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Hey I am heading to birch creek res,( and maybe woodruff res as well?) this weekend A friend talked me into going with him[:/]. Neither one of us have ever been there before. I was wondering whether it would be good to take a wheeler with? How close can you currently get with just a truck? Can you take sleds or wheelers out on the ice? I would appreciate any information. PM's are great too,(B/C seems to be a touchy subject on here sometimes) [fishon]
On a side note, this ice needs to get out of here. It's time for some spring bassin!!!![cool]
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Good luck on getting ANY info about Birch Creek on here. I swear any report from there is contained in the Presidents Book of Secrets![pirate]
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Hey Bass Tuber
I do not have any problem giving out some info on B.C.
I was up there with a buddy of mine last Sun.I personally do not think you could climb the face of the dam on a 4-wheeler....to steep and icy. You have to pull all of your equipment up the face to get on the ice(royal pain in the azz) it is very steep and depending on the route you take up? one is steeper than the other.Once we got on the ice we started on the southwest shore then to the north then moved east then moved south-east then moved more northeast then went home.Fishing was absolutely fantastic.......but the catching sucked to say the least, we ended up catching a total of 6 trout that if put in one basket weighed maybe 1 pound total.rainbows were about 8-10 inches long.We were told that the week before my buddies buddy caught a 4 pound tiger and lost one that was never seen that he said was BIG so there is a chance of catching a big tiger but we did not have that kind of luck.
All of the litle rainbows came from 12-15 ft of water using small jigs and white or pink gizzilas tipped with night crawler or waxies.If you go I hope you have better luck than we had.....it is a long way to go for 1 pound of fish.We ended up drilling 25 different holes through nearly 2 feet of ice.
Good luck and Good fishing.
As far as how close can you get with a truck? Last sun. we drove right up to the base of the dam.
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Hey bass tuber I had a buddy out of evanston do a recon mission yesterday ! Not enough snow for sleds to much for quads . You will have to walk over the dam . The road will be muddy if the sun shines be careful not to fall off the road !
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You should have an easier time getting up to woodruff res. You can drive to the top of the dam in a truck, if it is dry but that is not likely this time of the year. If conditions are bad you can park at the bottom and drive your atv to the top and to the ice, if conditions aren't too bad, you can drive halfway up in your truck and unload your atv there at the pullover. Good luck no matter which lake you fish, will be looking forward to reading your report.
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Ended up getting to birch friday night just in time for an hour or so of fishing. The three of us ended up all getting a few light hits that night. That night just about dark I caught two fish. (i'm pretty sure they are sculpin[cool]? pics below it would be nice if someone confirmed this) Both took a castmaster while I was jigging fairly aggressively. That was cool, it got dark so we set up a tent and spent the night. The next morning we fished for about two hours. Between the three of us we brought up three rainbows in the 12-14" range. Then the wind started howling and it started snowing. It turned into a whiteout and so after an hour or so of that we decided to call it and get the heck out of there. The wind was blowing hard enough that when we were walking across the ice the sleds loaded with all the gear were blowing across the ice without even pulling on them. Then we got to the top of the dam and saw that our tent from the night before had been picked up and thrown with all our gear in around twenty feet and had landed upside down, was shredded and the wind had filled it full of snow[:/]. It was a slow ride home we ended up fighting blowing snow the whole way and had a couple hour delay in garden city because logan canyon was closed. It was still a good time though and its always good to get away from work and school. Thanks again for all those that chipped in info![fishon]
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Sculpin? Freaking cool man! I want one, I want one! Thanks for the BC report, not enough of them around here IMO. How cold was campin? Burrr! Anyways I can't wait to camp and fish there in the spring. Did ya taste them, use them for bait or anything? I'd bring them home to shock my family! Another fishy for the bucket list! Too cool, too cool!
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They sure look like bullheads (sculpin) to me! That thar be heap big striper medicine where I'm from! [cool]
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Yeah, those are sculpin. People that are lucky enough to get some sculpin from there usually throw one on the line and have success with it (dead, of course).
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Thanks for sharing your report, too bad the catching was so poor. There have been few reports of good catching there, I'm not sure if that is because all the big tigers have been caught or if they are just smarter than your average trout. As you thought and others confirmed those are sculpin. I've caught them in a few different location in Utah but the most common place is the Weber river.
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Bull heads (sculpin) were the go to bait for big lakers in Jackson Lake when I was growing up. Use to put one on a daredevil and jig it through the ice.
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Although I have never used them for bait I've heard the browns love them too. You don't hear to many people ever talk about catching them but I bet they are in all streams and lakes in utah.
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We used to stab them with a fork. Go out at night and they come out from under the rocks in the spring creeks. We would use a flashlight and stab them with a fork taped to a stick. Always had a bunch in the freezer for bait.
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I bet you could catch some BIG browns on the Weber or somewhere with them. I used to get some monster cutts out of the Snake River with them. I would thread them onto a big trebble hook and bounce them on the bottom through big deep holes in the river. Caught many five to ten pound fish on them. I don't know if you can use them in Bear Lake, but have often thought that they would work good in there. Should make an awesome cat bait for the Bear River too.
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Glad to hear you were at least able to get into some fish for the drive and effort. Birch Creek can be a harsh mistress...some days are off the hook and others can make you wish you did not drive up there. So how thick was the ice? How were the camping conditions (temp, snow depth ect...) up there? For some reason there is always wind on that lake.
P.S. Come on CVfisher...you been fishing lately or what?
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