This post will be pretty simple and to the point. I was contacted by 3 Brother's Flies and asked to review a few of their ice flies in my area to see how they worked. I have used ice flies a time or two in the past but haven't used them for years so I will admit I wasn't super confident in them working here in Idaho where I usually ice fish. I received two types of flies to review and here they are:
In the picture above you can see the fly hooked onto the end of my ice fishing rod. I have always used bigger jigs than some of the typical ice flies so this one was pushing it for me being a #12. The bead on the head of this ice fly is tungsten (3.5 mm) which made it nice for sinking it down to where the fish are. The slab spike was the most popular with the fish on the day I used them and seemed to be what the fish were after. The day I used them was actually a very slow fishing day and no one around us was getting any bites let alone catching fish. I caught a few fish on the slab spike jigging while I also caught a few letting it sit and the fish would still grab it on their way by.
This little guy was also pretty popular with the fish. I ended up tying this guy on about a 12 inches above my "go to" bait that has been my most productive jig. The interesting thing is that there were a few fish who snagged up both baits while looking for some food but by the end of the day I ended up catching more off the Gill Shrimp than I did my bottom jig which in the past was always the #1 producer. The Gill Shrimp is a #14 which was very small for me to use but the design of it was irresistible to the trout throughout the day.
This Brook Trout had both my jig and the ice fly in its mouth...
If you click on the nave of the fly in my post it will take you to a link where you can check out the prices of these flies as well as the different sizes you can order. Be sure to check out 3 Brother's Flies for more of their products which is way more the ice flies! Thanks again for the opportunity to review the flies!
Last year I wrote about my Memorial Day Weekend tradition of camping with my family. I mentioned how the weather usually never cooperates with our plans of camping yet we decided to tough out the weather and go camping anyway. Last year my Memorial Day Weekend was summed up with the picture below of my tent and my Jeep in our camping area.
Camping Memorial Day 2012
Fortunately this year, the weather was a lot more cooperative and was actually one of the best years for weather we have had in a long time! Last year my wife was about 8 months pregnant and misserable the whole time. This year was probably one of my favorite times camping because I was able to share it with my daughter who is 11 months old now.
The area we traditionally camp at for this weekend is not necessarily the most remote area but it is away from the majority of people. We camp next to a little creek and spend most of our time hanging out by the camp fire catching up with all of our family members. We also spend a lot of time with family members fishing in the creek catching small Brook Trout. My daughter loved this part of the camping trip because she decided she liked the feel of squeezing a slimy fish in her hand.
The look on her face should tell you how much fun she was having
Of course at her age, she puts everything she can touch into her mouth... everything.... yes including the fish...
The look on my face shows you I was grossed out while laughing :)
I think the nicest part of any camping trip is not necessarily in the location, the activities, the weather, or length of time of the camping trip but rather it is is who it is with and how you spend that time. While I went up in the mountains to one of my favorite spots since childhood, this camping trip is special because it was the first one with my daughter. When I would have liked to spend more time maybe shooting guns or fishing in the creek, I enjoyed the time sitting next to the creek with my wife and daughter picking flowers and playing in the grass.
I don't want to make it sound like that is all we did, but I never thought in all my perivious camping trips in this location that I would spend a good portion of my time picking flowers and playing in the grass while camping. We did get to enjoy some good fishing trips in the creek and we also spent a lot of time with family around the campfire. Life does change when you have kids yet the change is more of a refocusing on what really matters rather than changing.
We ended off the weekend by visiting my grandpa's grave site which has been part of our family tradition for Memorial Day weekend. We usually take up something my grandpa would have liked such as a pine tree or some other outdoors item. This year we took a shed antler from a deer and placed in on his headstone.
I am looking forward to more camping trips with my wife and daughter this summer where I will be able to share with her some of my other favorite areas such as taking her backpacking into some of my elk hunting spots on scouting trips and other hikes into the mountains. I know this trips may not be my most successful in sneaking around the woods looking for wildlife but as I spend my time wisely with my wife and daughter I have come to the conclusion that the man upstairs makes up for the less successful scouting trips in the end.
When I go fishing, I often have the perspective that I am there for the quality instead of quantity.... In other words, I would rather catch one big fish than fifty tiny fish. I feel that catching "the big one" or a fish that is unique in some way is much more worth it than catching numerous small fish. Don't get me wrong, this is not to say that I do not enjoy getting out and catching fish of all shapes and sizes, I am just stating what goes on in my head (usually while I'm sitting there watching everyone around me catch fish and me doing nothing but sitting there thinking...) I would much rather catch a few small fish than no fish at all!
