perch right off.
Also started catching our first of MANY big chubs. Glen is the master. I only got about 8 for the day. He had at least 10...but who's counting. Gonna change his name to CHUBMAN.
Two other guys wandered up, after having trudged all the way to the north end from Hailstone. Masochists. What's worse is that not long after they got their holes drilled the north wind kicked up and started spitting some severe sleet at us. Pikeman popped up his Eskimo and I put my well protected back to the wind and toughed it out.
The two new arrivals were wearing Carharts and they got soaked and chilled. The were starting to load their sleds for the warming trek back to their vehicle when kindly ol' Pikeman offered to shuttle them back, behind his wheeler. He rigged their two sleds in tandem and they jumped up behind him on the wheeler. I guess they whimpered a little too when they bridged the pressure ridge.
By the time Pikeman got back, the worst of the storm had passed, although we kept having quite a bit of wind all day. That did not shut down the fish though. We were dipping in about 35 feet of water, and a few fish at a time would come through. Bites were sporadic. Either nothing or both rods at a time.
I finally got serious. I Swiss cheesed the ice around our area and put up the second rod. I got out my spanking stick, a light baitcast rig, and put some perch on the single hook below one of my glow tiger casting spoons. The, I played "musical holes". I went from one hole to the other, set my chair with my back against the wind and dropped my tiger jig to the bottom. If there were fish there, they bit within a few seconds on the first drop. Often I got two fish per hole before it zilched out.
During the course of my wandering around the ice, I lost one big brown, landed a 16 inch rainbow and had Pikeman's help to scoop my 19" brown out of the hole. I think I ended up with about 30 "keeper" perch, with the largest about 11 inches. Pikeman scored a pretty good load of perch too, and did not have to rely on taking the chubs home to feed his family.
On the way back in we motored by two different deer carcasses on the ice. Evidently there is a group of coyotes that know how to get deer out onto the ice so they can get them down and dine on them. One carcass was reduced to dried picked bones...from three days before, when it was fresh. The other carcass was from the last day or so and still had some red on it...and some eagles doing their best to clean up the remnants.
There was some slush and water on top as we went back in, about 2 PM. But, the access off the ramp was still good. Should hold up for a few more days unless there is a lot of rain and/or warmer weather. The ice all over the lake seems to be solid and at least 10 inches wherever we sampled.
Thanks CHUBMAN for a great day. Also, thanks for taking a few pics. You done good with my camera.
[/#0000ff]
[signature]
Since we are both diehard fisherguys, we were both there before our appointed 7 AM meetup time. Loaded up the wheeler and the sleds and headed across the lake. One inch of new snow made it tough to see what damage the warming trend has done to the ice. But, Pikeman had been out a couple of times recently and knew his way to a good spot.
It was an E ticket ride, with a bit of puckering as we skirted around a pressure break with open water. It was even worse in the afternoon, with open water on both sides of us. Never heard a splash though so I figured I would enjoy the ride and go fishing.
We were setting up by 8 and the wind died down a bit. Looking good. My balky auger didn't want to roar and just grumbled a couple of holes for Pikeman and a couple for me. 10 inches of good ice. The first holes were enough for a while. We caught a few perch right off.
Also started catching our first of MANY big chubs. Glen is the master. I only got about 8 for the day. He had at least 10...but who's counting. Gonna change his name to CHUBMAN.
Two other guys wandered up, after having trudged all the way to the north end from Hailstone. Masochists. What's worse is that not long after they got their holes drilled the north wind kicked up and started spitting some severe sleet at us. Pikeman popped up his Eskimo and I put my well protected back to the wind and toughed it out.
The two new arrivals were wearing Carharts and they got soaked and chilled. The were starting to load their sleds for the warming trek back to their vehicle when kindly ol' Pikeman offered to shuttle them back, behind his wheeler. He rigged their two sleds in tandem and they jumped up behind him on the wheeler. I guess they whimpered a little too when they bridged the pressure ridge.
By the time Pikeman got back, the worst of the storm had passed, although we kept having quite a bit of wind all day. That did not shut down the fish though. We were dipping in about 35 feet of water, and a few fish at a time would come through. Bites were sporadic. Either nothing or both rods at a time.
I finally got serious. I Swiss cheesed the ice around our area and put up the second rod. I got out my spanking stick, a light baitcast rig, and put some perch on the single hook below one of my glow tiger casting spoons. The, I played "musical holes". I went from one hole to the other, set my chair with my back against the wind and dropped my tiger jig to the bottom. If there were fish there, they bit within a few seconds on the first drop. Often I got two fish per hole before it zilched out.
During the course of my wandering around the ice, I lost one big brown, landed a 16 inch rainbow and had Pikeman's help to scoop my 19" brown out of the hole. I think I ended up with about 30 "keeper" perch, with the largest about 11 inches. Pikeman scored a pretty good load of perch too, and did not have to rely on taking the chubs home to feed his family.
On the way back in we motored by two different deer carcasses on the ice. Evidently there is a group of coyotes that know how to get deer out onto the ice so they can get them down and dine on them. One carcass was reduced to dried picked bones...from three days before, when it was fresh. The other carcass was from the last day or so and still had some red on it...and some eagles doing their best to clean up the remnants.
There was some slush and water on top as we went back in, about 2 PM. But, the access off the ramp was still good. Should hold up for a few more days unless there is a lot of rain and/or warmer weather. The ice all over the lake seems to be solid and at least 10 inches wherever we sampled.
Thanks CHUBMAN for a great day. Also, thanks for taking a few pics. You done good with my camera.
[/#0000ff]
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