Strawberry Reservoir

(Brian) “That’s a nice fish right there, probably about 20 inches or so. (Adam) Nice fish, good job kid. Welcome to KSL Outdoors, I’m Adam Eakle. Hey we’ve got a great show for you tonight, first we are going to talk about some of the places to take your family out ice fishing this year, plus a story about sportsmen stepping up to help a young man fulfill a dream and bag a big bull. Get him back in the water, but first we kick if off right here at Strawberry. Good job.

(Jason Klomp, Ice Fisherman) “Big fish up here, always nice to come up and catch a nice twenty two incher.”>

It’s an absolutely delightful day at Strawberry. Blue skies, warm temperatures, a perfect way to kick off the new year. This year because of the lack of snow.
There is more fishable ice than normal. You can still drive to Haws Point, Renegade and the inlet to Bryant’s fork in a 4-wheel drive, the roads are icy but passable.

(Jason Klomp) “You know what there is no snow, usually you get up here and there is snowmobilers running around everywhere. It’s slick ice today as you can tell. Not any snow on the ice and it’s a little slick. (adam) “plenty thick though? (jason) “plenty, I’ll bet there’s a good 8-10 inches.”>

We’ve come up to the Berry with the guys from Maniac Custom lures, fortunately for us, they brought their kids….

(Kyler Klomp, Little Boy, Big Fish!) “nice fish.” (kyler) “oh, that thing is giant. (fish out) “now that thing really is giant. >

(Adam to Jason Klomp) “kind of cool when your son beats you Jason? (jason) “no it’s not!” (laughs)>

(Jenna Bradshaw) “woo hoo. (adam) how many is that for you? (jenna) “i don’t know. I’m not keeping count. (adam) “the old man is.” (jenna) that’s cause he can’t catch any. (madison) “I have one. (Adam) “nice.” >

(Adam) “oh tip up, tip up. (jenna) “oh crap!” (Adam) Put the fish in. Put the fish in. (runs to other rod)>

(Adam to James) “the kids are kind of kicking our butts!” (james) “they are.” (Adam) “what’s your problem james?” (james) I don’t know. (adam) you keep bringing all the kids up (james) I know she catches them on a tip up, catches them on that rod, I don’t catch them (laughs)

The kids are catching these eighteen to twenty inch cutts in twenty to thirty feet of water. Remember any Strawberry cutt between 15 and 22 inches must immediately be released. We didn’t eclipse the 22 mark today but the fishing was still pretty fast. Anglers are reporting good fishing for cutts and a few rainbows on the Strawberry side of the reservoir. Rainbows, we’re told are showing up more on the Soldier Creek side. Most of the fish caught, were just off the bottom.

(Adam) Where else have you guys been ice fishing this year? (jason) we’ve actually been to Mantua and it you want to catch bluegill, go to Mantua. it’s crazy up there, i think we had 8 ppl in our group on Saturday and we figure we averaged about 3 a minute. (Adam) “hey just a heads up you are getting a bite back there.”

(James) “oh we’ve been to Echo, it was alright we caught a bunch of rainbows and small perch. Perch up to 10 inches. Perch were on the bottom about 35 foot, the trout were suspended they were only five foot under the ice. We caught trout up 18-19 inches, they were pretty decent trout.”>

James loves catching big trout, especially on the tackle they produce. On January 28th, James is holding a Maniac lures only ice fishing tournament up at American Falls Reservoir in Idaho. This tournament is for the first 150 contestants that register. First place will win twenty five hundred bucks and the tournament will pay down to fifteenth place. It’s eighty dollars to sign up, log onto maniaccustumlures.com for more information.

(James) so get on-line and sign up, there is big fish in there. They caught the world record cutt-bow last July (Adam) how big was it? (james) 34 pounds, 11 oz. They catch quite a few fish in the summer and the winter in the 18-20 pound range.”

(Grandpa) “nice job.” (release fish) way to go Kyler. (kyler) “oh that was the biggest.” (grandpa) “your arms got tired on that one.”

Starvation Reservoir

<(Glen Harward, Avid Ice Fisherman) "The word is out, it was a pretty well kept secret, but it didn't take long. We've been out on it for three weeks now.">

Our next stop is the cold, but fast fishin’ Starvation Reservoir. Hard fighting rainbows and the occasional big perch are drawing anglers from all over the state to this Northeastern Utah fishery.

<(Glen Harward) "We've been catching what they're calling starvation steelies. Some of them will grow to 18 inches.">

<(Glen) and we've been catching a few perch, not a whole lot, but every once in awhile you get a couple of big ones, makes the trip worth it.">

<(Rich McArthur, Pleasant Grove) "it's great having all the perch, it's a great place to bring your kids, it's almost guaranteed that they're going to catch fish and have a good time, that's what its all about.">

<(Brian Blanchard, Maniac Custom Lures) "Well right now the perch are on the bottom. If you want to catch rainbows, the rainbows are only like 10ft under the ice right now. so its kind of fun, if you have a two pole permit, you can fish for perch and rainbows at the same time.">

We found perch in about 45 feet of water, the perch bite is early, right on the bottom. The rainbow bite, lasted all day. Most of the rainbows are cruising about 10-15 feet under the ice, this torpedo however was caught right on the bottom.

Starvation may be the place for big, hard fighting rainbows, but Rockport is the place where anglers are hoping to catch big bucks through the ice.

January 1st kicked off a new event up at Rockport Reservoir called the Rafter B Ice Fishing Challenge.

In December, twenty eight rainbows were tagged on their dorsal fin, catch a tag fish and you win a prize. There’s also a tag worth $2,500 bucks.

<(Joe Donnell, Rockport State Park Manager) Rafter B which is that nice little gas and grub down in Wanship has generously put up $2,500 in cash. So if you catch that fish you get $2,500 in cash. All the other sponsors are putting up sporting goods, camping gear. State Parks is putting up golf vacations, yurt and cabin rentals, the whole deal.>

<(Joe Donnell) no registration required, you do have to pay the day use fees that apply to Rockport State Park. If you do catch a tagged fish, Rafter B is where you go to see what you've won.>

The Rafter B is the small convenience store located just off of the I-80, exit 155 in Wanship, below Rockport Reservoir. Rockport is also the site where KSL Outdoors will be having our ice fishing party on February 4th. So grab some lunch at the Rafter B and head up and try your luck at Rockport State Park.

<(Kim Alderman, Rafter B) we've love for everybody to come out and join us, it will be a great 60 day event, it will be fun. See if you can get a tagged fish.>

(Adam Tag) “the Rafter B tagged fish Challenge runs through March 1st. So who knows when you come out for the February 4th, ice fishing party that KSL Outdoors is putting on, you might just catch a fish worth $2,500 bucks.”