Ice Auger Blades/Ice Shacks/Utah Lake, etc. 1-13-07

[N.E.T.O.]

Lots o' stuff to report here.

Went to Utah Lake this morning for a couple hours of fishing.
I caught a 4 crappie, 1 bluegill and 1 green sunfish. Fishing was good for the first couple hours right after daylight, but by 10:00 a.m. the bite was done. attached are pics of the fish. The sunfiish was big fish of the day and went about 9 inches. Got buzzed by a squadron of Apache Helicopters, so I stepped out of my ice shack and snapped this photo...

My experiement with SHARPENING MY ICE AUGER BLADES with a FILE was about a 75% success. Better than it was before sharpening, but not as good as new. I was at FishTech yesterday with my buddies, and found one of those ice auger blade sharpeners and forgot to take it with me fishing today...so I don't know how those work yet. But after I got home from fishing today, I decided that since I was going to Sportsmans anyway (long story, get to that in a minute) I would just buy some new blades. Not so, they are clean out. And no more coming in till next winter from what they say. Anyone know where to pick up some new blades for an Eskimo Barracuda 8"? In the meantime, I'm going to use the new sharpener tool that I bought on it before I go to the Berry on Monday.

The other thing that happened today, was that I busted my brand new QuickFish II Ice Hut. I got to Utah Lake at dark thirty, walked out and was setting up my ice hut, and any of you that have the QFII's know, there is that little bungee cord you have to hook to the corner in the doorway...well, I hooked it up and TWANGGGGGG...it just about took my chin off! The brass grommet came undone and the material tore and that bungee snapped back so fast that I didn't even realize what had happened till I tried to zip the zipper up which won't zip up without the bungee in place. So after I got back from fishing, I packed it back in its box, drove to Sportsmans Warehouse to return it when I remembered reading a thread yesterday that said there were some Quick Fish III's at Cabelas...so I quickly called up Cabelas to verify that they still had them...which they did...so I returned the QFII at Sportsmans, drove down to Cabelas and scored a Quick Fish III! (When I got there, there were only 2 left!..still one there if anyone is looking...). I can't BELIEVE how much bigger the QFIII is over the QFII!!

Gonna try out the QFIII at the Berry on Monday!

Randy
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[lavaman]

Nice report!! Sounds like you got there just in time to score your new Ice Hut! Hope you can score some new blades soon...

Let us know how you do at the 'Berry.
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[slayerace]

Randy,

Good to hear you had a good time. I got buzzed by those copters last week as well. One was only about 50 yards off the hard deck!
That large fish you caught is actually a bluegill. I caught over thirty that size last time I went out. Check out this link for a pic of the Utah Lake Sunfish.. [url "http://dwrcdc.nr.utah.gov/rsgis2/Search/Display.asp?FlNm=lepocyan"]http://dwrcdc.nr.utah.gov/rsgis2/Search/Display.asp?FlNm=lepocyan[/url]

Glad you had a good time.

Slayer
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[Theekillerbee]

I've debated trying to sharpen my blades on my auger, but I've heard bad reports about it from some people, so I just buy new ones every other year. I try to get them before Christmas, as they usually sell out, and then don't do much ice fishing restocking afterwords.
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[Flycasting]

Thanks for the report. Cool pic of the Apache... That is one bad a$$ machine! [cool]
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[N.E.T.O.]

Doh! I caught a couple of Crappie first, and they were easily identified, and then I caught that big one (9 inches or so) and thought it was a bluegill...caught another couple of Crappie, and then I caught the LITTLE bluegill...and then comparing the little one to the big one, I thought the big one looked more like a green sunfish in the proclamation. After reading that link however, I believe you are correct:
2 bluegill, 4 Crappie!

Anyway, thanks again for the help and info for last weekend, it really was fun!


Those Apaches were LOUD when they went over also!

Randy
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