Soft water fun at Deer Creek 1/27/2024 (With Video)

[Piscophilic]

I’m always amazed at how my energy level is lifted for several days after a fishing trip. It just never gets old.

Video Link: [color=var(--ytcp-call-to-action)]https://youtu.be/i-nhorTRbTk[/color]

After the boatsicle trip to Strawberry in late November I put the winter cover on the boat expecting it to remain there until late February or early March. I watched the harbor cams and saw the harbors freeze at Utah Lake as expected. Then about 2 weeks ago I realized that Deer Creek hadn’t frozen. I mentioned it to Jon and he said let’s go! Life got in the way for another week and then things came together on the 27th.

We talked about spending part of the trip getting a bonus trout run for the smoker and then hunting for perch and eye’s, but the day before we headed out my son texted me and said his 2 young brothers in law had heard we were going fishing and wanted to come along. I said sure, as long as they know what they are getting into. “The forecast is for 15 degrees overnight and we are somewhat crazy fishermen. We won’t quit and come home because someone gets cold. We would love to take you guys, as long as you understand.”

Well, they were game and we got on the lake about 10:30 A.M. after a few setbacks getting the boat ready. We launched at the main marina and started trout fishing. Since we had two novices with us, we bagged the perch and eyes knowing it would lead to lots of lost tackle and frustration for all.

We put in 6 lines, 2 with crankbaits, one with pop gear, one with a dodger and 2 with light weights and bright colored spin n glos (SnG). All were tipped with crawler pieces. Trolling speed was 0.8 to 1.2 mph, the water was 35 degrees and the air got well over 40.

About halfway down to the dam one of the SnG rods got hit and Kelonu got a nice rainbow almost 19”. His biggest fish ever! Nice start, but a little slow.





An hour later Keala got foot long rainbow, and a lot of ribbing from his younger brother! We visited with another boat that had just returned from the upper end of the lake and they said it was slow. The bank tanglers also said it was pretty slow. The third fish came about 45 minutes later and was in the middle at 15 inches. Another boat came down from the upper end apparently not finding much up there.

I was glad we at least got the newbies a fish, but almost 4 hours in and only 3 fish was just too slow. We pulled the rods and headed up lake. It was the best move of the trip.

Within 5 minutes we got one on a brass flutter leach I had put on in place of a crankbait and then another on an SnG, and we were finally seeing fish on the finder. 20 minutes later we got 2 more. All were 14-16 inches. 4 in 30 minutes compared to 3 in 4 hours felt great so we doubled back and got 3 more, one of them at 17 inches. For the next 2 hours we just went back and forth over a half mile stretch and had fish on much of the time. At one point we had 3 on at once and Jon hollered: “Pandemonium!”

What a change and what a great time for the newbies! We ended up boating about 25 trout and releasing over a third of those. We caught 4 fish 17 to 19 inches and about that many 12 to 14. The rest of them were 14-16 inches, just right for the smoker. Fortunately, the two biggest fish were caught by the brothers and that competition was declared a tie!





We had just finished our microwaved chicken pot pies when dusk came and we pulled the lines. I wanted to get back closer to the ramp before it got really dark. We had decided to spend a little while prospecting for eye’s before we headed for home. It only took 30 minutes to realize 3 things: we were indeed losing a lot of tackle, it was really hard to re-tie in the cold and dark, and it was getting really COLD!
What a great day though, with the clear skies, mild temps for late January, hardly a hint of wind and lots of trout that wanted to play.

Hi Mildog, thanks for the kind words! Yes, I had hooked up a 1000W inverter to the two starting batteries I have in parallel. Those inverters are getting to be reasonably priced. I did make one mistake. Some of them advertise their peak rating and some advertise their continuous rating. I had to replace this one with a larger on because it only had a 500W continuous rating and the little oven draws 900W. The inverter kept overheating. I replaced the inverter with a larger one. We'll see how that goes.

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Nice that you got out in winter for soft water action. Sounds like a great trip. I don't know how my year year will go. I got tboned in my Dodge Ram diesel Friday and sounds like they are going to total my truck. With me just dumping $25k into fixing it 2 months ago I won't get that back to replace it most likely but we'll see how it goes. I'm changing my nickname to lucky I think lol

Thanks Justin! I'm sorry to hear about your truck! The streak has to end sometime! If you ever just need to get out and catch some fish, and Craig isn't available, you are always welcome on my boat! I always have room too. 

I'll try to keep you posted on upcoming trips.