Otter Creek?

[richyd4u]

Anyone fished the OC since ice off? Curious if anyone has had any luck there...long drive to catch nothing. I skipped it completely last year since I assumed the drought and water conditions had decimated the fishery like it has at M-ville. Curious though...thanks!

[Muleskinner222]

We fished it Monday, lots of fish on the finder but only two bites in 7 hours of fishing. Talked to another boater pulling out, he didn't have a bite all day. Pretty rough. Lots of fly fisherman, not sure how they did.

[Saltslam]

Speaking for the fly fishermen I can attest it was slow. At least for me. Two fish in five hours.

[wormandbobber]

Otter Creek was gill netted last week and results were very encouraging...nets averaged 23 fish per net and included lots of big fish (20 is considered good results for Otter Creek). Poor fishing is almost certainly a result of major influx of water. Otter Creek was drawn down very low last fall (around 10% if memory serves correctly) and now is up to about 50% capacity. What that means is we have lots of nutrients (food) entering the reservoir and turbid water dominates. I would expect fishing to be pretty tough until runoff is over and the water starts to clear up and warm.

I would expect all of the rainbow trout fisheries in the southern region to have tougher than normal fishing this year just because of the excess runoff we will see this year. Remember, poor fishing isn't always a result of few fish but also tough conditions.

[richyd4u]

Otter Creek was gill netted last week and results were very encouraging...nets averaged 23 fish per net and included lots of big fish (20 is considered good results for Otter Creek). Poor fishing is almost certainly a result of major influx of water. Otter Creek was drawn down very low last fall (around 10% if memory serves correctly) and now is up to about 50% capacity. What that means is we have lots of nutrients (food) entering the reservoir and turbid water dominates. I would expect fishing to be pretty tough until runoff is over and the water starts to clear up and warm.

I would expect all of the rainbow trout fisheries in the southern region to have tougher than normal fishing this year just because of the excess runoff we will see this year. Remember, poor fishing isn't always a result of few fish but also tough conditions.

Unfortunately early ice-off results this year for M-ville and the OC (before run off) have been dismal, as well as last years...so it's definitely a fish population issue there. Now adding recent run off into the water will just make catching the few fish available even harder, true. We anticipate an excellent year for our higher southern UT mountain lakes with water levels back into vital habitat that support a healthy fishery. Can't wait!

[wormandbobber]

One thing I have learned from a lifetime living among fisheries biologists is that fishing results have never indicated the presence or absence of fish.

[FishfulThinkin]

One thing I have learned from a lifetime living among fisheries biologists is that fishing results have never indicated the presence or absence of fish.

I would only partly agree with that statement. If there are no fish in a given water I would submit that no one will catch any. However, the absence of catching fish does not indicate there are no fish there.

[wormandbobber]

I just saw this press release on Facebook about Otter Creek:
"We recently completed our spring sportfish sampling at Otter Creek Reservoir in southern Utah! ?☀️

Last year, the reservoir dropped below 10% water capacity, and we were concerned about the health of the fishery after years of significant drought. But we’re happy to report that fish numbers and size appear to be great! We reduced our stocking efforts last year with the low water conditions, and that was reflected by lower catch rates of smaller (8- to 12-inch) fish than during the previous two years. We found that older rainbow trout are abundant and measure 15 to 22 inches. These fish will experience exceptional survival and growth this year.

Chub populations remain low and the ones we caught in our sample were either very small or very large. This means wiper are doing a great job keeping chub numbers in check. Wiper was caught inconsistently in our gillnets, but we saw a few very healthy wiper in the 5- to 6-pound range. We also caught two big brown trout between 5 and 7 pounds.

Overall, Otter Creek is in great shape, especially considering the recent drought years. Twenty years ago, similar conditions would have devastated the trout fishery. Now, with wiper helping to control the chub population and water users keeping the minimum amount of water in the reservoir, the fishery has survived and will rebound quickly."
https://fb.watch/k00V8U1JjA/?mibextid=uc01c0

---

One thing I have learned from a lifetime living among fisheries biologists is that fishing results have never indicated the presence or absence of fish.

I would only partly agree with that statement. If there are no fish in a given water I would submit that no one will catch any. However, the absence of catching fish does not indicate there are no fish there.

Obviously, this is correct. With that being said, I will never forget an outing with my father as a kid on Beaver Mountain....I had just been out in a DWR boat retrieving nets that had been placed the night before. We pulled two nets from a small reservoir and didn't retrieve a single trout. However, after heading back into shore, we were approached by a fisherman who promptly showed us a stringer with a single rainbow trout dangling from it. We still laugh to this day that that one fisherman caught the only trout in the lake that day!