Playing guide for my Dad

My dad flew in August 28 - September 5 from North-Central Arkansas to spend a week with us here. He is a guide on the White River back there, and when we go visit, we always do a lot of trout fishing. So I have wanted him to be able to go fishing with me out here for some time now. Well, he finally got the chance during this trip.

Newton is extremely low right now. But fortunately, I am still able to launch my little Coleman Crawdad without issue. It is light enough to slide around when needed. We hit Newton Wednesday, Friday, and Monday mornings, with Friday being the best.

Wednesday was still good even though we got out there about 10:30. We managed to catch our fair share of bass, as well as a few perch. We saw about 6 muskie or so swimming around on the top of the water with their heads out too. My dad had never seen tiger muskie before, so he said just seeing that was a treat.

Friday was great. We got on the water around 7:15 am or so. Not long after we were out, my dad had a hook up, and I could tell it was a nice fish. Before too long, he pulled this 17-inch, 3 lb largemouth out.

A few minutes later, we really got into the bass, with the average size being about 12-14 inches. We caught about 5 or 6 that were pushing 15 inches too. Best day for bass I have had at Newton.

Right when we started getting into more bass, my dad set the hook, and I asked him if it was a decent one. He told me it felt like it, but I could tell from his rod that it was a very decent fish. I told him he has a muskie, and he replied, "Really?" About right when he said that, it shot right up out of the water. Sure enough - muskie on! He got it to the boat, and I got it in the net. His biggest fish of his life. I was so happy for him. I didn't care if I didn't catch anything the rest of the day. I just wanted him to be able to land a tiger, and he did at 40 inches and barely over 13 pounds. It was healthier looking than some others I have seen this year, but still not as fat as you would think a 40-incher would be.

Still, it was a beautiful fish.

Not long after that, some guys fishing on shore near the southeast corner landed a muskie. They obviously didn't know what they were doing, nor did they want to get any mud on their precious shoes. They drug the muskie up the bank, only to have it flop back in the water. Then they drug it up again, then finally unhooked it. They then proceeded to walk up the bank about 30 yards, carrying the fish vertically, to a flatter spot. They started sinking in the mud and quickly ran back up the hill. They walked back to their original spot, still carrying the fish vertically, and threw it down the bank back into the water. The fish flopped all the way down the bank into the water. It splashed a few times in the water then was off - or so I thought. When we came back Monday morning, there was a dead muskie in that exact spot. Lesson learned - next time I see anything like that, I will go over and check on the fish and try to help it revive itself enough to swim off.

But overall, Friday was great. We brought home plenty for dinner. 11 1/2 pound of delicious bass.

Monday was a lot slower. I did hook a muskie and got it to the boat - probably about 34 inches or so - but in moving around and getting the net ready, I lost him. It looked like a pretty healthy one too, which was good to see. We caught more bass and overall it was a great day. But it was just good to get out with my dad for a few days and fish.

Newton, Baby Brush Hogs, Bass, and the Elusive Tiger Muskie

My buddy Andy lives right above me, so we headed out to Newton this morning and were on the water by 7 am. Thermometer said 50 degrees when we got there. It was a very nice morning. I started off with a buzz bait, and a muskie nearly took it, scaring the crap out of me and almost knocking me off the front deck of my boat. I tried a little more but couldn't seem to entice one anymore with that.

Here is a distant pic of Andy and me taken by a friend who was also out there.

We started focusing on the bass after that. I put on the baby brush hog, and behold, the bass were hungry - again. Not sure how many we ended up catching, but it was a fair amount. I had a bass take away my baby brush hog, so I had to put a new one on. The very next cast, I caught a bass - the one that had taken my plastic. It was stuck there in its throat.

We headed up the lake a ways and caught more bass. We were hoping to land a muskie, and we saw quite a few. But none were wanting to bite. I hooked up another fish on my baby brush hog, hoping it was a keeper. Well, it wasn't a keeper, but it was a muskie. I got it about 10 feet out from the boat, and it got off. CRAP!! But it was still hungry. It immediately turned around and hammered it again. Hookset once again, and it was soon in the net. A super-skinny 31-incher that might have broken the 5 or 6 pound mark. By far the skinniest one I have ever seen.

