Weather: Calm mornings, afternoon thunderstorms, high 80's
Moon Phase: 8% Moon
Location: Flaming Gorge
Water Temp: 70 degrees
Bait: 7-inch tube jigs
Who Went: Rick, John, Me
My buddy Rick booked a guided fishing trip 1 year ago with Captain Jim up at Flaming Gorge and scheduled it for this August. The day finally came and since we were fishing with Jim on Thursday, we figured staying and fishing through the weekend was a must. Johnny Leach drove up late Thursday night and fished with us on Friday and Saturday.
Fishing on Thursday with Jim was tough to say the least. We had a few active schools on sonar in the morning that we thought for sure would bite, but didn’t. Finally by mid-morning Rick hooked the first bite of the trip and his rod went major bendo! Captain Jim immediately announced that this lake trout was probably over 30 pounds. Rick fought the fish for what seemed like half an hour before it finally gave up and Jim landed it. The lake trout looked as long as a shark, confirming our assumptions that it was well over 30 pounds. Sure enough Jim weighed the fish and the scale wavered between 36 and 38 for a final of 37 pounds! This is the biggest lake trout I have ever seen landed and Rick moved into the number one slot for biggest fish in our lake trout fishing crew!
After releasing Rick’s fish, the rest of the day with Captain Jim did nothing but kick our asses! We fished for 5 more painful hours with Rick getting one more bite and that was it. Our brains were fried, and my back hurt so bad I thought I might crumble in half! We gave it all we had in our tanks, and for the first time ever fishing with Jim… I got skunked! Rick and I drove back to camp and sat in our camp chair for over an hour without moving. By the time we gained enough strength to get back on the water, an afternoon thunderstorm pushed us off the lake and we weren’t a bit sad about it. We were beat! We made a quick tinfoil dinner and hit the sack. I think my eyes were closed before my head hit the pillow, and when I woke up in the morning I heard the sweet sound of John sawing logs. He made it in around 1 a.m.
We all jumped in my boat and headed out to find the fish on our own, but I have to be honest, Friday almost seemed like a wasted day for me. I was so exhausted from the day before that I just couldn’t get motivated enough to focus on fishing.
After the morning was over and I still didn’t know what a bite felt like, my motivation fell to an all-time low. We decided to jump out of the boat and take a swim to rejuvenate our senses. After that we bass fished. The bass fishing is completely crashing at Flaming Gorge due to the burbot eating all their eggs and food. All we caught were 4-6 inch baby bass. We took a couple and put them in Ricks crawdad trap and threw it out on a rocky shoreline to sit overnight.
By evening I finally felt enough energy to fish and Rick and I put in a good hour of focus while John ran to the marina for ice. In a span of 2 minutes we had fish all over us down on the bottom and started getting hits like crazy.
I had 3 and Rick had 2, but we missed every one of them! The hits were very light, but we observed our jigs after the frenzy ended and sure enough there were teeth marks all over our new jigs. Now it was getting frustrating! We went and picked up John from shore and headed back out to the same spot.
The fish were still there and within a few minutes John was hooked up. It wasn’t a monster, but any fish at this point was exciting! It was a good fighting 7 pounder that got John on the board.
After landing Johns fish the sun went down and darkness was fast approaching, so we headed for camp and I showed John how to fillet his trout. We cooked some steaks and again my eyes were closed before my head hit the pillow. Woke up early on Saturday and the sun came out quick, and immediately stole our energy. Our motivation was down and our focus was slipping. The fish were still moody and we found ourselves taking more dives off the boat for a swim than dropping lures down to fish. By 11:00 a.m. we were physically and mentally exhausted! We collected the crawdad trap that was set out the night before and we had about 15-20 in there.
We quickly cut off their tails and gave them to John as an appetizer to his lake trout dinner. Loaded the boat on the trailer and packed up camp. It was now official… I fished hard for two and a half days straight and got skunked! Mack fishing can seriously kick your trash, but once you know the feeling of having a 30 pound lake trout on the end of your line, it doesn’t matter, you just want to come back for more!
The story behind Lake X goes back to a canoe trip that Hunt and I took 8 years ago down a river in Utah. As we were canoeing down this river we met a guy in a very tight area that I didn’t believe you could even access without taking a canoe like we did down the river for miles. He proved us wrong and the reason he was down there peaked my interest. He told us there was a pond not far from where we were that held a lot of largemouth bass up to four pounds. Since that time I have long forgotten about the area because I just couldn’t figure out an access point without crossing over private property. Then I started fishing with Innovative Rick (nickname) who I told about Lake X. Rick has a funny way of figuring out how to make things work, hence the nickname. He got on google earth and started searching and before long he had a route mapped out. A few months back we tried out the route and even though we had to cross a canal that went 1 inch below my waders along with parking in an area that could or could not be private property, and hiking over a few hills I finally made it back to Lake X after 8 years. Rick brought his pole and even though the weather was still cold in June (weird year), Rick had a largemouth bass landed on his 3rd cast.
