We have had some warmer temperatures than usual the last little bit that many anglers are wondering about the ice fishing conditions. Division of Wildlife Resources Conservation Outreach Manager, Brandon Behling took time to speak about the ice fishing and recycling your Christmas trees.
“Good ice to get out on would be up at Scofield there in the cove where the dam is at. The rest of Scofield is forming, we’re seeing ice form, there is a little pocket of open water, last I heard. Yes, it looks like there is ice there but it’s probably not safe ice that you want to venture out on. Anytime you do venture out on the ice, I just want to encourage everybody to practice ice safety. You never know when you’ll find a soft spot, so just be safe anytime you venture out,” stated Behling. Where Scofield is the first to freeze up there have been holes dug into the ice already so it could pose some dangers when walking through that area.
As far as the lakes around the Energy Loop they are hit and miss at this time. “Right now, there’s just a little bit of ice forming, it’s not capped on Electric Lake at all. Cleveland has capped, but last week when I was up there, the ice was just not good ice to get out on. Mammoth though, Huntington Mammoth, you can get out on it. I had friends fishing it yesterday, there was 8 inches of good ice, the fishing was a little bit slow. But they were able to get some decent fish out, that they were able to take home and cook up last night,” said Behling. If you have gone out ice fishing and have a report that you would like to share with the DWR, just call the office and let them know your report.
If you opted for a real Christmas tree to adorn this year, you may not know what to do with them once the holidays are over. The DWR would love to have you recycle your undecorated trees with them this year. “We’d like you to bring those trees to us. We’re going to have two locations, here at our office on Carbonville Road. We’ll have a drop off there, we usually put a dump trailer out there that you can either set your tree next to or if you want to toss it in the trailer, that works as well. Then out at our Desert Lake Waterfowl Management Area at the parking lot with the kiosk, that’s an area we set aside where you can drop your tree off there,” explained Behling. Please remove all of the ornaments, and decorations, the DWR just wants the naked tree.
To keep up to date on DWR activities and happenings visit their website at https://wildlife.utah.gov/