Tubing Deer Creek 7-13-23

[TubeDude]

First shot at Deer Creek this year.  Didn't know what to expect...with the higher water and lack of good reports.  Was hoping Thursday the 13th wasn't as bad as Friday the 13th.

Got launched around 7 am at the Charleston area.  First time it's been high enough water for small craft to launch there for a few years.  Purty morning.  Calm...until the water skiers started running the edges on the far side of the lake...before I even got launched.  Glad that was not my intended fishing area.  Air temp was a cool 52 at launch, warming to 82 at noon departure.  Water temp started out about 67 and increased to just over 71 at noon.  And it is always nice fishing Deer Creek with Mama Timp watching over ya.


Headed out trolling a crank and pulling a spinner flig rig...hoping to maybe molest a trout or two while searching for promising walleye territory.  Had a couple of minor whacks but no hookups in the next half hour.  Finally put out a couple of whirly flig crawler rigs and started dragging them around from 18 to 25 feet deep.  Saw occasional fish in the 19-20 foot range but nothing deeper.  And if I moved shallower I immediately got fouled with nasty green weeds.   Had to watch the rod tips for drag and pull in and clean off the green gunk every few minutes.

Had a couple of whacks around 7:30 in one spot...one on each rod...but did not hook up.  Then it was absolutely zippo until about 9.  That's when the first seegar walleye climbed on...and was quickly released.  After that I got more hits...hooking 5 walleyes and two trout.  Two of the walleyes were "seegars", two were "footlongs" and only one 14 incher got invited home.  The trout hit the same stuff I was fishing for walleyes.  One was 15" and the other a chunky 18 incher.  Had a few "perch pecks" but nothing brought to the tube.  And had one small smallie hang on for exercise until I got him close enough for a jump and long line release.


There were a lot more ski and wakeboard boats on the water today than anglers.  And of the fishing boat watched I didn't see any wet nets.  Although a couple of guys who launched a small boat about the same time I did...and returned when I did...claimed to have caught a lot of trout fishing power putty in 10 -12 FOW in the old channel.  They had kept one nice trout that succumbed while being released.


I have definitely done better on Deer Creek this time of year in years past.  But at least I got some tugs and brung home some edibles.

[gofish435]

Thanks for the report, Pat.  I'm glad you didn't get run over and were able to put meat on the table.

The only time I fish Deer Creek is December & January and there are only fishing boats on the water.  

You do get a lot of natural jigging action with the power squadron. 

[doitall5000]

Thanks Pat I hope to get there soon. Pictures will be helpful, I like fishing between the weeds.

[TubeDude]

Thanks Pat I hope to get there soon. Pictures will be helpful,  I like fishing between the weeds.

From past experience, there are probably a lot of the walleyes in and around the weeds in shallower water.  But I didn't take the gear or the patience to get in closer and work them.  Here is a picture taken by an "anonymous" fellow BFTer who took a double limit with a buddy on 7-12-19...in the weeds.  So, the timing should have been good...but the angler was out of sync.  Would have liked to have some of those IN my sink.

[Cowboypirate]

Pat, I know in a past post you have shared a bit of perch history of DC. My bride asked me why it has never really returned to it perch heyday of days past. I mumbled some gibberish about bass and such but finally admitted I did not know but I would ask you and our fellow BFTs. Figured since your were just on the water your mind would be fresh with insite.

[TubeDude]

Pat, I know in a past post you have shared a bit of perch history of DC. My bride asked me why it has never really returned to it perch heyday of days past. I mumbled some gibberish about bass and such but finally admitted I did not know but I would ask you and our fellow BFTs. Figured since your were just on the water your mind would be fresh with insite.

I am attaching a special writeup I put together on the "non-trout" species in Deer Creek...which includes both the perch and the smallies...their main nemesis.  As usual, on most Utah waters, it boils down to the food chain thing. 




In the distant past there were only rainbows, browns, largemouth and perch in Deer Creek.  The perch were prolific and produced vast numbers of young each year.  The rainbows did feed on the baby perch for a while but are mostly plankton and other invertebrate feeders in Deer Creek so they had little impact on the perch.  The browns did feed a lot on young perch, but also had plenty of small planted rainbows (4 inchers) that were being planted at that time.  They also ate crawdads and aquatic insects.  Not a big factor in perch survival.




