Ice update!!

[Jeremypalms]

No ice yet... but it’s coming! What are some new area, iteams or tricks you are going to try this season?

I am trying a JawJacker and a homemade $5 version to test agents.

I also am trying a Niels ice auger with a hand drill.
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[doggonefishin]

I heard Fish Lake might be getting close to capping.



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[Jedidiah]

Watch out for that jawjacker, I haven't caught it in the face from mine yet but I've heard of those who have.

Picked up a Frabill Fan/Light combo for the tent, got a Black Betty reel from 13 Fishing to go with the rod I won at the Fish Lake tournament and got a Frabil iFloat jacket and pants for cheap from Field Supply and Amazon. Anyone check out icefishingdeals.com? Great place to find deals on nice stuff.
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[TopH2O]

It won't be too long before we see some ice. I saw some snow this morning on my way to work in Range Creek, Carbon County. This is a pass at 8530 feet elevation.

Mike
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[a_bow_nut]

Had a few inches in the Heber valley today.

Hopefully we still have a couple months before ice. Have a swan tag to fill first.
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[RonPaulFan]

I'm getting ready for ice fishing season by adding to the already amazing off road capabilities of my ice fishing vehicle with dedicated winter tires on their own set of wheels. Both the wheel size and the tire size is larger, so I will have greater ground clearance and with winter tread design and compound combined with the traction management systems of the vehicle, I'll be able to get to great ice fishing destinations. It will be my first year of winter driving challenges and opportunity to learn those driving skills.

Previous related posts on my ice fishing vehicle:

http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gfo...e;#1015276

http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gfo...e;#1018081

In that post, I asked if I should get a State or National Parks pass. The update is I got the Utah State Annual Park Pass and have been enjoying using it and testing my new off road capabilities with it proving to be so capable it just didn't care what challenge I had it overcome prompting me to name the vehicle: "Honey Badger Don't Care" after the YouTube video of that name that went viral.

http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gfo...r;#1019722

Viral video of Honey Badger (funny):

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_q...opensearch

This summer, for the first time, I've been noticing the many off road trails because I need to try them. Of particular interest is the ability to fish from a remote shore campsite with the ability to fish in over a 120 foot depth from shore with the very steep drop-offs at Flaming Gorge. Thanks to fish hntr (Thanks! I enjoyed fishing with you!), attached is a picture of a nice trail to the water.

I've also increased my ice fishing gear to include a greater variety of lures. I still need to spend some time sorting through them and putting them in cases.

The only thing I'm thinking of adding is the new Deeper Pro because it will add GPS and mapping capabilities which will go well with my MarCum LX-9. I also have a new tablet with a large high resolution screen and huge memory that will do well with maps and displays. The Deeper Pro with that and with an extra ice fishing rod will better enable me to go from hole to hole. For that, I'm already set up with my digital depth reading reels to quickly drop my lure to the exact depth of most fish I would see on my MarCum, so if I get the Deeper Pro, with my tablet, that is just as mobile and quick to deploy for adding a fish finder view quickly to each hole.

Anyone have experience with the new Deeper Pro, yet?
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[SkunkedAgain]

Hey Ron I don't have the deeper pro but I have the Sonarphone it's Vexilars version and I fished it through the ice season last year. Really handy and works well. I ended up using it more than my big finder and for the most part it's great, but fished with a friend that had the Marcum LX-7 and I think I need a new main sonar for ice fishing. That was very nice for its 1/2" target separation and much better detail. So I'm looking at a LX-6 on my wish list. Seen a lot of snow down to 6000 feet up in Idaho so maybe Henry's will freeze by Thanksgiving. Always nice to dream and I second the icefishingdeals.com recommendation except it ends up costing you a lot of money. Too many great deals that are hard to pass up. They just pass on all the top dealers best sale info, but if you see something you like, you have to jump fast or the price may change as more people buy some. Anyway dream on about the upcoming season. Later J
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[RonPaulFan]

Deeper Pro - About a couple or three months ago, Cabela's had an amazing good price on the Deeper and I was going to buy it, but I had a suspicion that such a sharp price reduction might be due to something better in a next model. I checked that out and there was the Deeper Pro. It was full price plus more. But, the extra features were impressive, so I decided to buy that one. I just haven't bought it yet.

