A Break Between Storms at Utah Lake

Fishing Time: 6:00 to 8:00 PM

Weather:  Crazy, storms, wind, clear, calm, we had it all, T-70s

Moon Phase: 8% Moon

Location: Utah Lake

Water Temp: 70 degrees

Best Bait: worm underneath a slip bobber

Who Went: Devin, Dayton, Dunc

I noticed a break in between storms this week and for once in our lives we didn’t have baseball, scouts, dance, tutors, or anything else going on, so I loaded up the boys and we headed to the lake for some evening fishing. 

We arrived at American Fork Boat Harbor around 5:30 PM and there was a slight breeze and some unsuspected dark clouds to the south.  Just as my luck goes, I launched the boat literally right as a wind wall hit and made life miserable.  I tied the boat off and watched as the nasty storm from the south blew over us bringing winds up to 30 mph.  We waited about 45 minutes for the storm to pass and then the skies opened, and the lake calmed down. 

We jumped in the boat and scooted across the water to our secret catfish hole.  This little area is protected from wind, so I knew if we could get there then life would be good again.  We rigged up some slip bobbers pinned with an earthworm and within minutes it was game on.  It was weird how we would catch white bass for 10 minutes and then they would shut down and the channel catfish would start to bite.  This pattern continued all night.  Strange. The boys caught fish left and right and I was re-baiting, unsnagging, or retying hooks for 2 straight hours.  Oh, and getting hooks out of fingers!  It was exhausting, but well worth it.

The big fish of the night escaped us.  It was a big ole ugly catfish that gave Devin the ride of his life.  When he finally got it to the surface I reached out with the net to scoop it up just as Dev’s line snapped.  Half the catfish was in the net, but it was the wrong half and we watched in slow motion as his head slipped over the bar of the net and back into the water.  Dang it! 

As evening started to turn to dusk the dreaded mosquitos found us and wouldn’t leave us alone.  There was also another dark cloud moving in from the south, so with quite a few fish under our belts we packed up and headed back to the marina.  Dayton drove and at one point we almost died when he thought we wanted to do a donut in the middle of the lake.  My bad for not having a hand on the wheel.  

We made it in safely and luckily this round I had the boat on the trailer before another wind wall and storm hit yet again.  I guess that’s Spring fishing.