me and my girlfriend are thinkin bout cruisin up to utah and camping a night or two are either sand hallow or quail creek res. we will probably fish both but is one better than the other for fish? one a better camping lake? we have an inflatable raft we take to lake mead, would it be worth draggin up there or is shore fishing the way to go?
also just curious what kinda line do you guys put on your reels? and how often do you change it out?
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Quail creek has some big fish in it.. but the quantity of fish has to go to sand hollow. Not only is there more fish, there are some huge ones in there also. As far as camping goes.. You cannot beat sand hollow. The ground is soft red dune sand. So it makes for great tent area.
Also I suggest taking your inflatable. I am not sure if the fall transition up there has started yet but if the heat is still there, the bigger fish will be in deeper water (20-30 feet). Which is usually 20-40 yards off shore. You can catch dinks in the shallows throughout the day while wading in the water.
Also come nighttime if you want to catch some huge fish up there, throw a big black 10 inch Texas rigged worm on a 5/0 ewg worm hook and work it slowly, deadsticking at times. My favorites are the classic 10" powerworm or the 10" Strike King Rage tail Anaconda. The anaconda is an amazing big bait. The biggest fish I have caught up there have been on Huge black worms at night. I don't think I have ever caught small fish at night there.
If you want to try top water action at night, try throwing a 3 inch black arbogast jitterbug, or a black twinblade buzzbait. I only say twinblade because the single blade buzzbaits are too fast for me.. the twin blades will stay on top of the water with a slower retrieve. Make sure to use a good mono line for top water since the line floats.
As far as line goes for lures, cranks, and worming, I only use a good fluorocarbon now. Gives me a little more confidence knowing that the line is invisible underneath the water and the strength is awesome. When fishing with texas rigged worms and lures and cranks I use 10lb or maybe even 12lb. When Finnesse fishing like shakey heads or drops shotting I use 6 lb. It is very important to spool this line correctly though as line twists can become a huge issue if not spooled right. I have learned that the hard way with some nasty birdsnests in my spinning tackle. I have a good link for a video of how to spool fluorocarbon to eliminate line twists on spinning tackle. I always used to just throw the spool of new line on a screwdriver and tie it to my reel and start reeling in but after seeing this video I have never had a problem with line twist again.
heres the link of the video on youtube.
[url "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwGSTZ-c4Rc"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwGSTZ-c4Rc[/url]
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thanks dude. its my birthday next weekend and we were going to just get a room on the strip but then i thought hey we should go fish some where we never been, how bout utah. i hope we do good to end the summer. iam tryin to get as much fishing done before my deer tag starts.
and the video link thanks again. its exactly what i needed. i just bought flourocarbon for the first time and just tied it on and reeled. then went to floyd lamb and tried to jerk a top water popper right at sun up. the first cast went fine but it got twisted on the reel and a little loose from the jerk action and the second cast the line just blew up and tangled all over. wasted half a spool line. but ill follow the video and be a lil more carefull to keep it tight from now on. thanks again, andy
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i see one day and seven day utah licences are fairly cheap, is there a place up there to get them or is it easier to do it online? can you just camp where ever at sand hallow or is it in spots only?
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From when I was there last about two years ago we camped in the designated area. I also believe you can camp on the little dune area where ever you want you just have to be careful not to get stuck. I would buy them online so you don't have to stand in line and wait forever. They will do it online themselves where ever you buy it anyways.
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