Palisade Reservoir

It's the last day of the year and I had to get one more day of fishing in! I got up early and headed down to Palisade Reservoir In hopes of catching some tigers through the ice. When I arrived, I saw that only about a 1/3 of the reservoir was frozen and that my favorite spots were still open water. The ice looked questionable but I didn't drive 2 hours to not fish. I drilled test holes all the way out to where I wanted to fish and the ice averaged 2 1/2 inches thick which is way lower than I'd like. It's the first time I've ever ice fished with such thin ice beneath me. I ended up staying closer to shore because of it. I fished in 5-7 feet of water and stopped counting after 20 fish. Most were rainbows and I did land 1 tiger. I got 3 other tigers to the hole only to lose them. I fought one of them for quite some time and really got excited when I saw how big he was. This tiger was well over 20 inches and I missed him at the hole 3 times before we finally shook the hook. I'm still upset as I write this article that I didn't land it. It would have been my biggest fish through the ice. I'll get another chance on Monday and hopefully with a few cold days, the good spots will have ice.

The only tiger I landed.

My first double of the season!

Rainbow

Rainbow

First Ice Fishing Trip Of The Season

Ice fishing is finally here. Usually I would have been out already but business trips and warmer than usual weather has kept me off the hard deck until now. I met up with Rob and we headed to Mantua Reservoir. This was my first visit to this reservoir and I'm glad we hit it. Rob had told me of past adventures and successes he had here which made made me want to try this new body of water all the more! We were on the ice and fishing by 7:30 and the fishing started out kinda slow but picked up as the day went on. We caught lots of small perch and bluegill and landed a few rainbows as well. We were hoping for some of the better sized bluegills Mantua is known for but no such luck on this outing. We caught everything usung pink Jammin Jigs with a pink cutter bug body tipped with a wax worm. I'm still waiting for some of my usual ice fishing spots to freeze up but Mantua was a great start on what I hope will be a fantastic ice fishing season.

All set up and ready for some fish.

My first fish of the ice fishing season.

Rob's first gill of the day.

Small perch.

One of the few rainbows we caught.

2010 Utah Trout Slam

The 2010 Utah Trout Slam has come to a close. It was a competition that ran from January 31 to Dec 1, 2010. Going after the slam took me to some new waters, going after 7 different species of trout and gave me some memories that will last the rest of my life. I put a lot of miles on the truck and spent hours online researching bodies of water to find out where I could get into the big trout that Utah is known for. I met some new friends along the way and fished with some of my favorite fishing partners; my brothers. When it was all said and done I ended my slam with a total of 159 inches (sum of all 7 fish). The results came out yesterday and out of 180 people that registered for the trout slam, my 159 inches was good enough for a 1st place finish in the first ever held Utah Trout Slam! You can see a list of the top 8 finishers at http://www.utahtroutslam.com/ . This is the first fishing competition I've entered and I'm already addicted to them. I'm hoping I can get to do more of them in 2011. Below are some pictures of the fish that made up my slam. My favorite fish of the slam was the Splake. It is hands down the thickest trout I have ever landed. It was a complete toad! I released all of the fish I caught so hopefully another fisherman can have the chance at feeling them on the end of their line. FISH ON!

18" Brook Trout

20.5" Cutthroat Trout

21" Splake

21.5" Rainbow Trout

22" Tiger Trout

23" Brown Trout

33" Lake Trout