Brook Trout
I have fished enough in my area to know what works in the different bodies of water I fish in. I am sure there are things that work that I am not aware of, but I have my own "traditions" you might say that I use religiously for bait. I have caught quite a few big fish of many different species and feel that I will have to get pretty lucky if I am going to out do my own records on some species. Here in Idaho, I am able to ice fish with up to 5 poles at a time which allows me to use what I know works, as well as take the time to try something new to see if it works any better. Recently, I have been visiting with the Matt who designed the JawJacker and one tip he suggested, is to use a smaller bait to get more hook ups. I will admit, I thought to myself that I may be able to catch more fish if I go to a smaller bait, but I will not catch as many big fish by doing this. I went fishing a few times this year, and what I have always used seemed to be working just fine so I didn't think twice about changing things up.
A trout I caught earlier this year.
This last Saturday however, I was ice fishing and wasn't having as good as luck as I had been hoping for. It had been about an hour and I had only caught a few small fish. By this point I thought, I might as well try using smaller bait to see what happens. I decided to use a few jigs Matt had told me to use, and tipped them with half of meal worm. I was quite skeptical putting such a small jig and bait down the hole while my other poles were baited up with much larger baits. I set it all up in my JawJacker with the bait a few feet off the bottom and walked away. By the time I got to my seat and sat down my JawJacker went off! My first thought was that I had failed to set it up right and the JawJacker had gone off due to some mistake on my part, but when I looked at the pole I could see that the only mistake was that I hadn't listened to this advice sooner! My pole tip was bending with the fight of a decent sized Cut Throat Trout who thought my bait was just to much to resist! I pulled in the fish and in this picture you can see the jig I caught it with.
After this experience, I will admit, I ended up changing 3 of my 5 poles to have similar bait. I started catching quite a few fish and ended the day by pulling 24 onto the ice. I did catch a few on the bait that have always had good luck with, but I was surprised at how many decent size trout I caught on such small bait. So next time you are sitting there on the ice not catching anything, maybe try switching your bait around and maybe even downsizing your bait to see if that helps. This may be a tip that many people already know or talk about, but it was new to me and thought I would pass it on to anyone who may be interested.
Many of you may not know what this contraption is, but hopefully after reading this it will be on your wish list! What you see above is called a JawJacker which is an ice fishing contraption with the purpose of making good ice fisherman great! The way it works is explained and demonstrated thoroughly on this video from YouTube.
See them in action!
JawJacker in Action!!!
When I used these for the first time myself, it shocked me how easy they were to use! I will admit, I was worried looking at it and wondering if I would set it up wrong with all the different adjustments such as the rod height, the trigger slide, and the trigger tension. After getting it out of the box and playing around with it, I realized that all of these adjustments are extremely simple and self explanatory. If there is any confusion on how to set it up, there are step by step instructions on the back of the JawJacker box. I headed up to the lake Friday morning to give these a shot in hopes that I would have some good luck.
JawJacker set up and ready for a bite!
In Idaho, we are able to use 5 poles which can be hard to monitor all 5 poles at once. With my poles in the JawJacker, I didn't stress about looking around constantly checking to see if my poles were getting a bite or not. This made ice fishing so much more relaxing and enjoyable because I was able to sit and jig one pole while all my other poles were being "monitored" by the JawJacker. It wasn't long until I got some action on the JawJacker and the only words I have to say about my first experience is that these things work!
JawJacker with my 3 pound male Brook Trout
I was able to catch some great fish using these things and had a blast every time one went off. I would be in the middle of a conversation and then hear the sound of a JawJacker go off and my adrenaline would rush in anticipation of what would come next. There were a few times when the JawJacker would go off, but fail to hook my fish... I was a little frustrated and thought that there was just a little fish messing with my bait. Then I remembered a tip which was also on the back of the JawJacker box which said that if you are getting bites on the JawJacker but not having many hookups, then try to downsize your bait. I thought what do I have to loose, so I gave it a shot... Sure enough the next time the JawJacker went off the fish was hooked and the rest was left up to me to get that fish on the ice.
My dad and one of his fish of the day
My dad and I spent about 6 hours on the ice and caught almost 50 fish. There were quite a few people fishing around us who kept saying that the fishing was quite slow. In respect to them, the fishing was quite a bit slower than what it had been for them a few days earlier. They were catching a few fish here and there, but the fish were not biting very hard for some reason this day. Those next to us would run from pole to pole because they would see a fish was nibbling on their bait, but by the time they got to it the fish was either gone or it was not interested in their bait any more. I would not say that we had more bites than the other fisherman around us, but the difference was that when we were getting bites, we were mostly always hooking up with a fish because of the JawJacker. A few of these people kept asking us what we were using for bait and we were open and honest about what we were using. To their disappointment, it was the same thing they were using, but we were catching more fish. I would definitely say that the purpose of the JawJacker, which is to "make good ice fisherman great," was fulfilled because the only difference between us and the other guys was the JawJackers... AND... about 30 more fish!
When we decided to call it a day and pack up, the JawJackers collapsed very compact and simple so that they were easy to pack on and off the ice. They are also secure so that you don't have to worry about any part of the JawJacker getting caught on something and breaking off. My personal favorite part about the JawJacker is that you are more likely to catch more fish with them than you are without them. In my opinion, the more fish you catch, the better chance you have of catching a big fish! The great part about this day is that my thoughts were confirmed because the last fish we pulled in for the day was this great trout!
