Good day on Deercreek today

[trueblue2]

A friend and I hit Deercreek early today armed with some new spinners for perch and walleye.  Arrived at 5:30 and on the water before 6:00.  Wind was down and we started catching 10 to 11” perch almost immediately on the spinners trolling.  About 8:00 the small walleye started hitting the same spinners as the perch.  By 9:00 the perch bite slowed and the walleye bite got in high gear.  At 11:00 the wind came up strong and that plus the power squadron almost made the lake unfishable.  But we stuck it out and the higher the waves the bigger the walleye.  Called it quits at 1:00 with 18 fat perch, 12 walleye and 3 rainbows.  The big walleye was 26” and just shy of 6 lbs.  

[doitall5000]

Great to hear about your success. Good size perch and nice walleyes, thats a great bag of good eating.
What type of spinner are you using, bottom bouncer? How deep was the water you were in?
The water can turn into an inland ocean with all the unruly boats.

[Jmorfish]

Wow, you guys did good...that's 1 nice looking walleye....way to go....

[trueblue2]

Great to hear about your success.  Good size perch and nice walleyes, thats a great bag of good eating.
What type of spinner are you using,  bottom bouncer? How deep was the water you were in?
The water can turn into an inland ocean with all the unruly boats.

Water depth was 15 to over 30’.  Used bottom bouncers at about 1.2 to 1.5 mph.  Spinners are a special design I make up.  They are small and you wouldn’t think a large walleye would be interested.  Basically orange and green.

[Kent]

Great report. Are you tipping the spinners with bait?

[Fishin_Fool78]

What spinners are you trolling?

[a_bow_nut]

Also a heads up. They have increased the outlet at the dam by over 100 CFS so the level on Deer Creek will start to really drop now.

Work those weed lines while you can.

[PACKFAN]

A friend and I hit Deercreek early today armed with some new spinners for perch and walleye.  Arrived at 5:30 and on the water before 6:00.  Wind was down and we started catching 10 to 11” perch almost immediately on the spinners trolling.  About 8:00 the small walleye started hitting the same spinners as the perch.  By 9:00 the perch bite slowed and the walleye bite got in high gear.  At 11:00 the wind came up strong and that plus the power squadron almost made the lake unfishable.  But we stuck it out and the higher the waves the bigger the walleye.  Called it quits at 1:00 with 18 fat perch, 12 walleye and 3 rainbows.  The big walleye was 26” and just shy of 6 lbs.  

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Need to turn the big ones back, they are not that good eating anyway. Next year's spawners.

[trueblue2]

You’re absolutely right Pete. Was hoping no one would bring that up. It really bothered me to keep her, but temptation won out since I have had so little previous success with walleye here. Should have taken a picture and put her back. There must have been several very successful spawns at Deercreek in 2018, 2017 & 2016 because there are so many of those year classes in there, especially the 7 to 8” eyes which I take to be the 2018 spawn. In the last two weeks we must have released 50 of them. Looking forward to catching them again in a couple years. Thanks for your pictures at Willard. Looks like it’s on for eyes this year too.

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Great report.  Are you tipping the spinners with bait?

Yes.  My spinners have two hooks so I thread 1/3 crawler between them.  The eyes weren’t as interested without the bait.

[PACKFAN]

You’re absolutely right Pete.  Was hoping no one would bring that up.  It really bothered me to keep her, but temptation won out since I have had so little previous success with walleye here.  Should have taken a picture and put her back.  There must have been several very successful spawns at Deercreek in 2018, 2017 & 2016 because there are so many of those year classes in there, especially the 7 to 8” eyes which I take to be the 2018 spawn.  In the last two weeks we must have released 50 of them.  Looking forward to catching them again in a couple years.  Thanks for your pictures at Willard.  Looks like it’s on for eyes this year too.

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Great report.  Are you tipping the spinners with bait?

Yes.  My spinners have two hooks so I thread 1/3 crawler between them.  The eyes weren’t as interested without the bait.

Will be there tomorrow for a week, do you know if they are discouraging anglers from fishing there after dark? I haven't been able to do that there this year yet, hoping to try it this trip.

[a_bow_nut]

I fish after dark there quite a bit. Other than the late ski boats you should fine to fish as long as you want.

[Outfishing13]

Great fishing report. Thanks. 

I am just getting started fishing for walleye on Deer Creek. I went on Friday, July 10 and Sat, July 11.  Friday we started fishing around 8:30 and on Saturday we started about 7:00 am.  We did better on the 10th with 10 walleye boated and we kept 7.  Saturday was slow and we boated 4 and kept 3.  We spent all of our time between the island and Charleston Bay and picked up a several nice ones between 16-19 inches long and a bunch of little perch. 

I like to make my own gear too. We used yellow and chartreuse spinner blades.  #3. I want some smaller blades though.  We also trolled needle fish with a powerbait grub down close to the bottom and picked up walleye on those too.   The biggest one was caught on a rainbow Flicker Shade trolling close to the bottom with a banana weight.  

I was pretty excited though, since this was my first successful walleye trip on Deer Creek.  We had a great time and hope to figure it out a better in the future.  If you have some tips you want to share, please send me a PM.

