Got out today for a couple hours around noon. Had a couple of neighbor kids that wanted to do some spearing. Got them going, and then went off to angle for myself.

Set up an icerigger - a really neat outfit that holds your line in a release, holds a regular rod in a holder, and lets you fight a fish with a rod - instead of a tipup. See https://plus.google.com/photos/1171...2488617165786849?authkey=CLeEqu3rqMKV6wE

Anyway, set that up with a minnow and then took another rod with a Lindy 360 jig on it, tipped with wax worms. A friend gave me that and said the perch inhaled it. . No joy. I saw fish on the vexilar. Any movement of the jig and they were gone. Caught a small pike on the icerigger. Switched to a small gold spoon with a minnow head. Same drill. Put a camera down the hole. Big perch would come up next to the spoon, but as soon as it moved they were gone! While all this was going on two more perch on the icerigger. .

So, I switched to a minnow and a float next to the hot hole. And put the camera down. In the next half hour picked up 4 more perch and another northern. Missed a few that didn't get the minnow down. They seemed to be playing with it. Watched one on the camera hit the minnow, the line released from the icerigger, but I could see he only had the minnow by the head. Waited for several minutes - or it seemed that long, until the minnow disappeared.

The lads speared two fish and scared two others. I gave them my fish so they could have a fish fry tonight. (It helped that I had walleye thawing) There was up to an inch of water on the ice, and it was SLICK! I drove the snowmobile (ATV is in the shop ;-( ) back to get some ice cleats before I took a dive. Pray for colder temps and snow!

Still slow for perch, and the walleyes are mia. The young lads speared 2 more fish in 3 hours today, and a neighbor and his son got 12 between spearing and tipups. (Note: we have a 9 pike limit with a protected slot between 22 and 36 inches) I got out late - 3:30 - honeydo list interfered - and got 3 more jumbo perch.

Friend was on Red lake yesterday - morning was great, but things slowed to a crawl after 11. . Something needs to change to get these fish to cooperate!

Odd, how those old fish resist being caught.

How thick is the ice?

12-14 inches, although there are a few "surprises" - if someone drilled a hole and water drained down it some of those grew to 12" in diameter and had only 2" of ice around them. They are driving light vehicles - no heavy trucks - on Winni, Red and Lake of the woods.

So far, about the only ice in Utah comes in seven-pound bags. We'll be lucky to have safe ice by New Years - and it's going to be a brown Christmas.

Worse, most of our reservoirs are at 50% or less. Next summer might be brutal because that's our only source of water.

Rocky:

I retired from Utah (Utah State in Logan) and used to fish Mantua for bluegills - mainly because it usually had ice. Years ago I fished bear lake, but gave up because solid ice was often lacking.

I'll trade you some cold weather for some snow1 ;-) We have 1" on the ground, light and powdery. I need to get out tomorrow to bank some snow around a permanent house before it blows away

Fred

Mantua is always my first ice trip of the year, Fred. And it's my favorite springtime bluegill lake, too.

I love fishing bluegills. The smaller ones always bite; the big ones are there and you have to give them what they want. And a big bluegill on ultralight tackle, or on a fly rod, is a hoot. Sight fishing during the spawn is really fun.

Went out and fished for gills today, but ran into perch instead. It sucks when it takes longer to clean fish than it did to catch them!

Ya, things are tough all over.