Manila Pond Madness

Over the past several years I have been afflicted by, "The Muzzle Loader Deer Hunt Course". It's a real thing, look it up. For what ever reason, each year as the deer hunt gets closer some unplanned, unanticipated event comes up preventing me from participating in the hunt. This year my work schedule prevented me from taking time off. For some unexplained reason I opted to get up and take the family to Manila Creek Pond instead of hitting the hills this Saturday morning.

Bluegill action was non stop and everyone was able to catch more little fish than they had fingers to count them. I decided to take the opportunity to teach the boy the basics of fly fishing. Within a few short minutes he picked up the back cast and started showing early signs of a new addiction. He fished non stop for almost three hours catching bluegill about every other cast.

Scattered between the Bluegill we caught several Rainbow Trout and somehow one of them ended up swallowing the hook. We tried everything shy of mouth to mouth trying to revive the poor little rainbow but despite our efforts he bellied up.

Not long after our failed release we caught the attention of a near by seagull who gave us an interesting show.

Eventually we had to pry the kids away from the pond in order to take them home for lunch. Nobody kept count of the number of fish we caught this morning but my best estimates are somewhere north of fifty.

Final Tally:

A whole lot of Bluegill

& a Beautiful Morning

2015 Wasach Back Quad Fishalon

I am not going to lie, I get pretty excited for ice fishing season every year and even more so about the Back Quad Fishalon. As the tournament approached I was very concerned for the thickness of ice on the reservoirs but I figured that if the ice was not safe they would postpone the event until open water and continue as an open water tournament.

Day one of the tournament came at East Canyon Reservoir. Getting onto the lake was a little sketchy but the ice seamed fine once we were away from the edge. Most of the action happened in the morning and the first Rainbow Trout was the largest of the day measuring just over 17". I felt excited about this fish as it would have put me in the top 3 the previous year. The day was beautiful and warm and very pleasant excluding the fact that fish were somewhat hard to come by.

Just before noon they called the event because of unsafe ice conditions. As I turned in my fish I realized that several others caught fish just as big as mine. I considered myself fortunate because most of the contestants had not caught a fish, which would put me in a favorable starting point for the the rest of the event. All in all it was a very good day on the ice.

A short time later I saw an email survey asking if contestants wanted to participate in an open water tournament and a follow up email canceling the event altogether. The news caused a sinking feeling in my stomach. To make matters worse I wasn't able to find safe ice anywhere else in order to pursue my own ice fishing endeavors. Ice fishing season was over!