Ice fishing Rockport Jan 25th 2013

So for a long time I've thought about Ice Fishing as a possibility but usual turn off my interest due to perceived costs of gearing up properly to be able to go.  Mostly I could look at the costs of augers, poles, sleds, and all of the other accessories that one might use and see it quickly add up for something that I might not find all that much fun....  Well I guess I had shared my thoughts a few times with my boss at work to the point that he one day said something along the lines of, "you know it doesn't take much more then an auger to go and those are not that much if you don't focus on the top brands"...  Well a few weeks later that turned into a comment from my boss along the lines of, "I'd be happy to share the cost of an auger with you"...  Then later to, "Hey I bought an auger over the weekend and no you have no more excuses"...  Well I guess I didn't.  So we made plans to hit up Rockport and give things a try.

I made a couple strike indicator tips to use on our 5'-6' long ultra light poles that were the best options we both had.  I simple took my wire I use to make spinners and made a loop about the size of the eye at the end of my poles.  Bent it at 90 degrees to act as an eye and then powder painted the eye and the last 2" of the indicator blaze orange.  I then used a stick of hot melt glue to make a "clamp" to attach the indicator to the pole.  Simply I cut a 3/4" piece and drilled a hole down lengthwise.  Then I cut through to this hold down one side again lengthwise so that it could open up like a "C" down the whole length.  I then took the end of the wire and pressed it into this modified piece of hot melt glue stick so that it went down the length at the back of the "C".  Now I just had to open up the "C" channel in the stick and let it grab and hold around the end of my pole.  This was really just a poor mans mockup of a product you can find in the stores...  But I made it and it worked well enough for us.

We both found a snow sled we had for our kids to use as our gears transportation.  They clearly were not the dream option but they worked well enough for our trial run at ice fishing.  I also modified up my fish finder so that I could use it from a small cooler I have that I also use from my small aluminum boat.  The big change was how the transducer clamped on so that I could clamp it to the cooler and then let the cooler sit next to an ice hole with the transducer down in the water.  This also worked pretty well.

So the way things worked out we didn't try to be there too early so that we would not have to deal with things being overly cool as well as we had seen reports that the morning bite might be later in the morning.  I think we got to the lake just before 11am and had picked and made our way down to the water by about 11:30am.  Reports had said that fish were in about 20' of water and we questioned if that meant the water was only 20' deep or if regardless of depth of the water the fish were only 20' down...  So we simply took inventory of the existing holes in the ice where other anglers had been in the days before.  We picked on far enough from a few other anglers on the ice but close enough that we could watch what others were doing and see if we could not learn a bit.

The fish finder marked fish every so often as they moved through under us and we started to have a few light hits.  The home made indicators proved very useful for seeing those light bites.  However we were both newbs when it came to being prepared to be on the mark to set the hook and we missed a good number of opportunities.  We ended up moving around a few more times getting closer to the shore and continued to see fish move through and a few light strikes here and there.  I managed one fair rainbow onto the hard deck to take home cleaning the smell of skunk from at least myself... ;)

I think we headed off the water sometime before 3pm.  The edges where clearly softer then when we had come out in the morning and the value of waterproof boots and a bit of a jump helped get out without too much trouble.  The sleds proved to be less optimal for the trip back up the hill to the vehicle as we both had a spill or two on the way up but we made it regardless.  Either better sleds or a better tie down setup is needed to keep things on the sled.  Here are a few pics of the trip:

In the end I'm very interested in doing this again and owe that to Guy for being bold enough to just buy the auger and leave me with little/no reason not to give it a try.  I've already picked up some closeout poles from Cabela's to use next year.  That was mostly because in the end the most annoying thing was using to long of a pole over the ice holes.  Well second to that would be needing better pole holders then just trying to prop your poles over your  sled and above the ice hole.  So I figure I'm ready to see how this might pan out over time.

Provo Harbor South 7/7

So I got an email Friday from my cousin Jeff that he was heading to Provo Harbor (South Side) with his son, father and a couple neighbors and wanted Jason and I to know we were welcome to come.  Well Alex and I took Jeff up on the offer and we headed down to meet them Saturday Morning.

We got there as Jeff and his crew was already part way setup and they finished and were on the water before we were.  Alex was using a different set of fins today, my force fins, to see how they would compare to the fins he got with his tube for performance, kicking power, comfort as well as how they did or did not stay on his feet better.  The biggest benefit is not having to lace up the fins and he should be able to put these on himself after a seeing how they work.

Once Alex and I launched we headed out across the river flow and around the edge of the weed line where the others were at.  I'm not sure what they all already had at this point as we had some mix up on what channel to be on with the radios.  It didn't take us long to get into a few crappie to get things started.

Most everyone was getting a crappie or two here and there with a stray white mixed in most of the morning.  The action was not overly fast but still pretty constant overall.  You just had to work the weed line faces and the water near there to find the crappie.  If you didn't get any action after a few casts move a bit and try again.

