Ice fishing with George, Phil & Tommy Bitchin

There's a first time for everything, and today it was about ice fishing; sponsored by Phil & George. When I say sponsored, I mean holy-moly I have never been so taken care of. Aside from fishing with Colby, I am usually responsible for everything from driving, fuel, packing extra rods, gear, and taking care of lunch. Often times I take out people who expect me to do everything from tie on their flies, to wiping their ass. No so today, it was my turn to have my bum wiped and powdered. I hope it never happens again, because I could get used to this!

But let’s get down to the basic info of the day’s events. George, a friend from work asked Colby & I to join him and former teacher Phil for a day on Pine View Reservoir in Ogden. At the last minute I asked Tom if he wanted to join. The day was beautiful, sunny and actually quite warm. Phil comes very well prepared, and if there is a zombie apocalypse I want him on my team. The dude is methodically organized and thought of everything.  I think it’s safe to say ice fishing requires more gear than fly fishing--ummmm yeah a lot more. Each one of us had a sled loaded with gear.

We get out on the ice, and tents need to be set up, auger’s need to auger holes in the ice, and all they want me to do is sit there and look pretty. I used to be good at sitting there and looking pretty. But as time went by I started getting uglier, so I started getting more useful, thinking “hell looks don’t last forever!” But I did my best to just sit there and watch them do everything. Phil showed me how to bait my hook, but I did that myself.

After hours of fishing with no luck we moved to a new spot, and re-auguring holes into the ice. This is the part that is like every other type of fishing; you keep working at it to see what small corrections will do the trick. Finally through adjusting our bait (box worms) at the right level, we start hooking up. I should say Phil caught one. George goes on about how well perch eyes work, and he even has an eye-ball extracting tool to get the job done. As it turns out he was right, he starts catching. So I think that poor bastard has one eye left, I figure what can a one eyed fish do in this world anyhow—I take the other one. It paid off, I started hooking up.

All in all, I had a great time. Phil & George are the best, and I would love to go again. I can’t say I’m ready to go buy an auger & a tent, but it was fun—thanks again guys!