02-05-2010, 05:38 PM
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3][#002850]Dan (a friend) and I decided to take advantage of the “calm before the storm” and do some mack jigging up over the rock pile today. We left Layton at 3:00 AM to get in a good hour of fishing in the dark with glow tubes.
When we arrived at the marina, the wind was non-existent. The flags on the flag poles hung limp. I thought “man, we have hit the jack pot!”.
We backed the boat down the ramp only to find 10 feet of 2” ice up against the ramp leading to open marina water. No big deal, just back her up on the ice till she drops through. That actually worked just fine.
As far as we could see, there was a path of open still water all the way out to the main lake with just a few tight spots to avoid.
Generally, the marina is the place you have to worry about getting around ice and the main lake is the open water area. Not today … the closer to the channel we got, the more ice we had to deal with. No problem, I’ve done this plenty of times so here we go … a little ice bustin’ never hurt anyone. So, we are busting ½ inch ice that quickly becomes ¾ inch thick ice that the further we went became 1 inch ice. But hey, it’s got to become open soon right? Nope … 1 ¼ inch, then we are into 1 ½ inch thick ice and the front of the boat is on top of the ice more than in the water! We had traveled out into the main lake a good half mile and it was clear that it wasn’t going to get any better any time soon. It was ice as far as our spot light could shine. So we decided to call it off and head back. That’s easier said than done! I tried to bust some ice with my foot to make a big enough area to turn the boat around but couldn’t break the ice at all. I was locked in to a point where the only thing we could do is go forward and make a large loop back to return to the “beaten” path. So with a fair amount of motor power we busted our way back to our original trail. On our way back to the marina, the ice had already started to freeze over our path.
An hour later, we were back in the marina and loaded the boat for the drive back home.
That is only the second time in all the years that I have had driven up to Bear Lake to go fishing and not been able to. I really was looking forward to some mack fishing with my friend Dan. But it wasn’t to be. I’ll give it a few more weeks to warm up a bit when I am certain that I can freely boat to any spot I want.
We might have been able to launch over on the east side but we had already missed the fishing in the dark that I so badly wanted. And, as far as I could tell, that inch thick + ice appeared to extend all the way to the rock pile. There is a good chance that that was just an optical illusion, but being so tired from getting up so early, we decided to call it quits and head home. Dan agreed to take an “ice check” and give it another try in a couple weeks.
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When we arrived at the marina, the wind was non-existent. The flags on the flag poles hung limp. I thought “man, we have hit the jack pot!”.
We backed the boat down the ramp only to find 10 feet of 2” ice up against the ramp leading to open marina water. No big deal, just back her up on the ice till she drops through. That actually worked just fine.
As far as we could see, there was a path of open still water all the way out to the main lake with just a few tight spots to avoid.
Generally, the marina is the place you have to worry about getting around ice and the main lake is the open water area. Not today … the closer to the channel we got, the more ice we had to deal with. No problem, I’ve done this plenty of times so here we go … a little ice bustin’ never hurt anyone. So, we are busting ½ inch ice that quickly becomes ¾ inch thick ice that the further we went became 1 inch ice. But hey, it’s got to become open soon right? Nope … 1 ¼ inch, then we are into 1 ½ inch thick ice and the front of the boat is on top of the ice more than in the water! We had traveled out into the main lake a good half mile and it was clear that it wasn’t going to get any better any time soon. It was ice as far as our spot light could shine. So we decided to call it off and head back. That’s easier said than done! I tried to bust some ice with my foot to make a big enough area to turn the boat around but couldn’t break the ice at all. I was locked in to a point where the only thing we could do is go forward and make a large loop back to return to the “beaten” path. So with a fair amount of motor power we busted our way back to our original trail. On our way back to the marina, the ice had already started to freeze over our path.
An hour later, we were back in the marina and loaded the boat for the drive back home.
That is only the second time in all the years that I have had driven up to Bear Lake to go fishing and not been able to. I really was looking forward to some mack fishing with my friend Dan. But it wasn’t to be. I’ll give it a few more weeks to warm up a bit when I am certain that I can freely boat to any spot I want.
We might have been able to launch over on the east side but we had already missed the fishing in the dark that I so badly wanted. And, as far as I could tell, that inch thick + ice appeared to extend all the way to the rock pile. There is a good chance that that was just an optical illusion, but being so tired from getting up so early, we decided to call it quits and head home. Dan agreed to take an “ice check” and give it another try in a couple weeks.
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The ice was thickest right before i hit open water. It was definatley worth it! I did it again the next day too. My boat is too big for those shore launches, I dont like to drive my truck in the sandy water ( its hard on them ) and my parter has to jump in the water on the east side with the docks pulled up on shore. It was close to a mile of ice busting. My wife was freaked out big time. I told her she could get out and walk back but she didnt find comfort in that