Some Fall Bassin!

Moon Phase:

Fishing Time: 11:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.

Weather: scattered clouds, 70's

Even with the weather starting to cool down, finally, I thought I would give the I-80 Pond one more chance to see if I could pull out another lunker. The pond was very low and the water temp has dropped dramatically. I caught four bass all the same class as the one in the picture. I did however see many large bass swimming in the shallows but could not get them to take anything! There are some monster bass in there! I think its time to put up the bass rod and focus on some fall trout fishing.

Unsuccessful at Bear Lake!

Moon Phase:

Fishing Time: 8:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Weather: Warm, clear, 80's

Well I wish This post was a little more exciting to write about but when you don't even get a bite it doesn't leave to much to the imagination! My dad and I decided while on our annual family Bear Lake trip to rent a small 16 foot fishing boat with a 15 HP motor. Even though most of our fishing trips in Bear Lake this time of year have not brought much success we thought we would give it another shot! We should have stayed home in bed! It was Labor day weekend and we have had some of the warmest September weather I can ever remember. This made for a busy weekend at Bear Lake. I wanted to show my dad my jigging technique that has brought me a lot of success and that I keep bragging to him about. I don't think he was to impressed when we didn't get so much as one bite. We didn't dare go to far in this big lake with the small boat we were on and so we stayed close to the marina and there were boats flying by us one after another! This made it tough to fish!

We also tried trolling with no success other than my dad getting one bump with no fish to show for it! I think we learned our lesson on Bear Lake this time of year. The guy who works at the marina told us that the fish go to 100+ feet this time of year to find colder water. I think he is right because we fished in water up to 80 feet deep and never saw much on the fish finder. It was still a good time when you get to go fishin with the old man and Bear Lake is a beautiful lake to be on.

Monster Bass!

Moon Phase:

Fishing Time: 12:30 p.m. - 4: 30 p.m.

Weather: sunny, clear, 90's

I missed the feel of having a bass on the end of my line after catching all those trout at the berry so I headed to the old faithful I-80 Pond. When I got there I was a little nervous about the conditions. The moss has overtaken half the pond and it has lost almost half its water. This didn't leave many places for good fishing but luckily my favorite place to fish was not mossed over and is the deepest part of the pond. I started out throwing my trusty I-80 set up by drop shotting a powerbait minnow. It was a good choice as I started catching bass one after another! I caught this dink to start things off! After a few more dinks about this size I upgraded to a little larger bass and pulled this medium sized bass out. I then started catching this size one after another until my arm was about to fall off. A few bluegill got into the mix also. I then decided that maybe switching techniques that maybe I would be able to keep some of these smaller bass away and get into some of the larger bass. It turned out to be a great move! I put on a Senko with a weighted hook like shown in this picture. I started casting and noticed that I wasn't catching anything. I wasn't sure if this was good or bad. Just as I was about to give up on my new tactic I pulled in the nicest bass of the day with this 17 incher. Now I was thinking

maybe I had found the ticket to the larger bass. Another long period went by with no bites and I was working my way back to where I entered the water when I saw a chunk of old plastic lying in the water looking almost like a little bass home. Well I think it was because as soon as I casted to it I was slammed by what seemed like a monster. It was! I saw him surface and new that this was the bass of a lifetime. I fought him out into open water where he tried to go strait down into the weeds. I knew I couldn't let him get into the weeds or I would never get him out so I heaved as much tension as I could without snapping my line. I was able to get him close to me and I just threw my hand down his throat not caring if I got hooked, I had to get this big boy! I lipped him and held him up and he was huge. Instantly I started thinking about the fact that I was alone and would not be able to get good pictures. I weighed him and he came in at 6 pounds. I couldn't believe what had just happened and I was shaking like a leaf. I took the best pictures I could but I have already been questioned (my dad) on the size of the fish due to the poor quality of the photos. I knew this would happen and I was angry but I don't have to prove it I was there and it is the truth. The only way to scale this fish at all is to look at it compared to the size of my fist, still not a good comparison but the best I have to offer. Believe it or not this fish was a MONSTER in real life.

Berry again!

Moon Phase:

Fishing Time: 6:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Weather: sunny, clear, 70's

After having a successful day at the Berry on Friday I got a phone call from Barclay who wanted to go Sunday. Him and his father in law Todd have fished here many times never really having any spectacular success. I was hoping that my knowledge of the reservoir might change this. It did, we had a great day and landed many Cutthroats all ranging in between the slot limit which is 15-22 inches. We caught around 40 fish in all, but Barclay had the biggest day catching at least 15 of them! I caught 10 or more, and Todd did the same. We fished over on the west side of the knolls in the morning moved to the narrows mid morning and then ended up back at the knolls around 11:00 because that's where the most fish were holding. We used white tube jigs tipped with an earthworm. The fish were anywhere from 30 to 60 feet deep. Our best success was finding 60 feet of water and dropping our jigs all the way to the bottom, then slowly bringing it up about 10 feet. Most of our hits were right when we started reeling up from the bottom. This was one of the many Cutthroats that were caught!

We left early due to the predictable 12:00 o'clock wind that is famous at Strawberry. It got so bad that we couldn't jig anymore so we called it a day. It was a great day and we are spoiled here in Utah with the average size of trout we can continuously catch out of this reservoir.

A Berry Good Day!

Moon Phase:

Fishing Time: 8:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.

