Smith & Morehouse

[utahpunk]

Read a post on here yesterday about someone scouting Smitty and catching a few bows. After a long day of yardwork yesterday I decided it was time to reward myself with an early morning fishing trip to Smitty.

With little to no sleep, a collegue and myself arrived at the Smith and Morehouse dam at about 6:15 am. The sun had not yet risen, but we could see the sunlight creeping its way down the west canyon walls.

First cast, using egg sinkers and flouresent orange power bait. Go to turn and sit in my chair and sip coffee, when I had my first hit, and soon had a nice 13 inch bow reeled in. Long story short, I did not sit down once for the first 45 minutes we were there due to the fast action we were seeing. Soon had a second 12 inch bow, then my buddy caught one.

To sum up, we ended up catching somewhere in the neighborhood of 20-25 fish between the 2 of us in about 3 hours time. We released most of them, and each walked away with 3 nice fish, 1 less the legal bag limit.

There is still snow in the shadows, and much like the visitor who posted his trip, we encountered deer, 2 large hawks, a woodpecker, and 3 large vultures (?).
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[JustinRobinsreo]

Very nice post! Congrats on the fish. I enjoy fishin that place early in the year. Seems like you always have a good day with lots of fish! Thanks for the report!
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[utahpunk]

lots of fish makes for a better day, but I live by the mantra "The worst day fishing, still beats the best day working"
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[percheye]

A friend and I also fished Smith and Morehouse Sunday. We had luck with most colors of powerbait but orange seemed to work best. We caught around 7 bows of various sizes. Kept one for dinner.
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[4thekids]

Funny thing, I too fished Smith on Sunday and did ok. There were three of us. Arrived about 1pm, quite a bit later than we hoped but we are trying to get a truck motor back together also. Caught 5 right away then they shut off. Nothing. Not a bit bite. Zero. We fished mostly spinners but I did try some green power bait and still Zip! Lots of people throwing rocks in the water all around us. I just don't get it but I guess it's there for them to enjoy also.

Left after 4pm and made a stop at the Weeb at Croydon. Had to appease the brother. Fast and high water and no bites.

Headed up to Lost Creek Res. and he managed to scare up one small Rainbow on a rooster tail. Saw another angler catch two on the bottom but that was it. Most people left early to make me assume nothing much was happening.

Hoping to have the truck running tomorrow and posibly a trip to Willard on Wednesday in a rented boat from the base.

Does anyone know how to go about filling out a mussel cert. form if you rent a boat and have no clue were that boat was before you rented it?? Seems to be falsifying the document if you fill it out the way they want.
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[nkunz]

There is almost always someone at the launch ramp to make sure that you fill one out you could ask them. Or, make the owner of the rental or who ever you rent it from sign the certification.
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[jacksonfisher]

Was the boat launch free of snow yet? My wife and i have been itching to take the boat there.
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[4thekids]

No snow and the road is in pretty good shape.
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[uintafly]

I am thinking about heading up there this weekend, is there any free camping near the reservoir? I know there is the main campground, but I am not a big fan of developed campgrounds and would rather do my own thing. Any ideas?
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[Matador]

uintafly,

I don't want to put a damper on your fun but the truth is that most of the ground up there, except for those developed campgrounds, is private property and is posted. I would hate to have your trip ruined by a ticket for trespassing.
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