Even though a vast majority of the reports I’ve read on Hyrum weren’t favorable decided what-the-heck made the drive to Hyrum. Gotta at least try is what we said…
On arrival stopped and chatted with the Rangers…they stated ice was anywhere from 9-13” but towards the inlet at the south east end it was only 6”…since we’re on foot the south east end wasn’t in the equation.
Temp on arrival was a 9* departure was 27*
Ice conditions overall were good…crusty top snow layer made walking/pulling sleds relatively easy out onto the ice…as the day progressed you’d bust through the crust layer a few inches…no slush at all…no signs of shorelines being soft either.
Walked out from the ramp past the buoys…approx 250-300 yards…drilled the first surveillance hole and we were in roughly 47’ of water with flashes showing up on the bottom…yep them little bait stealing devils were down there.
Throughout the day saw several snowmobiles and one 4-wheeler were on the ice. Overall not many folks on the ice…folks we could see in the distance were on the NE side and down by the old cars and along that shore line. They appeared to be fish’n closer to shore. Had a couple of guy setup about 50 yards from us and didn’t see them catch anything. Only saw a couple of guys up by the dam.
Lures used were ‘everything and anything we had’…tipped lures with waxie, meal worm, crawler, perch eye/meat, piece of chicken meat, carrots and peas from lunch soup…hint-ta-hint-ta on the overall Hyrum bite…
Drilled holes anywhere from 47’ to 15’all fish were right on the bottom. Every hole except one showed fish again right on the bottom or just off the bottom.
We’d drop our lures down to the bottom raise above the flashes 6” to a foot…the little devils would follow the lure…sniff it hang around the lure then drop back to the bottom…when they did bite it was very, very soft and one hit and that was it…without the spring bobber you missed the hit and the fish…no continual ratty-tat-tat at the offerings…one hit and again that was it.
Never saw anything cruising through in any other part of the water column which we found very odd…usually you’ll pick up something in the upper column but it was totally empty of fish…only fish showing up were on the bottom as indicated above.
We aggressively jigged, lightly jigged, dead sticked it…however the only technique that appeared to catch a couple fish was dropping the lure down to the bottom and slowly reel’n it up…when we did get a fish it was on that technique…so IMHO no one technique/lure/bait combination produced the magic combination of a steady bite.
Anyway we didn’t get skunked and that’s the object of fish’n, right…fish’n partner managed 4 nice size Perch whereas I managed 1…so ended up with 5 Hyrum Perch for dinner tonight but I’ll have to toss in some Shrimp to make it a complete and filling dinner for us.
Overall it was a beautiful day…sunny, no wind and great just to be outdoors and not sit’n at home.
Not much in the pic department besides these.
Sure hope you all had a great weekend and if you hit the hard deck hope you caught some fishies and/or at least ‘had fun’ just being outside…