I ended up sneaking over to Porcupine this morning. Road is good. Ice is thick. Fishing was slow. Rod #2 is gone. Got a big hit about 15 feet deep. Missed the hook set. Waited. Waited. Nothing. Set the rod on the snow. Turned my back for approximately 5 seconds. Splash! Whipped back around and my ice rod was gone! Any tears shed were over the fish, not the rod. Good excuse to get a new one. Other than that excitement things were slow. Managed to land one rainbow (on the smoker right now). Fishing looked pretty slow for everybody, but it was definitely good to get out. Beautiful weather. I mostly fished small orange colored ice jigs tipped with meal worms and minnow tails. Did not target Kokanee, but I should have. Spent most of my time about 3 reels off the bottom.
I haven’t been on the forum much since hunting started in the fall, but I will be spending some quality fishing time now. Some guys who had been fishing Hyrum showed up and said it was slow there too.
Welcome back Kirk, I was wondering what happened to you. For most of us the catching has been slow at the pig this winter. We were up there about a month ago and only caught three small kokes. Also had a bigger fish on that was likely a brown but could have been a bow it got off before we saw any color. Thanks for posting your report, too bad you lost your rod.
They are so good to eat. The fact that they are small makes them taste even better. Too much of a good thing, you know. Until maybe three years ago I only fly fished, did not even own a spinning or casting rod. One day I decided to take my tiny little duck boat to the pig, just to try something different. By chance I hooked onto a Koke, was not even sure what it was. It then became my life mission to catch Kokanee. They are like a drug. Better tasting than any other salmon (in my opinion). With the help of a neighbor I learned how to troll for them, and my fly rod has been collecting dust since. Learning to catch Wipers last year may have been the final nail in the fly rods coffin [;)]. Anyway, I was itching to try out a new trick someone showed me yesterday and I went back out for a couple hours (pic attached).
That is true about the river. I guess I exaggerated, I do sneak the fly rod out on occasion. Hopefully we get some good boils this year at Willard. I loaded up a fly reel with some special stuff last year in hopes of catching a Wiper on the fly. I have also considered trolling my fly line, just to get a chance to fight one on the fly rod. I just didn’t know what to put on for a lure. A rattle-trap on the fly line doesn’t seem right .
.