Weather: 60's, wind - 10 mph, partly cloudy
Moon Phase: 50% Moon
Location: Utah Lake
Water Temps: 47 deg in harbor, 55 deg in bass hole, 45 deg at Lincoln Beach, 47 deg Spanish Fork Inlet
Bait: Bass: jig-n-pig, Walleye: curly tail grubs on 1/8 or 1/16 oz jig head
Who Went: Rick, Me
Rick and I decided to take a half day off work today and go hit the walleye run at Utah Lake… Turns out, I should’ve stayed at work! We arrived around noon and fished the inside of Provo Boat Harbor hoping for an early spring bass. Water temps are still very cold inside the harbor at 47.3 degrees.
We didn't catch any bass inside the harbor, so we headed to our bass honey hole where water temps reached the 55 degree mark. Rick hooked into a nice bass right off the rip with this 3.5 lb fatty. It was caught on a black/blue jig with matching trailer.
We continued fishing this spot for over 2 hours and I couldn’t buy one bite. Rick landed one more chunky 2 lb bass, but that was the last largemouth caught all day.
Rick put on a small jig tipped with a meal worm underneath a bobber and caught non-stop bluegill while I continued to struggle trying to land a largemouth. I jumped off the boat to fish the shoreline for a bit and was amazed as the ground was moving with snakes! They were water snakes and I’ve never seen anything like it. As I stood there fishing they would crawl over my feet like I wasn’t even there. Not the place to be fishing if you have a snake phobia.At about 2:30 we made the journey over to Lincoln Beach. The wind was blowing on the main lake and the drive over was a teeth chattering experience (miserable). The wind was blowing from the south and once we reached Lincoln Beach it ended up being quite calm with West Mountain acting as our wind block. We both put on tandem curly tailed grubs in bright colors and started casting. After about an hour with no bites we decided to try the Spanish Fork River Inlet to finish the evening.
When we arrived at Spanish Fork there were already 5 guys lining the river channel casting away. We joined the group by anchoring our boat in the line-up and started casting with them.
Rick also threw out a worm on a sinker and started catching white bass immediately. By 7:00 the whole Spanish Fork River crew was getting skunked. The group had grown to 13 fishermen with no fish to show for it. At one point a lone fisherman away from the group had a walleye on for a minute, only to lose him before putting a net on him.
Just as it was getting close to total darkness we saw someone pull their net out in pursuit of a caught fish. At one point during the fight he had to put the net away just to keep fighting the fish. Rick and I got the feeling that this might be a big fish and we were right. The only fish landed all night was a 9.4 pound walleye with a belly the size of two softballs. The high fives began among the groupies and he took it onshore to take some photos. That was the highlight of the night as Rick and I left at 8 back to the Provo Boat Harbor. The ride home was pure depression. Our walleye efforts over the last few years have been nothing but heartache. We are headed to Lake Powell in April and it can’t come soon enough. I need to catch some fish!
Rick also threw out a worm on a sinker and started catching white bass immediately. By 7:00 the whole Spanish Fork River crew was getting skunked. The group had grown to 13 fishermen with no fish to show for it. At one point a lone fisherman away from the group had a walleye on for a minute, only to lose him before putting a net on him.Just as it was getting close to total darkness we saw someone pull their net out in pursuit of a caught fish. At one point during the fight he had to put the net away just to keep fighting the fish. Rick and I got the feeling that this might be a big fish and we were right. The only fish landed all night was a 9.4 pound walleye with a belly the size of two softballs. The high fives began among the groupies and he took it onshore to take some photos. That was the highlight of the night as Rick and I left at 8 back to the Provo Boat Harbor. The ride home was pure depression. Our walleye efforts over the last few years have been nothing but heartache. We are headed to Lake Powell in April and it can’t come soon enough. I need to catch some fish! 
I had a couple hours to spare so I ran out to the desert to see if I could entice any of the bass to bite at the "Shoe". The action was nothing like last week when John and I hit it right at dark. It's a tiny little pond with crystal clear water that's fed by warm springs.
The bass are active in the warm waters all year round, but if they see you it's all over and they won't bite. There are no bushes or trees to hide behind so fishing it unseen is very tough. I basically belly crawled to a casting point and began throwing the same spinnerbait that produced last week. Not even a bite! I switched up to a curly tail grub, but had the same results. I then tried pitching a jig, but they ran from that just like the others. Last resort was a drop shot rig and that got there attention, but still not enough to make them bite. This weekend was a complete largemouth bust!
At about 4:30 we cruised over to Lincoln Beach to try our luck for walleye. It was a perfectly calm evening and there were only 3 other boats fishing near the “L”. The smog and inversion were in full affect looking back towards Mount Timp.
We casted curly tail grubs in assorted colors and also drifted them as I slow trolled with the electric motor. John tried a few different crankbaits, but neither of us persuaded anything to bite. We didn’t see the other two boats land any fish either.
It was fairly cold so we made the journey back to Provo Boat Harbor just as the sun began to go down. As usual the first walleye trip of the year at Utah Lake produced nothing but heartache. I’m sure that won’t stop me from getting out and trying again!
My buddy John has been trying to get me to go with him to Blue Lake for a couple years now and we finally made it out this weekend. Blue Lake is a large natural spring fed pond about 20 miles south of Wendover, Utah. It’s a popular place for scuba divers who can dive down to a depth of 55 feet and find springs near the bottom that produce water at temperatures above 80 degrees. It’s also crystal clear with visibility of up to 25 feet.
This crystal clear visibility can make fishing tough as we found out, but also make it fun to sight fish. We saw fish the moment we walked up to the pond, but realized how skiddish they become once they see you.
If a fish saw you first, then catching them was almost impossible. We tried a variety of baits including plastic worms, plastic minnows, jig and trailers, swimbaits, and spinnerbaits. The only bait that produced bass was a white spinnerbait.
In one area we found a number of larger bass, but they knew we were there and wouldn’t bite anything we offered. The lake was full of largemouth and bluegill, but also holds tilapia that someone illegally introduced to the pond years ago. Since that time the tilapias have exploded. Tilapias are herbivores making them a tough catch. Many people use frozen peas to entice them to bite. We had no peas and therefore, didn’t catch any. John did catch one bluegill casting a small jig under a bobber in one of the ponds adjacent to Blue Lake. We ended up catching 4 bass total at Blue Lake, but had a lot of fun walking around the pond sight fishing for some of the bigger bass.
On the way home through Wendover I realized it was Friday and the Rainbow Casino puts on an awesome seafood buffet every Friday night. We decided to make the stop, but when asking when the seafood buffet started we realized we were half an hour early. Well we were in Wendover, so we jumped on a black jack table and both ended up winning $40 dollars and enjoyed the $30 seafood buffet courtesy of the Rainbow Casino! What a way to end our trip to Blue Lake.