Weather: Cloudy, cold, calm, 50's
Moon Phase: 98% Moon
Location: Willard Bay
Bait: White Curly Tail Grub, 1/4 oz jighead
Who Went: John, Me
Since Wipers are one of the last game fish I have yet to catch in Utah, John and I decided it was time to change that. We headed to Willard Bay under rain threatening clouds and cool temps. When we got there the lake was calm and cool. We launched on the north end and started fishing the north east corner along the dike. Nothing was showing on the fish finder nor were we getting any bites. We must have moved 10 times trying to locate fish. We fished freeway bay, the island, all over the northeast corner and around the north marina, without seeing more than an occassional single fish go across the fish finder screen. Just as we were starting to get down on ourselves, I noticed what looked to be a small boil to the north of us! I fired up the big motor and cruised over as fast as I could. I saw one jump and casted right to him. Within seconds it was on. I could not believe it, this was the hardest fighting fish I have ever caught. In my mind I was thinking wow my first wiper is going to be the state record! It took drag numerous times and when it would see the boat it was off to the races again!
Once I finally got it in John was already hooked up with one of his own. I waited with the net to land his fish and I just happened to glance at the fish finder only to see it was a black out with fish everywhere! We landed Johns fish and just tossed it in the boat so we could continue to fish.
I missed three more bites and then the fish were gone! We continued to cast for another hour and I ended up picking up one more straggler before I had to leave due to other commitments. I wanted to stay all night after feeling the battle they put on! It's safe to say I might be seeing a little more of Willard in the future! Good times!
I had a hard time deciding on a place to fish this weekend. I had it pre-planned to take my float tube and leave the boat at home to save money, and I wanted to try somewhere that I don't fish often. The spot I narrowed it down to was Deer Creek Reservoir. Its close to home, and probably the one reservoir within close proximity to my house that I don't know much about. I wish I could say I increased my knowledge while fishing there, but unfortunately I didn't have much success. I was mainly fishing for trout and walleye, and I used an assortment of different tactics to try and entice them with. I tried jigging with a tube jig tipped with worm. I tossed curly tailed grubs. I threw rapalas and spinners. I tried dragging the bottom with tube jigs and curly tailed grubs trying to find the walleye. I also drop-shotted a gulp minnow thinking that might peak their interest. I fished depths from 1 foot all the way out to about 40 feet of water, and after 3 hours of no bites, I decided to fish for the only species I have caught consistently up there, Smallmouth Bass. I rigged up a drop-shot with a roboworm and started casting towards the rocky shoreline, and within a few casts I had a hit but did not hook up. Shortly after getting hit, I landed the first fish of the day with this 10-12 incher.
I Had a couple more bass that wanted to play, along with one small bluegill, but that was it for the trip. Once again I left Deer Creek Reservoir with a dissapointed feeling and wished I had went somewhere else! I did stop by the Provo River right below the Jordanelle Reservoir Dam to see what it was all about. I have heard stories of some big Brown Trout coming from this area, but have steered clear of this stretch of river due to the fact that its a fly fishing hot zone. Unless you pull up to the parking lot in a suburu, and get out of the Suby decked out in your columbia fly fishing gear and russle around the river banks turning over rocks to find the hatch, then you can feel a little out of place. You also have to go back to the car and sit on your bumper and tie your own fly matching that newly found hatch, and then go out and be "one with the river," as you fling your pocket lint around. This is the life of a true purist fisherman! Whatever, I went anyway, and just as I described I pulled up to a parking lot full of Suburu's and a bunch of hippie lookin dudes hanging out together tying flies and drinking pale ale. I hopped out of the truck, grabbed my spinning rod, tied on a rapala right in front of them matching my hatch, and headed down to the river. Unfortunately the river is still running very fast and it made it impossible to fish a rapala effectively and I didn't end up catching anything, but I explored the area and I think it could be a great place to fish in the fall when the river settles down. All in all it was an average trip, but it beats sitting on the couch.
Its that time of the year again and its becoming an annual trip for me and my old man. Chasing monster Lake Trout at Flaming Gorge Reservoir. This time my dads best friend Mike Hansen wanted to tag along and take his chances on catching a fish of a lifetime. He's glad he did! We got up there on Thursday night and had plans of fishing Friday through Sunday. With the sun going down on Thursday night the first storm of the trip started rolling in.
We went to bed and hoped for the best for Friday morning. It ended up being beautiful and the best morning of the trip. Surprisingly my old man was waking us up before the alarms even went off (this never happens)! We were on the water early and started fishing Linwood bay. The breeze was still lingering from last nights storm so we decided to move to a spot we felt would be sheltered by the wind. This area is called Swim Beach and it ended up being a very good move. We were seeing fish all over on the fish finder and were getting some real active chasers when Mike screamed "Fish On". I grabbed the camera and started filming and my dad took net duties.
We do not have an official weight on this fish cause I only have a 20 lb scale, but my guess is somewhere between 20-25 pounds. It was a beautiful fish and we got her back in the water for others to catch and enjoy. It was a great start to the trip and Mike was excited. Then about 20 minutes later Mike was yelling again, and pulled in this nice 8 pound mack.
