My son-in-law and I arrived at the East Canyon State Park boat ramp about 8:30 AM. There were at least 2 dozen or more folks scattered around the lake when we got there. The temperature indicated on the bank prompter was -7 when we drove through Morgan. Damn, that’s cold.
We went out on the ice to just beyond the buoys and drilled our first holes in about 45 feet, quickly set up the QuickFish 3, and turned the heater on (high). Did I mention it was cold? The ice was about 8 inches with 90 % of it being clear.
The first bite came about 30 minutes later. It was a smallish rainbow at about 15 feet. We caught 5 in the first 2 hours and decided to move back in towards the ramp and try a little shallower water. We drilled some more holes over 35 feet and tried there for about 90 minutes but saw zero fish on the flasher. So we moved back out to the original holes and caught 4 more trout in the next couple of hours.
I took a walk around to check on what others were doing and nobody within 150 yards of us were doing very well either. It was just a slow day. We ended up with a total count of 9 with the largest around 15 inches. They were all bows and all were caught between 10 and 20 feet down.
Snowmobiles and ATVs were being used by many to get around. There were 4 sets of snowmobile tracks running all the way down to the south end of the lake right down the middle all the way. I can’t imagine that Echo and Rockport don’t have safe ice as well.
That’s my report. I hope your outing was even better.
Thanks for the report Bob, sounds like the catching has really slowed down from a week ago when Ira and I fished it and caught 30, including two tigers. I think one thing that was in our favor was the lack of people on the ice that day. It still sounds like you did better than a lot of folks have this past week. What kind of bait were you using?
What kind of bait were you using?Bacon and eggs. We used several different jigs and flies tipped with a red salmon egg and either a wax worm or a meal worm. We even tried half a crawler with and without an egg but that didn’t work at all.
Hey dubob !!!
Good report,
Most everyone is saying it is slow???
The one thing I can tell you is watch the moon phase
I am a true believer in it, full moon phase
go fishing to have fun,
But if there isn’t a moon or just a small part of the moon
go fishing to catch fish!!!
I have found that if I watch the moon phase and use it
to my advantage I stick a lot more fish [;)]
Same goes for sunny days and cloudy days
if it’s sunny fish a little deeper if it is cloudy fish a little shallower [;)]
Hope this helps when you are planing your next fishing trip.
Hey James, both the road out of Morgan and the one from Henefer are wide open. We went up 26 Dec and caught plenty’ o ’ fish. We fished in 17’ feet of water using assorted small white or glow colored jigs with waxies and banana smelly jelly. And as I reported in an earlier post…if you’re a Raider fan you’re guaranteed more fish.
Go Raiders !!! Maybe next year.
Thanks
I had been avoiding it because the news had said the road was going to be closed. Dang it!
There are 2 roads that go to East Canyon – Utah Highway #65 & #66. Highway #65 goes from Henefer to I-80 near Mountain Dell Reservoir. Highway #66 goes from Morgan to Highway #65 at East Canyon. The portion of Highway #65 that goes from I-80 to East Canyon Resort on the south end of East Canyon Reservoir is always closed in the winter. The rest of #65 and all of #66 are open year round.
