Yesterday, we took the grandkids for one last ice fishing trip for this season.  Again, it was an attempt to catch a tagged fish up at Rockport Res.  The weather was wonderful, partly cloudy and even had some sun come out late in the afternoon.  It was a beautiful day to be out in nature.

The fishing was great too, it was the bites and catching that sort of sucked.  Weasel was the only one who caught a fish.  He had two bites, Conner had a couple of bites, Cody had a bite and my Lazy Lipper launched twice during the day, but no hook ups.

Still a great day for us and the kids to be out.

Now it is time to get ready for trapping!  Tomorrow you will find me on my toy, putting around the swamps and laying out some steel!  Only about 6 weeks left of the trapping season.  Bob has about 100 rats already caught and his head start is what he likes.  If all goes well, I should have 100 caught by this time next week.

Rat prices are up like they have been the last couple of years and we should do alright when we sell.

Later!

Bears Butt

Feb. 2012

I have an idea that I think will work.  First off I like to ice fish…don’t you?  And ice fishing requires walking, riding or some other way, getting onto the ice, drilling a hole and dropping your bait down into the water.

Walking on the ice can sometimes be a tricky thing.  Especially when the ice is free of snow.  And really slippery when there is a tad bit of melted water on top, or water from a rain storm.  KABANG!  I’m usually down several times trying to get to and fro on the ice.

So, introduce ice spikes, ice grippers etc.  I’ve seen some folks with boards strapped to their boots and grabber screws poking out the bottom of the boards.  They looked awkward, but they did not slip on the ice.

My idea is similar to the board idea, only somewhat less Redneckie.

All us fishermen fish year round, don’t we?  Al least we like to fish every chance we get and when there isn’t anything more important going on in our lives.  So we all have a pair of hip waders, or chest waders around that we use in order to not get wet when we are fishing.

Those rubber boots always seem to get holes in them at a time we least want any issues with them having holes in them.  And so if we can fix the hole we do, but sometimes the holes are more like tears and we just toss the boots away and head for the store and get another pair.  STOP!!!!!  Don’t just throw them boots away!  The soles are still good usually!

Do you see where this is going?

So, we are going to cut the soles off the old boots and we will leave some of the upper rubber still attached to the sole when we do cut them off.  These soles should fit over the outside of our snowboots, snow pack boots or military surplus ultra cold boots.  It they don’t, give your cut off soles to someone with smaller feet and go seeking someone elses big footed cut off soles.

Once you have a set of soles that will fit over your snowpacks, you will want to make small holes in a few places around the top edge of the “extra rubber” that was left on the sole when it was cut off.  In these holes you will be attaching small bundgie cords to help hold the soles to your boots.  Make the holes, so that the cords will hold these souls solidly to your boots.  You decide where to poke the holes.

You could use old boot laces for this job instead of bungies if you wanted.

Now, get yourself some 1 1/2 inch grabber screws and screw them down and out the bottom of the soles.  Usually a good pattern is two across the extreme end of the toe, two more about half way from the toe to the instep, two on the outer edges of the widest part of the sole and three in a triangle pattern on the heel.

As time goes on, the points of the grabber screws will wear off, but the dulled points still work just fine for several trips on the ice.  Probably years before needing to be replaced.

There you have it!  Your own home made ice grippers and they didn’t cost you very much did they?

Bears Butt

Feb. 2012

Today is Feb. 1, 2012….the first day to apply for your big game tags in Utah.  You have until March 1 to get it done.

I’m going for San Juan, LE elk, late hunt and muzzy deer for unit 2.

What are your choices?

Someone suggested a group of us pool our money and apply for a mo0se tag.  If  several of us apply and one draws, we all pay an equal amount of the cost of the tag and after the harvest, we each split up the meat equally.  Of course the tag holder gets the hide and horns.

Not a bad idea considering the “cost of money” these days.

Bears Butt

Feb. 1, 2012

PICK THE UNIT YOU LIKE!

For you who are desirous to go hunting this fall, remember that on Feb. 1 you can put in for the hunt of your choice.  Also, remember that you are not guaranteed a tag.

I have included a link to the DWR website that shows you approximately how many hunters there were in each of the 30 units last year.  Of course the units last year were 5, but the DWR have taken the time to break the 5 into the 30 we will have to choose from this year.

Most of those reading this site were hunting in the new Unit 2.  This chart shows their best guess is a 16.1 to 100 buck to doe ratio.  Did you see 16 bucks last year?  I saw 4 and hunted 7 days of the 9 available days to hunt.  I guess I didn’t look under the right trees.

http://wildlife.utah.gov/hunting/pdf/hunters_afield_2011.pdf

This chart has some interesting information.  One of which is that they guess 13% of the general deer season tag holders didn’t even go hunting.  I question this number, as it seems extremely high.

Anyway, FYI folks!

Bears Butt

Jan. 2012

Todays adventure is taking me to Mantua Res. for some ice fishing with a small group of boy scouts.  It should be an interesting day and I hope some of them catch a fish or two.  The reports are saying “slow fishing”, but then when you are a old as I am, slow is a relative term.  Hopefully there will be more to this report later in the day!

