Rainbows a Plenty

Tuesday I picked up longtime friend, teammate, and neighbor for a long overdue fishing trip.  Layne and I grew up in the same neighborhood and played football together through high school. We then became neighbors as adults, we have visited his property called the "Bear's Den" and stayed in touch. Layne also helped my dad coach the Orem Freshman Football team for a few years. This trip has been discussed for a couple years now and our schedules never lined up until now.

Utah Lake White Bass

Last Thursday was a dreary day so Shifty and I decided to go after White Bass at Utah Lake. I arrived first at the marina and found a busload of Jr High students on the levy and in the exact spot we were planning on fishing. The DWR was there setting them up with all the equipment and they were catching White Bass pretty regularly. It was actually quite fun watching them catch their first fish ever in their life. Better than watching a movie in a classroom since it was the last week of school. I fished while I waited for Shifty to show up.  Shifty arrived about 20 minutes later.

We started fishing the inside of the marina bay and got nothing and moved along the bank. I changed up lures quickly and often. We fished almost to the end of the levy and didn't get a hit.  We heard the teacher yell out time to load up and the kids disappeared quickly to the bus. We wasted no time and moved into the spot we had originally planned to fish.  Shifty had on his favorite setup and starting catching the white bass often. I put on a white curly tail grub with a pink head and finally landed one. By now it was noon and we had plans to go to Scheels so we cut our time short and spent the rest of the day in SLC. Of course, we spent money we didn't need too!

Rainbow Morning

Tuesday morning I picked up Josh Kempsell, for a morning fish. Josh flew in from Dallas Monday and wanted to fish before we got to work on projects.  Josh is a lead technician for the company I work for. He fishes Lake Fork and other major Bass lakes in and around the Dallas area and occasionally fishes for trout and when he does they are planter trout. So I decided to take him to Deer Creek and see if we could find some big browns and bows.

We launched at the state marina and by 6 am and we were on the water fishing. Started trolling immediately headed towards the dam. We were marking fish along the roadside cliffs but did not get any interest. At the buoys, we turned west and tracked across the buoy line. That's when the fun began.  We made the turn to go across the lake and the inside line with the Jack of Diamond popgear got hit. Josh picked up the pole and started the morning off with a small rainbow trout.

Josh got his line back in the water and set just in time to get another hit.  A nicer rainbow trout still on the JOD popgear. Josh was getting to like this fishing. The Rainbow didn't disappoint it gave Josh a nice display of acrobatics as it came into the net.  This one a nicer 18-inch caliber rainbow trout.  The largest he had caught to date.

We continued on and put his line back in the water and then the light line with the #landitwithbandit B-shad Parakeet on it got a massive hit. Josh grabbed that pole and began reeling. This fish on the 7 ft medium action rod was a nice fight with a couple tail dances and displays, that is what makes me love catching big Rainbow trout. Josh was getting excited since he hadn't caught a rainbow this big.  He got it to the boat and in the net for a couple pics and it came in right at 2lbs.

I was running a "Thumper" two-tone nickel/brass Jack of Diamonds on my pole. We made a wide sweeping turn to go back through the lane, as we did so my line got hit.  On the outside of the turn, it sped up my popgear and the Rainbow was hooked up. A nice fight ensued and displays of full-on breaches were enjoyed by both of us. The fish was netted and high fives for the biggest fish of the morning so far were given.

We fished this lane until we were moved in on by other boats watching us catch fish and the bite turned off for the most part. We finished with 8 Rainbow trout in the net and LDR'd a few fish. We stowed the trolling motor and got on plane quickly moving to our next lane. Reaching the end of Rainbow Bay I set the boat down in the calm waters and set the trolling motor in action. The Ultrex got up to speed quickly and we had our lines set. We trolled through the Dead Sea and down through the Sea of Galilee, and made our turn out across Bearing Sea as we made our turn I got one to hit, landed it quickly and got the line back in the water just in time for Josh to catch his 7th fish of the morning and I got hooked up on another and landed my 5th Rainbow trout for the morning. A nice double up to finish the morning with. We ended the morning with 12 Rainbow trout in the net and Long Distance Releasing (LDR) a handful of other fish along the way. It was a solid morning of catch and release, loaded the boat by 10 am and on our way back to the valley.

