Froze at Joe's

[LOAH]

This week, I was lucky enough to get the wife pass for Sunday, even though I had just fished on Thursday, the 1st. I saw reports that Joe's Valley was frozen over and some people were doing quite well, so I tried to find out the specifics from the forums. A member on the Big Fish Tackle board, "Ktrout" (we'll call him Kory), saw that I was interested and sent me a message.

We arranged to meet at the park and ride lot near the freeway on Center St in Orem at 4:00 to get there early and all went as planned. Unsure of the road conditions at the top of Fairview/Huntington canyons, we chose to go the long way into Price and south to the HWY 29 turnoff in Castle Dale.

It was really, really cold, but the road conditions in Spanish Fork Canyon were just fine other than one patch of rough ice near the mouth. It wasn't too bad and Kory's little truck buzzed right through without a problem. HWY 29 through Straight Canyon had some snow pack that required a bit of caution on the curves, but we made it up to Joe's without plummeting to our icy demise down the steep gorge below.

We arrived and it was still pitch black outside, minus the infinite stars visible from this mountain valley. Kory had never been to Joe's and I'd never ice fished it, so we weren't too sure where to park.

Personally, I like fishing the steep, rocky side somewhat near the dam. Descending the rocks with ice fishing gear (sled, augers, poles, tent, etc) didn’t seem like a very feasible idea, nor did climbing out to leave, so we looked for a good spot to park on the west side.

Ultimately, we chose the parking lot at the marina where Seely Creek flows in. The ice was sure to be safe since several reports had come in from that area recently.

Getting out of the truck, we realized quickly just hold cold it was when our nostrils froze up and our breath turned into ice on our whiskers. Good stuff. The weather reports I had read the night before stated that the high for the day would be 16* and the low would be 10 below, so we came prepared with plenty of layers. I later found out that the temperatures were significantly less than 10 below. Scofield Dam had recorded temps as low as -26 and I’m thinking Joe’s wasn’t much higher. I have fished in sub zero temps before with less clothing and was much more comfortable than this trip.

Putting on my waders (I always wear them on the ice) proved to be a major, finger and foot numbing ordeal as they had frozen stiff in the covered truck bed during the ride in. I literally had to pry open the legs and boots to get in and that took a bit of time and coaxing. Oh well, better to have them over my layers in case of accidental wetness. That decision would prove to be extremely worthwhile later on…

Getting out on the ice, we drilled several test holes. It was still dark, so I stuck the tip of my boot in the holes to get an idea of the thickness. I couldn’t hook the underside with my sole, so the ice had to be at least 5 inches thick. Good enough, we advanced.

In the very dim light of an approaching dawn, we saw what looked like holes dotting the surface every hundred yards or so and they appeared to have open water giving off rippling reflections.

As soon as we realized that it was, in fact, open water, we gingerly drilled a few more test holes. The ice was still good and thick, so we stayed the course until we reached water that seemed about 8-10 feet deep.

Luckily, Kory had brought a good little ice tent that popped open quickly. It wasn’t long before we were inside, shivering while skimming the quickly freezing holes, waiting for bites, and the little heater to do its job.

My yellow shrimpo jig tipped with a meal worm got the first hit after about a 15 minute wait and I was glad to pull up a decent cutthroat of about 14 inches. Unsure of how productive today’s fishing might be, it stayed on the ice. Within minutes, I could pick it up like this by its tail:



Kory had a hit ,shortly after my first bite, on the rod he’d left outside the tent. He pulled up an average sized JVR splake, but with much deeper colors than I’m used to seeing there.



I’ll have to see what they look like in November.

The little heater in the tent really started taking effect which created a very strange, foggy atmosphere as cold air blew in from the flap. I couldn’t resist blowing some “smoke rings” with my breath.

The bites weren’t coming in very quickly, so when the sun had finally shone its glorious rays upon the ice, we ventured out to drill more holes and find the fish.

We usually didn’t have to move very far, but each hole seemed to only produce one fish right away and then we’d need to move to get more hits.



Not far from the tent, I hooked up with a pretty beefy splake at 16 inches, my personal best (for now) from Joe’s.

A large group of people showed up dragging a caravan of large metal carts with skids on the bottom, packed with gear. They set up just off the shore. Hopefully, they fared well.



Kory had found his stroke by now and was picking up several for every fish I brought to hand. He kept having success closer to the tent.



I set off in hopes of finding larger fish in deeper water and drilled a couple of holes a ways out from camp. The ice was still nice and thick. I started walking back to grab my rods when, only a few feet from my holes, my right leg punched through a thin spot and I went in up to my thigh. No cracking, no warning, just a quick stumble and I was out of there, grateful I had worn my waders.

