Utah Lake Conditions with pics 3/4/09

Utah Fishing Reports & Discussion Utah Fishing General
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:sunglasses:TubeBabe and I took a looksee drive around parts of Utah Lake today. Shot a few pics of current conditions…which could change when the wind shifts from the north.

First stop was the mouth of the Spanish Fork River. Open water for a long ways out and on both sides. Easy to launch a cartop, tube, toon, canoe or kayak. A fair amount of “stained” water coming in from the river.

Second stop…Lincoln Beach. Lots of open water. Wind blowing the ice out to the north. North wind could bring it back. Bird Island looked like “Berg Island” with all of the ice stacked up on it. Very little ice left in the boat channel. Any craft bigger than my float tube could probably deice the channel. Open water around the docks and along the edges. Might be some 'gills and crappies available. Did not fish.

Drove around the point. The water out in front of the springs is open for a couple of hundred yards at least. You could get there from the ramp. The L is open too. See pics.

Stopped at the Provo State Park and the harbor has only a thin shell of rotten ice, with open edges. A couple of folks fishing through the ice at the end of one dock. Didn’t see them catch anything. Open water between the two dikes at the marina entrance and for quite a ways out. Bank tangler there had not caught anything.

Last stop at Lindon. Entire harbor ice free, and open into the lake, with open water to the north but still ice from the south dike out. Again, a wind shift from the north could change that.

Talked to Mark Cook, the owner. There have been rumors that the marina has a new owner. NOT TRUE. He has no plans to sell. But, he is lowering the launch fee from $7 to $5. Annual pass will remain at $70.

Drove over to the newly developed county park, just south of the Bubbleup. They have installed new stairs and a wheelchair ramp to get down there. Gonna have to launch my tube there as soon as it opens up again.

A nice drive, with little wind along the south and east side of the lakes. Got really windy after we got back over point of the mountain. The leaf buds on all the trees down there are ready to pop and there are newborn calves everywhere. (see pic).

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Nice to see you can post again, was the wind blowing at each stop???

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Wind is pretty gusty here in Spanish Fork right now, you can hear it good in my office. TD hit a bunch of the spots near here, good to see the ice is coming off the lake. On my way home to SL tonight I’ll have to pay attention to the lake and see if much open water is visible.

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Thanks for the report and pics TD!

Things are a changing.

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Nice to see you can post again, was the wind blowing at each stop???

:sunglasses:**The wind changed around a lot today. It was pretty stout when we left Salt Lake, but died down as we drove through Provo. As you can see in the picture of Spanish Fork River, it was just about flat calm at 8 AM. When we got to Lincoln Beach it was still calm, but then started to blow in a bit from the north. Not bad though. **

Again, no wind at all driving out of Spanish fork and back to Provo. The pics of the Provo Harbor entrance show only a light ripple. Then, when we got to Lindon the wind began to kick up. While I was standing (in my tee shirt) and talking with the harbor master, it began to blow in off the ice, from the SW and chill my poor old body.

By the time we got back over Point of the Mountain it was howling…blowing dust and popping flags. It is supposed to be heavy from the South for a good part of the day today and then will turn around and blow from the north when the front moves in.

That is usually all it takes to get the ice off…moving the rotten ice back and forth a couple of times with heavy winds. But, it can mess up plans to fish if you think a spot is open and the wind has changed and filled it back up with ice. Happened to me twice last year.

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:sunglasses:Awesome reconicense(sp?) mission, TD! Thanks for your efforts and report! I was hoping that with this warm up that you’d be going down there. I am SO ready to bust out the tube and go after some kitties, whities and eyes down at Lincoln! I know that cat chasing is slow in march, but I really can’t wait to get out there sometime soon. My ice gear is put up for the year (season).

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:sunglasses:You know we did that just for you, Geoff. Glad you appreciate it.

Don’t downplay the kitty fishing early in the year. Some of the biggest cats of the year show up right after iceout and right before iceup late in the fall. We always score some bigguns in March and April. The problem is usually wimpy fishermen staying off the water rather than the fish not biting.

PS…I called it a “looksee” trip because I cain’t spel reconnersense neither.

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Don’t downplay the kitty fishing early in the year. Some of the biggest cats of the year show up right after iceout and right before iceup late in the fall. We always score some bigguns in March and April. The problem is usually wimpy fishermen staying off the water rather than the fish not biting.

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Couldnt agree more. Back in the day of Jug-lining we’d start setting them out as soon as we could slip a dinker in the pond. Biggins we’d get!

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I totally agree i have caught some biguns mostly females in march at lincoln. I have fished it mostly in the evenings .

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I third this statement! When I was out almost 2 weeks ago.. they were ripping line off the rod like they were full of summer fight. I was really surprised.. spend all year on the ice not having anything give up a real tough fight.. it’s nice to have open water again to be able to get back to business!

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This is exactly what I wanted to see! This is a great update. I wonder about the west side since that is where I fish, but with it looking like that it should be good by the weekend.

Tudedude, how do you fish for the kitties from your tube? With a baited jig?

