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Went up to Henry’s with the Ice Shanty crew for the annual kick off to the ice season. Didn’t get my stuff ready the night before until1:30 so I slept till 4:15 and then headed north. Got to Henry’s after ten and headed out on the pond. Started off really good and I had three fish on the ice in no time. Then it shut down for me and I didn’t catch another fish. They were taking anything at first and nothing later. Well I think out of 20 guys I was low man for the day. Some caught over fifty fish. Today I did a little better and got 9 by noon. Had to quit then to make it home by dark. Today they liked orange till the sun came up then black was the color. I didn’t notice until later but the water was so clear you could sight fish in ten feet deep water. Oh yeah it was so cold today I not only fished in my closed up tent but I had to walk back to my truck and get the heater. Had my warmest gear on too. I didn’t see how cold it was but later when I was loading with no coat and bibs only and not feeling cold at all, the truck said 20 degrees so it must have been in the negatives with a breeze to make it feel colder. I got a pretty mix of cuts, hybrids and two brookies, one was close to 3 lbs it was a chunky fish. Ice is well over a foot thick and clear and strong. Here’s a couple photos. Later Jeff
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Nice Jeff! Well done- looks like fun. I’m getting itchy to go.
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Sounds like a good time, nice looking fish [  ]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][#800000][size 3]Ya done good! Wanted to be there, but the stars didn't align correctly this year. God willing, and the creek don't rise, maybe next year will work for me. Looking to go to Cascade sometime after January 17th.[/size][/#800000][/font]
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Bob Hicks, from Utah
I'm 81 years young and going as hard as I can for as long as I can.
"Free men do not ask permission to bear arms."
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Glad you had a good time and a fun trip, wish I could of gone but you didn’t want the cold I’ve been fighting.
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It was really fun to give it a try again.. I ended up forgetting my ice ladel or scoop or whatever they are called to clean the ice out of your holes... Not a good idea when it keeps refreezing so quick... By the way those ice egg aerator's don't cut it when it's really cold, if you want a bubbler to keep your holes open go with the Bubble Boxes for sure... I know the tubes are a pain, but they work great for keeping your holes open in really cold conditions... I'm going to be stocking up on a couple more of them...
I don't know if you seen my comment on the snow dogs, but I seen one up there at Henry's and I couldn't believe how fast they are... No need to have a snowmobile with one of them around... They've got to be a ton of fun for kids to play on tubes and saucers too.. I think you're going to have a bunch of fun with your new toy... I want to watch your race on Strawberry, that would be pretty cool... Thanks for the comments and hope to see you on a pond soon... Later Jeff
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It was fun, but didn't sound like near as much fun as your trip on Friday... That was an impressive looking catch... Is the big piranha looking fish the permit? That's pretty cool... I did like fishing for those sea trout and jacks when I was down there, they were a lot of fun even on my junky gear I had at the time... Old Henry's sure has some of the prettiest trout around though, I love pulling them in and I'm not sure those fish know they are cutthroats, because the actually fight really well... I had a blast catching them on the short rods... Thanks for the reply... and keep up those temptations you keep posting... One of these days I need to return to the ole mission grounds and do some fishing... Later Jeff
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Hey Bob, I got home late last night and seen you had called and I forgot this morning to return the call... It was a fun trip, but cold enough that everyone pretty much hunkered down in the tents and it wasn't as much visiting as usual, well at least not while I was there... Hope you can make it next time and I think I'm going to be at Cascade that weekend. Matt has a house rented up there and a few of us are going to try it.. So we'll have to circle the wagons on the pond and say hello, or go get something for dinner... Give me a call if you would like, I have my phone back and should be around tonight or tomorrow whichever works best... Jeff
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Hey Alan, wish you could have made it as well, but understand and we're grateful you chose not to share the bug with us... From what I'm seeing I think we'll be into safe ice here by next weekend... In fact it will be interesting to watch Hyrum tomorrow, it may start to tighten up.. Get feeling better and we'll get on the ice soon... Later Jeff
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Nice fish! I'm amazed you were able to fool some with 20 people all congregated together.
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Jeff, I did see you had seen a snowdog up at Henry’s. I’m not worried about speed. When it snowed a couple weeks ago, I spent a few hours ripping around the neighborhood towing the kids. It’s plenty fast. I did get some strange looks from the neighbors tho. That is rough to forget your scoop. I carry a few due to past donations down the hole. Glad you got a few fish. That’s a long trip up there.
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Ya know I thought the same thing, so I moved off to myself along the weed edge and thought I'd really nail them... Instead I didn't catch a fish Friday afternoon... So Saturday I moved out to the south end of the crew and sure enough the fish were there and I caught fish and so did all of the other tents... Doesn't fit my thoughts of where I should fish, but somehow when it works I have to go with it... Friday early we hit a hot spot we found last year in the middle north part of the lake and it was on fire to start, but shut down fast and that was like four of us that went out there, so we weren't terribly noisy but seemed like the fish would come through in schools and when they were there, it was good and then they would pass through and if others didn't come through you were done... not a lot of local fish that just hung around, these fish are roamers that you hope to cross paths with... When the fish were there, they seemed to bite easy, which was nice... I guess we did have some time that they shutdown and we couldn't get them to bite for anything, but most of the time if you seen fish on the graph you usually got at least a hit and run out of them... Different to only have 6' of line out when you hook a big fish, you have to fight them a lot different and most come out of the hole with a ton of energy still flopping around... I about lost my fish finder down the hole as one came up and wrapped around the transducer and tried to knock the unit of the stand and into the hole... I moved pretty quick to prevent that from happening... Anyway sure fun to get back on the ice... later Jeff
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I've got to admit when I seen that snow dog I was all over having it to take the kids out in the fields and pull them around... I'm pretty sure that would be the hit of the winter season... But I think I'll keep my old snowmobile a little longer, it's paid for and still runs so I'll be happy...
I don't know what I did with my scoop, I looked all over when I got home and haven't found it yet... Maybe I lost mine last year and didn't know it... I had one of those solid big scoops that has a chisel on the one end and measurements for easy ice thickness measurements... I guess I need to find where they sell them again, i liked it, but I haven't seen any in the stores lately, they have all gone to the plastic ones that I'm afraid I'd break in the cold... I do have an old little metal one that should save me for now, but that isn't a good thing to forget...
I hope by next weekend we can do some ice fishing here without the drive, that is a rough pull to make that trip... a little worse than the gorge, but fun to do once in a while... Later Jeff
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Great work Jeff! Looks like you had a good trip. I'd like to give Henrys a try sometime.
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Jeff I believe they have those scoops your looking for at Sportsman’s, pretty sure that’s the one I got earlier this year
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Henry's is a great pond, but probably better earlier in the ice season... Out of our big group with most fishing for 3 days, the biggest fish was 21" so we didn't really get the trophy fish this time, but it's still a lot of fun and there are very few fish as pretty as those out of Henry's... I always like to go back to Henry's.... To me there are 3 or 4 classic lakes I love to fish, Henry's, Strawberry, Flaming Gorge and Bear Lake... They are all worth the trip, even though any of them can send you home skunked at times, they can also treat you really well at other times... Let me know when you go and I'll give you a couple tips that might help get you started... Later Jeff
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That's where I got my last one, but I only seen the yellow plastic ones the other day, but I didn't know I needed one then, so I'll look harder next trip. Thanks for the tip Alan, I'll get in there before the next trip.. Later Jeff
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