Out & About 3-21-2020

[Bduck]

I spent yesterday driving about with my dog checking on the scenery. No matter where I went I found it to be populated as folks were leaving the confines of their homes. As I'm traveling traffic was not heavy at all but one can tell quite a few were out & about like me.

My first stop was E Canyon, I found open water and a few taking advantage of where they can drop a line in. As water appears along the edges its still aways from ice off but next storm/s should start pounding the lake.


Next I ventured to Rockport, the lake is about half ice off but at the eastern end. The launch ramp still capped. It won't be long before this will be open to boating. Fishermen are also taking advantage of the open water along shores here all around the lake. Fly fishermen hitting the in flow river as well.

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Continuing on towards Peoia & Oakley. I really like this area for a country drive with its backdrop beauty and its going to get better as spring starts taking over. As I was passing thru Oakley I came upon a childrens petting farm. How neat this is but no one is taking advantage of farm animals, chickens turkeys ducks and others coraled together, donkeys & Llamas in the background. I even found Limu Emu with his mate but Doug was missing in action. Across the street from this farm is a fenced in pasture for horses large & small. I didn't know I was going to a carrot to feed the horses. They were friendly and came right up to the fence to greet me. Then I drove up to see how far I could get into Smith & Moorehouse Res. I got as far as I could but came upon a full population of trucks trailers bringing their snowmobiles parked everywhere at the final turnoff to the reservoir. It was so crammed with parked vehicles it was hard to turn around. There was no way I was going to travel final 3mi in not knowing road conditions as snow was still deep in this territory.


On my return trip home I stopped off at Echo State park and didn't realize there was construction going on with new camping facilities. This is my first trip into this area and I have never fished Echo after what I heard of entrance fees before the state got possession of the area. This lake is close to being ice off any day now as more are fishing the shore in open water.
 

One final note, I noticed next to all roadways/hiways wherever there was a river there were numerous fishermen getting access to fish. All rivers had a good flow with slight to no stain that I could see and lake levels are on the rise with nearing full pool capicity. 

[Tin-Can]

That was a pretty good "recon" report of some of the east Wasatch back and higher elevation lakes. 
I went to Willard Bay south yesterday to do the first test run of my new motor. Water was totally ice free, main body of lake looked to be about 80-85% full. Inlet canal at Smith & Edwards was about 40-50% full but I didn't notice any water coming in at the baffles. Water surface temp was a cool 43 ish.  I didn't see anyone bank tanglin, but there was 2 boat trailers in the lot when I got there, and 3 or 4 more came in and launched while I was pulling out. 


After doing my ops check, and because I wasn't really set up for staying and fishing, headed north up to Bear River. Weather had cleared quite a bit, sun was out nice, a very slight breeze blowing. Had no intention to put the boat in the river, but I did have some worms in the bait box, so stopped at the boat ramp, rigged up my 2 trolling poles with some bait hooks and enough weight to settle them down on the bottom. Still trying to hook up some carp for cat bait.  
Ahi1953 stopped to visit awhile, then went on down the road, also in search of some carp.  
I only stayed about 2 hours. No nibble of any kind. But the trip was informative.....the Midges are out in force.....   and the vault toilets have been closed until further notice, with 1 porta-jon down at the duck ramp parking lot.
There were lots of folks out enjoying the nice day yesterday. Bird watchers, bikers, runners, and folks fishing at almost ever accessible bit of river.

[Cowboypirate]

Great reports guys. I also see a lot of people hitting the banks at the Gorge, following the ice back. That ought to be a good run fotime for a while. Cookie and I had a major change of plans Saturday and ended up clear out west at Blue Lake. I will post a report shortly