The largemouths also ate perch, but subsisted largely on the abundant (at that time) crawdads.  Again, not a major factor in perch population maintenance.




The perch, on the other hand, were their own worst enemies... as well as their own best friends.  They produced a lot of babies every year but those young were a major part of their food chain.  Besides baby crawdads there was not much else for them to eat...except their own young.  But wherever perch exist, they usually do a good job of sustaining their numbers through their own abundant spawning efforts.



Walleyes showed up in the late 70's.  They also had some impact on the perch, but only to thin the herd and make for fewer but larger perch.  No big problem.




Then, in the 1980s, DWR planted smallies in Deer Creek.  The smallies took over a lot of largemouth habitat, ate up a lot of the crawdads and then decimated the perch.  The larger smallies fed on perch up to 6" in length.  But the worst predation was from the schools of young smallies that slurped up thousands of newly hatched perch each spring before they could grow to catchable size...or ever get large enough to spawn.  That, combined with droughts...making for poor perch spawning conditions...dropped the perch numbers below the "tipping point"...at which they could reproduce enough to counter predation...from themselves and all the other predators.  So now they are a minority species...after once being so numerous they were nuisances and were thrown up on the bank.

[lovetofish]

I was at Deer Creek on Tuesday, and I think everyone in Utah was vacationing at DC. Not as many fishing boats as Power Boats with LOUD music playing along with the wakes they create. When we left at noon the people were still coming in. We launched at the island. If I go back I think I'll take my little rubber boat and fish in the willows.

[TubeDude]

I was at Deer Creek on Tuesday, and I think everyone in Utah was vacationing at DC. Not as many fishing boats as Power Boats with LOUD music playing along with the wakes they create. When we left at noon the people were still coming in. We launched at the island. If I go back I think I'll take my little rubber boat and fish in the willows.

Seems like all the popular spots are seeing even more traffic this year.  There was was even more activity at Charleston than I have ever seen before...but it was tame compared to the zoo at the Island as I drove by on the way home.  Couldn't see an empty parking spat anywhere.  And people everywhere.  Glad I didn't launch there earlier.  I would have never been able to get my tube back at the ramp.  Sent you a PM

[Piscophilic]

Another great report and pictures Pat. I'm glad you got out and "schooled some of those smaller eyes. Seems like more of them than in the recent past. I hope thy have enough to eat and can grow at decent rates.

[TubeDude]

Another great report and pictures Pat. I'm glad you got out and "schooled some of those smaller eyes. Seems like more of them than in the recent past. I hope thy have enough to eat and can grow at decent rates.

Me too and three.  I was hoping to find the larger fish that have been eluding some pretty good wallieites.  Nobody seems to have made any good scores...either in numbers or sizes.  They gotta be hidin' somewhere.

On the plus side, the troutaholics have been happy with the larger sizes and numbers on the rainbows.  Maybe the big rainbows have been eating the walleyes?  Nah.  Too much of a role reversal.

[Freakyfisherman]

Another great report and pictures Pat. I'm glad you got out and "schooled some of those smaller eyes. Seems like more of them than in the recent past. I hope thy have enough to eat and can grow at decent rates.

Me too and three.  I was hoping to find the larger fish that have been eluding some pretty good wallieites.  Nobody seems to have made any good scores...either in numbers or sizes.  They gotta be hidin' somewhere.

On the plus side, the troutaholics have been happy with the larger sizes and numbers on the rainbows.  Maybe the big rainbows have been eating the walleyes?  Nah.  Too much of a role reversal.

Pat
Thanks for the report. I have a buddy that has struggled this year to put numbers or any sized walleye on DC this year. I got a few through the ice this past winter on DC and have not had the chance to make it back up there to see if I can figure anything out there. I think the walleye are probably cruising a lot more than they normally do with the new playground of habitat to choose from. So, if you are lucky, you might come across of few of them while fishing DC. You just have to be at the right place and the right time. 
Gabe

[TubeDude]

Pat
So, if you are lucky, you might come across of few of them while fishing DC. You just have to be at the right place and the right time. 
Gabe

That pretty much sums up fishing in general.  But it is especially applicable to Deer Creek this year.  I suspect that the late summer and fall fishing will be better...when the water levels drop a bit and the family "clutter" thins out some.  I plan to test that theory a few times in the future.