Matthew

[fishinfool]

Man, We need to ditch Willard and head to Deer creek it sounds like the walleyes are finally doing well there again. We used to fish the weedline and do fairly well casting rapalas right after dark.

I think we will head that way this weekend.

Thanks for the reports.

fnf

[BYUHunter]

How are you all launching before 6:00? I showed up at 5:15 one morning and was not pleased having to sit at the gate until 6:00 to launch.

[FishfulThinkin]

How are you all launching before 6:00? I showed up at 5:15 one morning and was not pleased having to sit at the gate until 6:00 to launch.

I've had the same problem. Jordanelle leaves the gate open all night so you can launch whenever you want. The bogus answer I was given when calling the Manager at Deer Creek State Park is that people could sneak in early in the morning and then leave before 6 without paying. I think if a few more fishermen complained maybe they would change it. Furthermore they have an autogate at Jordanelle that will open when you scan the barcode on your state park pass. Why don't they move that over to Deer Creek since the middle gate is already open 24/7 at Jordanelle? Anyway, hopefully a few more fishermen will call the manager at Deer Creek and politely ask them to follow Jordanelle's example. I know they are trying to come up with ways to spread out the traffic congestion on these busy state parks but keeping the gate locked until 6:00 is not helping and is actually contributing to the problem.

[PACKFAN]

How are you all launching before 6:00? I showed up at 5:15 one morning and was not pleased having to sit at the gate until 6:00 to launch.

I've had the same problem. Jordanelle leaves the gate open all night so you can launch whenever you want. The bogus answer I was given when calling the Manager at Deer Creek State Park is that people could sneak in early in the morning and then leave before 6 without paying. I think if a few more fishermen complained maybe they would change it. Furthermore they have an autogate at Jordanelle that will open when you scan the barcode on your state park pass. Why don't they move that over to Deer Creek since the middle gate is already open 24/7 at Jordanelle? Anyway, hopefully a few more fishermen will call the manager at Deer Creek and politely ask them to follow Jordanelle's example. I know they are trying to come up with ways to spread out the traffic congestion on these busy state parks but keeping the gate locked until 6:00 is not helping and is actually contributing to the problem.

I personally like the gates closing in the state parks at 10:00 PM, I spend a lot of time at them camping and fishing during the summer and don't care to listen to vehicles cruising around the camp areas all night long. Just my 2 cents.

[BYUHunter]

How are you all launching before 6:00? I showed up at 5:15 one morning and was not pleased having to sit at the gate until 6:00 to launch.

I've had the same problem. Jordanelle leaves the gate open all night so you can launch whenever you want. The bogus answer I was given when calling the Manager at Deer Creek State Park is that people could sneak in early in the morning and then leave before 6 without paying. I think if a few more fishermen complained maybe they would change it. Furthermore they have an autogate at Jordanelle that will open when you scan the barcode on your state park pass. Why don't they move that over to Deer Creek since the middle gate is already open 24/7 at Jordanelle? Anyway, hopefully a few more fishermen will call the manager at Deer Creek and politely ask them to follow Jordanelle's example. I know they are trying to come up with ways to spread out the traffic congestion on these busy state parks but keeping the gate locked until 6:00 is not helping and is actually contributing to the problem.

I personally like the gates closing in the state parks at 10:00 PM, I spend a lot of time at them camping and fishing during the summer and don't care to listen to vehicles cruising around the camp areas all night long. Just my 2 cents.

Is that really any worse than the 100 RVs running their generators and your 1000 closest friends camping at deer Creek on any given weekend?

I shouldn't be barred from land that my tax dollars pay for.

[PACKFAN]

How are you all launching before 6:00? I showed up at 5:15 one morning and was not pleased having to sit at the gate until 6:00 to launch.

I've had the same problem. Jordanelle leaves the gate open all night so you can launch whenever you want. The bogus answer I was given when calling the Manager at Deer Creek State Park is that people could sneak in early in the morning and then leave before 6 without paying. I think if a few more fishermen complained maybe they would change it. Furthermore they have an autogate at Jordanelle that will open when you scan the barcode on your state park pass. Why don't they move that over to Deer Creek since the middle gate is already open 24/7 at Jordanelle? Anyway, hopefully a few more fishermen will call the manager at Deer Creek and politely ask them to follow Jordanelle's example. I know they are trying to come up with ways to spread out the traffic congestion on these busy state parks but keeping the gate locked until 6:00 is not helping and is actually contributing to the problem.

I personally like the gates closing in the state parks at 10:00 PM, I spend a lot of time at them camping and fishing during the summer and don't care to listen to vehicles cruising around the camp areas all night long. Just my 2 cents.

Is that really any worse than the 100 RVs running their generators and your 1000 closest friends camping at deer Creek on any given weekend?

I shouldn't be barred from land that my tax dollars pay for.

Dont know where you are staying, it is full hookups where we are and they have more camp hosts there than any of the other state parks I stay at and it has been quiet after ten when we have been there. Being retired I don't do weekends maybe thats your problem. No different than my tax dollars. If you need to put a boat in I think you can launch up near the Charleston bridge.