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With all the big wind we had in the afternoon, most of that ice should be gone by morning. The state made the payson garbage dump close its gates because all the garbage was flying north. It looks terrible. Garbage covering fence lines as far as you can see from the road going up the hill to the landfill.
That wind probably finished opening up the lincoln beach boat ramp.
Walleye fishing this weekend!

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This is exactly what I wanted to see! This is a great update. I wonder about the west side since that is where I fish, but with it looking like that it should be good by the weekend.

Tudedude, how do you fish for the kitties from your tube? With a baited jig?

:sunglasses:I fish the west side a lot too. Lots of big cats and fewer problematic power squadron wackos.

I have several different rigs and techniques I use for the kitties…depending on water depth, temperature, fishing conditions, bottom structure and current mode of the fish. All those things change a lot through the year.

Probably 75% of my cats are taken by “flylining” a bait out behind my tube…with no weight except the hook and a small swivel about 3 feet ahead of the baited hook. I pitch out a minnow, crawler or piece of carp, white bass or perch and let it drag naturally over the bottom as I drift or kick slowly…usually while casting lures with my second rod. I have the bail open on my reel and a loop of line tucked under a clip. (see attached pic) When a fish takes the bait, the line pops free and runs out freely from the reel until I pick it up and set the hook.

My number two method, is to suspend a bait below a bobber…either with or without weight. If I am casting next to the reeds, while the cats are in close during the late spring and summer, I use no weight. But, if I am moving around a bit, in more open water, I will either put a weight above the hook or use a “bobberhead jig” to hook the bait. These are light heads on large hooks. (see pic) I usually rig either a slip bobber rig or set the bobber to hold the bait about a foot or so off the bottom. Cats will come a surprising distance up off the bottom to take a bait under a bobber.

The third technique is “bait-shotting”…using a short dropper a couple of feet above a light weight to keep the bait just off the bottom wherever there is “structure” that grabs your gear. I use small split shot or short lengths of tube sinkers…just enough to keep the bait down without diving into the rocks. I actually use a piece of clothes hanger wire sometimes because it is cheap and it works well. As you know, there are some places on the west side that really eat tackle if you drag on the bottom. With a “disposable” sinker, you lose only the sinker if you hang up…and sometimes you get both a snag and a fish at the same time. Better not to lose the fish too.

You don’t need to make long casts or use heavy weights when tubing. And, the less resistance a fish feels when they pick up the bait the less likely they are to drop it before you can make a connection.

Oh yeah, I do catch a lot of cats on jigs…both plain and “sweetened”. Catfish are predators and sight feeders, whenever water clarity permits. They will chase down unbaited lures but will hit them better if you decorate them with crawler or a piece of fish flesh. Even adding fish scent will improve the number of strikes.

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:sunglasses:Yeah, looks like we don’t need you to fire up “ol’ blue” to clear the channel. One of our other BFTers hit it yesterday and got out to the open (wind tossed) lake.

I figured the remaining rotten ice would not last in the building winds.

Now the winter-clear waters will quickly turn to standard Utah Lake “stained” color.

PM me if you find the wallies. Have tube, will travel.

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Morning update. The wind shifted from the south to the north and it blew all the ice south. Pretty much the whole north end of the lake is clear of ice this morning ( 03/05/09 ). One thing about the “park” south of the bubble up. The “gate” to access the stairs and ramp are too narrow to allow a wheel chair through. I believe that Utah County is responsible for the improvements and I am trying to get in touch with them to let them know that they need to widen the access to not only let wheel chairs in, but better access for tubes and toons. Great update, thanks.

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:sunglasses:** I noticed that little “anomaly” myself. I remembered that I had to lift my tube and pull it through sideways when I first went down last year with my tube cart. I was wondering if they expected wheelchair bound folks to either ride all the way from Lindon…on the bike path…or to get out, walk through the narrow gap and lift their chairs up over.**

Another great example of poor planning for a good idea.

Good luck on getting them to widen that opening onto the road. You might also see about getting a painted crosswalk and/or warning signs for motorists that there is the potential for pedestrian cross-traffic. I anticipate that it will become used more heavily by a “more desirable” element than the folks who had been using it the most.

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:sunglasses:Cool! How many did you catch and how big? Did you catch them in the softwater or ice? I can’t wait to get out there soon to nail some kitties…

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Good to see ya back, Pat. I’ll plan a trip down there to UL sometime this spring, just holler at me one of these times that you plan a trip. I’d like to see the master at work, and actually catch a big Kitty myself. (It’s been wayyyy too long since I’ve fished UL, and even longer since I’ve netted a big cat!)

Oh yeah, thanks for giving me new wallpaper! Love the Timp pics…my old stomping grounds.

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:sunglasses:You know your schedule is not as flexible as mine. YOU TELL ME when you can get free and want to play with a big kitty and I will arrange my dance card to fit you in.

There’s gotta be at least a couple of ten pounders with your name on them. But, who ever heard of a catfish named Derek?

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On that same thought, for some reason there are many Kitties in that lake with the name P A T. All of them sporting a pierced lip.

Go figure.