Yesterday Glenn and I decided that our outdoor activity of the day would be ice fishing. So, we packed up a light lunch, the ice fishing poles and our pocket-sized container of 80 maggots (yes, you read that correctly) and headed off to Devil's Creek Reservoir.This body of water is located 38 miles south of our home, right along I-15, and about 22 miles north of the Utah border. As we fished, we could easily see the traffic on the expressway to the west. The weather was absolutely gorgeous; although the temperature remained below freezing, the sunny blue skies and lack of any wind meant I didn't even need my gloves until nearly four o'clock in the afternoon.
We parked and walked about 150 yards or so to a couple of abandoned holes. Glenn got my pole rigged up first, but before he could get his line in the water, I'd caught our first rainbow trout of the day. We started fishing at 12:45 p.m.
Devil's Creek Reservoir is what the Idaho Fish and Game Department classifies as "Family Friendly" which means that every few years it is planted with fingerlings and restrictions are much less stringent. On this water, bait is allowed, and the daily limits a little more generous. As an example, we plan to sometime check out the Daniels Reservoir which is being cultivated as a trophy trout habitat. On that water, fishers are limited to one line, one barbless hook, no live bait and a keeper is classified as a trout over 20".
Throughout the afternoon, we saw short flurries of activity which resulted in 11 Rainbows on the ice by 4:00p.m. The limit here is 6 per fisherperson, so at #11 Glenn pulled his line. We agreed I'd continue fishing until 4:30 to see if we could "limit out" on our first ice fishing adventure as resident Idahoans. Unfortunately, I'd lost a nice one about 3:45 p.m. -- but I remained determined.
At 4:22 Glenn said, "You've got eight more minutes." At that point, I decided to try a hole that had been abandoned about 15 minutes earlier. So, I carried my pole over, dropped in the line and within two minutes had our final trout of the day -- a nice 16" keeper!
We returned home (with a brief stop at the Jurgens' to show off our catch and invite them for dinner this evening) about 6:00 p.m. Our first day out probably has spoiled us and will lead to subsequent disappointments, but having 12 rainbow trout on the kitchen island waiting to be cleaned . . . Wow! We're having fish for dinner tonight, with eight on ice in the freezer!
And, yes, even with maggots. . .I bait my own hook!
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