Finally we have had enough cold to make ice!  Safe ice!  Tomorrow we are taking the grandkids out for our first ice fishing adventure of the year.  Going to hit Mantua and hope each one of them tags into a fish….we don’t care what kind.  Just fish!

More on this later.

Bears Butt

January 2, 2015

January 3, 2015

We went on our excursion today.  The weather was almost perfect for ice fishing, very little breeze, cloudy and fairly cold, about 25 degrees.  The hot cocoa tasted good!

There were 5 kids on the ice, plus Weasel and myself.  Weasel stopped by about 9 a.m. and we were off and running.  Oh, we had to go back and get Conners coveralls (note this).  When we picked up Syd and Addie my first question to Syd was “do you have your license”?  And of course she did.  You see, she is 12 years old now and the law requires her to have a fishing license.  She and her dad picked theirs up yesterday.

With girls in the mix, it is important that there be a bathroom or something similar close at hand.  We chose the main parking lot next to the main bathroom at Mantua as our staging area.  A quick trip to the building proved a bad deal….the sign said “Under Maintenance”….another way of saying, “too bad girls”.

Well, we headed out onto the ice anyway and drilled a series of holes, one for each of the 10 poles and one for the fish finder.  By Utah law, we could each fish with two poles if we wanted.  But with limited resources, only Weasel and Squirrel got to fish with two poles.

When the last hole was drilled through the solid 4 inches or so of ice, Conner announced he had forgotten his fishing license….(note number two)!

Weasel had a brilliant idea to call home and find out what his “customer number” is on his license.  He called and after a bit, Hot Spark was able to locate the license and let Weasel know what that number was.  Once that was done, he made the connection with the Utah DWR and got the license information downloaded to his phone.  What a world we live in.

Now Conner was able to legally fish.

All poles baited and dropped in….no bites….longer wait….still no bites….Out came the snacks, drinks, etc. and pretty soon fishing wasn’t the main attraction for the kids.  But sliding on the ice seemed to be the main thing to be doing.  An hour goes by….two….and then the bathroom need really kicked in.

I took the girls to the closest store in town and hoped they would have a bathroom.  Luckily they did, a “one holer” out back.  While the girls went to the bathroom I was able to talk to the lady running the store.  You see, I have lived in this town of mine, only 15 miles from Mantua and have NEVER been into that store.  This was a good time to go in and see what they sell.  Of course they sell all sorts of candy and items you can run out of without realizing you need, salt, pepper, milk and eggs etc.,  but they also sell night crawlers, meal worms, wax worms and spikes.  They only had two more packages of meal worms and then they would be completely out.  They get their shipments in on Wednesdays.  That is nice to know.

Well, she and I talked quite a while as it took the girls a very long time to use that single holer.  You have to realize they were each layered down with clothing to keep themselves warm and all of that has to come off first, and then go back on.  I think we were there at least 20 minutes.  During our conversation, I was informed they are building a much larger store (which by the way is under construction and it is a very large building) and the building we were standing in is going to be their tackle store in the future.  I asked about a restaurant or some hot food and she informed me that she had made quite a fuss with the owners about having and serving hot food in the new store, but wasn’t getting the attention she thought the idea deserved.  I personally think they should have a hot food service of some sort.  A good old home cooked hamburger and some fries would top off any ice fishing trip to Mantua very nicely.  I think they would pay for the added expense of a restaurant setting in less than 5 years.  By the way, they call themselves the “Little Valley Store and Campground”  and are located at  130 North Main Street in Mantua, give them a call sometime at (435) 723-1292.  If you plan on staying in their campground (full hookups mind you), you should make reservations ahead of time.  They also have ATV rentals and the cost is only about $20 per day!  Talk about a sweet deal!  In the summer time, you could camp in their campground, rent an ATV and go up to Inspiration Point and look over the Ogden part of the Great Salt Lake Valley.  From up there you can see all the way into Nevada to the West and Idaho to the North.  There is also a very good chance of seeing a mountain goat, as well as the usual deer and moose.

So, back onto the ice we headed.  And by the time we got out to the fishing spot, Weasel, Conner and Squirrel were all but packed up to head home.  Cody had gotten wet while playing on the ice and now his hands were freezing!

Our fishing trip wasn’t what it could have been, but it was still a fun day with the Grandkids.  Next time we won’t have any other things to do and will be able to stay all day.

Lessons learned on this trip:  1) Parents, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE buy your kids “Good gloves, Snow Pants, Coats, Stocking Caps, Socks and Water Proof, insulated boots”!  With ice fishing you can get by with line wrapped around a stick to fish with, but if you get wet or cold, you are done!  Kids like to play and they get wet and without warm wool clothing and lots of insulation, they just aren’t going to last as long as you out there.  You are bundled up and warm…they aren’t.  2) Always take the ice tent and heater, if for no other reason than to get the kids in and out of the elements to warm up with the heater.  A second use for the tent is to hide while going to the bathroom.  3) Don’t have anything else planned for the day, at least not before dark.

So, fish 1, fisherpeople 0!

Bears Butt

January 3, 2015