Fishing Uintah Basin

Fishing with Shifty!

Thursday morning came fast! I woke up after a couple hours of sleep at 4:00 am and started to get everything prepared for a day on the water. Picked up Shifty at 4:30 am and we made our way to the Uinta Basin. Where we stopped in Duchesne and picked up breakfast and snacks for the day. On our way to our destination, somewhere in Uinta Basin. We made it to the lake at about 6 am and were fishing by 6:15. The night before yielded a full moon, we talked about our choice to fish on full moon days and concluded fish would be caught anyhow.

We started the morning off with pop gear, I was running a worm and Shifty was would run a pink squid. Shifty was first on the board this morning, but it was l slow, after an hour we found a school of trout that was hungry, and Shifty landed our first of the day. A rainbow trout good colors and a good fight. Shifty landed the next and I changed colors of pop gears. The second rainbow was a bruiser! Easily 3 pounds or better. We fished most of the morning trolling for trout. I landed my first rainbow and it was a nice fish but not near the size of Shifty’s. My second however matched his big 3 pounder and the game was on. I caught another small rainbow and also hooked up a small mouth off the bank while casting into a spot where a fish had just jumped and hooked up the little smallmouth bass but didn’t land it. We fished for another hour and got one more fish, a perch that I had to keep because the fished swallowed the hook.

 

 

At 11:00 am we started casting crankbaits into the banks. I used a Rippin’ Rap Rapala Firetiger pattern and Shifty put on a perch pattern lucky craft. We fished the rocky banks of this lake looking for any sign. I was the first to catch smallmouth bass and then the slam began. The smallmouth bass could not stay away from that Rapala. I caught fish very fast nothing of great size but all had a good fight to them. Shifty changed up lures a few times and then found one that the fish liked and he got a couple in that run. I caught the biggest smallmouth bass I have ever caught it weighed in at 2.5 lbs and what a fighter, it was awesome. I got second big smallmouth bass and this one got back at me by driving a couple barbs of the treble hooks into my thumb. It hurt! Shifty grabbed the fish while I took the buried barb out of my thumb, pretty sure I got this on video so you will have to watch the YouTube video. Not real funny at the time but after the initial pain went away we laughed pretty good about it. My Rapala Firetiger stayed hot most of the day. We fished the bays and rocky shoreline of the basin lake for the rest of the day. I continued to catch quite a few fish ending with over 30 fish on the day with Rainbow trout, smallmouth bass, and perch. Special note I caught three fish trolling the Rapala one rainbow and two smallmouth bass. Shifty made it over double digits on the day with definitely the biggest rainbow trout of the day. We will return to this lake! We found a great little ma and pa store near the lake that has great burgers and fries!

This is the lure I used a Rippin’ Rap Rapala Firetiger.

Small Mouth Bass @ Jordanelle

Wow, I can't believe I did not post this already. Actually been trying to get them edited and posted, 6 hours of video but I have condensed it down to 20 minutes. The day fishing was epic. We had double-figure catches before 8:30 am all smallmouth bass and some okay sized ones. Shifty started us off with two quick catches before the camera was set up. We talked with an angler at the dock who told where to go and what to use. He and his daughter had been out earlier in the week and caught near 50 total of rainbow trout and smallmouth bass using a lipless crankbait. So we followed him and his advise. We started catching immediately. He was using an spro lipless crankbait but we didn't have any of those so we matched pattern as much as we could and it worked.

Like I said Shifty started us off fast and we kept the momentum until about 10 am when the bite slowed considerably. We moved around and changed baits and presentations and started catching more fish. Shifty finally pulled in a small brown trout while trolling a crankbait, he actually caught three fish trolling crankbaits that morning. We had a great time on the water and watched some SUP'ers do yoga and were cracking up. They asked if we wanted to join and do headstands with them.....LOL. We fished until earlier afternoon and moved up into the bays and Shifty put on a purple grub and started catching some nice sized smallmouth bass. We finished with over 30 fish and Shifty caught the most and I ended up with the big fish of the day. I think Shifty had a couple larger but we didn't weight them.

The video can be found on our YouTube channel here. I hope you enjoy it we had a blast making it.

Fishing Rockport for Rainbow and Brown Trout

The catch of the day not bad for a weird day

Today we fished Rockport Reservoir, we were looking to catch Rainbow and Brown trout. We were the first boat on the water and launched at 5:30 am. The water was rippled and the wind continued all day and picking up as time passed. We started trolling immediately passed the buoys of the dock and worked our way south. We had fish hooked up almost immediately only to lose them. That was the story of my entire day! I had at least 15 fish hooked up with a couple very nice trout only to lose them at the boat, I can't answer why I lost them kept good tension on them and the tip loaded the entire time but I lost every fish I had hooked up today.

Sunrise is coming

  

Sunrise on the water a great way to wake up

Parker on the other hand was catching and landing fish most of the day, he lost his fair share of them as well but he managed to get a few to the live well. We fished 30 - 50 feet in depth most of the day and Rainbow pop gear was the color of the day. I had a couple early on cowbell prism tape but it shut down quickly and the rainbow stayed hot all day. It was a great day of fishing we had over thirty fish on the line but for whatever reason we could not get them landed. It was fast and furious early in the morning but slowed as the day progressed. We got fish in each lane and like I said it was rainbow that they wanted. Good luck on your next trip! I will figure it out and land some next trip.....

Parker excited to be fishing....lol

Fishing with Coach Mac

Friday morning was my first official day of being retired after 30 years in education. I called my good friend Coach Mac and asked if he wanted to fish Strawberry. He accepted the offer and we planned to meet at 5 am and go to Strawberry, our plan was to catch some Kokanee and make it back home early. We met up and made our way up the canyon exchanging stories along the way and then we crested the dam at Deer Creek and it was glass and not a boat in sight. Our plans changed we decided to go for some big rainbow trout at Deer Creek. We had to go into Heber for bait though. We made it back to the Island park and it was closed! We continued back the state park and found it closed as well, this was 5:45 am and they weren't open for fishing!! Not cool! But a boat pulled in behind us and went through the out gate and we followed. The State needs to rethink their plan on that.

We made it to the ramp and launched, we were the first boat on the water. We ran to the Island and started trolling within 5 minutes Mac had a fish on and landed, Then he got another, he was running flashers set up for Kokanee, but then I got landed one on rainbow pop gear. The fishing was hot and fast for the first pass through the lane and we had five on the boat in a half hour. We made the turnaround and I got another in the turn. We continued back through the lane and got nothing. The fish we got were all small planters, thinking the bigger fish must be in deep water we cut across the main body to the white rocks and fished that lane but still no fish. I changed up rigs a couple times looking for the right color and flash combination. The change of colors was not helping. We made a diagonal cut back to the point and as we crossed the main body I got two fish still small planters. We ran the island lane again and Mac got two decent sized rainbows but still not what we would call footballs. Trolling past the island and into the rock fields we tried to get some action but nothing was biting there. We continued on to the white cliffs and the river channel getting nothing.

We pulled the trolling motor and made a run to the dam thinking again they must be in deeper water. We dropped in at sailboat beach and trolled the roadside catching a couple more decent sized rainbows but the big ones we were hoping for. We trolled across the buoys and decided to call it a day. The wind was coming up and the recreation boaters were out by the masses. We loaded and got the boat decontaminated by the girls at the station. Overall it was good catching day with over a dozen landed only three of decent size, however.