Three of us fished Hyrum on Friday (Jan. 8, 1999) and did well on 8-10" perch. It took us a while to find the larger perch; we could catch 4-6" perch about anywhere we tried. We did the best all the way across from the Swim Beach in 26 feet of water. We used various ice flies and Rat Finkees tipped with perch meat, perch eyes or wax worms. Fish were also hitting small jigging Rapala's tipped with the same baits.

When we found the larger perch we also caught several rainbow trout. Most of the trout appeared to be from this fall's stocking of catchable sized (10-12") rainbows. We caught a few larger trout and I had a brown about 3 pounds up into the hole where it broke my 2# test line.

Reports from Pineview were similar. Success was very spotty with one angler reporting catching 49 perch in less than an hour of fishing. He was fishing in only 15 feet of water. Another group of anlgers off Cemetary Point were catching perch as fast as they could while some others nearby hadn't caught a fish. Anglers should keep moving until they find fish. Don't fish anywhere more than 15 minutes without getting any fish. If you have a fish finder and the fish aren't biting then either try different methods or baits. If that doesn't work then move.

Many times perch are so tight to the bottom that unless you have a good fish finder and have it in 2x or 4x-zoom mode you will not see the fish. You can literally be catching fish you cannot see. The same with a fish finder on a step dropoff. The fish finder will not show the real depth and you'll be fishing deeper than the bottom shown on the screen and may have a big school of fish biting that are below the bottom shown on the screen.

Both Pineview and Hyrum had about 6" of ice. There wasn't any snow and the ice was very slick. With this unusual winter we are having it may be well worth the $5 for a set of "grippers" to prevent a painful fall on the ice.