My Catch of the Day!
I would 100% recommend the JawJacker to anyone who enjoys ice fishing, or is thinking about getting started in ice fishing. You do not have to be a professional to run one of these contraptions, and they are worth every penny. Honestly if you see one of these things work you will realize that they are worth it! This is why Matt from JawJacker Ice Fishing Supplies is letting me give one of these away on my blog to show some lucky reader/follower how amazing this product really is! All you have to do to be registered to win is share this blog post either on Facebook or Twitter AND leave a comment below! The drawing will be Wednesday November 28th so please pass this word on and leave a comment for your chance to win a free JawJacker!!!
If you would like to purchase a JawJacker, please visit http://www.jawjackerfishing.com/
Visit his website for tips on ice fishing and other ice fishing gear!
As long as I can remember, my family has always gone camping on Memorial Day weekend. Some of my favorite memories from childhood have to do with camping and fishing with my family on Memorial Day weekend. Unfortunately, here in South Eastern Idaho, the weather isn't always cooperative with our plan to spend the four day weekend up in the woods. This year, the weather report said it was going to rain pretty much the whole weekend. In spite of the weather, our family decided we were still going to give it a shot. Friday afternoon rolled around and my wife and I decided to head up and set up our camp. The weather was spotty with gusts of wind and occasional rain showers, but we had camped in worse so we felt good about heading up. We got within a couple of miles from our camp site and the road was blocked by some fallen trees due to the gusts of wind. The rain had picked up a little on our drive up so I decided to be a good Samaritan and clear the road while waiting for the storm to pass so that I wouldn't be setting up my tent in the rain.
Me sawing away at the fallen trees
After clearing the road, the rain stopped so we finished the drive and set up camp. Pretty much every year we camp in the same spot right next to a small creek where we spend hours and hours running up and down the mountains, shooting guns, shooting our bows, and fishing in the creek catching our limit of small brook trout. These fish are definitely not monsters, but they are some of the best tasting fish I've ever had! After my whole family had showed up, we now had a camp with over 20 people hanging out having a good time! we sat around the camp fire cooking hot dogs and catching up with what was going on in everyone's lives. When the weather was good we would hang out by the creek catching as many fish as we could in hopes of having a big fish fry at the end of our trip. Unfortunately the good weather did not last long and the relaxing times next to the campfire soon turned into a few brainless men standing by the campfire getting rained on. Like I have mentioned this isn't the first time we've been rained on while camping on Memorial Day, in fact, to quote the women of our camp I'll say, "It just wouldn't be Memorial Day weekend if it didn't rain on us!". So we roughed it out the best we could the rest of the day Saturday, and hoped that we would wake up the next morning and have decent weather to finish our camping trip.
Now would be a good time to remind those of you that know me that my wife is currently pregnant with our first child. She is due the first part of July. So for those of you who can do math and know anything about pregnancy, you will know that my wife is far enough along in her pregnancy to make this camping trip even more of an adventure than it already is. Her biggest concern about camping this weekend was her comfort while sleeping in a tent while being over 7 months pregnant. It was my job this weekend to make sure she was comfortable and having a good time. Me being the husband I am, (despite how much I love camping and fishing) I'll admit, this camping trip wouldn't have been any fun for me if my wife wasn't having a good time. My enjoyment comes from sharing what means the most to me with the ones I love. My favorite part of camping is by far spending time with my wife relaxing and fishing in the same places I remember fishing as a kid. Sure enough, she was a trooper even with the weather being far from perfect. So when we went to sleep Saturday night I was hoping for a day with better weather that would allow my wife and I to spend the day together fishing in the creek. It was raining when we got to our tent and the temperature was dropping a bit so I turned on both of our Buddy Heaters we had and called it a night!
The next morning wasn't quite the way I had hoped the night before... When we woke up, the ground was covered with snow and our tent was close to collapsing due to the weight of the snow on top of our tent! Once again, this is not the first time it has snowed on us while camping on Memorial Day, but what was different is that it kept snowing, and snowing, and snowing all the way until noon on Sunday Afternoon!
Our Tent in the snow!
My Jeep and Tent in the snow!
Trying to warm up
My wife watching the snow melt
Sadly enough, we decided to head back to the house and finish our camping weekend with a big Dutch oven dinner at my grandparent's house. As good as the food was, it wasn't quite the same as it would have been when camping, but given the weather I guess it was okay. When Monday rolled around my wife and I woke up and felt that we got shorted on our outdoors weekend, so we decided to head back up to our camping spot and finish what we had started! My wife and I got up to the creek and fished for a few hours. We caught a few fish and had a blast doing all we could to enjoy the outdoors and get our minds off of work! We had a blast spending Memorial Day together doing what we had planned on doing even though the rest of the weekend didn't necessarily go as planned. We will be heading up again in a couple of weeks to give it another try and I'll be sure to write about it then!
.JPG)
.JPG)
