I have to admit something right now.  This morning when I woke up my mind was on what goal I was going to set for myself, that is kind of a given with me.  Well, I could not get my mind off of fishing, I even brought the rules of play for the Sulpher Creek ice fishing event into the living room when I brought in our coffee’s.

One thing lead to another and Winemaker asked me if I had ever texted Shipley about the Sulpher Creek event.  I hadn’t.  And so I grabbed up my phone and sent him a text.  Almost immediately Shipley is on the phone talking about Sulpher Creek and how he was planning on going alone if nobody else called.  He was glad to hear Weasel and I were going.  We talked about Ron Brown as well, and he said he would call Ron and see if he was planning on going and if so, we would take two vehicles, if not, then the three of us would ride in one rig.

Then he told me about his latest fishing trips to Mantua and Pineview and how well he was doing on a new lure he had picked up…a little minnow shaped lure with the hook attached to a beaded chain.  Odd.  And he went on that the only places you can find them is a single store in Salt Lake and our very own Anglers Den in Roy….My mind said I would take a trip to Roy today.

Shortly after Winemaker went off to work, I finished up my chores and called Weasel.  I told him about the “new lure” and asked if he wanted to go with me to Anglers Den (go to their website by clicking on the link on the right side of this story under “blogroll”, they are currently the second one down from the top)….Well, he would tell his clients about his emergency meeting and then he would go.

We found ourselves talking with the owner, Wade Jacklin (who by the way was our guide on the cow elk hunt the day I got mine) about hunting and fishing and he was telling us about his recent trip to Pineview and how he slayed the fish left and right using the little “new lures” we had in our hands.  He even showed us a picture of a PILE of perch he caught in just under an hour and a half last weekend!  Did I need more?  What I’m asking is, did I need more influence than that to make my mind up to go fishing today?  NO!

And of course on our drive home, Weasel had to inform his clients that the emergency meeting was going to take the rest of the day!  He wanted to go try out the new lures and of course check out Pineview to see if it would be a good choice of a fishing spot for this Saturday, with the kids!

We were on the lake by 12:30!  Started in 10 feet deep water and eventually moved out to about 20 feet.  We either caught fish or had bites at every depth we tried, drilling at least 8 holes during our move out.  Weasel had the most bites as almost every time he dropped his line in he would get a hit.  My line just sat there.  I did catch two fish and missed a few others, but the most bites were on his line.  He even employed his Jaw Jacker and danged if it didn’t go off a bunch of times, but no fish hook ups.  Once, I saw the pole bounce after it triggered, but the fish spit it out pretty quickly.

As for quarters….well, even after have over a thousand bites, Weasel only caught two fish…we traded my quarter back and forth until I finally I had it back in the end.  He is going to have to train that Jaw Jacker to catch the fish or he will never get it paid for.  He still needs 140 fish, before I catch one.

OK, so now you know what’s going on.  We are going fishing this Saturday, up to Hyrum with at least Weasels kids and hopefully Windy will go with his kids as well.  I haven’t talked to him about this yet.

Then on February 1st, we will be in Evanston Wyoming at Sulpher Creek for their big fish derby.

There just has to be at least one more fishing trip between this Saturday and February 1st don’t you think?  My goodness that’s two full weeks of time!

By the way, those new little lures caught all 4 of the fish today.  I think we would have been totally skunked without them!  Some day I will tell you what they are called and what they look like, until then…Quarters Up!  Of course if you happen to find me on the lake sometime I’ll show you what they look like.  I never would have purchased one had I not had two people tell me they worked.

Bears Butt

January 15, 2014

This time of year is all about ice fishing.  The transition time between hunting and trapping!  A good time of year.

And most of you know that Weasel has gone out and spent a ton of money on an automatic hook setter in order to capitalize on my pocketbook….At a rate of $.25/fish, in order for him to recoup his investment it will take him 140 fish to pay himself back for that contraption.

When he said he had it, I told him, via Facebook, that it would not count in the quarters bet….he said it would count.  I’m a fair and honest guy and so I will let him use it, he needs all the help he can get.  I’m really surprised that he doesn’t use his “two pole” permit card on me to boot.  But we have pretty much established that when someone is using two poles that they have to designate which one is the quarter bet pole.