Weather: Rain, then cloudy, 70's

I pulled up to Strawberry in a pouring rain, and the Pelicans greeted me as you can see here. I got there at 8:00 a.m. but waited out the rain til 8:30 and then hit the water. I was fishing just north west of the Ladders. My plan of attack was to find a school and then sit on top of them and jig. It didn't start out the way I had hoped and I couldn't find any fish anywhere. I started getting a few bites here and there but they were only small bumps and then gone. After 7 hits (yes I counted), I was starting to get frustrated. Just as the thought of a skunk was entering my mind, I finally had a hard hit and was able to land this Cutthroat. I still wasn't sure if I had foundwhere they were holding or if I just found a lonely wanderer, but was reassured when I landed another Cutthroat on my next drop down! I found them! I then caught five in a row on each consecutive drop down after that. I only took this one pic as the fish were very feisty and didn't like the idea of pausing for a snap shot. The glory didn't last to long as I got stuck on fish number 9. Hitting the double digit number always seems tough, if you can get by it then it seems like you past the plateau and you can catch as many more as you want, but getting through it always seems hard. When people start seeing fish caught it doesn't take long until the walls around you start to close in. I was soon swarmed with boats around me! I finally gave up and succumbed to the number 9 and started paddling my way back to the truck. The storm moving in from the south east also helped in my decision to call it a day. All fish were caught using a white jig tipped with a minnow. This picture shows the storm that made me go home.

Back to Pineview!

Moon Phase:
Hours Fished: 7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Weather: sunny, clear, 80's

Well I was hoping that I could pull off a repeat of my last Pineview trip, but it didn't quite work out the way I had hoped! No Muskies wanted to play today and I was left with a bunch of Smallmouth Bass that were very aggressive! They were also around 7 to 10 inches long. It was nothing like pulling in a 40 inch Tiger Muskie, but at least it got rid of the skunk smell. I could have caught them one after another but instead I left the water in depression after losing two Muskie Bucktail Spinners costing 10 bucks a pop! It was tough to swallow but its all part of the game! Hopefully I still have a few more large Muskies to catch in my future!

Jordanelle!

Moon Phase:
Fishing Time: 7:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Weather: Sunny, clear, 70's

My family was heading to Jordanelle today for my dad's company barbacue. They rented a very nice wakeboFarding boat and a pontoon boat and served lunch around noon. So I went up a little earlier than the rest of the group to get some fishing in. By earlier I mean 5:30 a.m. When I got there it was just getting light and we were recovering from a big rain storm that rolled through the night before. The temperature was a balmy 55 degrees and I must admit I waited almost a half hour before actually launching. When I got in it was quite cold but I soon acclimated and it was fine. I started fishing a Watermelon sparkeled Senko carolina rigged. I started getting hits immediately by the docks, but the problem was the bites were from those pesky little Perch that I hate catching. After awhile the annoyance got to me so I switched to something that they would not touch. I put on a gulp minnow in black shad color on a drop shot rig. The hits died off and I knew I had at least gotten rid of the Perch. I searched different depths trying to find where the Smallmouth were holding and soon found them in around 20 to 25 feet of water. I started landing fish left and right with none over 14 inches. Then I landed this small rainbow that put up a fight like you wouldn't believe. At around 9:00 a.m. the recreation boaters got thick and the wake they were making got really annoying so I called it an early day and was off the water by 10:00. In all I think I landed around 12 Smallmouth and the one rainbow. It was fun even though they were small. Here are some of the pics of the Smallmouth that I caught. I then went to my dad's BBQ and we had a great time. We tried to teach Dakota how to ski and ate lunch at the Keetley Pavillion. All in all another great day to spend outdoors!

Long Way From Home!

Moon Phase:
Fishing Time: 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Weather: cloudy, 80's, rain storm moving in

With a company truck and free gas to expend while living in Ogden I decided to take a drive up north after work today and visit a reservoir I had only heard about and read reports of. Newton Reservoir is north west of Logan and only a short distance from Idaho. I went there because I heard there were some nice Largemouth and the occasional small Tiger Musky. When I got there I realized I may have made a mistake because the reservoir was very low in water due to the current drought we are in. It is also a very small narrow reservoir and it is packed with water skiers. I wasn't sure if there was room for me on my tube. Of course that isn't going to stop me from my new found addiction to Largemouth Bass! Right where I launched my tube was an old log that was sticking out of the water and with my knowledge of bass I figured no better place for them to live, so I threw out my chartreuse spinnerbait before I got in my tube. On the second cast I caught the first Largemouth of the day. Unfortunately it got off right at shore so no pic. I then launched the tube and began fishing. I was having trouble landing anything with the spinnerbait but was hesitant to switch because its a great lure to land bass and Musky with, but I soon changed to a bright green zoom worm rigged wacky style on a drop shot set up. I was using bright colors cause the water was really murky. First cast I could tell I had found the panfish and they wouldn't leave it alone. I soon pulled in this monster Crappie. Then I caught another small Perch that fell off right at my float tube so I decided I had better go back to a bigger bait cause I didn't want to deal with these pesky things. I put on a bright multicolored spinnerbait. It wasn't long til I landed this medium sized Largemouth! Soon after I started getting pummeled by wake from the skiers and I wish I would have taken a picture to show how close they were coming to me! It started to get windy and a storm was moving in so I decided that I had better get off the lake any way. This picture shows the storm. When I was driving away from the lake the sun was going down and the sunset was absolutely gorgeous. I snapped these photos and they came out really cool. The way the sunset was reflecting off the water made it unbelievable, and if you look close at one of the pics you might see an animal hiding. It was an interesting trip to Newton Reservoir but I'm not sure it got my attention enough to ever make it back again, but who knows what the future has in store!