Weather: Cold, windy, snow, 40's
Moon Phase: 41% Moon
Location: Utah Lake
Water Temp: Bass spot - 55 degrees.
Bait: Drop-shot with green/black and red flaked zoom worm
Who Went: Jason Willard, Rick, Me
With walleye still on my mind this spring, Rick and I met up with Jason Willard down at Utah Lake for round 3 of our attack on these elusive fish in 2011. We pulled up to the Provo Boat Harbor at first light and found the weather to be more like January rather than April. The wind was whipping, the waves were big, and light snow flakes were in the air, so we decided on Plan B instead... get breakfast at the local Cracker barrel and see if the conditions get better. When we returned from breakfast the conditions were a little better, but not great, and we made the decision to put the walleye fishing on the backburner and try to find some wind protected areas on the lake to bass fish until conditions improved. Jason told us he found a new secret spot where he's been catching big laremouth bass despite the cold spring conditions, so Rick and I were excited to see what it was all about. As we made our way to his secret location we were cruising along the weed edge of the lake, when Jason suddenly started heading right towards the cattails and phragmites that covers the shoreline! I couldn't believe it when Jason took his boat right through the thick cover and 20 feet later we popped out into a long corridor that looked like a river surrounded by stick-ups! We continued to cruise up the marshland river channel until we made it to the end where there was a small culvert with water entering the lake. The water temp was a few degrees warmer than the main body of the lake and it started making sense why the bass might be here.
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!!!
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