Great Way to End the Boating Year

Fishing Time:  8:00 AM to 5:00 PM

Weather:  partly cloudy, calm wind all day, T-40s

Moon Phase:  42% Moon

Location:  Strawberry Reservoir

Best Bait:  White tube jig tipped with worm

Who Went:  Rick, Bobber John, Dunc

It’s been unusually warm this fall and it made for the warmest late November day on the water at Strawberry I can remember.  No wind and warm sun didn’t hurt my feelings and it didn’t hurt the fishing either.  We got off to a quick start at Haws Point and stayed there most of the morning.  It was a mixed bag all day with rainbows and cutthroats.  No cuts were over the slot limit, but we did land some very nice chunky rainbows.  The fishing was so fast I failed to take enough photos. 

Late morning we started to move around covering more water.  Some areas were productive with other areas producing only a few fish.  We ended the day with over 60 fish in the boat between the three of us. It was a great way to finish out the year from the boat.

On the way home the car in front of us hit a deer and we didn't have time to swerve as the carcass was left in the middle of the road.  Rick had no choice but to drive right over the top.  We heard the first thud as it went under the jeep and a second thud as it drilled the lower axle of the boat trailer.  The boat and trailer took the brunt of the damage.  We made a stop at the car wash near my house to clean off the carnage. 

Just a Little More Daylight

Fishing Time:  Dusk to dark
Weather:  Clear, calm, T-50s
Moon Phase:  New Moon
Location:  Hams Fork River/Lake Viva Naughton
Best Bait:  Hams Fork- glow bug (egg pattern), Viva Naughton- brown/green renegade
Who Went:  Dunc

I spent the week working in Kemmerer, Wyoming and tried to get out and fish as much as possible with the very limited daylight I had after work.  I just purchased a new Reddington 6 weight (moderate action) fly rod and I was anxious to try it out. 

The first night I literally had about 15 minutes of daylight to fish, so I skipped the river and went straight to Lake Viva Naughton to get a few casts in before dark.  The fish were rising and I was excited to try the new rod.  I've recently been using an 8 weight fast action rod at the Bear River for those big bruiser browns and it took me awhile to get used to the lighter weight moderate action Reddington rod.  I was struggling to get any distance and I needed more distance to reach the rising trout.  Right before dark I hooked up with the only fish of the night, but it was a beautiful 18-inch rainbow that fought me into dark.  It was a good way to break in the new rod.

I only made it out one more night with daylight to spare.  This time I had about an hour and a half of daylight and I strung up the fly rod at work before I left so I was ready to roll as soon as I hit the river.  I started making my way up the Hams Fork hitting all the best looking spots.  I was throwing the same glow bug (egg pattern) that I use at the Bear River in hopes of finding a big Hams Fork spawning brown trout. 

I worked as much river as I could before dark with nothing to show for it, but as I was walking back towards the truck I saw a deep hole that caught my attention.  I let the glow bug drift through the deep hole, but had no signs from my indicator so I pulled the rod tip back to make another cast, and it was fish on!  Never had that happen, and after a few seconds it popped off.  I was totally bummed. 

I casted into the deep hole again and this time I saw my indicator go under and I set the hook on a nice little rainbow.  Man those rainbows fight.  Very fun on a fly rod.  I was able to pull two more carbon copy bows from the same drift before darkness overtook me and I could no longer see my indicator.  No big browns from the Hams Fork, but the rainbows made the night a success.

The Hunt for Big Brown Trout

Fishing Time:  8:30 to 2:30 PM
Weather:  Partly cloudy, breezy, T-50s
Moon Phase:  79% Moon
Location:  Bear River
Best Baits:  Pale orange glow bugs (egg pattern)
Who Went:  Rick, Bobber John, Dunc

It’s time to chase those spawning browns again on the Bear River.  We arrived to breezy conditions that became windy by noon.  It made it tough with a fly rod, especially for an amateur like me. 