I had my second line under a bobber and it vanished and ended up with a mud cat on the hook.  That's the only cat I know of for the day.  I did run a piece of carp meat for a while with no apparent interest.  The rest of the time I had a bobber with tandem jigs about 3' down and then the main line was casting either tandem jigs or spinners.

As things slowed down Alex and I moved out to the open water near the SW point of the harbor where the river water and lake water mix.  We had seen a few boats holding place out there suggesting maybe they were in the whites.  As we made our way out Alex had a few friends decide to caravan with us for a couple minutes.

However as we got near the other boats whatever affinity they had had for following us vanished as they took off toward one of the aluminum boats.  I'm not sure what they were hoping for or how long they stayed with the boats but I found it interesting. :)

Well our effort of kicking out there didn't pan out well.  All but one but had moved off shortly after we got out there.  The one last boat was doing great for whites.  We didn't get close enough to see exactly what he was fishing but he would cast out a large looking rig on his line a short distance from his boat on one pole.  Then pick up the other pole which had already been cast out.  He would give it a couple small tugs and reel a bit, tug tug, reel, then by that time he was near his boat and he would start to jig and usually pull a white up.  Then cast out again and swap to the other pole.  I'm not sure how many he boated but for the time I watched I'd say he pulled in a dozen or more.  I did mange a couple whites out there on a spinner.

At somewhere near 11am or just after Jeff's group decided to call it a day and head in.  Alex and I figured we should head in at least to the weed line and give that area a bit more time before we called it a day.  Turned out a pretty good choice as we manged to put a few more fish in the baskets to round out the day.  That included a nice blue gill and getting me to the 4 species day.

Well a few more fish and an hour or so more and we called it a day and started to head in.  Alex was pretty happy with how the force fins compared to the previous ones we had been having him use.  Well here are a few more pics to finish out the report with.

As far as a fish count went I'm not sure exactly how many Alex and I ended up with.  Maybe something like 1 bluegill, 5 or so white bass, and 18 crappie (I didn't keep the mud cat today).  Jeff reported that his group came out with 40 crappie, 7 white bass, and 1 perch.

July 5th @ Starvation (Alex's first Perch Jerking session)

So as an initial disclaimer, I failed to take any pictures again on this trip.  I had full intentions but both with the concerns of weather (wind and rain) and also working with Alex on his first trip to Starvation I never even got the camera out to take a pic.

Well we had planned to meet at my place at 4am so that we could be on our way and to Starvation by sun up.  However the night before we saw enough from the weather forecasts that we knew we needed to make a last minute judgement call in the morning as to where or even if we would end up going.  We ended up risking it and heading to Starvation knowing an afternoon shower was in the day's plans as well as a 9am wind spike.  Well everything happened as the forecasts said it would however it still left enough window in there to have a great day fishing.

Jason was first on the water and first to catch and basket a fish (Perch).  Perch were out in the shallower areas today (10-18' is about the depth range we found them in).  Jason, Scott, Alex and I all caught plenty of perch though most were sub 8" in size.  All of us still managed to put some in our baskets.  Alex was able to catch his first small mouth bass that was just under a foot.  Scott managed a bigger small mouth and a junior walleye in his basket.  Jason had a pair of jumbo perch in his basket as well.  They looked to me to be in the 12"+ range and very healthy looking.  I did catch a small small mouth bass that got sent back and had one short fight with what I would guess to be a good sized trout so my basket just had the basic perch offering at the end of the day.

Wind was pretty constant with only a few breaks.  Alex did pretty well, when he tried, to maintain his position even with the wind working on us.  We got a bit wet as the light showers started up and stopped a couple times before we got off the water between noon and 1pm.  Good timing as the rain faucet turned on full tilt and didn't stop for most of the ride home.

Funny that at the end of a day that you worked constantly to hold position against the wind along with a bit of rain to get everything wet and still smile that it was such a nice day to be out fishing and have no regret for making the trip in such questionable conditions.  Though I'm not delusional enough to expect them all to turn out so well. :)

June 30th @ Utah Lake

Well Jason got us going last week on planning a trip for Saturday.  Utah Lake, more specifically Provo Harbor, became the target of our ambitions and plans were made accordingly.  So aside from an alarm slept through we got ourselves down to the harbor and on the water by about 7:30am.

We saw a few boats out working just off the SW point of the harbor where the river water and lake water mix up.  We also had one bank tangler ask us about a fish cleaning station to clean a good catch of whites.  So we had high hopes and headed out near the boats.  Not sure if the bite had already run it's course or not but as we got out there none of us had had anything to note yet on our lines and watching the boats as well as current bank tanglers we didn't see much action being had by anyone else.  After some time out with the boats and nearly nothing in the basket, I had managed one white bass in my basket, the three of us decided we should head SE a bit toward the weed line and look for whites, crappies and anything else willing to play.

Heading to the weed line didn't produce much better right away.  We did have a "first for us" round of moments where as we brought in our lure and just lift it from the water a crappie would have been following and would make a last ditch effort to get our lures and miss.  This surface "lung" was somewhat funny and frustration as our baskets were still mostly empty and like always the casts we thought to let the lure linger at the surface there was nothing chasing it and the times we didn't there was.....  After a bit of time we started to get our techniques back in tune for crappie fishing and slowed things down and "gently" applied preasure are we reeled in a few for the basket.

