Deer Creek Dink Fest 8-20-12

Utah Fishing Reports & Discussion Utah Fishing General
1

:sunglasses:As my man Ron White says…“Ya can’t fix stupid.” You also can’t cure anglers’ optimism. I knowed it was too early for good perchin’ at the Island (Deer Creek) but that didn’t stop me. I expected little and that’s what I got. Everything I got was little.

Smoking or no smoking? Opted to run the slalom course of orange cones up Provo Canyon. Both ways. What a masochist. Some folks just freeze up when they are in the cone zone and can’t get the gas pedal beyond 20 mph. Got to spend lots of extra “quality time” at the end of a line of cautious Caspers.

**Launched the tube at the Island ramp just before 6:30. Almost got run over by a swarm of tin boat trouters who splashed in, cranked up and headed up the lake for the Provo River inlet. **

Calm conditions and a bit smoky. Air temp 65 and water temp 70. Still a bit warm for the fall fling but nice for fishing waderless in the tube.

**Started off dragging a fly and bubble on one rod and a jig and fly on the other rod. Almost instant action…on dink perch. Caught several on the flies in about 20 feet of water along the buoy line. Got tired of all that fun and hauled out to the end of the non-island. **

Not much on sonar at any depth. Saw scattered onesies and twosies on the way out and very little around the island. Started pitching a tandem jig rig into shore and hopping the jigs out into deeper water. Green sunfish and small smallmouths thought that was a grand idea and voted for it with frequency. But still nothing big enough to bend my stick and pull string off the reel.

Worked shallow to deep (35’) and back again as I kicked around the island to the north side. Still catching bitty bass and micro greenies. Saw a few bank tanglers near the far east end of the island. A lot of casting and high expectations but no love for any of them that I saw.

**I started bottom bouncing my tandem jig rig out into the area north of the island…the flats. Lots of rattle rattle stuff and a couple more smallmouths. Then a small zone with more clone 8" perch. **

Decided to go back and work the area around the end of the island more thoroughly. Noticed a bass boat with a couple of guys appearing to be dragging bottom bouncer rigs for walleyes. Also noticed a couple of divers swimming right next to their boat…kicking their fins up as they went down right off the transom. Musta got lonely. I think if I was one of the guys in the boat I woulda filled my diver tag. Limit one but they got a lot of meat on them. Tough black skin though.

Saw some suspended fish around the end of the island. Guessed they might be crappies. That’s where I got a 15 incher a couple of years ago. But they had lockjaw today. Only middle fins on the sonar screen.

Noticed some Jet Skis pulling into the parking area and some getting ready to launch. Figured my time or relative solitude was about at an end. Finished up by dragging jigs back through the area I had got perch earlier and got some more. Also picked up a silly little walleye that was just too young and inexperienced to know he shouldn’t be there.

**Water was glass when I beached on the gravel next to the ramp…out of consideration for the two jet skis that were taking the whole ramp to launch. But they got it together and boogies and I had the ramp to myself. **

A nice end to a nice day…even if I didn’t get all that much heavy lifting. On the plus side, I also didn’t have to spend any time at the fillet board.

2

Good report TubeDude. Maybe I’ll come up from the south next month if the weather is good and the smoke clears. I can’t handle smoke right now due to the asthma. I have a friend that lives in Orem that I’ve been planning on visiting. I miss seeing ole Timpanogus in the backdrop. If I could catch some Perch, Walleye, and Trout then that would be heaven. I’ve got a state parks pass so I better use it before it expires in February.

Debbie

3

Amazing what a day can make. We were one of the tin boat people Sunday. We cruized the Bouy line. BIG fish coming out of the water. ran the side of the hill formerly known as the island and SMB and bluegill or a close cousin.
We did great bouncing flies off the rocks.
That launch and dock leave much to be desired with the popularity of that lake. And yes, a small aluminum boat encounters the same obsticles as a pontoon or float tube :sunglasses:
Took us a long time to be able to load up. As you say, people take their time loading and talking and the dock was full of boats with people visiting.
Hopefully some of these “new” boaters will learn to get there boats out of the way as quick as possible :angry:

4

:sunglasses:Most of the fish I saw hit the surface were your favorite “buglemouth browns”. I did see a few that were of the silvery persuasion. But they will get a lot more active in the upper level of the water column after the water temps drop a bit.

That ramp is bad enough when the water level is up and you don’t have to back up very far. Really a hoot to watch reverse rookies try to back a trailer down a long ramp with two other folks also trying to launch or trailer. Launch ramps have been the scene of the beginnings of many divorces, the end of relationships and friendships and many a “two handed discussion”.

My personal opinion is that the major tieups are not so much the newbie boaters as the more experienced ones who think they now own the ramps and that they are no longer subject to the same rules of boating etiquette as the rest of us.

Will be interesting to see what the late fall action will be like with the lake level falling as fast as it is. The Provo River might be right out in front of the island by then.