We headed back south on the lake and saw another one swimming around on the surface. We motored over to it, and it dove under. Both of us threw our plastics out. It swam right by Andy's before it turned around and nailed his baby brush hog. Well, it got netted, and he got his muskie for the day - a healthier 32-incher.

Here is a pic of his muskie just hanging out after we released it.

After that, we caught a few more bass to take home for dinner. My wife loves bass, and so do I. I brought home a limit, and Andy and his wife joined us for some fish tacos. All in all, it was a great day on the water.

Dinner.

Latest adventures in Cache Valley

I haven't put anything on here in a little bit, but I have been fishing a few times. Newton Reservoir in northern Cache Valley here is a small reservoir that has tiger muskie, large-mouth bass, bluegill, yellow perch, crappie, and green sunfish. I have been trying to catch a tiger muskie (I haven't caught one this year), but the last few trips I have been focusing on bass. The fishing this year for the muskie has not been good at all - for anyone out here. The warm temps and the high water temps has them laying low, I think.

I have had some pretty good success for bass over the last few days. I love my bass fishing, but I wish the average bass out here in Northern Utah was a little bigger. But nonetheless, they are still fun to catch. Check out the pics.

Newton Reservoir at 6 am:

Some other shots of Newton and its low water levels:

Here are some pics of some of the bass:

Some even made the trip home for dinner:

Too bad no one around me here in Cache Valley sells these baby brush hogs.

July 3 & 4th, Cutler Reservoir

Well, I guess it is time to post again.

On Turesday, I met up with John and Andy for an evening/night-fishing adventure on Cutler Reservoir. We launched at Cache Junction and headed downstream towards Cutler Dam. I have never been on the water on that part of the Reservoir/River and decided it was time to try it out.

Here are a few pics of the 3.25-mile boat ride down to the dam. Like I said, I have never been here before, but I quickly grew to love it.

We anchored up just above the dam and fished there until dark. All three of us managed to catch some fish at the first spot, but nothing really noteworthy. I did hookup on what was arguably the strongest/biggest fish I have ever felt on the end of my line. I fought it for about 20 seconds, while it was taking drag the whole time. The unfortunate thing was as soon as I set the hook, it started running, and I immediately felt the line rubbing on a rock. I tried to jump off of my boat onto the small rock island I was anchored against, but I wasn't quick enough. Sadly, the line broke. After reeling it back in, it was confirmed to me that the line was rubbing on a rock. It was all jagged and frayed at the end. But, that just means I will have to go back and try to find it again.

We moved to a few other spots and still caught fish. My best of the evening was a 20-inch channel cat.

We ended up heading back around 1:30 am. All in all, I had a good night.


July 4th

After spending most of the day hanging out with the family, I decided to head back to the same spot. This time I only stayed until about 9:30. I had to fight off some idiot wakeboarders this time. In Utah, state law requires that you travel at wakeless speeds when within 150 of any other vessel or person fishing on the shoreline. Needless to say, all of the sport boats out here do not follow that. Some idiot went right past me and almost swamped my boat. Their wake came right up over the front end of my boat. Once they saw what happened, they really turned the speed up and got out of there in a hurry. Jerks!

Once I made it down by the dam, I anchored up against the island again. Here is my spot.

I wasn't bothered anymore by the idiots on their big boats. I caught a few smaller channels. Here is a small pic of one.

I kept seeing a catfish on the shoreline making swirls. A few minutes later, it made it right over to my boat. I reached down and picked it up. It was a 25-inch male channel cat. It just kept barrel rolling over and over in the water. The first is a pic of it rolling in the water; the second, a measurement.

I didn't get too many more bites, so I picked up the anchor and trolled along the buoy line. I saw some carp, picked up the bow, and shot a couple smaller ones. Then I decided to head on back. It was a nice, enjoyable evening out. I wish I had the $$ to invest in a little bigger boat so I could bring Julia, Maddie, and Bubba.

The view back:

The Bear River

Well, my buddy Andy, his brother Ben, and myself decided to try some night fishing on the Bear River at the Bear River Bird Refuge last night. We have never fished out there, but there have been some huge cats pulled out of the river there. So we left around 8:30 last night and fished most of the night.

When we got there, the sun had just set, and the bugs were insane. I bet we used half a can of bug spray, and then we had to use even more later. But we picked a spot, set up everything, and stayed there to almost 3 am.