Regarding: "Anyway dream on about the upcoming season."
At work they asked me what I thought about overtime. My answer: Getting overtime is good for fishing because I can buy more fancy equipment and not getting overtime is also good for fishing because I would have more time to fish, so either way I'm happy -- your choice ... I prioritize the job.

Marcum LX-9 -- Now that I've learned all of the adjustments, it's amazing. I can adjust it to see much more of what I want to see. If I had no feel at all, I could still catch fish just by the display.

The camera sure helped on the learning curve. I'd see blotches of color and wonder what's that? Then I have the camera look at it and see. Every now and then it still happens. Last time was fishing down the face of an underwater cliff. Before that it was a tree with fish moving in and out. I really like that it lets me hunt for the fish attracting structure.
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[PBH]

[quote doggonefishin]I heard Fish Lake might be getting close to capping.
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I drove up to Fish Lake on Friday to check things out. I too thought that maybe the ice was starting to form.


turns out, the only ice was that forming on my face, as the waves broke against the bow of the boat and the spray soaked me.

Yep. Freezing.

but, hey, the kokanee are cool!
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[gmanhunter]

I picked up a new Marcum LX5I flasher to use this year. I have a Marcum lx3, and love it. If you want a killer deal on the lx5i model, Ebay has them for $350. That's $150 off regular price at some of the sporting goods stores. Hope the ice comes fast. I'm excited to try the new toy out.
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[Jedidiah]

The Pro+ is only really an operational range upgrade over the Pro, not useful for icefishing unless you want to walk over to the lodge an get drunk while monitoring your sonar with your phone.

I've been using the original Deeper for coming on 4 years and I have some unsolicited advice for you. First, put a big swivel on it and put some string or paracord on there and tie or loop it to something when it's in the hole. Had a fun time with a big tiger at Huntington that I got to the hole, then the fish flopped back in and bumped my deeper under the ice. They float so I could reach under and get it but it seems like an expensive thing to chance losing under the ice. The battery life on the deeper is only 6 hours so I bring a 10,000mAh or more battery along to charge it and the phone with.

Also, bring a thermos full of hot water so you can shoot through the ice (a trick I got from TubeDude). If there are frozen over iceholes or the ice doesn't have snow on top you can splash just a little hot water onto the clear exposed ice and then put the Deeper in the puddle and it will work through the ice. Great way to find fish fast.
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[SkunkedAgain]

I'm sure this form of ff will really improve over time, it's such a user friendly form, that I expect they will put some serious R&D into it.... It's basically pretty cheap for them to sell since you make the screen investment so all they have to do is programming and transducer mods... So it really doesn't cost them too much to make a really nice fish finder... Be fun to watch the improvements.... Hate to admit it, but I bought a second sonar phone last summer because I got the one model that does the mapping at first and it requires a battery and is a boat mounted type version. I wanted something a little more mobile and lighter for back packing, so I got the one that is just a bobber type model now since the fish finder is the same and that's all I want for back packing trips... Anyway haven't had a chance to use it much yet so I need to try it soon and see if it was a good idea or not... Later J
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[doggonefishin]

[quote PBH][quote doggonefishin]I heard Fish Lake might be getting close to capping.
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I drove up to Fish Lake on Friday to check things out. I too thought that maybe the ice was starting to form.


turns out, the only ice was that forming on my face, as the waves broke against the bow of the boat and the spray soaked me.

