Eyeing the Walleye at Utah Lake

With spring brings all the different seasons of fish on Utah Lake. It starts off with the Walleye, which is really good fishing right now. The Walleye are doing their love dance this time of year. You will find them cruising rocky shorelines. Early morning and evenings have been the best for me. I've caught a couple on crank baits, but most have come from slowly working curly tails on the bottom. If you go out, bring lots of gear, because you will lose it in the rocks. Also, Please release all the females.

 

Last night a took my float tube out to a spot that is know to have good numbers of walleye. I left around 7:30 p.m. The lake was calm and peaceful other than the occasional carp letting me know they were there with their jumping tail dance. Once I arrived, I set up for the night and started making casts. I didn't have much action until it got dark. After losing two crank baits due to snags, I switched to the cheaper curly tail jigs to save my fishing budget. My first hook-up came about an hour into fishing. I got the fish to the net rather quickly, and it was a nice hen walleye which I released.

 

I landed a few smaller males after that, but they progressively got bigger as the night went on. When I hooked into the last fish of the night, I knew it was big. I felt a couple good head shakes as I battled this fish in the dark. When I got him to the net, I knew I had just landed the biggest male walleye I had ever caught. He measured out to 24 inches! On that note, I called it a night. I ended up catching nine walleye, with five keeper males. This was the best night of walleye fishing I've experienced. We will be eating well for the next few days. Now to find a good walleye recipe...

Beautiful calm night heading out.

Sight fishing at night.

Biggest hen of the night. All hens were released.

This big hen kept swimming within feet of the rock I was standing on.

Biggest male walleye of the night at 24 inches long.

Loaded up, and ready to head back to the truck.

I got 4.5 pounds of delicious Fillet's from tonight's outing.

Trips to the Jordan River and Utah Lake

 

This time of year, the fishing can be hit and miss on both Utah Lake and the Jordan River depending on the weather.The past week, we've had all four seasons of weather which has really messed up the fishing. The first trip to the Jordan, I managed a little largemouth bass, while seeing countless other fish that had lockjaw. It was the same story this morning when I took my niece and nephews out to fish. The day went from cold and windy, to hot, then back to cold and really windy in a two hour period. We all got casting practice while on the river, and that was it!

We fished Utah Lake for about a half hour, and managed a really nice 26 inch hen walleye. She was chuck full of eggs, so we got a few quick pictures and released her back in the lake safe and sound. The walleye spawn is happening now, so now is the best chance to catch a few. Please release any females that you catch if you go out. The cold wind made short work of us at Utah Lake, so we called it a day. I'm hoping in a month when they come to visit again, the white bass will be ready to tangle.

Schools of two inch black bullhead catfish.

Only fish from the Jordan.

 

Spiderman pole.. check... game face... check!

26 inch hen Walleye.

Check out those chompers...

The Past Few Weeks

Time has really gotten away from me this month! I've been fishing several times, but haven;t sat down to write about it. I made a trip up to Willard to fish for Walleye with Joe and his friend. We hit the dyke around 8 p.m. and fished for a few hours. As usual this year, the south marina inlet was packed with people going after the spawning walleye that are stacked in there this time of year. It was insane to see the amount of vehicles parked along the road. We made it away from the crowd, but the fishing was really slow. You could hear the thrashing walleye along the banks and sometimes it would happen right by your feet, and about give you a heart attack! While it was neat to hear and see them, the Walleye had lock-jaw and wouldn't hit anything. Joe managed to get one right as we were leaving, so at least we didn't get skunked.

A few days later, my wife and I took a walk to a local community pond (Highland Glen). I put my fly rod in the truck to hopefully get a few casts in while we walked the dogs. I ended up fishing for about fifteen minutes and managed a couple small planter Rainbows. The dogs didn't know what to make of the fish at first, and were afraid of them. Would you expect anything different from poodles? While we were there, we spotted a turtle swimming around, which is the first time I've seen one in Utah. Later we saw a couple that had gone out and got him to take a few pictures, afterward releasing him back in the pond.

Now that a lot of the lake's are ice free, I'm really looking forward to getting out and improving with a fly rod. I have a feeling April is going to be a good month!

 

Joe scored the only Walleye of the night.

It's hard to tell which Ninja Turtle this one is without the colored mask.

"Hello Mr. Rainbow, I'm Dog"...

The Monkey Is Off My Back.. Or Should I Say Wiper



All I have to say after 12 trips to Willard bay is I FINALLY CAUGHT A WIPER (hybrid of a striped bass and white bass)! I can't tell you how great it is to cross the species off my list! Willard has had my number for far too long! I met up with a guy that is known as Wiperhunter2 on a few websites I frequent, and he was kind enough to take me out on his boat and showed me what he does to catch them. We made it out on the water at a little after 5pm to windy conditions and rough water. That lasted about an hour before it calmed down, and the rest of the night we had flat water and great weather. We rigged up using worm harnesses and trolled them around 2.3mph. Once we had our lines out, it took only minutes before we had a fish on. Wiperhunter2 was kind enough to give me first fish, and low-and-behold, it turned out to be my first ever wiper! It wasn't big by any means, but I was so excited to have finally caught one after so many failed attempts.

Soon, Wiperhunter2 had another wiper on, and we were into fish the majority of the evening. We ended the day with six wipers that were all around the size of the one in the pictured below, which we released, and two walleyes that I took home for a date with the frying pan. We also saw a small boil as we were headed back to the marina. The boils should really start once the water temps get just a little lower. This trip turned out to be a great evening of fishing with a new friend. It doesn't get much better!




My first wiper!

All rigged up.

First of two walleye on this trip.

Beautiful sunset to end the trip off right!