Trolling Starvation

Last week Jim and I went to Starvation in hopes of getting in on the ice-off bite. We loaded up at 5am and hit the road.  We arrived a few minutes after sunrise and it was chilly! We launched the boat and went to one of the lanes that have been good to us in previous years and put the lines out. Running popgear and worms looking for some big browns and bows.

We trolled through these lanes for a good hour and got nothing and seen less on the Hummingbird. We moved areas and changed up tactics and still looking for a fish on the finder.  We tired of trolling and finally found a large pod of fish on a rock outcropping and stopped and jigged for an hour or so, Jim even went as far as putting on "POWER BAIT"!  Still didn't help!

We moved to the dam, an area I haven't fished much and figured out why. Got nothing. However, as we trolled away from the dam I finally got a fish to bite. Nothing big but it had fins, gills, and breathed water so it qualified. Nocked the stink off the boat!

We continued on since nothing was showing on the finder and then moved back across the lake to the cliffs. Along the way, I put on a Rapala and kicked it up to 1.8. Another little rainbow came to visit the boat and Jim landed it.

Yes, we dang near got skunked, spent 6 hours to catch these two fish. After we loaded up we talked with another couple of boats that just got off the water. The one capt. asked how we did and I said "not worth a tinker's", he replied: "oh well I feel good then, we got one fish to the boat." I didn't want to hurt his feelings but I did tell him we got two, he walked away. We marked very few fish all day long and covered a lot of water. Hopefully, we get into them next time. 

Big Brown Trout, Small Reservoir!

May started out better than April ended for the catching part of our trips. I only got one fish on this trip but Shifty got a few fish on a lake he has never fished.  This small reservoir is for irrigation and by the end of the summer, it is literally a puddle.  So that makes it more amazing that this little pond keeps these nice fish in it. Shifty hit the trifecta of the pond with a Tiger, Rainbow and a Brown trout. I caught a nice Brown for the trip.

We met up at my place at 5:45 am and took off the water. It's mountain desert reservoir about an hour and half west of the Wasatch front. We made it to the lake by sunrise and was fishing soon after. It was chilly in the morning and warmed as the day progressed. Shifty landed the first fish of the day a nice Tiger trout with a good fight.

Shifty caught the second fish as well another tiger trout. Then it was my turn. The fish hit like a tank and gave a nice fight. As it got closer I could see that it was nice sized.  Shifty came and helped land this beautiful Brown trout. The largest brown I had caught in years for this reservoir.  It was a great catch for me. The only fish I got for the day, but it made the day.

We fished the rest of the morning we fished the dam and Shifty got a couple more including a rainbow trout. We met with another fisher and told him where and what we were using and he moved to the other side of the lake and started getting hits. We fished our way back to him and Shifty ended the day with another brown and tiger.

Short video clip of the catch.

We finished the morning off with a great lunch at the Silver Sage. Met the owner and cook and showed him the fish we had caught for the day and he was very excited to see the size of the fish. We were excited to for the morning we had on the water.

Some Days You Catch, Some Days You Fish!

Haven't made a post in some time, since my solo trip to Palisade Res. Not because I haven't been, but because there hasn't been much to report on the catching side of things. I have been out with Jim and Shifty a couple times, both on the boat and from the bank.

The end of April was a slow catching but the fishing was good in the aspect that we were on the water and escaping some of the reality of life. We fished and relaxed and I caught few if any on most trips out. Shifty caught a few on each outing, Jim got a couple. The first outing was after my trip to Palisade, met up with Shifty on Thursday evening and fished the banks of Deer Creek, Shifty enjoys bank fishing, me not so much, but we are out. He landed a couple Rainbow that morning I got a great shot of the full moon rise.

Next up Jim and I went to Jordanelle for the Brown trout. Usually this time of the year the brown trout are slamming crank baits and jerk baits in the shallow waters.  We fished almost all day and tried everything in the boat and got nothing. Lost a few lures but not even a bite.