Yep. Freezing.

but, hey, the kokanee are cool![/quote]


Speaking of Fish lake, did it get a full splake quota this year? As I recall, they usually go in around now.
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[SBennett]

This is my new ice fishing machine. I put it together late spring this year and missed ice but did get it out in the mountains.
It is a four season set of tracks, my wife and I have had a blast cruising it around the mountains.
I also built a Smitty sled that has removable skis and bolts on quickly to the rear rack of my atv to make it easy to transport my Fish Hut on the rear rack. If my wife goes we take an Otter Lodge behind the atv with an aluminum hitch I built to connect the two. The entire package fits in a small enclosed trailer that doubles as a warming/cooking area to get out of the weather. The enclosed trailer is small enough to not be a nuisance when parking gets tight.
Can't wait......
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[SkunkedAgain]

Shane that's so nice, I'm like way jealous... You do such a neat job putting all those toys together... Good on ya... Later J
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[SBennett]

Thank you for the kind comments.
Will you be attending the Fish Lake perch derby in '18?
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[SkunkedAgain]

I hadn't planned on it at this point it's a little far away for me. But who knows when it gets closer I may change my plans. Later J
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[fsh4fun05]

I saw that deal on the Frabil ice gear also on Field Supply. That is a screamin deal!I just about pulled the trigger but I already have a setup.
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[RonPaulFan]

Wow! Nice get anywhere machine, Shane!

I wonder if my choice in an ice fishing vehicle can go on some of the more challenging trails that yours has the traction to accomplish? Perhaps we can find out. The slope in your photograph looks steep and especially with the snow.

I'll be testing it on trails this winter combined with my ice fishing.

One major drawback of mine compared to yours it's excessive weight, so I won't be driving on Utah's frozen lakes. But, I'm thinking about the out of state ice fishing tournaments that attracts the sponsored fishermen and I like my new freedom to make such commitments in advance of knowing the weather because now I can drive in the harsher of winter conditions and know I can get there.

I grew up in Louisiana and have a childhood memory of very rare snowfall there. The streets were lined with people with their palms up and stuck out in hopes of catching a snowflake. Though I've been in Utah a couple decades, I'm wondering if going wide on winter tires will have advantage of going more narrow. Off road adventures will be new for me. I'm just getting started.

Your tracks are the ultimate in having a larger footprint with weight distributed over a larger area.

My guess is that narrow is better on good well traveled and maintained roads in the city because the vehicle weight on less square inches results in a greater pressure that squeezes out the slush between the rubber and the road for more traction, but wider is perhaps better for off road because so much snow accumulates that narrow won't press through, it's too deep anyway and wide puts more snow grabbing tread on top of the snow without sinking in as much which is particularly important for accumulations where sinking in too far is an issue. Which is best for me in winter tires -- wide or less wide?

I'm guessing as wide as I can go, but I'm open for advice. With this set of wheels, I'm prioritizing off road winter capabilities. I don't need to compromise on width, tread design nor rubber compound, because I will have another set of wheels for summer tires. I know wider will be more expensive, but I won't let that be a factor.

The reason I ask is I'm about to buy my winter tires and wheels soon, so I have a choice. I can also push the width of the tire choice for the rim and I'm thinking of doing that. I'm looking at getting 10 inch wide wheels and putting on tires that have 11 inches of tread width. I'm guessing I should go as wide and as large of diameter wheels as practical to optimize winter off road driving capabilities and to get the best winter tires to still have some advantage on roads. I know there are tradeoffs either way.

Also, thanks Skunked Again and Jedidiah for information on the Deeper. It looks like getting it will give me mapping and GPS combined which is one feature I miss with just the MarCum alone. I'll probably get one unless there is a better choice.
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[dubob]

[font "Comic Sans MS"][#800000][size 3]You might want to check out the[/size][/#800000][/font] [url "https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=126"]Tire Rack[/url] [font "Comic Sans MS"][#800000][size 3]website article on winter tire selection before you plunk down any cash. Here's a hint: narrow is better in snow.[/size][/#800000][/font] []
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