Are You Really Gonna Launch That Boat Here?

Fishing Time: 3:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Weather: cloudy, 60's
Moon Phase: 26% Moon
Location: Utah Lake
Water Temp: 63 degrees
Bait: Curly tailed grubs, drop-shot, worm under bobber
Who Went: Hunt, Robbie, Dave (Robbies Uncle), Me

My buddy Hunt was in town from Portland this weekend and my other buddy Robbie Collins that I haven't seen in years wanted to hit Utah Lake this weekend, and they didn't have to twist my arm to much to get me out. Robbie has a favorite spot on Utah lake that I have fished many times in the past from shore or float tube, but never from a boat. His honey hole is in Springville where the river runs underneath the freeway and out through a huge marshland full of reeds and into Utah Lake. I questioned Robbie many times before we actually headed down there, because I've never seen a boat like mine launched from this spot. There is a small primitive boat ramp entering the marsh where many small aluminum boats launch with no problems and this is where Robbie and his uncle were going to launch there 14 footer.

He assured me that he has seen many boats launch there that are bigger than mine. Funny thing is he's never seen my boat, so already I was a little nervous. I pulled my boat down a long bumpy dirt road to the boat ramp to find about 10 boats all trying to launch at this small primitive boat ramp at the same time. Every boat that I saw was a small 14 foot aluminum worth no more than 500 dollars (as seen in the picture above)! As Hunt was backing me into the water to launch the whole parking lot stopped and turned to watch me. One guy yelled to me, "are you really gonna launch that boat here? why don't you take that thing to a real boat ramp?" Another guy ran over and started telling me that what I was doing was not the best idea and that there are a lot of underwater objects that my motor would surely hit! I don't think any of them noticed that I have a trolling motor on the front of the boat and I didn't even need to use my big motor so I wasn't as worried as they were, but they were starting to get me a little nervous. Once in the water and on my way down the small river I got even more weary because it was very narrow and you have other boats trying to pass by with shallow water as low as 1.5 feet.

We just took it slow and finally made it to the mouth of Utah lake where it was a whopping 5 feet deep. We anchored up next to Robbie and his uncle and the fishing began! During a normal year the white bass should be in total spawn mode right now and the fishing would be stellar. Like most my trips this year so far, this one wasn't to be. We threw for about an hour and neither boat landed a fish. We then got lazy and started to catfish and talk about the old days when we all used to go to college and live together. We didn't catch one catfish and the final tally for the day was Robbie's boat with one white bass and my boat with one white bass for a total of two fish! The continuing cold weather this year has put a huge damper on whats supposed to be the hottest fishing of the year! This weather is killing me! That will be the last time I launch my boat there, I marked a waypoint on my gps of where the entrance of the river is and can now reach it from the main lake. You gotta love gps!

