And, then, it became painfully obvious why so few anglers brave the Uintas in the winter. Getting to Washington Lake proved quite a chore, one I felt the aftereffects of as I pulled the 14-inch rainbow through the ice.
With a sparse snowfall this year it seemed like the perfect time to gas up the snowmobiles and make the journey. As it turned out, we had planned the excursion on the day of the biggest storm of the winter. The first 11 miles from the gate on the Mirror Lake Highway (state Route 150) went well enough, but the last 1/2 mile to Washington Lake wore us out.
Between 28 and 34 inches of wet, heavy snow made getting the snowmobiles to the lakes an adventure. Six times during the trip we dug machines out, after they'd become stuck in the belly-button deep snow.
Playing tow trucks to snowmobiles wasn't the only thing that made our arms feel like Jell-O. On the ice, we soon realized the three-foot blade on the power ice auger wasn't long enough. We had to clear snow off of the ice before drilling the hole just to give the auger enough room to operate. The ice was probably between 12 and 16 inches thick.
Wes Pearce, an employee at the Kamas Fish Hatchery, was the first of our group to hook up. He pulled the rainbow trout through the ice about the same time the first gust of wind hit. Fishing was good, but not worth the blistering our faces got from the blowing snow.
Joe Donnell, a state parks employee who grooms the snowmobile trails in the Uintas, suggested we move closer to shore to find a wind break. Ted Hallows, director of the Kamas Hatchery agreed, thinking we might also pick up tiger trout in more shallow water.
The five of us spent the next 90 minutes pulling 8- to 14-inch rainbows, brookies and tigers - a hybrid brown and brook trout - through the ice, using the snowmobiles as seats. The fish were hitting small jigs, ice flies and lures tipped with everything from sucker meat to night crawlers to wax worms.
Hallows said the bait probably didn't matter as much as the location. Many people think all lakes in the Uintas suffer winter kill, Hallows said. He went on to explain while some lakes do lose fish in the winter, most provide good fishing throughout the year, even though they aren't stocked twice a week like they are in the busy summer months.
"People think winter kill is caused because the lake is frozen solid," Hallows said. "It's actually a lack of sunlight reaching the vegetation in the lake which releases oxygen. That happens with deep snow on the ice."
As anglers often do, we thought the fishing might be better somewhere else. We moved to nearby Trial Lake where Hallows said the fish might be a little bigger and there was a chance we might catch a grayling or two.
Three snowmobile pit stops later, we drilled our holes at Trial. Again, Pearce pulled out the first fish. The wind had died and the sun was out. The fishing was just fast enough to prevent us from digging the sunscreen out, which we regretted the next day.
Many anglers figure the extra effort to ice fish in the Uintas is not worth the four-fish limit, but the thought of being the only people for 30 or so miles in the winter wonderland was a bonus.
A definite point of consideration for anyone planning a trip ice fishing in the Uintas needs to pay attention to the snow depth. We thought we had picked the perfect year, but Mother Nature made things interesting.
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* BRETT PRETTYMAN can be contacted at brettp@sltrib. com or 801-257-8902. Send comments to livingeditor@ sltrib.com.
Ice fishing in the Uintas
See a photo gallery and video of the Uintas ice fishing trip at www.sltrib. com/outdoors.
Snowmobiling in the Uintas
* MIRROR LAKE HIGHWAY is groomed each Thursday, from the Soapstone turnoff to Mirror Lake.
* ROADSIDE LAKES are the easiest to access. Reaching lakes farther off the main highway may require breaking trail.
* AVALANCHE DANGERS are real for snowmobilers in the Uintas. Avalanche advisories for the Western Uintas - including Daniel's Summit to Mirror Lake to the North Slope of the Uintas - are posted Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday and all holidays at www.utahavalanche center.org/. Click on "Western Uinta" button once you've reached the Web site.
Fishing regulations
* FISHING REGULATIONS are the same throughout the year in the Uintas. Anglers can take the statewide limit of four trout, but there is a bonus limit of four brook trout.
* OFFICIALS SUGGEST sticking to the four-fish limit, because some anglers have a hard time telling the difference between brook and tiger trout.
* THE SIZE LIMIT on an ice fishing hole is 12 inches.