We were a bit early in the spawning process, but there were a few fish starting to fan beds.  We hit all the usual spots with a few early fish giving us the middle finger.  We taunted a couple fish for over an hour, but couldn’t get them to commit.  We finally found one group that wanted to play and Rick was able to trick one into biting and bring it to shore.  You can check out the action on my YouTube Channel...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCimYTZtOyg&feature=youtu.be

 

At the next spot it was my turn to get into the action.  I rigged up a fresh glow bug and on my first cast into a group of about three fish I hooked up with a nice Bear River Brown. 

 

Bobbers tried and true method with the orange jighead with a worm didn’t have any luck this outing.  It was tough fishing, but should only get better as the spawn progresses.

Color Changes at The Berry

Fishing Time:  8:00 AM to 1:30 PM
Weather:  Sunny, clear, no wind, T-70s
Moon Phase:  97%  Moon
Location:  Strawberry Reservoir
Water Temp: 61 degrees
Best Bait:  Tube jig tipped with worm
Who Went:  Bobber John, Dunc

It's fall at Strawberry Reservoir and the leaves are not the only thing changing colors.  The kokanee salmon are in full spawning colors as well. 

A quick check on the strawberry river prior to launching to see if any kokanee salmon have begun spawning came up empty.  We launched the boat in warm weather and moss infested waters.  From past experience I knew this wasn't good.  The lake has yet to turnover and the moss is thick throughout the water column.  This usually makes for tough fishing at the Berry. 

We started fishing just outside the narrows and soon ventured into the narrows with only a few fish to show for it.  Bobber did land one nice picture worthy cutthroat deep inside the narrows. 

We moved to Haws Point only to find fishless water.  We made one more big move over near the mouth of Mud Creek Bay and finally started putting some fish in the boat.  Most were rainbows with a few cutthroat mixed in, but the surprise of the day was when my jig bounced off the bottom in 40 ft of water and got walloped by an unsuspected fish.  As I reeled it in I noticed the bright red color and yelled to Bobber to grab the net.  This was my first kokanee salmon from Strawberry and what a fish it was.  A three and a half pound kokanee salmon in full spawning colors!  It wasn't a long fish, but man was it fat!  I was shocked the fish took a jig.  Must have been a last meal before hitting the river to spawn. 

Scary moment in the morning on our way to Strawberry.  We stopped at a gas station in Heber to grab some breakfast and as I pulled out of the gas station I failed to see this giant sandstone boulder.  The boat trailer slammed into it and I immediately thought the worst.  I looked at Bobber and said, "this is gonna be bad!"  Luckily the axle took the brunt of the hit and no noticeable damage occurred, but a scary moment when you think you have demolished your boat trailer.  First close call in seven years of owning the boat, so I guess I was due.  Lucked out big time!

New Moon Topwater Action

Fishing Time:  10:00 PM to 1:00 AM         
Weather:  cloudy, calm, dark, T-80s
Moon Phase:  New Moon
Location:  Golf Course Pond
Best Baits:  Topwater Popper
Who Went:  Bobber John, Dunc

For a long time Bobber John and I have wanted to fish this pond at a nearby golf course for some topwater largie action.  We finally made it happen and the night seemed perfect.  The pond was glass with no wind and fish were rising and hungry.  With the new moon it was tough to see the hits.  We relied on the sense of sound and feel instead, but occasionally the fireworks from the Pioneer Day celebration would light up the sky enough to get a look at your topwater lure plunking along through the calm water. 

Soon after we began casting, Bobber was yelling fish on and landed a nice chunky largemouth. 

It was tough pulling the fish up onto the bank because of the ten foot ring of moss surrounding the ponds entire shoreline.  We made it work, but we never knew if the fish were big until we pulled 10 lbs of moss off them to see. 

After a few more casts I got on the board with a clone of Bobbers…

We caught a few largies and missed a few bites, but it wasn’t red hot fishing.  It was fun though and scratched our fishing itch for the week.  I think this pond could really produce some great topwater action a little earlier in the summer before the moss becomes too thick.  We will have to try it again a bit earlier next year.  The moss was pretty bad this trip.  I leave you with Bobber trying to put on his "this is lame" face after catching the smallest bass of the night... 

