All Day Musky Hunting Adventure

Fishing Time:  Newton:  7:30 am – 12:30 pm, Pineview:  2:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Weather:  Partly cloudy, no wind, T-90s

Moon Phase:  14%  Moon

Location:  Newton and Pineview

Bait:  Spinnerbaits, swimbaits, musky killers, topwater poppers, small plastics

Who Went:  Rick, John, Me

Plan today was to fish Newton Reservoir in the morning and hit Willard Bay or Pineview to finish the evening.  Arrived at Newton around 7:30 am and instantly began catching small largemouth bass, sunfish, and perch, using spinnerbaits and small plastics.  Had our first tiger musky follower an hour later, but as usual it didn’t commit.  We tried trolling for an hour with no success, then went back to casting.  I had a couple more follows and then John finally hooked up with a nice 37-inch musky that made his whole day.  This was his first ever musky…

We continued casting for another hour with no success and decided that we hadn’t had our fill of musky fishing, so we loaded up the boat and headed to Pineview.  Arrived to Pineview only to be bombarded with what seemed like the whole town of Ogden on the lake.  The boat traffic was miserable and the wake made for some tough fishing.  We muscled through it and fished the mudlines approximately 20 yards off shore, created by the constant pounding of wake against the banks.  Only a few minutes after starting to fish we spotted the biggest tiger musky I have ever seen, hovering about 5 feet below the surface just off the mudline.  This thing had to be pushing 5 feet in length!  I tried throwing my spinnerbait in front of it, but it never even gave it a look as he slowly swam back down into the deep.  We saw him surface again near some swimmers and we started casting right towards them.  They told us we were casting to close to them and we told them what was swimming next to them... They couldn’t believe it.

 

We tried trolling around cemetery point while the boat traffic was still bad, but never hooked up.  We decided to jump in and swim for a bit because it was hot and the bad fishing and horrible boat traffic had our spirits down.  Towards evening the boat traffic subsided and we began casting again, but we never did hook up or even have a follow.  Rick hooked this bullhead catfish, which is the first catfish I’ve seen come out of Pineview.  

John’s 37-inch tiger was the only musky caught on this trip, and for the second trip in a row I went home with a feeling of failure.  We had a great time though, and it was good to get out on the water and finally enjoy a day when the wind didn’t blow us off the lake. 

Nature Always Wins at Flaming Gorge

Fishing Time:  Friday – Sunday

Weather:  windy, rainy, 70’s

Moon Phase: 18% Moon

Location:  Flaming Gorge

Water Temp:  70 degrees on Friday, 68 degrees on Saturday and Sunday

Bait:  7-inch tube jigs

Who Went: John, Alonso, Dustin Pelligrino, Sean Nelson

I headed to Flaming Gorge this past weekend for a three day mack fishing adventure with my buddy John and his brother in-law Alonso.  Another buddy of mine, Dustin Pellegrino, and his friend Sean Nelson met us up there to try and learn the ways of trophy mack fishing.  We arrived late Thursday night after car trouble when Alonso’s Dodge pickup overheated near the summit in Parley’s Canyon.  We carefully drove it back down the canyon and picked up my Pathfinder to start round two of the 4 hour journey to Flaming Gorge.  We arrived at 2:00 am.  Here is the day by day recap of the trip…

Friday:  Were on the water by 5:30 and began jigging the flats in Linwood Bay.  We had only been jigging for about 15 minutes when John hooked up with the first mack of the trip, but unfortunately it came unbuttoned a few seconds later.  Shortly after we moved locations over to the Swim Beach area where we snuggled up to the greatest fishing guide Flaming Gorge has to offer… Captain Jim Williams.  Seeing Jim in the area gave us confidence we were in the right place.  In a span of about 15 minutes we watched as his clients landed 4 macks and missed another.  All of this happened while my fish finder was showing no fish.  I got so frustrated that we had to leave the area so I could forget about how much better of a lake trout fisherman he is than me.  We continued to fish other locations in the Swim Beach area and John missed a couple more hits.  We decided to run north to our ice fishing spots and see what was doing up there.  John and I both missed another hit and John hooked into this hat…  

Shortly after my buddy Dustin and his friend Sean arrived and met us on the lake.  The wind came up as soon as they met us, so we went back to camp and rested in preparation for the evening bite.  The wind never really died down enough to lake trout fish (must have calm conditions) so we finished out Friday evening by catching small rainbows and smallmouth bass drifting the shores of Linwood Bay.  All fish were caught off white/silver and black crankbaits.

 

Saturday:  On the water with breezy conditions at 5:15.  Worked through the breezy conditions the best we could in the Swim Beach area, but only an hour or two into morning the weather took a turn for the worse and we headed into shore to wait it out.  Unfortunately we never made it on the water again, except to trailer our boats due to high wind conditions that were causing my boat and Sean’s boat to become beached later that night.

 

Sunday:  On the water around 6:30 am and again dealt with breezy conditions.  Fished Linwood Bay for as long as I could stand keeping the boat positioned over fish due to the windy conditions.  We moved locations to Swim Beach trying to find shelter from the wind and found it for another couple of hours.  I was able to land one 8 pound mack before the wind and rain came in with a vengeance!  

We trailered the boat in the rain and loaded our campsite in the rain as well.  By 1:00 we were on the road with wet clothes and gear.

Conclusion:  Once again Flaming Gorge shows that nature controls everything.  I’ve had many trips up there ruined due to the wind, but I think this trip took the cake.  We had a few hours with calm conditions, but most were during off times for lake trout.  It’s always tough fishing up there and when you have to battle the weather on top of slow fishing conditions, it can become extremely tough.  It wasn’t the trip I was hoping for, but such is life at Flaming Gorge!