High Water and Hungry Kitties at Utah Lake

Fishing Time: 7:00 am to 3:00 pm

Weather: Sunny, no wind, T-70s

Moon Phase: New Moon

Location: Utah Lake (AF Boat Harbor)

Water Temp: Morning- 65 degrees, Afternoon- 68 degrees

Best Bait: Morning- chicken livers fished off bottom deep, Afternoon- Worm underneath a slip bobber fished shallow

Who Went: Chad Fuller, Trace Fuller, Devin Duncan, Dayton Duncan, Dunc

The weather is finally starting to warm up after a cold and rainy start to summer.  We headed to Utah Lake in hopes the catfishing is starting to warm up as well.  We were turned away at American Fork Harbor due to damage on the road from the high runoff we experienced this year.  We drove over to Lindon and launched from there. 

We headed to our favorite catfish spot only to find it very different than we left it in 2019.  The water is so high this year it’s coming over the dike going into the marina.  Seems it was the pelicans favorite spot.

You can only get there if the water level is high enough and the last few years it’s been inaccessible.  Not a problem this year!  Meanwhile, they have bulldozed the area and it looks like they are making it into another marina.  Not sure if it’s all the excavation work or not, but the fishing was no good.  We moved on quickly and went to AF Harbor thinking it may not be busy since its closed and only accessible by boat.  Smart move as we had the place to ourselves for most the morning.

Chad and Trace had the hot hand to start the morning using chicken livers near the bottom.  The boys and I were using worms and shrimp under a bobber and didn’t have a lot of luck except for a few mud cats.  We changed to chicken livers and finally put some channel cats in the boat.

Later in the day it seemed the cats went shallower to spawn and the bobber with a worm was the ticket.  We continued to put big cats in the boat, and it was a blast watching the boys go to battle with these beasts.  Summer catfishing at Utah Lake is hard to beat.

Willard Bay Bugs, Jumbo Perch, and Crazy Coincidence

Fishing Time: 6:30 am to 12:00 pm

Weather: Sunny, no wind, T-80s

Location: Willard Bay (Southwest Corner)

Moon Phase: 25% Moon

Water Temp: 66 degrees

Best Baits: Flicker Shad 7 (blue tiger)

Who Went: Stuart Dahl, Dunc

I have been reading some good reports on Willard Bay and people catching a lot of walleye, wiper, and jumbo sized perch.  Talked to Stuart at work and he said he was willing to go try it, so we made a plan.

We were on the water at 6:30 am and headed to the west dike where all the reports are coming from.  Started trolling with 3 rods all at different depths.  We had a flicker shad 5 (depth 9-11 ft), a flicker shad 7 (depth 11-13 ft), and one bottom bouncer rig.  We followed the crowd of boats and covered a lot of area.  We saw a lot of fish on the side scan and fish finder but couldn’t get them to bite.  Ended up switching out our bottom bouncer for a flicker shad 9 (depth 18-23 ft), and finally hooked up on a jumbo perch.

We kept trolling and following the mass of boats thinking they must have the secret spot, but we only saw a couple other boats land a fish.  We ended up putting 2 more jumbo perch in the boat, but that was it for the morning.

Tried fishing some submerged brush using curly tailed grubs that I have done well at in the past for crappie, but they weren’t there this trip.  Also tried bow fishing, but the carp were skiddish and it was tough getting shots.  While bow fishing we had a crazy coincidence happen.  We watched two wave runners go by and Stu mentioned they looked just like the ones our coworker Wayne has been working on to get them running.  They stopped a couple hundred yards away from us and I heard his voice and instantly knew it was Wayne.  We waved him over and sure enough it was!  Crazy, what are the odds?!

The bugs, mostly may flies, were horrific the entire morning.  The entire boat and Stu and I were covered with them.  We both swallowed a few on a couple occasions. Same Willard story just a different day.  That lake kicks my butt.