Bad Omens Equal Poor Success

Fishing Time:  6:00 AM to 2:30 PM
Weather:  Partly cloudy, calm wind, T-70s
Moon Phase:  Full Moon
Location:  Fish Lake/Johnson Reservoir
Best Baits:  Lake Trout- tube jigs, Tiger Musky- jointed J-13 rapala
Who Went:  Bobber John, Rick, Dunc

Following the most frustrating planning for a fishing trip in my life we finally agreed to bite the bullet and make an extreme day trip to Fish Lake.  To make the trip happen my wife had to babysit Bobber Junior while we were gone.  Not too big of a deal, except we left at 2:30 AM.  The things my wife does for me and my addiction!  We should have known after all the hurdles to make this trip happen that we were doomed for poor fishing. 

Rick, Bobber, and Bobber Junior arrived to my house and we loaded the boat, got Junior settled in, and hit the road.  Once we arrived to Fish Lake the wind was calm and the temperatures were chilly.  It felt good after weeks of no reprieve in the hot Salt Lake Valley.  The wind was calm and there were only a few boats around.  It looked primed for good lake trout fishing.
 
The morning brought two bites, but no hook ups.  However, it did keep our confidence high and in return we gave it our full attention until about noon.  Unfortunately there weren’t that many fish around the hump we usually fish and no big fish were landed.  Right before we called it quits we found a shallow hump (50 ft) and the fish finder screamed at us showing multiple fish.  We all missed a lot of hits until Rick finally landed the only lake trout of the day.  It was about 15 inches and he wouldn’t even hold it up for a photo.  After seeing proof of the size of the fish on this hump we called it quits and once again conceded to the almighty trophy lake trout.

We loaded the boat and headed down the road to Johnsons Reservoir.  The wind was still calm (not normal) so we launched the boat and work the SE shoreline for muskies.  Rick threw a spinnerbait and the perch wouldn’t leave it alone.  I was throwing a jointed perch rapala size J-13 and hooked up on what I think was a musky, but it came off shortly after so we will never know.  We worked the shoreline back to the boat ramp and once again admitted defeat, this time to the almighty tiger musky. 

It was a long trip with no big fish to show for it.  To make matters worse, Rick got pulled over in front of the Fish Lake Lodge on the way home.  We thought a ticket was going to cap off one of the worst fishing days we’ve had in a long while, but the sheriff was very lenient and let him off with a warning.  That was the only successful part of the trip.  Until next time…      

Slurping Carp and Hungry Kitties

Fishing Time:  8:00 AM to 1:00 PM
Weather:  Hot, clear, no wind, T-100s
Moon Phase:  63% Moon
Location:  Utah Lake
Water Temp: 79 degrees
Best Bait:  cutbait under a slip bobber
Who Went:  Rick, Bobber John, Me

My fishing buddies and I wanted to get out and fish over the long holiday weekend, but with most of the weekend devoted to family time, we took a small window on Sunday morning and headed somewhere close.  We launched the boat at the Lindon Boat Harbor at Utah Lake and immediately headed south to the bubble up.  We were surprised to see carp rising all over the surface and Rick just happened to bring his fishing bow, so we made the most of it for a couple hours.

Rick received a phone call from his buddy Tim Duke from The Rocky Mountain Anglers Association announcing he was on the lake and had found a catfish hotspot.  We met up and followed him into a narrow slough that I have never fished before on Utah Lake.  It was refreshing to fish a new spot on Utah Lake and it immediately went into the gps for future reference.  When we arrived to the spot there was another boat in there with two of Tim’s buddies fishing.  They reported catching around 25 channel catfish prior to us arriving.  Sweet!  We found our own space and began putting a few of our own into the boat.  The action had slowed a bit since the morning, but we were still able to put ten 3-5 lb channel cats into the boat.  Bobber wanted to keep some for dinner so we loaded the live well until it was overflowing with ugly whiskers.  By 1:00 it was pushing 100 degrees with no wind, so we called it a day. 

