Quadfishathon, Utah State Parks’ annual four-park ice fishing competition, is scheduled to return this year from Jan. 18 through Feb. 2, and registration is still open.The dates are ice-conditions permitting, said Utah State Parks Deputy Director Chris Haramoto, and with warm temperatures so far this winter, he anticipates this weekend’s plans at Lost Creek State Park and East Canyon State Park to be postponed or adjusted. “As far as temperature wise, it’s been abnormal, and we just haven’t had the freezing conditions to get the reservoirs totally capped over,” he said. “Our park managers there are checking (the ice) right now. I would say within the next day or two … my guess is it’s going to be pushed and moves further out.”It’s a challenge they’re working to manage as climate change affects the area; last year’s competition was canceled due to lack of ice. Haramoto said it’s even changed over the course of his career with the state parks, having started as the park manager for East Canyon.“Typically by the end of January, the ice started melting and we’d have open water for sure by February. And I think last year, maybe even the year before, we’ve had later winters, going into February, even in March,” he said. “Back in my day it was unheard of when we first started. So we’re just trying to find out how Mother Nature wants to work with us.”People who have already registered should receive updates through the contact information they provided, and updates to the tournament schedule will also be posted to the state parks website, stateparks.utah.gov.Haramoto said while one option might be to modify the tournamnet to regular fishing, they’ll do what they can to keep it focused on ice fishing.“We really love focusing on just the ice fishing aspect of it, because the cool thing about ice fishing is that you can go anywhere on the reservoir, and everything’s equal. It’s not a boater against a shore fisherman, or angler,” he said.This particular ice fishing competition was born-and-bred by the state parks department in 2015, an idea Haramoto and other park managers designed to increase exposure to a variety of nearby parks, said Devan Chavez, public information officer for the state parks. “This gives people a chance to experience four unique parks. State parks in Utah, in general, are all very diverse. And I think that what makes the Quadfishathon such a unique event is you can experience four parks in the Wasatch Back area that are very, very different from each other,” said Chavez.Credit: Courtesy of Utah State ParksThe four parks differ from the landscapes to the drive out, he said, and even in the fish behavior and where they can be found under the ice.“Ice Fishing is a very intense sport. People love it. People are ice fishermen. They’re dead set, they absolutely adore it, and this gives them the opportunity to experience it in four vastly different places,” said Chavez.Plus, there’s prize money. People can register for individual park competitions at a $50 entrance fee, or $150 to compete in all four, with cash prizes for first, second and third at each individual park, then first, second and third overall. Each competition runs from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m., with check in starting as early as 6 a.m. on the day of the event.The person with the largest fish — trout and kokanee salmon only — is the winner, Chavez said, and each participant can turn in their largest four catches to be considered. If there’s a tie, the largest first-measured fish will be deemed the winner.Prizes for each individual leg of the competition are $600 for first, $400 for second and $250 for third, and the quad prizes overall are $1,500 for first, $1,000 for second and $700 for third.“We will have park staff, as well as law enforcement staff, who attend these events to ensure that all rules are followed for the event, but also all rules are followed when it comes to fishing. So you do need to have a valid fishing license, and you need to follow all the rules in the fishing guidebook,” Chavez said.The event’s four stops are currently planned at Lost Creek State Park on Jan. 18, East Canyon State Park on Jan. 19, Rockport State Park on Feb. 1 and Echo State Park on Feb. 2. “Ice fishing has a lot of strategy to it,” said Haramoto. “There’s a lot of folks that will go out and identify the areas they think are good, and sometimes those areas are good, and sometimes they’re not. So, what’s the strategy of when I got to move from one spot to another? How long am I going to spend in one place? How close do I need to be to the measuring table?”Ice fishers are permitted to use off-highway vehicles like ATVs or snowmobiles if ice depth is considered safe, and must use launch ramps.“Always remember safe ice practices. It’s an interesting concept of ‘safe ice,’ because in our opinion, ice is never one-hundred percent safe, regardless of how thick it is. So if you’re going to plan on taking an auto vehicle onto the ice, whether that be for one of these tournaments or ever, whether that be one of our state parks or really, any water body, please check for ice thickness,” said Chavez. “Six inches at least for a single OHV, such as a snowmobile or an ATV, and if you’re going to bring multiple, we say that nine is a good practice for it. But always, always, always check ice thickness, just like you would check the weather, just like you would check traffic, checking for ice thickness is vital.”The deadline for registration for the entire tournament, and for the Lost Creek State Park event, is Jan. 16, and can be made at parkspass.utah.gov/parks/quadfishathon/info. The deadline for the Rockport and Echo portions of the competition is Jan. 31. If any portion of the event is canceled, participants will be refunded, said Chavez, and any further questions can be sent via email to [email protected] post Utah State Parks hosts annual Quadfishathon ice fishing competition, ice conditions permitting appeared first on Park Record.