Huntington 1-1-09

[LOAH]

I missed fishing last Sunday and really needed to get out. Since I had the holiday off, I decided to go and drill some holes.

My initial idea was to head out to Electric and then right before I left, I changed my mind to Palisade. Then, when I was approaching the HWY 6 exit in Spanish Fork, I changed my mind again and drove into the canyon.

Scofield or Electric, Scofield or Electric. It took me until the HWY 89 turnoff to decide and I went with my initial choice, Electric.

Despite the weather reports calling for snow, the sky over the mountains was only partly cloudy and didn't look too threatening. The wind, however, was really blowing up on top of Fairview Canyon.

The snow is several feet deep up there, so all the winter activities are in full swing and random groups of vehicles and trailers dot the side of the road. Whenever there is a clearing, the winds are blowing drifts onto the road, so be careful if any of you decide to go up.

Huntington had a few people on it as I drove past and Cleveland had machines racing across it. Looked like fun.

Someone mentioned to me that the parking space at the dam of Electric was packed in with snow, but I had to see it for myself.

Confirmed. There was about 4 feet of snow piled up. Perfect.

There was some parking a couple hundred yards up the road, but it was in a windy area that snow was starting to build up in and I opted to go and fish somewhere with better parking instead. Once turned around, I toyed with the idea of trying Cleveland, but didn't want to chug through the deep snow to get down to the ice.

The lot at Huntington has ample room for parking probably 10 vehicles or more. The snow going in is deep though. The wind seems to blow drifts up against the dam, so there's bound to be a deep pocket where it meets the ice.



I went down the ramp and only went up to my knee in a couple of places. Once onto the ice, there really wasn't much snow on top. Why? The relentless, evil wind.

Only having a 6 inch manual auger (loaner), my holes were filling up with wind-blown snow faster than I could skim them. No bueno. I stood my ground and tried a few things for about an hour before I saw someone leaving with their 10 inch auger.

We spoke for a moment and apparently all the fish were right under the hole he'd just left. He said he caught 30 fish there (22 feet deep...right off the bottom) on white paddlebugs (with black flecks) tipped with meal worms. Unfortunately, he only left one hole, but I was still glad to use it. Drilling another 6 inch hole seemed pointless, but I did anyway (ice is about a foot thick) and dropped a nightcrawler into it with a split shot about 2 feet up the line...Something I didn't have to watch to carefully, I figured.

In the big hole, I dropped what I already had rigged (glow pink shrimpo/meal worm) into it and was glad to get it down to the bottom without having to scoop out 2 inches of new slush from the hole.

As soon as I cranked a couple of inches of line, I saw the rod tip flex downward ever so slightly through the shaking from the wind. Pulling up, I had my first fish and thought I'd be in for some good fishing.



After the blurry photo, it was back in the water and I rigged up for the next, which would surely be right away, right?

Hmmm. Well I'm sure I probably had tons of bites, but the pesky wind made it really hard to tell what was going on. After a couple of missed opportunities that were obvious and about an hour, I finally got one while holding the line to feel the light bite. This one I kept, not knowing if I could detect another strike. It was about an inch longer than the previous. Around 15, I'd say. Run of the mill for Huntington, but they taste great out of there.

The rest of my time there was spent scooping out snow glop from my holes almost constantly without seeing many noticeable strikes. When I would see one, I either couldn't set the hook or the fish got off just under the hole. Bummer.

That wind was brutal and it made an otherwise gorgeous day quite tedious to endure. I was actually glad to leave when I finally threw in the towel.

Note to self: Next time you think about fishing a higher elevation lake through the ice, bring a buddy with a shelter and a big auger.

Got it.

So big surprise there: Huntington is cold and windy. Go fig.

While driving back home, I noticed some kite boarders at the summit, having a blast. They chose the right place!







I'm still glad I was able to land a couple of fish. I just wish the wind could've let up for an hour. After all was said and done though, I couldn't shake the feeling that I should've gone to Palisade.

Oh well, that's fishing. At least I caught a couple.

Happy Fishing, Humans.