Something fishy is going on. Yes!

It has been nice to have had a little time away from work and better than that, Ginny and I had been able to go fishing twice while I have been off. With the extreme cold temperatures that occurred late in November and early December the ice formed earlier than normal this year. East Canyon reservoir has had safe ice for almost 3 weeks and the fishing has been just as hot as the temperatures have been cold. The 26th of December we made our first trip to the lake with our son David and several friends to find 8 to 10 inches of good solid ice and the trout were hungry. Between the two of us we caught 6 nice trout.

We also went last Saturday, but this time we had invited the young men and the young women and their leaders to go with us. As it turned out, only John Brewer, Bert Stevenson and two of his sons actually went, as well as, David and 3 of his friends, for a total of 10 of us were fishing.

One of David's friends is a guy by the name of Matt. He has been ice fishing with us for the past year, but sometimes his success level was less than stellar and Ginny is always giving him a bad time about the number or the size of the fish he has caught. Likewise Matt is always ribbing Ginny about being the Midget and the fact that I had a fish finder for 28 years before I actually realized it. (If there are fish to be had Ginny will be all over them.) As we drove to East Canyon this last trip Ginny decided to write Matt a manual titled Matt's Ice Fishing Manual 101. ~written AND illustrated by Midget the Canadian. In the manual where five simple steps for catching fish. These included cutting a hole in the ice, baiting the hook, placing the line in the water and then waiting for the fishing to bite, which was described as waiting for the doink, doink. She even instructed Matt on the technique on setting the hook and getting the fish out of the hole. She gave this to him when we arrived at the lake.

I do not know if her instruction helped or hindered. Matt ended up catching 6 fish and Ginny only caught 2. This only set the whole ribbing to go to a new level with Matt giving Ginny a bad time about the size and number of fish she caught.He teased her last year about laying on the ice with her face hovering over the hole so she could watch for a fish to come and get her bait. This year she says even though she's Canadian, she's NOT swimming down to the point to check for fish. You'll know what I'm talking about if you've seen the youtube video Crazy Canadian Ice Fishing

Bert and his boys had brought some new gear for this trip and one of the things he had brought was a fishing rod holder. I had been looking for these very style rod holders for sometime and so I asked if I could use one for a pattern when we returned home. He had three of them with him--one for himself and one for each of his boys. Well by the time we left to come home that afternoon there was no rod holder to be used as a pattern. Bert in his excitement to set the hook flipped not one but two of those holders right down the fishing hole. Then his son left his rod on the third holder and left the jig in the water while he grabbed a bite to eat. Yes you guessed it he got a bite and turned around just in time to see the rod and the holder disappear down the hole.

All in all it was a great day. Between the 10 of us we caught 57 fishing. I even out fished Ginny for the first time in a long time. I caught 7 fish and she only caught 2. Catch and release is wonderful. If you release what you catch you can catch all day long. We did end up bringing home five nice trout (14-16 inches) because Ginny would have killed me if I had not kept some for her.

The weather was fantastic with temperatures in the mid 20's and only a very light breeze.

I just look forward to more trips to the ice this year.