It's Been a Long Time

Fishing Time: 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Weather: Rain, clouds, 50's
Moon Phase: 88% Moon
Location: Goshen Warm Springs
Bait: Double tailed grub, drop shot with roboworm
Who Went: John, Me
The month of May is starting off as cold as April was, with storms throughout the week bringing snow and rain often. The warm water fishing has been affected tremendously as the water temperatures have stayed low and the weather patterns have been very unsettled. This is usually the time of year when most waters in Utah begin to warm up and the fishing is off the charts, but not this year. The weather has backed up the schedule and who can tell when the weather will finally give us a breath of fresh air and sunshine! With most the waters I love to fish this time of year being slow and unproductive, I decided to make a visit to a small pond that I haven’t seen in 6 years. The Goshen Warm Springs is a group of three natural geothermal warm spring ponds where temperatures stay a mild 60 degrees year round! With rain in the forecast today I figured this might be a spot that won’t be affected by lowering water temperatures and barometric pressure. The last time I fished here I landed 8 nice largemouths in the third and last pond going in sequential order from the parking area, and with my polarized sunglasses I could see bass swimming all over this shallow yet crystal clear pond, including some very nice sized ones. The only issue that’s kept me from fishing this area the last few years is the fact that is was closed to the public approximately 6 or 7 years ago. The reason for its closure is adjacent to these warm spring ponds is an old ore mine with tailings that have leached heavy metals into the water of these ponds. It was once a very popular swimming hole for the locals of this area and in order to keep people from swimming in the metal infested waters they had to shut it down completely to the public. This being the case, its closure has only spiked my interest in fishing there even more, because I know that no one has been fishing it, and the potential for some very large bass has my head spinning!!! I invited my buddy Johnny Leach to go check it out with me and we were fully prepared to take our trespassing tickets like a man if we were to be caught, but with six years of dreaming and thinking about the size of fish that might be growing in this pond without the predation of man, I couldn’t overturn my curiosity now, even if there was a cop sitting at the front gates when we arrived! We reached the entrance into the wildlife area midday and were greeted by a big no trespassing sign and an old Warm Springs sign that had been spray painted CLOSED! The signs made us a little weary, but we were there now with nobody in sight. We quickly rigged our poles and made our way down the overgrown trail to the first pond. I told John about how there used to be bluegill in this pond and that the kids who swam here in the past would spend hours fishing for them in the crystal clear water only to be disappointed by the intelligent bluegill that knew better than to take their offerings. We didn’t see any bluegill today and the only fish we saw were four large carp swimming in a marching line from one brush pile to another. We swiftly made our way past the second pond as I don’t ever remember seeing fish in this pond and today seemed to be no different. Once we arrived to the third and final pond I put on my polarized glasses and began to scan my eyes across the areas where the bass seemed to live 6 years ago.
John kept waiting for me to say okay found them, but it never came. I began wondering where all the fish have went. I walked around a marshy area to another spot where I use to find bass and this time I saw one fish that began to swim away upon seeing me approaching. I told John to cast right out in front of where the fish seemed to be heading and as soon as his double tail jig hit the water he hooked up with this bass. It was a small but healthy looking fish and we took a quick picture and let him go. Upon release the bass swam slowly toward a shallow area and sat there appearing to rest after the big ordeal. For fun, John and I decided to cast to him again and see if he would bite, but the small bass would only turn and stare at our bait as it fluttered by. I finally made the perfect cast and put my bait one inch from the fish’s mouth and let it sit there for several seconds. I soon saw him suck my plastic in like a vacuum. I prematurely set the hook like I have so many times in the past while sight fishing, making the mistake of going off a visual instead of feel. I had him on for a split second until the hook popped free from his mouth. The fish did not startle at all and went right back to the same shallow area he was before. We casted at him for another 10 minutes before realizing he had enough and wasn’t going to make a mistake for a third time. We continued our way around the small pond making a few casts, but never again seeing another bass. I have no explanation of how or why that many bass have disappeared from this pond. Maybe the metals got to be too highly concentrated for even the fish to live, or maybe the locals disregarded the closed signs like we did and have finally fished out the small pond. I don’t know the reason, but it makes me sad to see another small bass fishery bite the dust! We took the Lincoln Beach road around West Mountain on the way home and stopped at a few spots only to get rained out or bored from the slow fishing. It looks as if we will have to wait out this bizarre weather for the fishing to pick up. I sure hope it’s soon!

Funny Story About Yuba

I had to share this funny story with my readers. If you read my last post, I talk about the volunteering I did with the DNR, gill netting down at Yuba Reservoir. I also talk about how well I got along with the warm water fisheries coordinator Drew Cushing, and how he really liked some of my ideas about how to fish Yuba Reservoir. I didn't think much about the conversations I had with Drew that day or with any of the other biologists, but I do remember thinking to myself that I felt like I knew more about the pike fishing at Yuba then they did as the managing biologists of the reservoir! With this said, you have to read this article from The Daily Herald that was sent to me from the Rocky Mountain Anglers Group that I'm a member of. Based off my last post you should get a kick out of it. It is almost word for word what I told Drew in our conversations during that day. So when you think your getting great fishing advice from our very "knowledgeable," state fisheries biologists, you now know that most of their information is nothing but word of mouth from local fisherman like me!

