Yuba Reservoir Fishing

Friday, I decided to go fish for some Northern Pike at Yuba Reservoir. The lake is also known Sevier Bridge Lake in Central Utah. It is an agricultural reservoir and drained down quite a ways each summer for irrigation and other farming needs. I thought it would be good to go find some big Northern Pike early this season. Reports coming out on the lake that the Northern Pike were hitting and the action was fast. I invited my brother to go along, he is a Bass specialist but likes big fish and he has yet to land a fish out of Yuba Reservoir.

We met up at 5:00 am and hit the road it is a hour and half south of us and we wanted to be on the water by sunrise. We did just that after filling up and getting some needed supplies. We pulled into the marina about 15 minutes prior to sunrise. We launched and got metal in the water. Kelly was running crank baits and put on a Yellow daredevil, the reports said this was the hot ticket or a No. 5 vibrax spinner. We fished the wind break at the dock, again an area that was supposed to be hot and heavy with fish, for about an hour. The morning was brisk to say the least, not as cold as it was in the late fall when we last fished Yuba for Pike, but still quite cool at 30*. The water temperature ranged between 45 and 47 degrees all day, by mid-day it had warmed up to 60 degrees with clear blue skies. The wind wasn't terrible but it played with us most of the day. We fished the damn area, not the actual damn because they have closed off access to the damn with a buoy line, for a while and then kept moving around. We went to south end into a cove but the water in the backside was very stained and muddy with run-off what little there is left at this point. We started to drift cast back toward the marina for the rest of the morning. We through everything we had at them today, to no avail we did get a few hits on drift through a section by Painter Rocks but they shook off. I got the Hummingbird 688HD DI hooked up over the week and it worked great and showed fish all day, yes I checked to make sure it wasn't on stimulation a number of times....LOL. The finder did work great and it is great to have it at the front of the boat so I can follow contours a lot better now. The day ended with us hitting one more cove across from the marina, Kelly still has not caught a fish at Yuba and he has fished it with multiple people on multiple boats even his own. I think he is jinxed on Yuba. We will try again multiple more times to get him a Pike from Yuba.

Fishing the OC

Went to Richfield last week to support our school FFA program in state comps and they had a break for 3 hours where they were hanging out. I used this time wisely and went to Otter Creek just south of Richfield. The day was outstanding a few puffy clouds lingering around and the temp was perfect.

I arrived at the lake around 11 am and put on a Daredevil after 10 cast and not even a sniff I changed out to a Kastmaster. A rule I fish by is ten cast, if fish aren't hitting in ten cast you have on the wrong color, shape or style of lure/fly. I fished the bank for about an hour and half, but I wanted some distance so I was casting 1/4oz lures. Varying colors of the Kastmaster and varying retrieval speeds and depth until I found the right combination. It only took a couple changes in color and retrieval to make the connection. As I walked the bank I was looking for variation in the structure, depth and bottom. I found a spot with a good deviation in all aspects from the rest of the bank and figured it would be good spot to toss a few cast. Second cast and I hooked up! It wasn't a huge fish but a fun fighting rainbow trout, it jumped a couple times and gave it a could battle to get off.

I fished there for about 15 minutes caught a couple more and it turned off. I continued up the bank again looking for the variations and found another good looking spot and cast out, fanning cast left to right and working toward the center of my range. Third cast and hooked up in this spot with another good rainbow trout, not big in length but they all had good shoulders to them and were plump from feeding. I fished for another 30-40 minutes and working back toward the first hole. I worked that hole again for the last 15 minutes of time I had before I had to return.

I ended up with six nice fat Rainbow trout in all. The wind kicked up just before I left and the fish turned off just that quick. It was a great break even for the short period of time I was there. It had been years since I fished Otter Creek, but it won't be long before I return to this fishery. On the way back to Richfield I went through Koosharem and seen this cool old church/school building, it looked like someone had purchased it and started to renovate it.

Open Water Fishing

Saturday, March 7, 2015 Might be the earliest we have launched on the upper lakes of northern Utah. We did though and we had a great day, a needed day, a Bluebird day on the pond. Parker and I made tracks for one of our favorite ponds at 5 am and went through Heber picked up some breakfast and bait and was at the lake by 7:30 am after filling up the boat and truck. Stopped in the parking lot took care of some needed business and talked to the park ranger for a few minutes about what had been happening on the lake and what was happening today. On the south end of the lake they were having their annual "Eagles on ICE" demonstration, where the local fish and game show how eagles, hawks and owls work in the ecosystem. This is supposed to take place on the ice and the eagles and other raptors swoop in and eat dead carcasses on the ice, they improvised today and placed them on the floating dock decks.

