Weather: Sunny, hot, high 90's
Moon Phase: 7% moon
Location: Deer Creek (east of island along rocky shoreline)
Bait: Everything!
Who Went: Me
I had a hard time deciding on a place to fish this weekend. I had it pre-planned to take my float tube and leave the boat at home to save money, and I wanted to try somewhere that I don't fish often. The spot I narrowed it down to was Deer Creek Reservoir. Its close to home, and probably the one reservoir within close proximity to my house that I don't know much about. I wish I could say I increased my knowledge while fishing there, but unfortunately I didn't have much success. I was mainly fishing for trout and walleye, and I used an assortment of different tactics to try and entice them with. I tried jigging with a tube jig tipped with worm. I tossed curly tailed grubs. I threw rapalas and spinners. I tried dragging the bottom with tube jigs and curly tailed grubs trying to find the walleye. I also drop-shotted a gulp minnow thinking that might peak their interest. I fished depths from 1 foot all the way out to about 40 feet of water, and after 3 hours of no bites, I decided to fish for the only species I have caught consistently up there, Smallmouth Bass. I rigged up a drop-shot with a roboworm and started casting towards the rocky shoreline, and within a few casts I had a hit but did not hook up. Shortly after getting hit, I landed the first fish of the day with this 10-12 incher.
I Had a couple more bass that wanted to play, along with one small bluegill, but that was it for the trip. Once again I left Deer Creek Reservoir with a dissapointed feeling and wished I had went somewhere else! I did stop by the Provo River right below the Jordanelle Reservoir Dam to see what it was all about. I have heard stories of some big Brown Trout coming from this area, but have steered clear of this stretch of river due to the fact that its a fly fishing hot zone. Unless you pull up to the parking lot in a suburu, and get out of the Suby decked out in your columbia fly fishing gear and russle around the river banks turning over rocks to find the hatch, then you can feel a little out of place. You also have to go back to the car and sit on your bumper and tie your own fly matching that newly found hatch, and then go out and be "one with the river," as you fling your pocket lint around. This is the life of a true purist fisherman! Whatever, I went anyway, and just as I described I pulled up to a parking lot full of Suburu's and a bunch of hippie lookin dudes hanging out together tying flies and drinking pale ale. I hopped out of the truck, grabbed my spinning rod, tied on a rapala right in front of them matching my hatch, and headed down to the river. Unfortunately the river is still running very fast and it made it impossible to fish a rapala effectively and I didn't end up catching anything, but I explored the area and I think it could be a great place to fish in the fall when the river settles down. All in all it was an average trip, but it beats sitting on the couch.
Its that time of the year again and its becoming an annual trip for me and my old man. Chasing monster Lake Trout at Flaming Gorge Reservoir. This time my dads best friend Mike Hansen wanted to tag along and take his chances on catching a fish of a lifetime. He's glad he did! We got up there on Thursday night and had plans of fishing Friday through Sunday. With the sun going down on Thursday night the first storm of the trip started rolling in.
We went to bed and hoped for the best for Friday morning. It ended up being beautiful and the best morning of the trip. Surprisingly my old man was waking us up before the alarms even went off (this never happens)! We were on the water early and started fishing Linwood bay. The breeze was still lingering from last nights storm so we decided to move to a spot we felt would be sheltered by the wind. This area is called Swim Beach and it ended up being a very good move. We were seeing fish all over on the fish finder and were getting some real active chasers when Mike screamed "Fish On". I grabbed the camera and started filming and my dad took net duties.
We do not have an official weight on this fish cause I only have a 20 lb scale, but my guess is somewhere between 20-25 pounds. It was a beautiful fish and we got her back in the water for others to catch and enjoy. It was a great start to the trip and Mike was excited. Then about 20 minutes later Mike was yelling again, and pulled in this nice 8 pound mack.
After that it was my dads turn and he landed this nice 7 pound mack!
I ended Friday mornings fishing by making the final drop of the day and landing the smallest fish of the trip at 5 pounds.
The wind started blowing pretty good by 11:00 a.m. so we headed back to camp with plans to hit the evening hard when the winds died down. The only problem was that the winds didn't die down THE REST OF THE TRIP!!! We lost our tent the second day. We were all sitting in camp chairs next to the tent when a wind gust came up and we heard a big snap and then rip. The tent poles snapped in the wind and the sharp edge where the pole broke ripped a long hole right through the tent.
My old man ran to town and bought a couple two man tents which worked well for me and him, but Mike being 6' 5" had to leave the door open and hang his feet out to sleep which was a funny sight. We still went out and fished every morning and evening, but the weather just didn't want to cooperate. You can tell in this picture that even right before dusk the wind was still blowing us around.
We did have a few good hits and I had one that was on for about two seconds that felt like a good one. Mike had the hot hand on this trip and was able to land the only fish caught after Friday morning with another 8 pound mack.
I felt it was still a successful trip for the most part, but my main goal was to get my old man into a monster fish which didn't happen. He did catch a nice 7 pound fish and I think he had a good time, so the big one for him will have to wait til next year!