Here is a picture of Andy and Ben's poles. There wasn't enough glow sticks for me to attach any to my poles.



We didn't catch a ton of fish, but we did catch some. Here is a pic of me with the biggest catch of the night, a 22-inch channel cat that probably weighed in between 4-5 pounds.


Here is one more of the decent channels that I caught, and also a pic of Andy with a carp he stuck after we caught it.




After we got home at 3:30 am, we slept for a few hours and were back on the road at 6:50 to meet up with Derek and John on the Bear River just below Cutler Dam. Andy, Derek, and John fished there last week while I was still in Arkansas, so I was a little excited to fish a spot where I have not fished before. The river wasn't very wide or deep where we fished, so I knew there wouldn't be any monsters caught today. I managed to catch 5 smallmouth bass and about 12-15 channel cats. One channel went close to 20 inches. There were some others worthy of taking home, but I released them all. Here are some pics from this morning.








Needless to say, I came home and crashed on the couch for a few hours. It was a good morning out. Thanks to my wonderful wife Julia for letting me go fishing again!

Intro

Well, there are five things that I really love in my life (listed in no particular order): 1) Fishing, 2) my Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ, 3) my family, 4) Alabama Crimson Tide football, and 5) St. Louis Cardinals' Baseball. This blog will share my love for fishing.

A friend of mine recently started his own fishing blog, which got me thinking about doing the same. Without ripping his idea off, I told him I should start one of my own, and he was behind me all the way. He calls me "the expert." Well, I don't know if I am an expert, and I don't claim to be an expert, but I do enjoy some very successful days when I go out fishing.

I have been in Logan, UT for the last 4 years. I came out here pursuing a Master's Degree in Civil Engineering, specifically Structural Engineering, at Utah State University. Prior to coming out here, I didn't really get to fish a lot other than with my dad, who taught me everything I know about fishing. But my first winter here, I got into ice fishing. I was hooked immediately. I started building my ice fishing supplies little by little, and now have all I need to have numerous enjoyable days on the ice. The following spring, I began building up the rest of my fishing collection. I now have everything I need to take my family fishing, even a little boat (a Coleman Crawdad almost identical to the one my dad has).

Before I get into sharing some pictures, I just need to express a tremendous amount of appreciation and love to my dad, Bill Friend, who took me fishing with him for as long as I can remember. My first 15 years of my life were spent in Monroeville, AL. He would take the family fishing all over the place to some awesome ponds throughout Monroe County where we could spend all day catching large-mouth bass, bluegill, shellcrackers, and catfish. Days spent fishing wit him resulted in my love for this. We also spent 3 different vacations in north-central Arkansas on the White River fishing for trout. We moved to Flippin, AR right before I turned 15, and the fishing continued there. My dad now guides on the White River and the Buffalo National River. Now, because of him, I get to enjoy fishing as much as my wife will allow me.

I have met some great friends out here in Utah who I fish with on a regular basis. Some of them will appear in pictures here and there. The following pictures were collected over the last few years of fishing here in Utah and in Arkansas when we have gone back to visit my family. There is no chronological order for the pictures. I just went through my collection to pick some good ones out for this initial post.

Like the description at the top of the page says, here is my greatest catch today - a 39.5-inch, 20-lb Tiger Muskie out of Newton Reservoir in Newton, UT.


While on the subject of Tiger Muskie, here are some more pics:

38-incher caught on Labor Day 2011



A small one, only 33 inches



My buddy Derek with his 39-incher



Here is another view of Derek and his fish



The next two are a couple of bass I caught out of Newton





Here are some various pics from ice fishing:











Here is my favorite picture on the ice. My little girl, Maddie, came with me and caught her first through the ice, a yellow perch.







Now for some more "soft water" pics.

These are from Cutler Reservoir, a warm-water fishery.















This year, I found bow-fishing. I absolutely love it! Here are some pics of that.





















And to finish off my intro, here are some pics of my two kids, Maddie and Hayes.

Here is Hayes' first fish.





Here are some more of Hayes fishing.







Here are a few of Maddie.







Here is a pic of Maddie and her momma, the woman who lets me go fishing all the time.


And last but not least, a pic with three generations of Friend boys who love to fish.



That concludes my intro to the blog. I hope you enjoy it! Keep checking back for more to come.