Musky Time

Fishing Time:  5:30 AM to 2:00 PM

Weather:  Sunny, clear, T-80s, breezy after 12:00 PM

Moon Phase:  5% Moon

Location:  Pineview Reservoir

Water Temp:  69 degrees

Best Bait:  Musky- wacky rigged senkos, swimbaits, cutbait

Who Went:  Bobber John, Me

Bobber John and I had big plans to do an extreme day trip down to Fish Lake, but when the forecast called for morning winds of 16 mph and 25 mph by afternoon, I couldn’t get myself to do it.  On the contrary, the forecast at Pineview was for 1 mph winds up until noon.  This sounded much more appealing and we took the bait.  Luckily, the forecast was right and we had a gorgeous day on the water, right up until the entire town of Ogden showed up around noon.  Coincidentally, that’s when the wind started blowing as well.  Good, make them suffer!

Prior to the recreational boaters and wind pushing us off the lake earlier than we would have liked, we did get some fishing in.  I took a different approach this trip after two previous trips throwing swimbaits and other large fish imitating lures only left me with a sore back and no muskies to show for it.  I started by throwing a dark green senko rigged wacky.  I used a homemade leader made from 80 lb monofilament line just in case a musky took interest.  It wasn’t long until the smallmouth noticed my offering and I was able to pull a few into the boat.  

Nothing big, but at least it was a fish on the end of my line.  Bobber switched baits often with a jig/trailer getting most the action.  Early morning was a bust and produced no muskies.

Late morning arrived and I was finally greeted with a bite that felt a little more aggressive than a smallmouth and it was finally game on.  After a short but strong fight I was able to land this musky…

It’s not a monster, but I was long overdue so no complaining.  These fish seem to be more tightly lipped than I can ever remember.  It was the only musky hit we had all day and I think I’ve had my fill of constant casting with no success for these toothy critters.  This musky should satisfy the urge for awhile.  You can check out the musky action by clicking on the link below…

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GmQx-_ZZ00

Happy Fathers Day

Fishing Time:  2:30 PM to 3:30 PM
Weather:  Sunny, clear, T-80s
Moon Phase:  91% Moon
Location:  South Jordan Community Pond
Bait:  Worm under a slip bobber
Who Went:  Cari, Devin, Addison, Dayton, Bobber John, Carter, Me

It’s father’s day and the only present I asked for was to take my family fishing.  At least for as long as they would last.  Turns out that was 1 hour.

I received a tip from my buddies Rick and John who were at the community pond the night before with Ricks daughters and said the catfish were on fire.  Must have just stocked it.  Maybe for father’s day.  They sent me this picture of one of the catfish that Ricks daughter Dylan caught.  Not bad for a community pond. 

The pond is only a few miles from my house, so this was a great option.  I rigged three rods, packed some gear and lunch, and off we went.  John and his nephew were at the pond when we arrived and already had two catfish on a stringer.  Good sign.  I helped the kids cast each rod out into the pond and the fishing began. 

The kids didn’t really love the patience part of fishing.  We had line tangles and and crying within minutes.  Luckily Dayton found more interest in finding bugs and left his rod alone.  It wasn’t long until his bobber disappeared and we had a catfish on.  I handed the rod to Devin and I was amazed at how well he did reeling the fish in.  The fish was even pulling drag, but he stuck with it.  You can check out the action by clicking on the link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGz16nenI1Y 

After the catfish was landed the kids decided they liked casting and reeling in way more than staring at a bobber waiting for it to go underwater.  So, no more fish were landed by the Duncan clan.  By the time the hour was up, we had three rods and reels in complete disarray.  We loaded the kids and the whirl wind that is the Duncan family was gone.  I’m sure the rest of the fishermen at the pond thanked us, but I was happy.  I finally got to take all three of the kids fishing together, even if there wasn’t much fishing involved.

