Well, once I saw Utah Lake with enough open water on Thursday to not be worried about running into chunks of ice floating around, I didn’t hesitate on making plans to get the boat in the water. I figured the first time I’d have a chance to launch the boat would be Saturday evening. I’m not sure why I even bothered to check what the weather forecast was for this weekend because it didn’t stop me from putting the boat in the water. Ebass and I agreed to meet up at the launch ramp at 3:30 PM yesterday. Well, when we both left our houses yesterday afternoon, it was near white-out conditions with the snow that was falling. I started getting a little nervous, but I hitched up the boat and drove to the ramp anyway. Har Har!!! To make a long story short, the weather was actually fairly decent by the time we got there, but about halfway into fishing we got quite a bit of cloud cover, some snow flurries, and a northern wind that numbed our fingers pretty quickly. All in all, the main thing was, it felt great to be fishing on my boat, casting a line, and being on open water. How’d we do? Well, I boated two largemouths (one 16" and one 19") and I lost one other about 16" on the jump. Ebass claims to have missed a few fish due to his lazy hooksets (there is still some debate as of to whether or not they were actually fish, but I’ll let him tell his side of the story). We probably had about 3hrs of fishing time, and it took the first half of that to start figuring out a pattern. Anyways, it felt SOOOOOO good to be setting the hook into some REAL fish after a long, bitter winter. You can bet we’ll be out there again this weekend. Hopefully ebass will see this and post the couple of pictures that he took with his camera phone…
Where abouts were you fishing and with what kind of bait?
TS
We’ll say that I was fishing down at Lincoln Beach and that I was using clams. [sly] jk, I would tell you, but honestly, it seems like everytime that I make a post about bass fishing at Utah Lake and I divulge any information about locations and such, I immediately have guys sending me PMs because they’ve now got their panties in a bunch because I divulged “too much information.” Most of the spots that I fish and have good success with I really feel like aren’t that big of a secret though. The main reason I don’t feel like saying where right now is because of the fact that I still want to get a good month of fishing out of it without having more pressure than there already usually is there. If you know anything about bass fishing it should be pretty obvious about what areas to focus on in order to catch fish right now. Lure selection this time of the year is just as critical but not as obvious. I’ll send you a PM to give you some pointers. My guess though is that if ebass posts the pics then many can probably tell exactly where it’s at. That’s fine though, if you know where it’s at, then you are probably already one of the regulars there…
A PM would be great. I have only fished Utah Lake once, so I wouldnt know where to go anyway. I am just itching to get my boat out. I got her running today and she needs to see some water!!! I dont care for Utah Lake that much, but if that is the only place with open water, then I guess it will have to do. Thanks again.
TS
sounds like a good time stricbiz. glad to hear you finally got some open water. now i’m just waiting for jordanelle!
Jordanelle is over-rated. [angelic] ha, no, it can be fun…but if there was a decent enough flip bite going on at Utah Lake vs the usual good drop-shot bite at Jordanelle…I’d much rather prefer to go do some flippin’ at Utah Lake. Don’t get me wrong, those smallies can certainly put on a good fight, but there’s just somethin’ about wrestling a big bass out of heavy cover on a short line. As opposed to drop-shottin’ in 20ft of water. And the two bass that I pulled out of Utah Lake yesterday actually did put up a pretty good fight. I was impressed. Now…if there was a real good topwater bite going on at Jordanelle with some bruiser sized smallies, that’s a whole different story… 
Thanks for not divulging the exact location.[;)] With the ice gone, the good spots are boat accessible which means I will have some competition. Thanks for keeping a few thousand more peeps away for the time being, lol. After a few more weeks, they are done with for a while anyways. Nice job on the lmb. I like them more than any smallies at Jordanelle, just the whole commodified aspect to lmb that makes them more appealing than smallies to me. I just like them better and have more respect for them. They just look more impressive too, according to my interpretation.
I understand you not wanting to share but I’m glad not everyone feels that way or people trying to learn from the experts would have not where to look for help.
Most spots, for most species, will not suffer from having a report posted in detail. But, when it comes to the VERY FEW good spots for largies, on Utah Lake, it really is something that does not need more publicity.
**Young SB has fished Utah Lake for many years and has put in his time and paid his dues. Most of what he knows he has learned the hard way. And many of the spots he fishes are only very small places with only a few fish. As we have all found out, posting too much information on a public forum often results in the “happy harvesters” showing up and fishing out those spots. Even though there is a 12" limit on largemouths in Utah Lake, that does not stop many folks who keep everything they catch. **
I am sure that any serious BFT angler who sends a PM to Alex will get a polite response and at least some general information on what to look for and how to fish for the early bass. Just don’t expect exact locations. And, that is how it should be.
I stand corrected and rather than go into a long explanation I will just say I didn’t know largies were different from other types.
Thanks for the back-up TD. And talk about learning what I know about Utah Lake bass the “hard way” and “paying my dues”…when I first started this lake, I fished it for a little over 2 years solid (at least 30 trips) and didn’t catch a single largemouth. I gotta tell ya, it was really discouraging. I kept at it though because I figured if I could learn to consistently catch bass under what most bass anglers would consider terrible conditions, then I’d be able to catch bass almost anywhere. As far as I’m concerned…it worked. haha. I feel like if I can catch bass in a lake that’s got less than 1ft visibility and the average water temp on the lake right now is 41 degrees…I’ve got the confidence to fish any lake. And yes, I am more than willing to give some pointers to anyone who wants to PM me. I’ve already had 3 guys PM me about this post and given them some good starting points. Over the years I think I’ve been responsible for turning a handful of anglers here in Utah into bass-a-holics. Some guys take what I give them and figure it out, and some just don’t…
P.S. I’m going to break the 10lb mark at Utah Lake this year…I can feel it…
“P.S. I’m going to break the 10lb mark at Utah Lake this year…I can feel it…”
Yeah…but “buglemouth” bass don’t count. (Ha)
**With the higher water levels we have had for the past couple of years, with an increase in both cover and forage, there is a good possibility of finding a “TENNER” in that lake. **
If anybody can do it…I’m betting you can.
Good luck.
Ha, the buglemouth bass remark gave me a good chuckle. [:P] Of course they don’t count! I break the 10lb mark with those guys at least a couple of times every year over at Utah Lake. Of course, rarely do they ever actually eat my offerings…usually they end up on my line from fishing a crankbait and getting snagged in the back.
I’m not going to lie, I struggled just a little bit last year on Utah Lake. Of course, when I figured out Utah Lake pretty good it was back in the drought years. Then last year was my first year back in about 4 years, and it was a totally different lake with the high water. Sure I still caught fish last year, but not like I used to. I don’t think I ever broke the 4lb mark at UL last year. I caught bigger largies at Deer Creek and Jordanelle. This year I’m going to have to tackle this lake completely different than what I used to do I think. With the higher water it has definitely given the bigger fish lots more places to hide. However, I’ve had a lot of time in the last 3 months to just sit and think about what I’m going to do different this year…I’ve got some pretty good ideas of where, when, and how I’m going to get the 10lber…In that big of a lake…I know there’s gotta be a few in there somewhere…
All fish act and fight different, like in trout rainbows and browns will mix but most of the time live just apart and hit different lures most of the time…
Bass do the same, they can mix but like to live in different types of cover and take different lures most of the time…
Thats why some will catch LM at Jordanelle and others only get SM, you can use the same lure but fish different kinds of cover and water depths…