Weather: Cloudy, windy, low 60's
Moon Phase: 18% Moon
Location: Provo River (near Charleston Bridge)
River Flow Rate: 608 cfs
Bait: Curly tailed grubs, Rapalas
Who Went: Rick, Me
Rick and I went up to the Provo River just above the Charleston Bridge in Midway to see if the walleye spawn has began yet. I can confirm that it has started, but may not be in full swing quite yet. The real issue is the amount of water running through the middle provo right now. This year has been one of the wettest winters on record and they are predicting major flooding when it finally decides to warm up. April has done nothing but rain and snow! I checked the flow data for the river on the date we fished it and I was shocked when I saw that according to the Bureau of Reclamation it was flowing at just over 600 cubic feet per second (cfs). I backdated the flow data log to last year on the same date and saw that it was 200 cfs. That means the river is 3 times the flow rate that it should be based on an average year!
The river was flowing so fast that it made throwing any type of lure or jig almost impossible. I found one small spot that seemed fishable and began throwing a rainbow pattern rapala. I Caught 4 small rainbow trout, but no walleye and was ready to give up. Rick talked me into driving down to the Charleston Bridge to see if the flow was any better there, and it was. We had about 45 minutes left of daylight so we started casting curly tailed jigs into the main channel and bouncing them back down along the rocks towards us. We lost a lot of jigs to a submerged tree that wasn’t far off shore from us, but I was lucky enough to land one small walleye on a fire tiger colored curly tail with a ¼ oz jig head. The small male walleye was spraying milt, confirming that spawning is in process. No more walleye were landed and the fast flowing river was frustrating to say the least. We will hit it again next week to see if we can beat our one walleye outing.
Thursday: We launched at Bullfrog and headed 25 miles north to Good Hope Bay where we set up camp on the south side of Blue Notch.
After unloading our gear, we got on the water and started pounding the banks near our camp working spinner baits, curly tail jigs, and drop shot plastics. We hammered the smallmouth, but mostly small ones under 2 pounds.
We also caught a few largemouth bass, a few nice crappies including one 15-inch beast, one striper, one bluegill, and one nice walleye.
It seemed like you could hit all the species with a curly tail on a jig, while spinnerbaits were bass-only. The water near Blue Notch was slightly stained, but more on the clear side compared to some of the other bays. Afternoon water temps were around 58 degrees and the action was non-stop from about 2:00p.m.-dark. We ended up taking a mixed bag of all species back to camp where John filleted and cooked them for us to enjoy around the campfire. We worked the shorelines after dinner on foot near camp before we went to bed trying to find the walleye, but it never happened.
After trolling, we went into Ticaboo Canyon, but the water was crystal clear and we didn’t give it much hope. We did catch a few small bass, but the real excitement came when Rick pulled out his fishing bow and arrow! There were carp everywhere and it didn’t take long for Rick to slay his first victim.
After the seaside burial, Rick lost one of his arrows and we were down to one left. I only got a few shots in before it was gone! No more carp funerals were performed. After that we cruised over to one of the small canyons in the northeast part of Good Hope Bay and things started picking up, at least for Rick and John. They started nailing smallmouth, largemouth, and crappie from about 3:00p.m.-dark.
I caught a few, but missed and lost more fish during this stretch than the rest of the trip combined. Water was right around 60 degrees and slightly stained. Most exciting part is when we saw big bertha swimming around some sunken brush. I'm talking a 7 or 8 pound largemouth! She was huge and uninterested in anything we put in front of her. It was awesome just to observe her for a while.
We ventured back into Ticaboo Canyon across the channel from Good Hope and temps were up as high as 63.5 degrees. That got us excited and we absolutely dominated the bass. Mostly smallies, and most under 2 pounds. Got a few of them over 3 pounds, but generally smaller.
Highlight of the trip: In the far back nook of Ticaboo Canyon we got on a school of monster crappie hanging out around some large dead tree stumps that were sticking out of the water in about 7-10 feet. Literally every cast we got hit, with most of which were over 11 inches and some breaking 15 inches! Caught and released about 40 of them pigs. It was incredible!
Suddenly that action shut off so we headed back out working the banks and continued to slay the bass. We saw a few people trolling that canyon and were hooking stripers, crappies, and walleye left and right. None of us were in the mood to troll, plus there isn't a ton of room for multiple boats to troll, so we opted out of that. The best producing bait of the night was the jig and trailer. I have always had my doubts about them, but figured there was a reason all the diehard tournament bass fisherman used them, and that evening it proved them right. It helped me land the biggest bass of the trip at over 3 pounds.
Just before dark we talked to a group of guys camping in Ticaboo Canyon and payed them on the water pricing for some extra gasoline. We were a little worried that we might not have enough to make the 25 mile jaunt back to Bullfrog the next morning. I think it came out at $6.00 a gallon, but was well worth it! We worked the shorelines one last time before bed, but once again the walleyes were nowhere to be found.
The trip was incredible and I wish that one of us could have hooked big bertha swimming around, but oh well. It ended up being a numbers trip with a ton of fish being caught and mixed bag of all different species. Best Crappie trip I’ve ever had down there and the most walleye as well. Next year it’s big Bertha that I’m after! Just for fun here is a list of all the species caught; Largemouth Bass, Smallmouth Bass, Striped Bass, Crappie, Bluegill, Walleye, and a carp.
Needless to say the fishing was awesome and even though we didn't land a lot of bass, we managed to put 10 in the boat on a day with 45 degree air temps and on and off snow throughout the day! The best part is that almost all of them were pigs, with a couple pushing four pounds, like this one Rick caught.
I didn't come very prepared for bass fishing due to the fact I planned on spending the day walleye fishing, and my 6 foot medium light rod with 8 lb test reel wasn't ideal for dragging bass out of the thick cover. I lost two big bass with one that I felt would have been the big fish of the day. There was just no way to keep him from going into the stick-ups with my light rod and reel, and when I tried to force him out anyway, it resulted in my line snapping! Frustrating, but fun all the same! After a few hours we all felt we had beat the area to death and decided to go back to the Provo River Inlet to see if we could top off the already successful trip by landing a walleye. When we arrived at the river inlet two fishermen showed us two very nice walleye they landed earlier in the day and soon after we talked to them we watched them land another. We also saw two shore fishermen catch a couple nice fish. This boosted our confidence and Rick and I felt that with a little work we were finally going to land a few walleye! Unfortunately, the curse continued and we casted for 3 straight hours without even getting a bite! I'm still scratching my head and can't figure out why! Jason has had many good days on Utah Lake catching walleye, and after two fishless trips with Rick and me, he finally admitted that we must be cursed! It was still an awesome trip and I will definetely be fishing that bass spot again, but I think the pro walleye tour at Utah Lake is over. Supposedly the walleye will begin spawning at Deer Creek soon and I will probably shift gears and try my luck up there. Someday the stars will align and I will catch a decent walleye in this state!!!