Willard Crappie and Pineview Musky

Fishing Time:  Willard – 6:30 AM to 10:30 AM, Pineview – 12:00 PM to 7:00 PM

Weather:  Willard – breezy turning windy, clear skies, T-50s, Pineview – Strong wind, clear, T-70s

Moon Phase:  77% Moon

Location:  Willard/Pineview

Best Baits:  Willard – small curly tail grubs on 1/16 oz jighead, Pineview:  7-inch swimbait

Water Temp:  Willard - 70˚ F, Pineview - 69˚ F

Who Went:  Bobber John, Dunc

WILLARD:

The reports coming from Willard Bay recently have been ridiculously good for walleye, wiper, and crappie.  Willard has always kicked my butt with only a couple trips out of around ten producing any fish, but these reports sounded to promising to pass up.

We arrive to Willard Bay at 5:30 AM to find a locked gate.  Apparently the ramp doesn’t open until 6.  Okay.  Off to the gas station to grab a bite.  Back to the gate at 5:45 and sat there and rigged rods until the magical gate suddenly opened at 6 AM. 

We launched at the north marina and went around the corner to the north where there are some small underwater humps.  

We were hoping to find some crappie.  The area proved to be successful and we began catching them one after another.  Not monsters but respectable from 9-12 inches.  We filled the livewell with our limit then moved on to wiper/walleye fishing.  

You can check out our Crappie success by clicking on the link below:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHob-CMrKKc 

As usual the walleye/wiper fishing produced nothing.  I did have one bite on a bottom bouncer rig, but that was it for 2 hours of trolling.  We bottom bounced using worm harnesses going 1.0 to 1.2 mph.  We also trolled at 3.0 to 3.2 mph with various crankbaits trying to luck into a wiper.  Unfortunately luck was not on our side.  By 10 AM the wind was whipping and the long rock dikes of Willard were getting really boring to look at as we trolled aimlessly from one end to another.  

We loaded up the boat and conceded to another wiper skunk at Willard.  The crappie made it a successful Willard trip though.  After loading the boat, we filleted our crappie, put them in a cooler on ice, and headed up the canyon to Pineview.

PINEVIEW:

We arrived to Pineview around noon and were greeted with 20 mph winds and a lake full of recreational boaters.  We thought about bagging the whole idea, but then realized we don’t make it up that way very often and decided to tough it out. 

After launching we motored through the gauntlet of boaters, and made our way over to a shoreline that was somewhat protected from the wind and had a few less boats running around, but was still miserable due to boat wake that continued to pound us all day long. 

We worked the entire shoreline with me throwing a 7-inch Berkley hollow belly swimbait rigged weedless for musky and Bobber John using a jig/trailer hoping to land a bass or two.  Midway through the run, Bobber had an unexpected bite followed immediately with cut line and a long white flash appearing along the weedline where his jig was.  We knew immediately that it was a musky trying to inhale his bass jig.  This got the juices flowing and we worked the area hard hoping to entice another bite, but it didn’t happen.

We tried fishing a few other areas, but quickly realized the wind was not going to allow it and headed back to the wind protected area.  We must have worked that same shoreline 4-5 times with no bites before Bobber switched to his trusty marabou jig underneath a bobber and put a few small crappie and perch into the boat.  At least he was catching something.

 

He took one perch and sliced out a 1x1 inch square to bait a second rod for musky.  He left this second rod hanging from the boat as he fished with his marabou under a bobber rig.  It wasn't long, before the bait rod was doubled over with a musky gnawing at the other end.  He let the fish run with the bait for a few seconds and then set the hook on a very nice musky.  You can check out the epic battle of musky vs. Bobber by clicking the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn1CWge_KgE

As soon as I put a net on the musky the hook fell from his lip.  Whew.  We pulled him onboard for a quick photo shoot and then Bobber set him free to swim another day.  I’ve never seen a musky with that much fight left in him after landing them.  No doubt he is still swimming.  They are one of the coolest looking fish in freshwater. 

Unfortunately this ended up being the only musky bite of the trip.  I casted all day long with various swimbaits, spinners, and even a large tube jig, but never could entice one into biting.  That makes two Pineview trips in a row for me not even getting a bite, and each trip I never stopped casting.  It seems these fish are getting harder to catch.  It also seems my body is getting older because I was sore the next day.  Dealing with boat wake crashing the boat all day and casting large baits took a toll on these 33 year old bones!