Bears Butt

Jan. 2012

Got back from the lake at about 3 p.m.  There were only 2 scouts that showed up and so the 5 of us went to the lake.  We had a sum total of 10 bites all day and no fish hookups.

I suggest to anyone reading this and thinking about going ice  fishing…do not go to Mantua…no body was catching anything.

We still had a great time though!

The DWR has available “on line” the 2012 big game guidebook for you to study.  Lots of changes to the deer hunt this year.  One very positive change it that youth (under 18) can apply for tags as groups of up to four.  As long as turn 14 or 18 on or before Aug. 21st.  This give kids a chance to draw limited entry tags as well as general tags and hunt as groups.  Remember too, that parents or other adult have to accompany youth that are under 16.

On a slightly negative side is the fact that the state deer hunt is being broken up into 30 separate units.  So when we apply we need to make sure we are all on the same page as to which unit we are applying.

On a VERY NEGATIVE note is the fact that we will NOT know how many tags are being offered for any of the units state wide.  We will be applying “blind”.  Another note is that the tags that are being offered are given to the Dedicated hunters first and foremost and then a percentage (15% I think) of the remaining tags will be dedicated to youth who have applied for that area.  Once those two things have been fulfilled, the rest of us will be in the drawing for the remaining tags.

Keep another thing in mind as well.  A couple of years ago they implemented a rule that says if you don’t apply for a limited entry/once in a lifetime/ or buy a point at least ONCE in a THREE YEAR period, you will LOSE any points you may have had accrued!  That is a big deal if you plan on hunting in some limited entry dream hunt in your lifetime.

Study the maps and make up your minds before the February 1st date.  You have until March 1st to apply.  It’s like we have said, “No Lead, No Dead” and this is no different…”No Apply, No Cry”…..

There will be follow up postings on this subject as we get closer to the application periods.

CRAWFORDS for some in 2012!!!!!!!!

Bears Butt

Jan. 2012

Beings as I am getting up in my years, I might want to start thinking about how I am going to get out onto the ice to do my ice fishing.  Walking long distances is getting quite difficult even at my young age.  Most of the time the ice is too thin for taking an atv out and so I started looking into another option.  Maybe this one would do the trick:

Bears Butt

Jan. 2012

It’s going to be another wonderful day on the hard deck.  Fishing with Edjukateer and the Weasel.  Going to meet “the other guy” on the deck as well.  And of course it is going to be a day at Rockport trying to land one of the coveted tagged finned bad boys.  A report will follow later today.

Report: (the following day)

I could not report the days events last night..We had a date night…

Fishing was fun, as usual, I only caught 2 and lost about 14 quarters to the Weasel, Edjukateer and “the other guy”.  My bait just was not what they wanted, even though it was the same bait, out of the same jar as the others were using…go figure!  It was a great day none the less.

A beautiful sunrise:

Nice Solid ice cap.  You can tell that by the way the shoreline looks.  The expanding ice pushes everything else up and away from the center of the lake.

It was a beautiful sunny, cloudless sky, warm temps for the time of year and good company.  Who could ask for more?

Also, we got to try out the latest of inventions (copied but never duplicated, or course)…I call it the Butts  “lazy lipper” and it has a long way to go!  I’m hoping others who know about it will modify it and make it a lipper that works every time!

Here is a short video on how this contraption works.  The spokesperson works for an unknown company out of state, so don’t think he is someone you might know.

ExplainingTheLazyLipper

And of course, “the contest”,  well it’s not exactly a “contest”, they call it a “challenge”….catch a tagged trout and win a prize associated with the number on the tag and you could win one of these lovely prizes!  Good luck to all.

All of them are great prizes!  Thank to all the sponsors!

Until next time!  Enjoy!  Get outside and enjoy this sunny winter of ours.

Bears Butt

Jan. 2012

There will be another ice fishing trip to Rockport this Friday!  Gonna be a fun time!  I’d like to see one of those tagged fish come up through my ice hole!

Mitch and I went fishing yesterday, once again up to Rockport.  The ice was 10 inches thick and clear…very solid ice.  The fishing was a bit offish to say the least.  The bites we had were extremely light but we did have a few.  It wasn’t until 20 minutes until we were going to leave that I finally caught one.  Shortly after that Mitch had a good bite but missed the fish.  When he reeled in his line was broken.  The fish got away with his lure.

Gathering up another pole that had a lure already on it, he joked about catching that fish and getting his lure back.  He lowered his line to the bottom and took two cranks up and set the pole on his bucket….WHAM!  Fish on!  Soon he had a nice 18 inch fat rainbow trout flopping on the ice.  A very nice way to end the day.

Then he said, “There is a line coming out of the fishes mouth”.  I looked and sure enough there was.  He pulled slightly on the line and out popped his lure from the broken line!

Can you believe that?!?

So, I gave up 2 quarters for that fish and we packed it up and came home.  That is two trips in a row that strange things have happened and both at Rockport.

Bears Butt

Jan. 2012