Weather: Snow on the drive out. Breezy but sunny afternoon, 40's
Moon Phase: 66% Moon
Location: Blue Lake, undisclosed desert warm spring
Water Temp: 70 degrees
Bait: Only producing bait was a white spinnerbait and a topwater popper near dark.
Who Went: John, Me
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.The fun didn’t stop there though… As we were driving home I was telling John about another warm spring just off I-80 towards Dugway that I knew held bass. We decided to check it out and I’m glad we did. There were some decent sized bass swimming all over. Although it started getting dark, John caught a couple on a topwater popper and I was able to land one on a white spinnerbait. I had 2 hits on a drop shot rig with a Berkley Minnow and 3 other missed hits on the spinnerbait. The lake totally shut off once it got dark. What a fun day! I would love to do a weekend trip just roaming the west desert checking all the warm spring fed ponds for bass and bluegill. There’s more fishable water out there than anyone would ever think!
1 comment:
Still lurking. That looked like a fun trip. Not very often you can fish and gamble on the same trip.
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