Harbor Jumpers

Fishing Time:  4:00 pm - 9:30 pm
Weather:  Clear, no wind, T-70's
Moon Phase:  85% Moon
Location:  Utah Lake
Bait:  Jig/trailer, spinnerbait
Water Temp:  70.5 degrees
Who Went:  Rick, Me

I Cut work short today and headed to Utah Lake with Rick for some bass fishing.  The idea was to start at American Fork Harbor and work south hitting all the harbors and honey holes along the way.  Some spots were successful and others not so much.  I also forgot the net, which ended up being a fatal mistake!  We launched at American Fork Harbor and worked the entire shoreline.  AF Harbor was a bust except for a brave bullhead catfish that decided to take a swipe at Ricks spinnerbait (never seen that before).

We moved on to the sewer outlet and found a school of white bass that were willing to play, and started pulling them out on every cast, but got bored quickly and decided to move on.  Our next stop was Lindon Boat Harbor and by far our most successful harbor.  It didn’t take long for Rick to land the first largemouth of the day with this chunky little guy.  

A few casts later he snapped his line on another hook set and we watched the bass for the next 5 minutes sloshing around in the shallow water trying to spit the hook.  I was finally able to set the hook on a fish and brought in another bullhead catfish on a jig/trailer (never seen that before either).  

We continued working the shoreline and Rick laid into a nice largemouth that looked to be in the 4-5 pound range.  As I tried to land the fish (no net) the hook slowly slipped out and she swam away!  Needless to say, I felt horrible about it, but Rick took it pretty well.  We finished out the shoreline of Lindon and Rick had quite a few bites, but the fish just didn’t seem to commit.  I finally had one bite, but it was just one thump and gone.

 

We decided to keep moving on and then come back to Lindon just before dark.  Next stop was back in the reeds to our secret honey hole.  Unfortunately the lakes water levels must be dropping because I could barely get my boat back in there without bottoming out.  The fishing was horrible and we wasted a good hour getting my boat in and out of there.  We finished the run by fishing Provo Boat Harbor and again Rick had a few hits, but just couldn’t put one in the boat.  I couldn’t buy a bite.  We headed back to Lindon since it was by far the best bite of the day.  Once we arrived and started fishing again, we realized very quickly that the bite had completely shut off.  We finished fishing the harbor anyway and hit the shoreline at AF Harbor as well, but no more bites came.

To most anglers this would seem like a rough day on the water, but we had so many bites that it just felt like a successful day.  Largemouths don’t come often or easy on Utah Lake, but are very rewarding, especially when you catch one of the big ones that can come out of there.  Kind of like the one Rick caught and I couldn’t get a handle on… my bad!