/ Utah News, Sports, Events - Daily Herald Newspaper / Utah Valley Sports News Daily Herald / Recreation / Water-activities / Fishing
ALLPHIN: The new Yuba offers great fishing
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Don Allphin - Herald Correspondent Posted: Tuesday, April 13, 2010 9:45 am No Comments Posted
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Yuba Reservoir, a popular impoundment located between Nephi and Scipio just off I-15, has been a hit-and-miss fishery for many years.
"It's just a big bathtub," said Drew Cushing of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. "The lack of structure has always been Yuba's problem. But now, we are developing healthy populations of three top-of-the-food-chain predator species that are doing very well."
Northern pike, walleye and yellow perch are all doing very well in Yuba, as a recent gill-netting survey is thought to prove.
"We're still analyzing the data," continued Cushing, "but early indications are that all the species in the reservoir are fat and very healthy. The northern pike are getting ready to spawn soon and the females are full of eggs and males are ripe as well. We are still not seeing quite as many walleyes as we hoped to see, but those we are catching are very healthy fish."
Although the recent gill netting survey didn't specifically target yellow perch, Cushing believes that the perch population is improving too.
"The perch spawn last year was great," he said. "In fact, all three species are prolific breeders and produce a lot of offspring. For that reason, we're taking a different approach to managing this fishery. In years past we've tried to protect the larger fish, thinking that was the best thing to do. But at this point, we're going to target the 'top end' (larger) fish which should provide for better survival rates for all three species."
Cushing is referring to the new regulations in place on Yuba that allow limits as follows: Walleyes - 10 fish with one over 24 inches; Northern pike - 10 fish of any size, and Perch - 50 fish.
It is hoped that anglers will remove some of the larger fish so that significant numbers of smaller fish will live long enough to grow up.
With water temperatures still in the low-to-mid 40s, anglers who target northern pike should slow down and fish swimbaits on or near the bottom.
"There is no question that the big northern are eating carp and so anything in a gold color will work," said Cushing. "Rattle traps, and swimbaits are my personal lures of choice."
Walleyes will take jigs, smaller swimbaits, lipped and lipless crankbaits and are right now beginning to spawn. Once again the key to catching walleyes is to slow down, watch your fish finder and put your presentation right in front of their mouths.
Perch are suckers for small tubes and small jigs. Many anglers opt to use a drop shot rig or a small jig tipped with a night crawler.
"Starting in the third week of April, fishing on Yuba should be super and will only get better and better," Cushing concluded. "The reservoir should fill up this year and that will translate into some great fishing opportunities as the flooded salt cedars will provide some much needed structure for all three sport fish species."
Take advantage of this unique opportunity to catch fish up to 40 inches in length just an hour south of Provo. Good luck, and please send me photos of your fishing success.

Volunteering at Yuba

Three months ago I was approached by a fishing buddy who wanted me to join the Rocky Mountain Anglers Group (RMA). The RMA started about 30 years ago when a bunch of guys that didn't know how to catch walleye, got together and formed a group to help each other learn how to fish for this elusive species. Well, it worked! The RMA is known to have some of the most knowledgeable walleye fisherman in the Western United States. This being said, the fish that I have always had a very tough time consistently catching is walleye, and after only attending four meetings now, I already feel that I may be able to go out and target and catch this difficult yet rewarding species. Another great thing about the RMA is that they are very closely involved with most fishing events in the state of Utah, and also work together with the Division of Natural Resources (DNR) to help keep our fisheries as some of the best in the nation. All this being said, I had an unbelievable opportunity to volunteer and help the DNR do their annual gill netting and creel surveys on the walleye down at Yuba Reservoir. All I can say is, I missed my calling in life! Forget Geology, I should have studied Biology! I couldn't believe that these biologists could even consider this work. Seriously, I wish my boss would say to me one day, hey Chris what I want you to do is take these nets and hook the truck up to that boat and run down to Yuba Reservoir and catch as many walleye as you can in one day! Are you kidding me? Can you say dream job?!

