Happy 24th of July Fishing!

Yep, we celebrated Utah's statehood on the lake. We went to our favorite lake and hunted for Kokanee Salmon. We got on the water later than usual but still one of the only boats on the lake.  That's why we like it, not many folks go there.

Full Moon Morning Troll at DC

Thursday this past week we hit Deer Creek for an early morning troll with Josh and Jim.  Josh had conference calls for work so we had to be in the range of his cell, plus DC has been good for us this season.

Grandsons Slaying Cutthroats at the Field

Saturday morning picked up Jimmy and his boys Max and Harrison. We made our way to Scofield and I was going to try something I have never really targeted on the boat.  Scofield gets extremely grassy in the later summer months so I decided to try jerk baits and spoons for the day.  I told them we may not get a bite but we were going to do it. Even running shallow we stilled picked up our fair share of grass.  I did try some 20-foot divers only to have them load up with grass immediately.  Our best lure was a 1/8th oz kastmaster.  We caught fish on a variety of lures but it was the most effective. We launched at 6:30 and started trolling immediately from the dock. We launched from the Madsen Bay ramp and trolled into the bay.

Monday on Deer Creek Trout and Smallmouth

Another Monday fish with Shifty.  He is getting used to this setup.  I like it as well.  I arrived at his place at 5:25 and he was pulling the boat out. Loaded up got breakfast and headed to the lake. It's nice to have Deer Creek in such close proximity and with so many species to choose from.

This morning we decided to troll for trout in the early morning and the for smallmouth bass in the late morning.  We launched at the state park and made our way up to the island lane and started trolling.

Shifty put in a Gulls Custom dodger and pink squid with a worm and I went all light today with my diver down to 30 feet and shallow crankbaits for the surface feeders.

Bass Monday

7-01-2019  Shifty did something out of the ordinary last week and asked if we could go fishing Monday morning.  I said okay of course.  Since Thursday was July 4th and we both had obligations we hit the water Monday morning.  Being it was a "special" occasion I decided that we would go after bass all morning.

Catching Pigs with the Grandsons!

6-29-19  My oldest son Jimmy and his boys joined me on the Fish Steeler Saturday morning at Deer Creek. I picked them up at 5 am and they were ready and waiting. We hit the road and headed for the lake. We were on the water just before sunrise and had lines in the water soon after launch.

Kokanee Hunt at Jordanelle

06-27-19 Shifty wanted to go after Kokes at Jordanelle so we headed to the Nelle.  We actually were going for the quadfecta of fishing; Kokanee, Trout (Rainbow, Brown), Smallmouth bass and Wipers.  We made it to the lake at sunrise and were on the water quickly.  We were on Shifty's boat today and he was in charge of the helm.  I was happy about that.

We went to the deepest part of the lake and started trolling for Kokanee.  Not really set up for Kokanee fishing I didn't have much confidence in getting one. Most Kokanee setups are downrigger equipped. We were running lead and divers to get down 30 feet. We trolled through the main body and really didn't get any indication of fish in the area so we made our way to the bank hoping they might be in shallower water.

We fished into the mouth of Rock Cliffs and found some fish on the finder. We fished for a couple hours changing colors speed and other presentations to try and coax anything to hit our lines. Finally, about 9 am I got a hit on a rainbow daredevil spoon on the diver at 30 feet.  It was a decent Brown trout. Got a pic and put it in the live well, it tore a gill when it hooked up.  I changed my top line to a crappie crankbait that went about 6 feet deep.  Reset my diver pole and bang the crappie lure got hit.  Reeled it in and low and behold it was a Kokanee Salmon.  Who would have thought that a Kokanee would hit a crankbait!  It was decent Kokanee going about 2 lbs.  We continued to troll and Shifty finally gave up on trying to navigate the wind and waves. This is why I was happy he was in the helm today!

We stowed the trolling motor and went to find some Wipers, but the wind was so bad that Shifty didn't think we could stay stationary long enough to jig for them. I agreed.  We made our way back into some of the bay on the north end and started casting crankbaits for smallmouth bass.  Shifty got on board with a smallie and then another.  I finally ended up with a couple smallies myself, and another Brown. Giving me the Trifecta of species. We didn't reach our goal of 4 species but still had fun fishing.

Stellar Morning Troll at Rockport!

Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I took a few days off to tour the Olympic National Park and had a great time hiking in and around the park. Since my return, however, we have put a few days on the water.

This post, Jim and I went to Rockport and the stars aligned for us. It also taught me a good lesson.  We launched at sunrise and started toward the dam. I was looking for brown trout and they generally hang out around the dam. However, as we started to roll I noticed a ton of action just outside the buoys and along the campground bank so I pulled back on the throttle and dropped the trolling motor and went back to the top of the run.

We put our lines in Jim with the jack-of-diamonds and I put in a bolo rainbow blade with worm trailers. Immediately after setting the line, Jim gets the first hit.  A nice fat rainbow trout. He resets his line and again another big hit from a bigger rainbow trout. I was trying to get a hard bait in the water but between netting his fish and navigating it took a bit to get the other line in and then I got hit on the rainbow blades, another fat rainbow. We had 3 fish to the boat in fifteen minutes and this action did not let up until 9ish.  I got a few more hits on the rainbow blades but Jim had the hot pop gear with JoD.  The B-shad got a few fish as well.  We had 24 fish to the boat by the time the bite shut down.  Nothing small all good-sized rainbow trout.

The bite slowed so I pointed the boat to the dam and went across the face but we didn't get a hit. So I turned south along the roadside and sure enough, we get into the fish again. Rainbow trout still for the first few fish and again nothing small.  We trolled down to the first bay and made our turn to go back and bingo.  The B-shad gets a hit. This was a decent brown trout. We got a couple brown trout but the rainbow trout were the fish of the day.

We had multiple double-ups and a few triple ups on this trip. It was an epic day on the pond!!  I'm sure watching us as we had triple hookups was comical as we tried to get three poles reeled in with only two of us on the boat. We finished the day with over 40 fish to the boat. All released to fight again.