After that it was my dads turn and he landed this nice 7 pound mack!
I ended Friday mornings fishing by making the final drop of the day and landing the smallest fish of the trip at 5 pounds.
The wind started blowing pretty good by 11:00 a.m. so we headed back to camp with plans to hit the evening hard when the winds died down. The only problem was that the winds didn't die down THE REST OF THE TRIP!!! We lost our tent the second day. We were all sitting in camp chairs next to the tent when a wind gust came up and we heard a big snap and then rip. The tent poles snapped in the wind and the sharp edge where the pole broke ripped a long hole right through the tent.
My old man ran to town and bought a couple two man tents which worked well for me and him, but Mike being 6' 5" had to leave the door open and hang his feet out to sleep which was a funny sight. We still went out and fished every morning and evening, but the weather just didn't want to cooperate. You can tell in this picture that even right before dusk the wind was still blowing us around.
We did have a few good hits and I had one that was on for about two seconds that felt like a good one. Mike had the hot hand on this trip and was able to land the only fish caught after Friday morning with another 8 pound mack.
I felt it was still a successful trip for the most part, but my main goal was to get my old man into a monster fish which didn't happen. He did catch a nice 7 pound fish and I think he had a good time, so the big one for him will have to wait til next year!
I was excited and thought that we might get into some more but it ended up being the only walleye of the day. We did however catch around 20 very nice perch that made for some excellent table fare the next evening. I have never been a fish eater, but these perch are unbelievably tasty and I never thought I would say this but I might be targeting more perch in the future!
I finally got to go pike hunting down at Yuba this year. It has rained every day for the last 10 days straight and we took a chance heading down there today, but it paid off. The morning was absolutely gorgeous with calm conditions and nice cool temperatures.
It stayed like this until around 12:30 and then the hurricane hit! I was very excited to try my new swimbaits down at Yuba because last time I was there fishing for pike I spent more time un-snagging lures then actually fishing. I rigged the swimbaits weedless and it cut down on snags by about 95%. It didn't take long til I put this little guy in the boat.
We continued to cast and work all the reed edges we could find but didn't have much action. The wind started to pick up and we could see a storm coming so we positioned ourselves so the wind drifted us along a stretch of reeds a quarter mile long. This is the habitat the pike thrive in.
Right as the wind had blown us to the very last corner of the reeds we were drifting, I felt like I had a hit, but wasn't sure if it was just my swimbait bumping into the reeds or not. I kept reeling in and just as I was about to bring my bait into the boat..... WHAM! I got nailed and instantly the fish started taking line, and I mean a lot of line! John asked me, "do you think its big?" "Uh yeah I do," I said! It fought me for awhile and then did the underneath the boat and around the trolling motor trick! John ended up netting him on the opposite side of the boat that I was on. What a rush, and then out came the beast!
No more than 5 minutes after the picture taking was over the wind started to pick up and the sky started turning dark, but we couldn't stop fishing after catching one like that.
We drifted the same stretch of reeds before realizing we better get off the lake! We ended up getting off the lake just in time because the closest thing you can get to a Utah Hurricane is what we were in! The drive home was in one of the worst storms I have ever seen in my life. Lightning everywhere with loud thunder. The road looked like a swimming pool and it poured rain all the way home! It was all worth it though and I can't wait to get back down there! John wanted to eat the pike so we took them home and filleted them out. I learned that I will never bring a pike home again! There was tons of meat on each fillet, but they have what they call Y-bones and they are miserable to get out of the meat. We massacred the fillets and I learned a valuable lesson.... Catch and release pike!
JJ, John and I decided to leave the boat at home. Ditch all the fancy gear I have accumulated over the past few years, and try something that would actually work. You see, this year at Utah Lake has been pretty brutal to me and I think most of the reason is that I am still learning the lake with a boat! I used to catch catfish from the shore all the time, but now that I have a boat and all the fancy equipment, I can't catch catfish consistently at all! So we hopped in the truck after work on Thursday and ran down to the lone tree past Lincoln Beach and fished from shore. What do you know, it paid off! Ditch the thousands of dollars of equipment and go back to the basics that you know work. We caught channel catfish, white bass, along with some bullhead catfish! 
Then JJ set the hook on something different! This was a rod bender! It was zipping drag and taking him for a ride. He played it in and landed the biggest fish he has ever caught in his life. A 10 pound Channel Catfish! So the photo shoot began!
As soon as the pictures were over JJ tossed back out and a few minutes later the fight was on again. This one fought as hard if not harder, but it wasn't quite at the 10 pound mark, just a feisty 6 pound kitty!
After that photo shoot it was almost dark and the bugs were running us out of town, but what a trip! The night reminded me of the famous credit card commercial. New fishing boat = $20,000, New fish finder = $1,000, New top of the line fishing pole = $250 dollars, using the oldest and cheapest rod I own and tossing a hunk of meat off the shore and catching a 10 pound catfish! PRICELESS!!!