Fishing an Old Favorite!

Parker wanted to fish our favorite lake for some Colorado Cutthroats and I had nothing better to do for the 24th of July. Utah celebrates the 24th of July when Utah became a state, it is called Pioneer Day and lots of celebration take place. Parker were celebrating our style with some fishing. I loaded up the boat and met him at his place a little after 5 am and we hit the freeway going south. After a quick stop for refreshments and breakfast sandwiches we are the road for the hour long road trip. 

Making it to the lake at 6:30 and the sun just beginning to rise it was 36 degrees at the lake, did I mention it was July 24th, nearly freezing point and the condensation was lifting off the lake as the water was 60 degrees when we launched. It was a very beautiful sight but at the same very chilly with a slight breeze blowing. Boats that had camped over were already on the water and running fast to the dam and deeper water. The lake is down about 20 feet right now and the bubble up was running low and slow. It had been three years since we fished our favorite lake since it was infested with Quagga Muscle but this year they deemed it clean and we couldn't wait to get on the water. We tried to get on it March but the snow to the ramp was still 3 feet deep and the ice wasn't off yet. We deemed that weekend Failure to Launch...LOL. This time however we made it and started trolling right of the launch ramp. 

We started with our favorite pop gear and pattern to begin the day out. The water being as low as it is we had to get through a little weed and low spot between the dock and the bubble up but once past it I had my first fish on. A small Colorado Cutthroat but still our first fish of the day. We fished for a while before our next hit but it was small Tiger Trout, since our last outing here they have introduced Tiger Trout and Kokanee Salmon to the lake, we are still out on our decision if that was good or not. We fished for quite a while before our next hit and Parker hooked up another nice little Colorado Cutthroat. He was happy to land his first of the day. By now we made it to the dam and the deepest part of the lake where there were number of down riggers running their light weight gear deep for the Kokanee Salmon. We were happy to keep hunting for those big Colorado Cutthroat that we had been catching before the lake was dirty. We found the pattern, depth and location of the fish about 11:00 and we kept them on the line pretty much for an hour missing a few as well. We limited out with Tiger Trout and small Colorado Cutthroats and felt maybe the hits we were missing might have been Kokanee Salmon since we were running lead line with no give that might have been ripping through the soft mouths of the Kokanee. 

Being the 24th of July we had family parties to get to for the evening and called it a day and stopped in Fairview for lunch at the local burger shop claiming the best burger in town, we agreed it was pretty good and fresh made. Great day on the lake after it warmed up it was bluebird day with a breeze every once in a while it was nice to be back on the high elevation lake but were a little disappointed for the size of the fish we landed, we were used to limiting out with 20 plus inch Colorado Cutthroats hopefully we just didn't find and they are still there.

Fishing with Shifty on Pelican Lake

Shifty invited me on an adventure into Eastern Utah to fish Pelican Lake fog Large Mouth Bass. I always take advantage to fish with friends and this is a lake I have not fished and wanted to. The Lake is reported to hold a large number large mouth bass in it along with slab sized bluegill. We left Wednesday evening and made our way to Vernal. Arriving in Vernal about 10 pm we registered and got some snacks for the fish on Thursday. Wake up call set for 4:55 am we crashed after setting up our gear for the conditions we thought we would encounter. 4:55 am came really fast for me but we were up and ready to go to Pelican Lake by 5:05 am, being told it was about 45 minutes to the lake we thought we would arrive just perfectly, but in reality it was only about 25 minutes to the lake out in the middle of the basin desert. 

The lake is a decent sized kettle lake but only 15 feet at its deepest. As we arrived the sun was breaking the horizon as we set up for launch of Shifty’s boat. Neither Shifty nor I had fished the lake before. I had been there 30 years ago but only from the bank and remembered it being over grown with grass and reeds so I didn't throw a line. We took advantage of the great sunrise and took a few pictures before embarking on our fishing adventure. The sunrise was spectacular and as we launched and readied for the day. 

We pulled away from the single boat ramp and dock and made our way to our first area. Just as I recalled it was overgrown with grass and reeds but this time we were outside the line and tossing back into them. That didn't matter as we still filled our hooks with grass, moss and other plants figuring out which was going to work best for the conditions. Shifty moved quickly to top water lures and I moved to floating jerk baits. We moved around the bank trying to find an area that wasn't quite as choked with plants. 

