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.