Deer Creek report, 4 January 08

Utah Fishing Reports & Discussion Utah Fishing General
1

Well, the best thing I can say about fishing at Deer Creek today was that we didn’t have to worry about getting run down by water skiers. With the temperature at almost 40 degrees at 8:00 am, I was worried that a few boaters might show up. Fortunately, the wind must have kept them away. The flag in the parking lot was standing out at a 90 degree angle from the pole as it whipped in the wind. The ice was about six inches thick covered by maybe an inch of snow. Then the rain started. It turned the snow on top of the ice to slippery slush puddles. I don’t know that I’ve ever been colder ice fishing even though the temperature was so high. Then we looked down toward Provo Canyon and saw the storm front coming our way. As it passed through, the wind doubled or tripled in speed and strength, blowing our buckets over, knocking our poles off their jigging stands, and making it hard to even stand up. We just sat with our backs to the wind and waited it out. It would have been nice to have a shelter, but then again the wind might have picked it up and blown it away with us inside. The fish must have sensed the storm coming and gone and hid because we didn’t see any on the finder the whole morning. One finally did take my bait, and I landed him–a nice fat 14-inch rainbow. Because the top of the ice was so wet, it was almost transparent, so I could see him flashing and fighting underwater as I brought him in. That, and the special weather, made the morning a memorable one.

By the way, in case you don’t know, the water level at Deer Creek is still way down. We were fishing by the “island” but it is really a big peninsula. I’ll attach a photo that shows the actual ice level and the normal shoreline, a good 50 feet or more higher. For that reason, be prepared to walk a greater distance if you go fishing at Deer Creek this year.

The funny thing about the weather today was that when I got back down in the valley, in Provo, the sun was shining, and the temperature was up in the 50’s. People were out jogging in shorts. It was like I had traveled to another planet. To celebrate, I changed my ice fishing gear for fly fishing and spent a very pleasant afternoon on the lower Provo River catching browns. But that’s another story.

2

So do you think the ice would still be safe to fish tomorrow? I am planning on going there. deciding to go to rainbow bay or near island. It has been warm today. 6" is safe, but with that slush and warm weather would it make it more dangerous ice?

3

The ice was still clear and hard when we left, but it was covered with a growing layer of water and slush. I think it will depend a lot on how warm the weather got up there this afternoon and how cold it gets there tonight.

4

I forgot to mention one other thing in my report. While waiting for the fish to show up, I enjoyed reading a few pages from one of my Christmas presents, Doug Thayer’s new book, “Hooligan, A Mormon Boyhood” (Zarahemlah Books, 2007). The book has quite a few passages about fishing. Here’s one that I especially liked, since I was sitting on the ice right over the spot he refers to at the time I was reading the passage: “At the top of Provo Canyon, you came out into Heber Valley, and that used to be the best fishing, the Provo River flowing slowly down through the pastures and fields…But the government was building Deer Creek dam up where the meadows used to be, so the fishing was ruined. A lot of fishing seemed to be ruined and not like it used to be” (p. 66). If you’re old enough to remember when they built the dam and created Deer Creek reservoir, you’ll probably enjoy this book. Take it along on your next fishing trip.

5

I live north of Deer Creek in Midway. well i could go check if i had a thermometer, but i don’t, i think it was around 40 degree’s today, right now i think it is probably 35-37 degrees. it looks like it just sprinkled a little bit a snow about 10 minutes ago.

6

my grandfather remembers when they put up the dam. I sure don’t. I never really fish the provo. but i do fish one of provo rivers tributaries. My own stream sort of. Never caught huge fish out of there. But there are a bunch of rainbows and browns.