We fished for a good hour before our first hit and it was on Shifty's jig. Carefully placing it in areas that weren't totally choked out with plants he got a small, largemouth bass but it was a fish and we knew they were in there. The weather was perfect, no wind, bluebird skies and a cool desert morning. The water was stained for some reason, we couldn't tell why the water was stained, but knowing that the rule for stained water is dark that is what we threw. Shifty managed another larger fish. 

I tried to imitate his jig but got no results, then I put on a lure my mom bought me some 15 years ago called the "helicopter lure" Roland Martin was marketing them back in the day. I had never used them but thought, well if they worked for him maybe. I changed colors a couple times and tied on a white helicopter and fished it top water style and the second cast resulted in largemouth bass hitting it. I was truly amazed that this lure actually caught a fish, I thought it was a gimmick from the start but it actually got a fish and I was good with that, at least we didn't travel 3 hours and get skunked. We moved about the lake and kept going to areas that looked like the prime areas for the largemouth bass but resulted in nothing. 

So we returned to where we started and threw again what we had gotten hits on. Shifty got another decent sized fish and I was running a jerk bait. The jerk bait proved good for me and I landed another fish the largest of the day but not by any stretch of the imagination a lunker. We called it a day at noon having fished hard and changed style, technique, and lures multiple times in the 6.5 hours we had been on the lake. We loaded up the boat and headed for home, stopping in Roosevelt at a burger shop for lunch and a Bacon/Maple shake for the road, yep it was good. I want to thank Shifty for the invite and adventure to a new lake for fish I don't naturally fish for. Had a great day visiting and sharing stories.

Catfishing for Tacos

Saturday, Jim, Parker and myself went hunting for catfish. We started out in the reeds but the water is so low in Utah Lake that we had to literally push our boat back into deeper water.

We headed out to Bird Island about 8:30 and anchored up in our favorite hole with drop offs all around us. Parker was first out and first with a catfish. We thought "alright it's going to be a good day." We each put two poles out and watched. Parker got another nice catfish in a few minutes, then I got a hit and brought it in but it was a mud cat so we released it. Parker had brought in two nice channel catfish on hot dogs, mine was on shrimp. We kept the same set up for a bit and then I got another hit and brought it in, it fighting hard and felt heavy and thought I had hooked up a nice blue catfish, but no, the flash of gold told me I caught a big carp! It was a nice one at 7 lbs, but still a carp, doing my civic duty I did not return it to the lake. Utah DNR is trying to remove the carp to save the June Sucker, a native fish found only in Utah Lake. We fished the island for a couple hours and caught a few more cats and missed a number of hits. 

We went to another favorite spot at the south end of the lake with buried rock piles which we know they like to hang out on. We were in the water for just seconds before a big hit a Jim's pole happened. He reeled it in for a couple minutes fighting it in, it was gator rolling like crazy. Jim finally got it to the boat and it was a big blue catfish, the biggest of the day! Jim was very happy to have caught the big blue, he was fearing that he might get shut out. We all caught a couple catfish in the rock piles and Parker managed a white bass. It was getting hot and the wind started to come up and a storm was on the horizon. Utah Lake is not a lake to be on when the wind kicks up so we headed for the dock with a nice well full of Taco fillets.

Fishing the Secrets

Friday morning and I am packing my truck for fly fishing some small streams with some great friends. Ross and Ryan Reed have been telling and shoeing me pictures of this awesome stretch of stream that very few people fish. It is up one of the more known canyons and water ways of the area but the stretch they fish is hard to get to and most times overlooked by the majority. Ross called me up Tuesday afternoon asking if I wanted to fish, does the ice melt in July, of course I wanted to fish. We planned to meet at 9 at his house and go from there. A little later than we normally leave for a fishing day but I was happy for the sleep in. Packed up the gear and headed south.

Picked up Ross and his son Ryan at their place. Ryan was up from Las Vegas where he works as lawyer and was looking for some down time and fish. Ross is a full time teacher and coach, so his time is just as precious especially with his son. We left for the area they wanted to take me. Up a good graded road about an hour later and we prepared for the hike into the area we were fishing. The first pitch was steep and gravelly but we navigated it okay, got to the trail and made our way in about a quarter of a mile and then into the second steep pitch we dove. A gnarly slip and slide down to the stream we were planning to catch some nice browns out of.

