Fished the southern end of the lake over the presidents day week-end, launching and slipping the boat at Antelope Point marina. The weather was a pleasant change from the long period of cold of central Utah.
Mornings were chilly, but tolerable, as we traveled up lake. First stop Saturday was the back of warm creek bay where we started marking fish in 25’ of water. We had the lines out in a short time and were trolling at 3.5mph looking for a reaction strike from the lethargic stripers.
After the first hour it was obvious that the fishing wasn’t going to be easy. We caught a few fish that ranged from 3 to 4 lbs on deep diving lures 150’ behind the boat. Thinking it might be better somewhere else we left warm creek with a half dozen fish in the live well and headed for antelope marina for lunch and to plot out a different plan. The lake was flat and beautiful with surface water temps ranging from 48 to 51 degrees and the afternoon air approaching 60 degrees.
Afternoon found us working the waters of Antelope canyon. There were fish at the mouth, but we couldn’t buy a bite. We should have dropped jigs or anchovies, but we were so caught up in the afternoon warmth and the solitude on the lake we just trolled around and enjoyed the vistas. “We’ll catch them tomorrow,” we thought. “Maybe we’ll buy some anchovies.”
Sunday we were on the lake with the coming of the sun. Since we were in a slip we didn’t have to wait to launch. We traveled up lake once agin, but this time we moved into Padre Bay intending to search for stripers and smallmouth. There were isolated pods of fish around gunsight bay and although we fished relatively hard, we caught no smallmouth and very few stripers. The stripers we did catch reacted to the deep water lures moving fast at 25 feet. No evidence of fish in the shallower waters and no big schools of shad were visable on the screen.
In spite of catching very few fish the trip was successful. We had the whole end of the lake to ourselves. In two days we only saw one other boat and it was a long ways away. As the days get longer and warmer the stripers will reappear from the depths and the bite will be on. Until then, we’re satisfied that we got away from the ice and snow and experienced the big lake when few others ventured out. When one get too smug about their ability to produce fish on demand…A little leason in humility doesn’t hurt even on an extraordinary fish producer like Lke Powell