01-02-2014, 01:02 PM
[#0000ff]Hadn't been on the ice during December. So I jumped at the invite from Pikeman to join him and his son Ben (Da Bomb) for a New Year's jaunt to Starvation.
Couldn't believe temps of 32 at Parley's Summit, 35 at Park City and at Heber City...and still just under 30 as we pulled up to the ice. I was almost expecting to see palm trees waving in the breeze. No palm trees, but the sagebrush was rockin' and rollin' in the early morning breezes. I hate wind...both for ice fishing and float tubing.
Glad the ice was thick...about 10 inches of good clear ice...with only small patches of thin snow cover. All three of us rode out on one wheeler, towing a couple of sleds behind. I hate it when I have to go swimming in ice water.
We set up in a spot where Glen and Ben had scored a walleye and several perch a few days before. Depth between 42 and 44 feet...with a shallow hump a few feet to the south of our ice camp. Young Ben took pity on a poor old dude (me) and punched a couple of quick holes for me with Pikeman's new Ion auger. Man, that lightweight lithium battery 40 volt auger really eats the ice. Turned out that I never had to drill any holes with my Strikemaster electric. Stayed at the same two holes all day.
It wasn't that fishing was all that great. We saw occasional perchy-looking suspects show up off the bottom, on our sonars. But none of us ever put a perch on the ice. The only action was for the everlovin' Starvation steelies. Most were new recruits...healthy fat 13 and 14 inchers from the fall planting. They were all full of green invertebrates. Feeding well and getting nice pink flesh.
I got the troutfest started early, after noticing fishy blips showing up often between 12 and 15 feet. Reeled one of my rods up to that zone and got the first couple of juniors. Lost a much bigger one at the hole. Then Pikeman and Da Bomb swallowed their perchy pride and got in on the action. We all kept one rod down in the bottom part of the water column but opted for SOME action (slimers) rather than smelling skunk. Later in the day we caught several trout near the bottom after they quit cruising shallow.
On a couple of slowdown periods I took my Showdown and a jug of warm water and went out "ice shooting"...stopping periodically to shoot down through the hard clear ice to check both for depth and the presence of fishkind. I covered a lot of ground/water/ice and made a lot of test shots, but never saw anything to suggest that we might do better if we moved. So we stayed. Da Bomb did fire up the wheeler and moved off a distance to try a deeper spot where he had seen fish on their last trip. But he didn't stay long and came back to the ice camp.
Pikeman maintained telephone contact with a couple of other groups on the ice...in different parts of the lake...and they weren't doing any better. Moving around a lot but scoring nothing but a few trout.
We had gone to a less well known area at the far north end of the lake...near Saleratus Wash. It has been good for us the last two years...with good numbers of all species...and a lot less "company". But it didn't seem to want to produce much for us yesterday. Maybe the fish were all nursing hangovers from partying too much on New Years.
Thanks Glen and Ben...for the invite. Always good to share the ice with you guys. It has been about 5 years since I last fished with Ben...when he was just a teenager. He has grown into a fine young man. Still the best fisherman in our group...catching probably the most and the biggest.
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[signature]
Couldn't believe temps of 32 at Parley's Summit, 35 at Park City and at Heber City...and still just under 30 as we pulled up to the ice. I was almost expecting to see palm trees waving in the breeze. No palm trees, but the sagebrush was rockin' and rollin' in the early morning breezes. I hate wind...both for ice fishing and float tubing.
Glad the ice was thick...about 10 inches of good clear ice...with only small patches of thin snow cover. All three of us rode out on one wheeler, towing a couple of sleds behind. I hate it when I have to go swimming in ice water.
We set up in a spot where Glen and Ben had scored a walleye and several perch a few days before. Depth between 42 and 44 feet...with a shallow hump a few feet to the south of our ice camp. Young Ben took pity on a poor old dude (me) and punched a couple of quick holes for me with Pikeman's new Ion auger. Man, that lightweight lithium battery 40 volt auger really eats the ice. Turned out that I never had to drill any holes with my Strikemaster electric. Stayed at the same two holes all day.
It wasn't that fishing was all that great. We saw occasional perchy-looking suspects show up off the bottom, on our sonars. But none of us ever put a perch on the ice. The only action was for the everlovin' Starvation steelies. Most were new recruits...healthy fat 13 and 14 inchers from the fall planting. They were all full of green invertebrates. Feeding well and getting nice pink flesh.
I got the troutfest started early, after noticing fishy blips showing up often between 12 and 15 feet. Reeled one of my rods up to that zone and got the first couple of juniors. Lost a much bigger one at the hole. Then Pikeman and Da Bomb swallowed their perchy pride and got in on the action. We all kept one rod down in the bottom part of the water column but opted for SOME action (slimers) rather than smelling skunk. Later in the day we caught several trout near the bottom after they quit cruising shallow.
On a couple of slowdown periods I took my Showdown and a jug of warm water and went out "ice shooting"...stopping periodically to shoot down through the hard clear ice to check both for depth and the presence of fishkind. I covered a lot of ground/water/ice and made a lot of test shots, but never saw anything to suggest that we might do better if we moved. So we stayed. Da Bomb did fire up the wheeler and moved off a distance to try a deeper spot where he had seen fish on their last trip. But he didn't stay long and came back to the ice camp.
Pikeman maintained telephone contact with a couple of other groups on the ice...in different parts of the lake...and they weren't doing any better. Moving around a lot but scoring nothing but a few trout.
We had gone to a less well known area at the far north end of the lake...near Saleratus Wash. It has been good for us the last two years...with good numbers of all species...and a lot less "company". But it didn't seem to want to produce much for us yesterday. Maybe the fish were all nursing hangovers from partying too much on New Years.
Thanks Glen and Ben...for the invite. Always good to share the ice with you guys. It has been about 5 years since I last fished with Ben...when he was just a teenager. He has grown into a fine young man. Still the best fisherman in our group...catching probably the most and the biggest.
[/#0000ff]
[signature]