I met the DNR at the docks at 9:00 a.m. and the weather was absolutely gorgeous! The lake was glass and the sun was shining. I met a great group of biologists that were all good guys, and I really lucked out to have Drew Cushing show up to gill net with us for the day. Drew is the Program Coordinator for all of the warmwater fish in Utah. Basically he is one of the head biologists in the state . I ended up shooting the breeze all day with Drew about my swimbait tactics and techniques I use to fish for pike at Yuba, and by the time we got to our vehicles to head for home, Drew and I stayed and talked fishing for another half hour. What a cool guy and a rarity as a biologist to be such an avid fisherman. Believe it or not, most fish biologists do not fish! Sounds crazy I know, but they truly are only biologists for the most part, and not fisherman. Anyway, after talking fishing all day and getting to know Drew, he asked me if he could go fishing with me in the near future. I was in awe that one of the top fish biologists in the state wants to ride on my boat and fish with me, so of course I told him I would love to. He gave me his contact info and said to call him in May and that we could head up to Willard Bay and fish, which is one of the reservoirs that he manages. How cool is this? Man am I excited.

As far as the netting at Yuba goes, it was a blast, but about all I learned is that I would never go to Yuba to target walleye. We caught fifteen walleye while dunking six nets and checking them each five times with an hour and a half inbetween sets. We also caught four pike, but no state record monsters like I was hoping. I took the picture above to prove there are actually walleye in Yuba, and the ones below are of the pike just because they are awesome!

On the way home from Yuba, I couldn't resist the nice weather and the fact that I already had my waders and fishing pole in the truck. I stopped by Lincoln Beach down by the "L", to see if I could land me a walleye on rod and reel instead of a 50 foot gill net. When I got there the lake was glass and I texted my buddy to tell him how nice the conditions were. Needless to say he did not believe me, so John this picture is for you. Told you, pure glass! I ended up combat fishing with all the walleye diehards, but it only took an hour of no bites and not seeing one boat or person land a fish, before my worn out body from a long day decided enough was enough. I hit the road for home dreaming about my next life as a fisheries biologist.

Coldwater Bassin at Lake Powell

Fishing Time: Thursday evening through Saturday afternoon
Weather: cool, breezy, mostly 50's with cloud cover
Moon Phase: 85% Moon
Water Temp: 49-54 degrees

Water Level: 3,619 ft amsl
Location: Lake Powell
Bait: Everything, but best was christmas colored grub with 1/8 ounce jighead
Who Went: Bobber John, Rick Everson, Me

After missing my annual Lake Powell trip in 2009, I was really excited to get down there this year. I watched the weather hourly the whole week before our trip and of course the forecast looked great all through the week until Thursday when we planned to leave. These pictures show the summit in Spanish Fork Canyon on our drive down.

Multiple cars were going off the road and here we are trudging through the snow dragging my boat behind. I’m sure people thought we were nuts! Once we got out of the canyon the snow subsided, but the wind didn't. When we reached Hanksville, the wind was whipping from the North at about 30 mph! We started making backup plans just in case the water was too rough to travel in my boat packed with all our gear. As we made our way closer to the Hite Marina, where we launched my boat, the clouds split and the lights from heaven shined down upon us. The wind was gone and we anxiously pulled down to the primitive boat ramp of the old Hite Marina that is now long been dead due to low water years.