I studied the new hole and learned what to look for to avoid a future occurrence. Pay attention to this next photo if you plan on going out on the ice here (or anywhere, really): Notice the bulge of ice that forms a little bit higher than its surrounding ice. This is a submerged spring that wasn’t big enough to create an actual hole in the ice, like the other springs that were visible. Air bubbles up through the water from these springs and forms a pocket under the ice. This would cause it to rise in these weakened areas.



Also notice how close the holes from the 6 inch auger were. They were 6 to 7 inches deep, surrounded by solid ice.

Now a bit wiser of my surroundings, I continued my hunt for the fish. A few more took my offerings and I was pleased with the safer entertainment. I’ve grown accustomed to seeing dull colors on the trout in JVR and was glad that more vivid coloration was present, this time around. As always, splake look great from the top with the ever present vermiculation that they display:





Most of the fish were coming from any rig with a minnow of some sort. My redsides worked better than the chubs I had and strangely held up better too. I must have gotten a bad pack of chubs. Meal worms worked from time to time as well as pieces of night crawler, but the action was mostly coming from anything with a minnow.

With the rest of my minnows looking like nothing more than paste in a bag, I let my last good one soak on a white tube jig and tied a chrome/orange kastmaster onto my other line for some active jigging.

With long controlled upstrokes and matching the falling speed of the lure, I noticed action right away. This was a hole I had been fishing with a meal worm for the last 20 minutes. I was glad to find something to turn them on.



After I released that one, I somehow got the line rubbed up against the auger and the lure went down the hole forever. Jigging another kastmaster of equal size didn’t provoke any hits, nor did a Jake’s lure. My active jigging was over.

Meanwhile, Kory found a tiger trout:



We decided to call it a day and get everything ready to go, but Kory proceeded to nail a few more fish while packing up. He was on the fish up to the last moment.

We were glad to get back to the truck and peel off a few of the layers we wore, especially all the head gear. I was wearing a ski mask under a bomber hat with a warm hood draped over that. It was nice to breathe easily and let the ice melt from my whiskers.

Joe’s Valley is a gorgeous place to be and I’m glad I got to fish it for my first time on the ice. Luckily, we had blue skies and no wind until the afternoon.











As fun as it was to fish on the ice, I longed for the seemingly endless summer days where I can hit all the little lakes in those hills.

We’ll see you later, Joe.



On the way up Straight Canyon, I told Kory he was really missing out on the view. The ride back proved me right.









The trip back through Spanish Fork Canyon, however, proved to be a real mess. Apparently, a lady with a van full of children lost control on the only icy patch of road in the canyon and got t-boned by a truck, shutting down the entire commute for a very long time.

When we were approaching the long line of taillights, we stopped to ask a Sheriff’s deputy what was going on. He cut us off abruptly and barked, “30 minutes” and we were off.

Well, about 15 minutes later, I began to think “30 minutes” was out of the question and snapped a pic for evidence. Evidence because I would surely have a case to prove to my wife if I ever got home. Hey look, there was still quite a bit of light left.



The waiting continued, only moving to fill in the gaps of cars that had turned around to go (I’m assuming) through Mt. Pleasant and Fountain Green to Nephi.

Eventually, there was a line behind us that stretched for miles and an unknown distance in front of us.



Despite the terrible inconvenience, it was good to get moving again after nearly 2 and a half hours on the same stretch of HWY 6. Once I had learned about the grim nature of the accident, I felt bad about my complaints while in line, earlier. Obviously, I hope everyone involved recovers well.

Kory dropped me off at my car and we bid each other thanks and farewell. I was home just minutes later, worn out from waking at 2:00am and the adventures of a great day. It was great to see my family, whom I’d missed dearly while sitting in the traffic jam.

Happy Fishing, Humans.

(And for crying out loud, drive carefully!)
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[Im4Trout]

Great report.

I always enjoy reading your reports. they are so full of information and All the photos really do it justice.

Thank You
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[mactuna]

Great report and pictues
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[Theekillerbee]

As always, a most excellent report! Thanks again for sharing.
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[lavaman]

Awesome pics! Glad you didn't fall all the way in!
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[LOAH]

Me too!

Thanks to Ktrout for the company and the offer to drive.
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[Ktrout]

The fishing was fairly good and the company was ok[:p] , but man that ride home was hard to take. Still glad we went though. It's always fun fishing a new water. Makes it a lot easier to know what to expect on the second trip.

That sure is some beautiful country. Now we need to get to Fish Lake.

Glad the wifey wasn't too rattled by how late we were.

Kory
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[ParrMark]

Fantastic write-up and pics!
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[StillHuntin]

Thanks for another OUTSTANDING report. I always enjoy the writing and your photo skills. Thanks again!
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