Fishing Forum

Last Saturday, on the way back from St. George, "The Champ" and I took a detour and stopped at Otter Creek reservoir. I'd never been there before, but I was armed with information from 2fishon's post in response to my question last week. That means I stopped at Sportman's Warehouse and bought a jar of garlic flavored Smelly Jelly, plus a bunch of other "just in case" stuff.

After a little trouble figuring out how to get on the dirt road on the east side of Otter Creek from the highway, we arrived on a little peninsula jutting out into the reservoir about 6:00, just as the sun was going down. That was apparently a good time for fishing. We just fished from shore, but within a few minutes "The Champ" had her first fish on. It was a fat, 16-17" rainbow, and she caught it on a gold Jake's spin-a-lure. I wasn't having any luck with my black, lead-head, marabou jig, so I switched to a Jakes, but I couldn't catch anything. Later, "The Champ" switched to using a garlic-flavored (Smelly Jelly rubbed all over) worm beneath a floating bobber. That was the ticket to catching our next three fish--two for her and one for me, although I also caught one on my fly pole using a black wooly bugger with a gold bead head. That's the beauty of a two-pole permit. You can let one rig sit while you're casting the other one. All the fish were rainbows, 16-17" long, and very fat.

At about 8:00 pm, it was pitch dark except for the light from zillions of stars overhead. We felt like we were the only people on the face of the earth (and maybe we were for several miles around). We could see the Milky Way very clearly and lots of constellations, but apparently there wasn't enough light for the fish. They went to bed (at least they stopped biting) so we decided it was time to head home also. As we bumped along the little dirt road back to the main highway we sang (to the tune of a popular Primary song), "Garlic power! Catches lots of fish." Thanks, 2fishon, for the pointer!
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It looks like you had a blast. Otter Creek is an incredible rainbow fishery. The ice fishing can be unbelievable. The fish are fat and fight like crazy. There are some big ones in there too. Lots of 3-5 lbers. I don't know why the combination of nightcrawler and garlic works, but they like it. I'm happy that the information helped you out. That's what this site is all about. Nice report and nice pics.
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Nice report on one of my favorite fisheries. I had some great days of fishing at Otter Creek as a kid growing up. In those days many of the rainbows were a couple pounds heavier than the majority of them are these days at Otter Creek and they were always football shaped.
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I was impressed with how fat these fish were. They felt like footballs in my hands. I can only imagine how they must have been back in the "good old days."

Did you ever have any success with garlic?
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Never tried Garlic back then. I have tried it since (not at Otter Creek) and Garlic mallows work great, but I haven't had any luck sprinkling Garlic on anything (such as tubes) and I have tried occasionally.
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I'm puzzled by your use of the word "sprinkling." Does that mean you had garlic in powder or liquid form? I used sticky Smelly Jelly paste. It stuck to the bait and to my hands without any problem. Well, there was a problem the next day when my hands still smelled like garlic.
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I keep a bottle of regular old table garlic salt in my tackle. I just sprinkle it on nightcrawlers and sometimes other bait. Works really good ice fishing.
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I'll have to try that. It will sure be cheaper than the commercial Smelly Jelly. Doesn't it wash off pretty fast?
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I would imagine that it doesn't stay on very long. I don't know just how long, but it makes a difference. I use the Pro-Cure scents for everything else. If you haven't tried them you should. The best I've ever used.
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Yep, garlic salt like you sprinkle on your food.
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