Our hearts began to beat fast in excitement to begin the trip we had waited through a long cold month of March to go on. Launching wasn’t easy as the boat was heavy with gear, and the launch ramp was very shallow. The boat didn’t want to release from the trailer, but with some effort and determination it finally gave, and we were on our way to find a camp spot. It didn’t take long to find a great camp spot with a nice natural boat slip, and we hurried to unpack our things and get camp set so that we could hit the water for some evening fishing.

Just as I was about to lay my tent down to set it up, I noticed there was a scorpion right next to my foot. Needless to say I found a new area to put my tent.

Once camp was set we headed out onto water that looked like glass, we were so excited because this was nothing like what we were expecting from the weather reports we had read the night before.

As I turned on the fish finder the water temp read 49 degrees and I was not too thrilled. That is very cold water for bass as they prefer 55-60 degrees at the very least! We didn’t put much thought into it and were just excited to be on Lake Powell on a beautiful evening with no wind or rain. We first headed into the back of White Canyon where we were camped. The water in White canyon was stained and muddy which helped warm the water a degree or two, but didn’t do much for the fishing. We soon figured that muddy water might not be the ticket on this trip and we were right. We headed down to two mile canyon and out of the muddy water. Here is where I landed the first bass of the trip with a decent little smallmouth. Soon after, I caught another bass but this time is was a largemouth. Rick and John were excited about me catching fish but were ready to get in on the action themselves, especially after my next cast. I casted right up against a rock island and instantly an explosion occurred. This bass came out of the water and began the tail dancing they are famous for. I didn’t realize her size until she became visible at the boat side. That’s when I started yelling, “get the net”! She was a beast, and had a big round belly on her, probably ready to spawn! She weighed in at just less than 5 pounds and made my trip the first night there!

Unfortunately for Rick and John my fishing bonanza didn’t stop there. I continued to put bass after bass into the boat and even one lone crappie. Rick did end up catching a couple that night, including this nice largemouth, but man did I have the hot hand of the evening.

We decided to invite the crappie, one largemouth and 4 smallmouth over for dinner that night and they were delicious! Of course I let big mama go to finish her spawn and keep the reservoir stocked with more of these awesome fish!

The next morning we woke up bright and early and headed south to Good Hope Bay in search of some walleye. We didn’t find the walleye, but we did find the stripers. Funny thing was, they were jumping all around us but we couldn’t find anything that they wanted. Rick finally landed the only striper of the trip while trolling with a large white curly tailed grub.

The stripers continued to frustrate us so we moved on to bass fishing and found that they were just as willing to bite as the night before! John got on the board first with a nice largemouth and continued to catch smallmouth on his favorite rig all throughout the day. John’s favorite rig was a jig tipped with worm underneath a slip-bobber, and although Rick and I gave him a little grief for using a method that we referred to as the five year old method, we all knew that its a very effective method for catching fish, but it was to much fun giving him crap about it! His nickname for the trip became Bobber John!

We fished long and hard all day Friday landing quite a few good sized smallmouth, with a good mix of largemouth as well.

The evening proved to be good for me again as I landed another nice largemouth in the 3 pound range and capped off the night with the only walleye of the trip, caught right before sundown!

It was a nice walleye and we had big plans for night fishing for some more walleye and catfish after dinner, but the wind came up and put a damper on that idea. Instead we took all the meat and vegetables we had on the trip and threw them in a big pot and boiled it all up and had some awesome stew around the campfire.

The last and final day we were there was our worst. The fishing was still decent, but the wind made for tough conditions controlling the boat. John caught a very nice largemouth that got off right at the boat, and has now grown from around 3 pounds to about 5 or 6. You know how it goes; the ones you lose are always the biggest! Rick landed a nice 3 pound bass right at the end of the trip putting him on the lunker board, and I landed a few more smallmouth.

Soon the wind just became to much and hesitantly we called the trip to an end. After we loaded our gear and got back to the Hite boat ramp, a guy informed Rick that the stripers were in the bay right across from the ramp. We toyed with the thought of unloading all our gear and going over there for a couple hours, but with the wind still blowing and all our gear already loaded, we decided against it.