We left the ranger and launched the boat. It started right up after a short winter hibernation. We took out of the marina and went to the dam to see if we could find some fish. On the way we encountered skim ice and floating debris throughout the lake. Cruising along we managed to hit one of the floating trees that was submerged, not to happy about the pin striping it left on the Fish Steeler! We also had to break trail through some skim ice and that was a new experience sounded like it was tearing the side off the boat, but we made it to the dam and rigged up for the first troll of the year. Using red blades I got the first hit of the year but it took me into the rocks and almost lost my pop gear. We trolled the dam for three passes and decided to run the west bank to see what was there. Parker landed a carryover rainbow trout from the fall planting and started the year off for us.

We changed up lures and gear and bait for about an hour before getting anything else to take the hook. I was rummaging through the pop gear and seen a willow blade with green and for whatever reason it spoke to me. I rigged it up and put it in the water got it set at our beginning depth and no more than locking the reel I had a fish on. Small carryover rainbow trout, but still a fish we weren't skunked. We fished the rest of the morning in our favorite pattern on the lake. Parker switched out to a rainbow pop gear and kept the JoD on the other. The fishing got hot at 11 am and didn't turn off. After Parker set up his rainbow he had a hit that dang near took the rod out of the holder. It turned out to be a beautiful male rainbow trout, a small hook jaw on it and great colors. 21 inches and 2lbs it was a great start of the soft water season. We both hooped and hollered when that rainbow was in the net! We continued fishing and within the hour we had 7 fish in the well most of which were small carryovers, but we were surprised at the action, after such a slow early morning start. We had to head for the dock at 12:30 to get home for work. Along the way I hooked number 8 three times! The first two again small carryovers, one Parker went after with the net and missed it and flipped the hook, the second I got to the boat and a piece of drift wood ran under the line just enough for the fish to throw the hook again. Third time was definitely the charm! I set my reel after drifting out the measured distance and few seconds later the rod took a hard hit at first I thought I was snagged up in shallow water it hit so hard, but no it started to dance! I quickly grabbed it and felt the head shake and dive. I told Parker it’s a nice Brown! I kept fighting it, it was a fun fight with lots of head shakes and I was sure it was a brown. It surfaced and showed its silver sides and I was shocked to see a big brood female on the end of the line. She was in the net, onboard in a couple minutes. Again we were whooping and hollering over the size of her. Big shoulders and clean colors another 21 inch fish and 2.25lbs of filet for the grill.

We loaded the boat and cleaned the fish at the marina. Not before we got a few pictures on the stringer with the bookend rainbows closing off the lineup. Another ranger pulled up and talked to us for a bit and asked us how we did. We told him with smiles on of our day and he congratulated us on having a great day and went on to check for invasive species papers. We put our fillets in the cooler and headed for one of our favorite lunch stops in Kamas, Hi-Mountain Drug, deemed the best burger in Utah a few years back, still kicking out great burgers, fries and shakes. While waiting for our meal we struck up a conversation with the co-owner and started talking fishing and he was telling us where to fish the rivers and we told him what we had done at the lake that day. We also mentioned the idea of frequent diner cards for those of us that ate there frequently and he had already been toying with the idea, fingers crossed. After we ate we got in the red mule and took off needing to cover some miles quickly for home made it the house in good time and in time for him to log-in for work.

I went home and met up with Rogan and his wife at the house. I didn't know it but we were watching our granddaughter for a bit, and it turned out perfectly, we keep the fillets for Rogan they eat fish with diets and we enjoy bringing them home for them. I told Rogan we had some fresh fillets in the cooler for his family when he returned and he said "oooh smoked!" I quickly responded with a yes and told him they would be here when they returned.

I quickly cleaned up the truck and boat and got on the next task of smoking the trout. I cleaned the fillets and seasoned them with salt, pepper and fish seasoning. Got the smoker set up with pecan chips. Let them smoke and cook for 90 minutes. Right in time for their return from seeing our newest granddaughter at the hospital. Let them cool and put them in a ziplock. Rogan was very much appreciative he eats the fillets for lunch and needs something easy and quick for lunches at his job.

Overall the day turned out great, other than the pin striping on the Fish Steeler. A bluebird day on the lake that was glass all day and gave great reflection shots all day.