5

oh lucky you got the low tide day >_< When i went last week gosh i got the high torcher tides and gosh after that day my legs were dead from flipping my flins all around the area that i can stay in and try to get back to my car was not a easy thing to do at all.

6

Is walleye action better in the evenings? I need to figure out a plan to catch some walleye this fall.

Debbie

7

Sorry i dont know anything about walleyes at all its still on my bucket list and i havent manage to get one still sadly. Fishing up there has slowed down in the past months i fished there. I say fishing should kick up when the water tem goes down and less swimmers and boat tubers and other obnoxious people leave thats when things will kick up again. Make sure if u catch those kitties up there kill them right a way dont even try letting one thats fast and spawning back in the water to ruin that lake.

see the pics how fat and deadly those kitties will get

8

Hey TD, I was up there from 6:30- 12:30 today trolling and couldn’t Buy a bite, nothing, Nada.Even PB didn’t work. So we got out the casting poles and I threw a Yellow Rooster Tail and got a mess of little Small mouth and One Blue gill. It made our day to get into them even though they were small. Not sure why there were no Rainbow today.

9

That goes for the white bass as well. Do walleyes like white bass meat? All I know about walleyes is that they are related to the perch family and that they don’t like the sunlight.

Debbie

10

walleyes are more of a bottom bouncer type of fish or deep water area of what i have been hearing around. Im not sure if you can use white bass meat in deer creek. I havent caught a white bass up there this year so ya but i know you can use perch meat for sure. Might end up catching more kitties on the perch meat then any other fish there.

11

From the Utah Fishing Guidebook:

• Dead white bass may be used as bait only in Utah Lake and the Jordan River.

Can’t release 'em if ya catch 'em, and ya can’t use 'em for bait at Deer Creek.

12

thats why i said im not sure if you can use white bass but i said im sure you can use perch meat up there if you read carfully on the post [pirate]

13

Making sure you’re sure.[crazy][angelic][pirate] You can’t.

14

Plus when ever i go fishing i never cut up perch to use as bait because id rather keep them and have a nice fillet. Just use worms if you want more perch. Only some times if im running out of worms i will use perch eyes if the fish is dead already and use the eye to catch more perch but never I have never used cut bait for fishing in my life lol. [fishon]

15

Or “Flies” [;)]:sunglasses:

16

:sunglasses:Walleyes are generally considered to be nocturnal feeders. And in some waters…at some times of the year…they are. Especially the bigger fish that feed more on other fish.

But there are no hard and fast rules about Utah walleyes. They seem to have different habits and different schedules in different lakes. That is to be expected. After all, they aren’t silly trout you know. Oops. Forgot what your handle was. Sorry.

In most Utah waters the walleyes are probably easiest to catch at two times of the year. First is the post spawn feeding period…figure May and June. When the water gets warm in July they DO feed more at night. The second time is during the fall cool down. As water temps drop in the weeks before iceup walleyes (and other species) seem to instinctively put on the feedbag to store up some fat for a lean winter.

I will PM you some info that you can probably use to get a better handle at least on the Utah Lake walleyes. In a nutshell, they DO bite better during low light hours…early morning and late evening. But a whole lotta fish are caught during the middle of the day too. And yes, white bass is a good bait for UL walleyes. But there are probably more caught on nightcrawlers…almost everywhere. They love 'em. It can be a good thing to add a piece of nightcrawler to any jigs or other lures you are fishing…for all species. And if walleyes are around they will hit a “sweetened” jig better than plain vanilla.

Watch the posts as fall creeps in. Good to know where the fish are in a year when the water levels are down and the fish are all struggling to find a happy home.

17

Great report. Thanks.

I quit launching at the island months ago. Don’t even tap the brakes when I drive by. Unless something really grabs my attention…

A lot fish have been pulled outta her this year. Might be slim Pickens for the hard deck slimer crew if the dwr doesn’t dump a bunch this fall.

I’ll wager that it’s been the best bass and crappie year on record for DC. With the low water I bet it’s all down hill from here for a year or two, but it was great while it lasted. Maybe we’ll get lucky and get a few more wet years.

A few more weeks and hopefully the pressure will start to die off. For my sanity it’s better to make the drive east an hour or so.

18

ha ha ha but not really. If im on the lake a big lake i dont use flies. If im in the mood on a big lake i will use a popper, wolly bugger or nymphs but no flies. Only use flies on lake like in the uinta. [;)][:P]:sunglasses:[fishon]

19

Poppers, Nymphs and Buggers are flies[crazy] So are streamers, bead and glow bug eggs, softhackles, San Juan Worms… If it is made with feathers, Hair, or some Synthetics, it is a fly or a Lure to some.
You can fish a fly with spinning gear, but it is not fly fishing :sunglasses:

20

TD I had a family outing sorta thing on Sunday in the Heber area so on the way up I stopped at wallsberg bay with my grandson.. He managed a couple fat rainbows and 1 10 inch perch. We didnt stay too long but it was fun to watch him wrassle a couple bows that were in the 17 in class.