Jason and I were both running our second lines under a bobber as we moved around the weed clumps.  Mine went under and the line started tracking hard to the side of my tube.  I manged, after a longer then expected fight, to bring in a channel cat on my ultra light rig.  Put a smile on my face... :)

Whites never really came out to play for us.  We each did manage at least one to take home and a few small enough to get send back to get bigger...

Didn't do much in the way of summary pics at the end of the trip.  I did get this "from afar" pic of Alex holding up one of his fish he brought in for his basket.

So not the fastest of action, but the weather and wind were very pleasent to be out in.  Fun to share another trip with my son in his tube and to have him report back that he had a blast and can't wait till the next one.  Oh I guess Jason makes for some good company too if you don't set your expectations too high... (or put a fish in your mouth or have a drink explode on you for no action of your own)... ;)

Couple fishing trips during our week in Park City

So this year for our week we take up in Park City as a family vacation I managed to get out twice for some fishing on the tube.  We had the added goal to see if we could get Alex, my oldest, out on his new float tube he has had since January for his first tube adventure yet.

Utah Lake:

So last Tuesday weather cooperated well enough for Jason, Alex and I to head down to Provo Harbor.  We didn't really push things to be there at or before sun rise and ended up launching near 7:30am or so.  We launched into the river flow on the south side of the harbor.  I had explained to Alex that the river would be cold but that once we were through the river flow we would find the lake water a bit warmer.  Well even though he said he understood the shock of the cold water about canceled the trip before it got started.  Water in the river flow was in the mid 50s at launch.   Alex gave it another try and did well as we kicked south across the river flow into the weed line to start our fishing.  I came prepared with two ropes to keep Alex tethered to me as much as was needed.  One was a short one to make it easy to lock us together at arms length and the other to use to pull him behind me if that proved to be better.  I ended up only using the shorter one to get us across the river as we launched and then again as we returned.  The rest of the time I cut him free and kept him in range of myself or Jason.  Water temps once we got across the river held near 58 degrees and warmed up to about 63 before we got off the water at about 1:30pm.

Another 'test' for this trip was taking the fins that we got with Alex's tube and modifying them to lace up and work with an older pair of shoes he has.  Alex reported no issues with the laced up fins nor any issues with the fins wearing any patches of skin on his feet or ankles so that's about as good as I could have hoped for.

Well with Alex and I over in the weed line south and Jason west of us near the corner of the harbor where the water mixes with the lake we all started to rig up and fish.  Alex got the first fish of the day on his 4th cast, a nice sized white bass.  I was really happy that both we had a fish right off the start as well that Alex was the one to bring it in.  He handled the fish with care for his tube and got it into the basket just fine.  Was great to see him handling fishing form the tube well.

Well that first fish was looking like it might be the first and last after another hour or so of nothing.  Jason had come into the weed line with us looking for fish that he had not found out in the open water.  We were not even seeing carp school up on the surface.  We did hear and see a few jump and splash here and there...  Eventually I did find a couple carp schools and managed to hook into one that didn't give up much of a fight at all.  Jason reported shortly after that he had caught a crappie and then later a white bass.  As we worked our way back toward the river I managed to pull in 3 white bass and we called it a day with 6 fish between the 3 of us.

Alex reported that he really enjoyed the trip and using his float tube.  That alone was the success I was hoping for.


Starvation:

So the second trip was on Friday and this one involved Jason, Scott, TubeDude, TubeBabe, and myself.  We had seen a post on BFT that TD was looking to go to starvation and we asked if we could meet up with him for the trip.  TD graciously welcomed us to join up for the trip.  So we made it to the water at about 6:30am and were on the water near 7am.  Water temps were in the lower 50s and the slight winds work not too warm so waders were in use.

TubeBabe was the first to report a fish, small dink perch, and that began a common theme for the day for most of us.  Many smaller perch to play with and few and far between finding anything with size to keep.  The wind died down as usual mid morning before kicking back up near noon, though not so much that we had to leave the water due to wind.  I didn't manage any pictures, lazy me, for this trip, but I did get over a dozen, eater or near enough to eater size perch (wanted to have enough to have a fish dinner with Jason's, Scott's and my family that evening), 1 16" walleye and a ~22" rainbow that sure gave my 5' UL pole a workout!  Jason had a few less perch and a very nice walleye that was 18 or 19" long with a lot of girth to it.  TubeBabe landed a walleye near the size of mine, but didn't end up keeping any of the perch she caught due to size.  TubeDude didn't keep anything today.  He had in his report a few bigger fish that he fought but didn't land that he reported to be either trout or walleye based on fight, but the grundle of perch he caught all got sent back to grow up and be caught again.  Scott had a eater sized perch in his basket and in hind sight, and after some talking on the ride home, we figure we need to get him to partner up with one of us with a fish finder to make it easier to zone in on the perch .

All in all it was a great day on Starvation and I hope it's a good start for a number of more trips there this year!