Finally A Fish At Willard

I finally caught fish at Willard Reservoir! This body of water has had my number for so long. I launched from the south marina around 8 am with the hopes of catching my first wiper. I trolled for a few hours using different cranks with no takers. I switched to my fly rod and used a clouser minnow with the same results. I decided to head over and trol close to the dyke using a gold spoon, and thats when I started seeing action. I landed to channel cats and my first ever small mouth bass. Even though the small mouth was little, it was still fun to knock another species off my list. I still have to figure out how to catch my wiper, but at least I left without the skunk today!

Cookie cutter kitty.

My first small mouth bass.

A Great Week of Fishing

The past week has been filled with lots of fishing adventures that took me to four different lakes. The first lake I hit was Current Creek reservoir. I got there at around 9 am, and I had hook ups from the moment I was on the water to when I left. Rainbow and cutthroat trout were the catch this day. I trolled around using a few different  bead-head woolly buggers. Black, brown and purple were the colors I had the most success with. The wind was whipping for a few hours and everyone in tubes got off the water but me. The renegade tube I have is rated for class 4 rapids and I wanted to see how it handled. I was very impressed with it, and I never once felt uncomfortable while I was out on the water. In fact, I continued to catch fish while others had to wait it out. needless to say, I am happy with the purchase. Because of how fast the fishing is right now, if you're looking for a place to take kids, head to Current Creek. I talked to people fishing from shore and they were also catching lots of fish with a few tiger trout mixed in.

First catch of the morning; a fat rainbow

one of the few cutts I caught.

biggest fish of the day.

 A few days later I headed to Yuba Reservoir to try my luck at catching a northern pike on a fly. I launched at around 7 am and fished for several hours. I tried casting and trolling without as much as a bite. in fact the only sign of pike that I saw was a dead one on the bank, but he had some size to him. Since it was so slow, I decided to pack up and head to Redmond Reservoir to continue my quest. Redmond also has pike, but they are considerably smaller than what Yuba has to offer. I tried a barrage of different clousers and bait fish patterns but I ended up with the same result I had at Yuba. I did see a school of carp sucking off the top, so I cast into them and soon had a fight on my hands. It took a few minutes and soon I had a carp at the net and the skunk off my shoulders. I didn't end up catching anything else this day, and I have a lot more research to do before I head out again after the pike.

Sad to see a good size pike like this.

My only catch. It took a streamer.

 My last trip of the week took me to Strawberry Reservoir. We arrived around 4 pm and launched at what I believe is Haws Point. There were lots of people there going after the crawdads and they looked to be catching a lot of them. I got set up and withing minutes had my first fish on. The fish was on for about 30 seconds before leaping out of the water and giving my woolly bugger back to me. That was the story on many fish for both me and my Father-in-law. We ended the few hours we were there landing five fish between us and missing several each. They recently planted tagged fish in several lakes throughout Utah that can be worth up to a million dollars if you catch them. I know several have been caught that were worth a few thousand. I think there is only a few week left before this ends, so good luck to those going after the big bucks.

Typical 20" cutt form "The Berry"

Lots of people going after the crawdads (crayfish).

The renegade in all it's glory.

My biggest cutt on a fly so far at 21".

Hit It While The Gettin Is Good

I hit Utah Lake for a few hours today for more carp on the fly. There are still lots of carp you can see, and they still like the purple woolly bugger. In the time I was out, I hooked into nine and landed five. One of the carp took me deep into my backing, which is the first time that's happened to me. Now that I've caught an actual bonefish, I can say that they do have a similar fight. With only a short drive to the harbor and gas prices where they are, I am going to continue the carp fest as long as they continue to cooperate.

1st of 5 carp I landed today.