Ice fishing trip Wyoming, 122020, part two.

Mahigeer

Senior Member
#1
Wednesday, January 8th, 2020









Once more today to a new location to fish.





33-This location is called “Lost Dog”. I had seen good reports about this location.









34-There is (10) miles of treacherous road to get to this place. Snow compacted by other drivers had made it somewhat better.









35-The black spot is my tent.









36-My best fishing day was at this location. The previous reports were not too off.



















37-The underwater camera was very useful and made the waiting for fish to show up and bite, more bearable.









38-The combination of camera and flasher, make it much more effective and fun to do ice fishing.









39-One more on the ice.









Stopped around 5:00 PM to make sure I drive in daylight on the off road, but by the time I loaded the 4Runner, it had gotten dark. No problems thankfully.













Thursday, January 9th, 2020









40-Not easy to leave the bed to get into this kind of cold, but that is what one must do to do ice fishing.







Back to Buckboard Marina area.









41-It had started to snow as I was leaving the hotel.









42-However, as I drove toward the reservoir, not only the snow had not been coming down, there was even some sunshine later in the day!!









43-One of my hangouts! You might have seen in my previous report. It has extensive fishing isle.









44-This was south of “Buckboard” Marina.









45-The angler who had the pickup with trailer, made me very jealous with his snowmobile.









46-It is a very big reservoir. A snowmobile or ATV will make the outing much more pleasurable.









Providing there is proven safe ice.







47-This is the boat ramp of the marina. Speaking of the marina; it has new owners. They are building new facilities to stay at the reservoir. I would like that very much. Eliminates 45 min drive from Green River, and one can go for early bites.









48-Enjoy.









49-The hot soup hit the spot when the fishing was slow. Campbell’s chunky soup. ahhhhhh







Got skunked, but recorded some fish action. Stopped at 5:00 PM.













Friday, January 10th, 2020









Once more I decided to rest and drive east toward Cheyenne.





50-I guess this is a German style beer making joint!









51-This river gave its name to the town. Green River.









52-If you look closely, you can see the train. There are lots of business at Green River and Rock Springs that benefit from the train operation. In terms of lodging, eating places and I am sure other needs of the employees.









53-Having heard of Continental Divide and seen the movie with John Belushi, I thought I check it out.





But, it was a road that did not seem interesting.







54-Since Cheyenne, Wyoming was twice the distance, I decided to stop and turn around at Rawlins, Wyoming.









55-Saw many billboards advertising for the sale of Fireworks all year long.





Fourth of July celebration must be something to see in Wyoming.



While taking a rest from driving and having a lunch, I stopped at a Denny’s next to freeway. I asked the waitress if there is anything to see in Rawlins. She said there is a prison tours!!





That may be interesting.





56-They offer tours of the facility like the Alcatraz Island in San Francisco. I was too late.

















57-I wonder how safe one feels living across a prison?







Got back on the road toward Green River going west.



58-Not too hard to fall sleep on long drives with roads like this.















Saturday, January 11th, 2020









This would be the second and the last day that I fish with Jim. Since the bite was good in the early hours, we decided to meet early on the ice. I was up at 4:30 AM getting ready to go to the reservoir. I was on the ice, at the same spot at 6:30 AM. The hell with the cold!!







59-Jim and a different friend showed up not much later than me, even though they had a longer travel time.









60-My yearly reunion with these anglers from Utah.







This would be different than last week. I got skunked, and Jim and his friend had (6) pups if I remember right.





Later we moved closer to the shore. About 13 ft. deep to catch Burbot. Jim’s friend caught three small ones. Regulation dictates to keep all Burbot caught.





We packed around 7:00 PM. It had been a long day.













Sunday, January 12th, 2020









Being too tired due to last days long hours, I decided to stay in and rest. I had a lot of packing to do as well as reloading the 4Runner. Thankfully the hotel had a nice TV I my room and I watched both football games.













Monday, January 13th, 2020







This was the day to check-out. The 4runner was packed and after a hardy breakfast at the local dinner, I got on the way to Park City, Utah, via the dangerous interstate freeway (80).







61-A sample of the pole that I hit last year while doing the zig-zag gig on the road.





It cost me over $1200.00 to fix it. Then some @#$%@@#$^& made small scratch on the new paint.







62-The dangerous I (80) going west.







Once more I encountered very dangerous driving conditions. It was not any ice, but rather strong wind to a point that I had to slow to (40) from (80) MPH and put on my hazard flashers.

A truck to my right saw this and gave me a lot of room. It felt like I was somewhat floating in the air, with little control of the 4Runner. I tried some of buttons of various systems, but it actually got worst.



Finally, when I switched to H4 (high 4 wheel) drive, I felt more stable. As I got more confident, I increased speed, and was relieved.



I will try to avoid this section of the road on my next trips. I even saw and reported a SUV that had wheels in the air to 911.





After a visit with my kin Magic (you may recall his story from the past report), I headed to Heber City for an overnight stay.







63-On the way from Utah passed this lake. Not good for ice fishing yet.















Tuesday, January 14th, 2020









Last overnight stop was at the town of Mesquite, NV to rest and play more BJ. I won enough to pay for the hotel in Wyoming!!











Wednesday, January 15th, 2020







One more stop at the Mad Greek Café on the way to Los Angeles and I was home around 5:00 PM



64-Got home to “holly molly it’s hot” climate.







“Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home!”







Last word:

Not because I have done it, but I believe that ice fishing has to be the hardest kind of sport fishing there is.

Just to get to the spot to fish safely, it requires a lot of planning and some driving in adverse conditions.



As much as I have begun to love to do it, there are a couple further steps that I have to take to make it more pleasurable. One is to stay in hotels to cut the driving time to not more than six hrs. Not hard to do.

The second one involves more cost and thus harder to achieve. Get a motorized unit to move my sled.

ATV, and snowmobile are two options that come to mind, but now I have found a third one called Snowdog.

https://www.snowdog.com/



We saw one on the reservoir and talked to the owner. Later I found a website and even joined the Facebook group.



We will see.







The end.









 
Last edited:

Ken Jones

Administrator
Staff member
#2
It's certainly your choice but I'm not too sure I would invest a lot of money in equipment that might be used once or twice a year. That money could fund other trips to other places, other fish, and perhaps even other types of fishing.
 

Mahigeer

Senior Member
#4

I should have added this to original report, so here it is:


Here is where I fished most of the time. Buckboard Marina.


I stayed in Green River (see the red circle). I also fished areas above and to the east of the marina.