I didn’t catch a ton of bass, but the way I was catching them made it worthwhile. The shore access to this pond has become very limited with the growth of summer and I regret not taking my float tube. There are only a few areas to shore fish because the reeds are thick and surround almost the entire pond. The moss is thick on the waters surface, which is normal for August on most small lakes and ponds, but I could hardly throw anything into the lake without getting snagged. After fishing the shorelines with no success for almost 2 hours, I tied on a weedless, weightless, senko and started throwing it into the thickest areas of moss I could find. That’s when I finally figured out where the bass were. I had been wasting my time fishing the main body of the pond, the bass were tucked up underneath the thick moss beds that surrounded the shore. The biggest bass I caught hit the senko before it even made it through the moss bed, almost like a topwater bite.
I was shocked at how shallow the bass were, but even more bewildered at how thick the moss was in the areas I was catching them. I made a couple casts into the thickest willow I could find and hooked two bass that I could not pull out before my line snapped. Next time I go I will be prepared with stronger line! Here is a picture of my most productive area. I was dropping my plastic worm right through the mossy mat surrounding the logs. 
Needless to say I had a blast and this won’t be the last time I go to Lake X, but I must admit it’s a struggle getting the motivation to cross that canal and all the other variables that come with fishing this place. It’s location will remain a secret and will be forever known as Lake X on my blog! I don’t want someone to find this spot and tell everyone they know about it. It could be fished out very quickly!
My buddy John was heading down to Utah Lake today to kitty cat fish so I thought I would drop in and surprise him and throw out a line for a couple hours. I pulled up to the lone tree on the west side of West Mountain at around 8:00 a.m. They already had one channel cat on a stringer. I rigged up two rods, one with a bobber and a worm using a 3 foot leader, and the other with an egg sinker and white bass meat. The bottom fishing with the egg sinker was by far the most successful method out-fishing the bobber 4 to 1. We caught about 8 channel cats along with a few white bass to mix it up. John took them all home to filet and eat. Catfishing from shore can be one of the most enjoyable and non-stressful ways to fish.
I also snapped a few photos of the Lincoln Beach Boat Ramp because I’ve never seen it so high. The south dike is almost under water. I can remember only 6 years ago being in a major drought and people couldn’t even launch a boat at this ramp! Amazing how times change so quickly.
I thought we could anchor up and throw out a couple lines for catfish keeping it very simple. I found out that nothing is simple with a 2 year old that wants his daddy to give him 100% of his attention all the time.
Luckily Yah-Yah (my mom) joined us to help me out or it probably would have been a total disaster. She also took all these pictures to help us remember Devins first official fishing trip. So, after an hour of giving my full attention to Devin and only squeezing in a second here and there to rig rods, I finally had two ready for catfishing.
I casted both rods out and thought okay now it’s time to relax, yeah right.
Now Devin wanted to reel in the poles.
He also took a liking to dad’s new rod and reel that cost him about $450. He started leaning over the boat and dipping the pole in the water and we all know the outcome of this fun game. I took the rod from him and you would have thought the world had ended.
I realized that the only way Devin was going to see a fish was to snag a carp. They were all over the surface and the catfishing was obviously not going very smooth. I rigged up a big kastmaster and 5 minutes later I had a big ugly carp in the boat for Devin to look at. He thought it was pretty neat, but he wouldn’t touch it to save his life! Can’t say I blame him.
After about an hour and a half on dad’s boat, Devin’s busy little mind was feeling trapped by the confinement of the boat, so we headed to shore and loaded it back on the trailer. Devin was my big helper as I loaded the boat and he supervised me the whole time.
We spent the next 3 hours playing along the shores of Utah Lake and had a picnic at the campgrounds.
Devin had an absolute blast playing in the American Fork River and throwing rocks into Utah Lake.
While I was watching Devin play along the shoreline, I noticed these big black pods of minnow’s right next to shore. On closer inspection I noticed they had little whiskers and were indeed tiny little bullhead catfish. I couldn’t believe how dark black they were.I tried to catch one, but they would swim away when I approached them. This is the best photo I could get.
After lunch and rock throwing Devin was worn out, so we called it a day. His eyes were closed before we could leave the marina. I can’t wait until my other two fisher buddies (kids) are old enough to come to the lake with dad!
I finally had a chance to fish in one of the tournaments that my club puts on every year and it was one that I’ve always wanted to participate in, The Full Moon at Starvation Tournament. I’ve heard good things about Starvation during the summer on a full moon and now was my chance to see for myself. The tournament went from 7 p.m. Friday night to 7 a.m. Saturday morning. Rick was my partner and we both went into the tourney blind having never fished Starvation at night. We had about 2 hours of daylight after we launched so we scurried around to all the points and islands and marked them on my GPS making it easier to navigate once darkness hit. The full moon kept it pretty light outside and we had no trouble moving around. Rick got us started by landing the smallest walleye I have ever seen in my life. It was too small to count towards our tournament total, but it was a walleye none the less.
After jigging every ridge and point from shallow to deep with minimal success, Rick got on the phone and called one of the guys from our club that was fishing the tournament to see if they were having any success. Of course they were, and it was doing something completely different than what we were doing. They were trolling crankbaits in 6-10 feet of water. Rick and I didn’t want to resort to trolling, but figured we better try just to put some fish in the boat. We ended up spending the rest of the night trolling the same shoreline with crankbaits and putting about 1 walleye in the boat on each pass… or should I say, Rick did! I hooked one walleye and got him halfway to the boat before he made a quick release. Rick landed about 6 walleye with the biggest at 15 ½ inches. The minimum fish you could count in the tourney was 12 inches. Rick had 3 keepers and we knew we had no chance of placing in the tournament.
