I have 2 weeks in Salt Lake City, Utah for work, I had spent a year here working in 2011 and made some great mates, one of which works in at Sportsman's Warehouse (like a BCF on roids!!). So my mate Pete suggests we try a little ice fishing up in the mountains.
We agreed on a 6:30am departure on Sunday. I spent the week keeping an eye on the weather as temps had been down to minus 19C at times and I was hoping for something a tad milder.
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Woke up to a reasonably nice morning around minus 4C.
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We were heading up to a lake called Starvation Reservoir. It is 5,712ft above sea level (or 1,741M). It is about a 2hr drive from SLC. We got up to the lake around 8:45am, rugged up, rigged up and jump on his 4 wheeler ATV and headed to one of his hot spots.
We drilled holes for the sounder and the 3 rods we were using. The ice was over a foot thick and all up we were fishing in about 60 ft of water.
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Peter knows these waters like the back of his hand. He is a pretty good hunter, tells me has hasn't bought meat for over 12 yrs, lives on the spoils of his hunting and fishing. He makes excellent Elk jerky and moose salami (I kid you not!!!)
He tells me we are fishing in the old river bed that existed before the lake (reservoir) was created. He wanted to specifically target perch (which he says is excellent on the chew) and if we sound any trout mid water he will call out to wind up to a specific depth. We were using 6lb line, and a bit of a paternosta type rig. I reckon about 1oz of weight, small jigheads tipped with wax worms (like a maggot). My first drop, 1st minute, bang, fish on and I have my first ever perch and 1st ever ice fishing success.
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Next drop same thing. This kept up for about 10 mins then the school moved on. Pete explained the fish would move back so we waited. In the meantime he madly starts winding up, stops, says there is a trout at 24ft, bang, fish on and he pulls up a 17inch rainbow. This is too easy I think!!
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So we pull a few more perch in then he says to me "wind up , fast, keep winding, keep winding, stop, hold still, there will be a fish on any second now.... sure enough I felt a subtle bite, struck and I was on!! Pulled up a nice 18 inch rainbow.
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Couple more perch come up then he says "another trout at 36 ft" and madly winds up from 60ft, stops, pauses, hooks up again. This time in comes a good perch that went about 13inches (which apparently is pretty big for a perch)
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We kept getting a few more perch then the bite slowed so we moved to another spot, got some more perch.
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We then moved to shallower water looking for some browns. We stopped at a pressure ridge created by moving ice plates where 2 currents meet. It was in about 50ft of water. Fishing was a bit slow but Pete pulled in a nice walleye (really good eating) and a nice rainbow trout that went 20 inches.
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Around 4pm a snow storm appeared and it was a complete white out so we pulled up stumps and headed back.
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I reckon it was about 10klms back to our launch spot and you couldn't see 10ft in front of you. I do not have a clue how the hell he did it but he bee lined back to the car!! I had no idea where we were!! We loaded up and drove home in one of the heaviest and intense snow storms I have ever encountered. Took us 4hrs getting home instead of 2.
A great day out with a good mate trying a new form of fishing. I am heading over his place for dinner to eat the perch in coconut tempura batter and a few Bud Lights!!!
Cheers people and stay safe in that crap weather back home!!
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Originally Posted by Schulzy
