"The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of what is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope." John Buchan

Friday, June 3, 2011

Picture perfect Deer Creek day.

Jason and I headed back again to Deer Creek today.  We had the chance to head down to Utah Lake to join up with TubeDude and company but due to time constraints Deer Creek was the choice.  We arrived at the island just after 7:00am and started to setup.  Right off we noticed a good number of fish breaking the surface of the lake.  The water was also very calm and mirror like with little to no breeze present.  Temps were cooler then the other day, but we were also starting earlier too.  Anyway it was a good looking start to the day.





Once we got onto the water we headed back again toward the east side of the island to work similar areas to the trip we made on Wednesday.  Water temps were about 52 degrees to start.  I opted to pull a black bead head fly behind a full bubble and also threw some some plastics as well as we moved out of the shallow between the highway and the island.  Nothing thus far and only a few bleeps from the finders to say anything was in the area.  Though we continued to see the fish break the surface here and there in the distance.





As we made it around to the area we had marked the large groups of fish on Wednesday we again started to mark lots of fish.  I started to move through throwing silver blue foxes, some perch and white colored cranks, plastics of all sorts of colors, as well as continuing the bead head fly behind the bubble though in white now.  We did this for a while without any inquiries on our lines.  Eventually I had one hit on some smaller chartreuse curl tail grubs and then a lot of nothing again.  Still marking large numbers of fish, though as like on Wednesday, these fish seemed to be moving through the area and not really holding place.  We had a few boats trolling past us, politely keeping a fair distance, and saw them land a few fish.  I noticed pop gear in use on some of the fish caught.

I ended up moving the 2nd line to a bobber with a worm about 6' under it and just about then the wife called both Jason and I on our cell phones to discuss plans for later today.  Mid conversation my bobber went dunk, dunk, dunk.....  I quickly, with minimal time spent saying goodbye and explaining why, I hung up on the wife to turn my attention to this worm thief.  Turns out that my quick goodbyes were not quick enough as the bobber had no further attention paid to my worm.  I retrieved the line and inspected the worm.  It had been abused to the point of requiring a replacement.  Out went the bobber line again, and I picked up the plastics pole and started throw it along the rocky shoreline.  Once again the bobber went dunk, dunk....  Though when I went to prepare to set a hook on the next dunk nothing further happened...  Second missed opportunity...  Though it did give us the first offering that we had been able to observe repeat interest.  Jason put out his second line in a similar setup and we both turned our tubes to point back to the vehicle.  It was after 11:00am at this point, and though it was a beautiful day and the fishing was fine, the catching was lousy and we had obligations back with the families.  So we started the slow kick back, fishing along the way of course.





Along the way back Jason had a few sharp hits on some soft plastics that nearly convinced us to keep going a bit longer.  Though with no consistency or caught fish we took the last turn into the shallow channel and headed for shore.







So nothing, at least for me, to show for the week in terms of fish.  Jason kept some skunk smell off with his one small mouth bass.  However it was a fun week up in the area and a fun few trips to the water.  Plans are already in the works for next year, though we hope the spring weather presents us with better fishing conditions.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Breezy island trip at Deer Creek

Today Jason and I enter back to the island at Deer Creek to go out on the tubes.  We took a leasurely pace at getting underway today so we did not get there until about 11am.  Wind was a warm slight breeze coming up from Provo canyon, water was near 58 degrees.

We headed out to round the east side of the island.  We started marking fish right away.  They were rarely right under us and did not stay put.  Most were mid strata in the water column.  I was guessing trout, but I really don't know. As we worked around the island we continued to mark fish between 8 an 30 feet deep. Water depth was between 14 and 45 feet. The odd thing was that so few fish were under us as solid fish on the finder. Nearly all were hollow symbols on the finder. We moved through some large groups too.


We threw plastics, jigged tubes, drifted minnows and worms on the bottom and under a bobber.  Nothing, except a couple quick bites/nibbles.  As we would mark the fish like the picture above showed we would start to fan cast around us with various color presentations of plastics as well as trying different speeds/depths looking for the magic choice.  Not sure if the fish were just in a mood today or if we just didn't try the right thing.  It was still lots of fun to see so many fish on the finder. 

The wind came up and died down a few times on us.  We got lucky with the wind.  It ended up being at our backs as we worked the side of the island.  Better at our backs vs from the side or front messing up the casts or making us work hard to maintain direction and position.  A few times we had a big gust shoot past us making a nice ripple effect on the water surface that you could see move past you and across the water.  A few times the wind was enough that we talked about just letting it push us back to the launch spot and call it a day.  Usually one of two things would happen then.  Either one of us would mark a huge group of fish, one of us would get a bite on a pole that we weren't watching close enough, or the wind would die down.  Regardless we could catch a case of "hopeful expectations" and stick it out a bit longer.  In the end it was a beautiful day and the weather, other then the wind gusts, was very nice.  The fishing was fine and the catching was lousy...  Still a great thing to be doing on a day like today.

Here are a few picks of the scenery, since we had no pics of fish.... ;)







Since I got no pics of the launch I figured I'd better get a pick at the end of the day.  Anyway here are a couple pics of the tubes just before cleanup...



Recon trip to Deer Creek and Jordanelle

Yesterday Jason, my son Alex and I headed over to check out condition at Deer Creek.  We took our poles and gear along to do a bit of shore fishing too.  We first went to the Charleston lake access point and noted the water levels were "full".  I'm no DC expert so I'm not sure what is high, but the water is at least to the high water line at the Charleston area.

We didn't spend much tome there as the shore fishing opportunities are sad at the Charleston area.  Wind and temps were fine.  We moved next to the island area.  We parked along the highway where the island is closest to the road.  The water level has water up over the shallows making the island an island.  We waked over to the east a bit and fished there along the shore for an hour or two.  I caught a shunk, Alex caught a dozen or so world class snags, and Jason managed a nice 11.5" small mouth bass. 

Part of the trip was to scope out where we might launch our tubes.  So on the way out we inspected the facilities at the state park a few yards down the highway.  The place we parked at the island looked best.  The island was our planned wind defence as the forecast shows lots of wind potential this week. 

No pics, however here is the link to Jason's report on this trip including pics of his bass. http://inforcer.poweredbyclear.com/pages/DeerCreek/may312011.html