So, again in fairness to Weasel and any other fisherman who cares to bet quarters with me,  I will honor his costly investment and hope that he can recover his investment before I get put six feet under.  140 fish will do it, but keep in mind, every time I catch a fish it makes his goal one fish farther away.

So, I’ve just been talking about me and him fishing, he has other buddies that I’m certain he can out fish regularly.  I’ll bet he spends more time fishing with them than he does with me, at least until he recovers his investment.

BUT, not to be outdone, and liking to think I can do as well or better than him, I went in search of “Do it Yourself” automatic hook setters and sure enough…I found a good one!

http://www.livingflylegacy.com/2013/12/diy-ice-fishing-automatic-hook-setter.html#comment-form

Copy and paste that one!

Yesterday, I started looking around the garage and the yard sheds and found all but two of the items needed to put one of these bad boys together and when I got back from town, having spent $4.48 for the two parts I didn’t have, I built one of my own!

This baby is ready for action and to fine tune the trigger does not take very long.  I can almost count the number of hooked fish I’ll be catching on my next trip out!  I can hardly wait!  FISH ON!!!!  And dancing to the tune “I’m in the money”!!!!!

The guy’s idea for this DIY rig, has you tying on a looped piece of line at the end eye of your rod and placing that loop over the middle nail and while that does work very well, I found that I can put my end eye on the trigger itself and still get the job done without having a loop that just might get tangled while fighting a fish.  I have yet to see if the looped line will be a problem or not.

So, since I have four ice fishing poles, I tried them all and one of them will not work with this setup…it’s too short of a pole.  Unless of course I wanted to drill another hole or two closer to the end of the setup.  I just might drill those holes…

So, Two of the remaining three poles can be set up using this idea, while the third one has to have a loop of line on it.

Of course any time you build something like this there will be some adjustments that need to be made and some fine tuning here and there.  I’m already thinking about taking the trigger assembly apart and making the holes a bit larger so the trigger is more “hairy”.

This is fun!

Bring LOTS of extra quarters fellas!

Bears Butt

January 14, 2014

(one, fourteen, fourteen)

Today is Grandson Cody’s 8th birthday and he has invited Grandpa to go ice fishing with his dad and a few of his buddies!  It looks like he has the day pretty well planned out as we are leaving town at 10:30 and going to Hyrum to enjoy the fishing.  His mom is making each of us a tuna fish sandwich and Grandpa is bringing hot chocolate.  How much planning is needed?

I doubt it will be as enjoyable as it was New Years Eve day because of a new storm that is coming this way.  It is currently 45 degrees outside and it’s been thawing all night…we can expect some slush on the ice.  Then as the front comes in, the winds are expected to kick up to even 50 mph…I doubt we will see that strong of winds, but for sure we will see some.  I think I’ll leave the ice tent home, it won’t be that cold and the wind would want to take it away.

Sitting with Winemaker enjoying our morning cup(s) of coffee, it suddenly dawned on me that my license is expired!  I’ll make the trip to Smith and Edwards right at 9 to get my new one!  That would have made for an interesting lesson for a bunch of 7 and 8 year olds to see Grandpa get a ticket for fishing without a license!  Not a good lesson at all!

Let me explain officer……

So, how many of these kids will be prepared for slushy ice, cold feet and hands and just how long will be actually be on the ice fishing today?

Cody said when he called last week that a couple of the kids he has invited have never been fishing.  This will be a real treat for me today.  I can hardly wait, new kids to fishing…I love it!

More to come on here after we return!

Bears Butt

January 11, 2014

PM Edit:

The weather was quite nice in spite of the forecast!  There was a time today when wearing anything other than a t-shirt was too much!  But then the front came through and changed all of that really quick!  Before that happened the boys had made sure their clothing was good and wet…hats, gloves, snow pants, socks…it was all wet!  When the wind started to blow, it didn’t take but one announcement that we were going home and they were on the run for the truck!

It was a very fun day!

Everyone caught at least one fish even if it was with their hands (3 fish were caught that way).  The perch were small and the trout were all perfect for the pan, but all the fish went back into the holes!

For an eight year olds birthday fishing day, I’d have to say it was perfect!

Thanks for the invite Cody!  Happy Birthday!

Bears Butt

PM, Jan. 11, 2014