04-19-2006, 02:05 PM
[cool][#0000ff]Some parts of the lake are cleaner than others right now. A lot of that has to do with runoff. The area around the Provo River (cleaner water) is less murky than that around Lincoln Beach. The latter is affected by inflows from both the Spanish Fork River and Benjamin Slough. They are running chocolate right now and when the prevailing winds keep the muddy water along that end of the lake, the water will stay murky.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The lake IS high now. That helps a bit with the clarity because the lower the water level the more the lake is muddied by winds. It has been "clean and green" until the muddy runoff increased.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The high levels of the lake and the murky water will both be with us until about the first of July, when snowmelt runoff is over. Actually, it usually starts to get better before that, but this has been a major snowpack year.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I fished Utah Lake in the spring and summer of '83...one of the more memorable years of heavy snowpack and spring runoff. That was probably the highest I have ever seen Utah Lake. The water came well up into many fields around the lake and the carp followed. They were thrashing and splashing in fields that have not seen water since.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I remember fishing at the outflow of the Jordan, out in front of the pumps. I was wading and casting for walleyes that set up at the mouth to munch white bass and mudcats that swept by them on the way downriver. I'm a big guy, and I was standing almost chest deep where two months before it had been dry lake bed.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I think we are going to see still higher lake levels for the next couple of months, at least, and maybe well into the summer. Good for spawning fish, but it really cuts down on the shore access for anglers.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The lake IS high now. That helps a bit with the clarity because the lower the water level the more the lake is muddied by winds. It has been "clean and green" until the muddy runoff increased.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]The high levels of the lake and the murky water will both be with us until about the first of July, when snowmelt runoff is over. Actually, it usually starts to get better before that, but this has been a major snowpack year.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]I fished Utah Lake in the spring and summer of '83...one of the more memorable years of heavy snowpack and spring runoff. That was probably the highest I have ever seen Utah Lake. The water came well up into many fields around the lake and the carp followed. They were thrashing and splashing in fields that have not seen water since.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]I remember fishing at the outflow of the Jordan, out in front of the pumps. I was wading and casting for walleyes that set up at the mouth to munch white bass and mudcats that swept by them on the way downriver. I'm a big guy, and I was standing almost chest deep where two months before it had been dry lake bed.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]I think we are going to see still higher lake levels for the next couple of months, at least, and maybe well into the summer. Good for spawning fish, but it really cuts down on the shore access for anglers.[/#0000ff]
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