I take my time in these remote areas and nasty descents so by the time I reached stream bed Ryan was already throwing loops into the fast moving water. The water was crystal clear and fast moving with lots of rock pockets and folds with a few eddies. Ryan cast a few times then Ross laid out a couple loops and then I tried my hand at getting into a nice pocket with good little folds off each side of the rock. Getting no hint of a fish rising Ryan quickly switched up to a trailer on his top water fly. We moved upstream watching each other try our shots at the holes as we walked. Pausing sometimes to take in the scenery and beauty we were engulfed in. We moved up stream at a fast pace again seeing nothing rise or even spook out of the holes we were fishing after we threw a few good cast at each one, we started to question if the stream had any fish at all. Ryan and Ross both swore that the fishing was great just last year where they caught big brown trout and many of them in the course of the day. I lost a couple flies to the tree mongers and rock fish of the area and was quickly tying on new patterns to see if I could get a rise from one of the patterns. We fished a good 500 yards of the stream and did not see one fish even spook out of a hole.

We stopped and talked and again questioned if there were any fish in this stretch of the stream. Ryan finally felt he got a couple hits on his nymph trailer. That made us perk up a little and gave us a little enthusiasm. So we pressed on, myself lagging back a little in hopes of getting one of the holes to produce on my top water offerings. We fished up to where the trail came closer to the river with only a short scramble up a steep incline. On the way Ryan had a fish hit his top water twice but then couldn't get it to come back up. I on the other hand was still trying to navigate the water in my hip waders and trying not to get totally soaked. It has been a long time since I had the opportunity wade through heavy fast water like we were in and my calves, thighs and ankles were starting to feel it. We sat on a couple rocks while Ryan refilled our water bottles a couple times from his filtered bottle. We then decided to make the scramble thinking the day was a bust on the stream. The fish just weren't there, we wondered if the fish and game came in and cleaned the stream out or some other phenomenon took place to clean out a stream that, to the day a year earlier produced over 100 fish in a day. In any case we made the scramble up the steep hillside, Ross had to attempt it twice and I was determined to make it one attempt and did with the helping hand of Ryan at the top. We made our way back to the truck stripped out of our fishing gear and talked about the journey we had just be on. Discussing what to do next we loaded up and hit the road came to the fork and turned left toward the main canyon and decided we weren't done fishing.

At the main road we took another left and headed up the canyon a few more miles to hidden gem in a canyon that is seldom ever traveled for fishing. The stream is tight and over grown with willow. The bed of the stream is thick with grass and if the wind comes up forget about it your fly will land in the overgrowth before it hits the water. The beauty of the stream is that holds some of the prettiest brown trout in the state and they are virtually untouched. I have never seen another fisher on this stream in the 20 years I have fished it. We got to one of my favorite stretches and Ryan readied himself for battle. He lined his pole and put on a royal wulf which has always done well for me in the stream. He started to put on his waders and I said he wouldn't need them for this little bit of fishing. Words that came back to haunt him sooner than later as he hung up quickly across the stream, he got wet and nearly lost his sandals to the mud. I lead him to the first little hole that was slowed by dead fall and small pool was formed immediately the fish spooked. This stream is one that the fish can feel you walk along the streams edge. I saw the first big brown spook and run for the cover of the thick willow branches that cover the stream except in small areas. Ryan went down stream and came back up to the small opening and tossed the fly in with the finesse of a pro, it landed without a ripple he let it drift back to him, one more time back into the hole and slam Ryan hooked up a nice 16 inch brown he played for just a little bit then it was gone as fast it hit. They are adept to spitting the flies out easily. He went after it a few more times but nothing. We moved to the next opening where he had a number of followers and nudgers but they wouldn't hit the fly. We moved on upstream and the same results we watched as the brown trout would come up and actually push the fly but never slurp it in. It was late afternoon by now and families awaited our arrivals home so we called it a day and headed for home.

On the way home we discussed our day’s adventure and came to the conclusion it was a good day. The scenery and beauty of the areas we fished are unrivaled and the pockets of water we fished were pristine. I was introduced to an area I have wanted to fish for quite some time and I introduced my friends to an area they did not even know existed. Fishing is about being with friends and making memories, catching is always the bonus to an already great day.