What an unbelievable trip! We were some “fishin fools” down there, and well surpassed our expectations in the cold April waters of Lake Powell.

It was awesome fishing with two guys that are as crazy about the hobby as I am, and I can’t wait to do it again next year!

Heading South

Fishing Time: 8:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Weather: warm, calm, high 60's
Moon Phase: 23% Moon
Water temp: 49-52.3 degrees
Location: Sand Hollow Reservoir
Bait: Everything, but drop shot with roboworm is what all fish were caught on
Who Went: Hunt, Me My buddy Hunt was in town this week from Portland and wanted to get away for the weekend and go fishing somewhere. We talked about places to go, but with most the lakes in the ice to no ice transition mode, we decided that we might as well head south to warmer weather. Sand Hollow, near St. George is the lake we decided on, and it holds nothing but largemouth bass and bluegill. I have heard a lot of good reports about some big bass down there and also about how beautiful the lake is resembling Lake Powell, on a much smaller scale of course. Well I can tell you that one of those reports is not true and that is that Sand Hollow resembles Lake Powell. As we pulled up to the reservoir we were very disappointed to find a catch basin in the middle of the sand dunes! It has one outcrop of red rock sandstone that is pretty cool, but besides that it was storage water held behind a big rock dike in the middle of some sand dunes! It also bordered the town of Hurricane and gave no feeling like you were getting away from the hustle and bustle of life. We were not allowed to camp on the lake and were forced to stay in a designated campground overlooking an empty subdivision that has obviously been humbled by the recent economy! We joked about the name of our camp spot and called it, the Sand Hollow Retreat overlooking the beautiful Sand Hollow Bluffs Subdivision. What a selling point that would be in their brochure! As far as the fishing, it ended up being about as productive as us finding a good camp spot! We found out from the camp host that the wind had been blowing for the last two days with gusts up to 85 mph and when we got there the good old american flag told us that the wind wasn't over yet. It was so bad we didn't even fish on Friday.This left the water temperature of the reservoir at a chilly 49 degrees on Saturday morning. There was also a bass tournament going on Saturday and the small reservoir was littered with boats. I only saw two bass caught by other boats all day long, and I only managed to catch a total of four. This was the first and smallest of the four I caught, but none were really picture worthy, all were under 2 pounds. Hunt had a rough day and didn't land any bass. I’ve heard that in mid April to May you can have 100 fish days on this reservoir so I would maybe return during that time frame, but it definitely wouldn’t be for the great camping or scenery that was rumored to be at this lake. We hit it wrong once again and I’m getting very tired of the weather not cooperating with the weekends that I go fishing. We did get gorgeous weather on Saturday and it made for a very peaceful day and evening on the lake, but the wind the previous three days in a row just killed the water temps and fishing. I’m headed to Lake Powell in two weeks and I’ve already started praying to the weather gods to let it shine, please let it shine!

My Little Fisher"wo"man is Here

Fishing Time (birth): 8:26 p.m.
Weather: Snow, abnormally warm
Moon: Full Moon
Location: St. Marks Hospital
Bait(doctor): Dr. Carrie Sloan
Who Was There: Mom, Dad, Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, and cousin Dakota
My best fishing day following my son’s birth happened today and arrived in an even smaller package than he did. My daughter and newest fishing partner, Addison Lynn Duncan, was born today at 8:26 p.m. She weighed 2 lb 14 oz and was 16 ½ inches long. She had a little more of a difficult start than my other little fisherman Devin did. She needed the ventilator to help her breath, and they also added surfactant to her lungs because she didn’t quite stay in moms belly long enough to naturally create it on her own, but beyond that, she has done great! I now have two little fishing buddies to share the water with and I couldn’t be more excited about it! Now I just have to start brain washing them at an early age of how important fishing and the outdoors are, and to enjoy and cherish every outing they go on with their old man!