Annual Uintah lakes tour

[JArner]

My wife’s family has been camping in the State Line, Marsh, or Bridger lake for the last 50 years. I have been fortunate to attend with them for 22 of those outings. 

This year the water levels are surprisingly high still. We fished 4 lakes and caught a mixed bag of rainbow, brookies, and kokanee. 

Bridger Lake:
Heard from the CG host they had just stocked another truck load before we got there. Fishing from shore was decent using power bait floated off the bottom. However I prefer to be out on the water and had 18 rainbows after an hour of tossing and retrieving an orange/gold sonic rooster that I found in my grandfather’s old tackle box. Then met up with my BIL and nephew who were having a blast catching schooled up rainbows near the ramp using double renegades on fly rods. I joined them and had 5 more to add to my total for the day in 7 casts. 

Marsh Lake:
My wife has been asking me for a couple of years now to take my electronics out and get a depth reading. I found 36.9 FOW to be the deepest that I trolled over. The weather was not great the day we went out so we stayed for an hour is all. I caught three healthy bows on the sonic rooster before high tailing it off the water with family in tow. 

 





China Lake: 
We fished from shore at China lake and managed to get 4 brooks in two hours. Sometimes it’s been faster, but we’ve been skunked a few times as well. All were caught on power bait floated off the bottom. Blue and green was the favorite of the day that someone had left on shore for us to find. 






State Line:

My wife loves to troll with me so we lash out kayaks together and set out for the inlet at 1.8mph. As we were putting in a couple were getting out and mentioned they had caught some kokes. I asked to see them since I’ve never caught one out of SL and curious to the size of them. They were around 10” and had been caught using a yellow/gold spoon. We didn’t have anything like that but had some Jake’s and cast masters that we trolled around and picked up 14 rainbows in two hours. My bride won the night with 8 of those in her rod. 

I went back the next morning with Kokanee gear. Before I could get my down rigger ball connected I had a fish on my dodger line. The first and only Koke of the day. Caught another rainbow on that same setup before heading back to camp for breakfast. 

We hit the lake one more evening before we left and I had found a yellow gold rooster tail in my grandfather’s tackle box. I trolled it and my wife trolled the sonic rooster. My first fish was another koke and the only one of the night. We managed to get a couple of rainbows as well, but we’re searching for more Kokanee. 

A great trip and we’ll be better prepared for Kokanee next year. 

[obifishkenobi]

Great Report sounds like a good time.

[JArner]

Great Report sounds like a good time.

Thanks Shawn, those new rods got a workout this week.

[Jig-fisher]

Nice Jim.  I've always wondered about the kokanee in Stateline. They planted them many years ago. Size is about what I expected with not a lot of food in that lake.

[lovetofish]

I love the lakes in the Unitas. The country is so beatiful, the number of different lakes and the different kinds of trout that are available. We always make a few trips in the fall to see the leaves and do some fly and bubble fishing. Good times.

[wiperhunter2]

20 or 30 years ago I use to camp and boat on State line, it had those small kokes then, never tried China lake but I fished the others from shore. Always nice to be in any of those higher mountain lakes during the Summer. Looks like your guys had some fun. We would even fish and boat some of the lakes to the East of there, Hoop lake, Spirit lake, Sheep creek, long park Res, brownie Res. Lots of great places to fish on the North Slope. Thanks for bringing back some old memories.

[2knots]

Looks like an awesome get away

[JArner]

Nice Jim.  I've always wondered about the kokanee in Stateline. They planted them many years ago. Size is about what I expected with not a lot of food in that lake.

Yeah, I figured they would be on the smaller side as well. The surprise was how shallow all the fish were this year. I did talk to one angler who had down riggers on and said he caught some at 20' around mid day.

I love the lakes in the Unitas. The country is so beatiful, the number of different lakes and the different kinds of trout that are available. We always make a few trips in the fall to see the leaves and do some fly and bubble fishing. Good times.

Hard to beat the views up there, we make a few trips in the fall as well.

20 or 30 years ago I use to camp and boat on State line, it had those small kokes then, never tried China lake but I fished the others from shore. Always nice to be in any of those higher mountain lakes during the Summer. Looks like your guys had some fun. We would even fish and boat some of the lakes to the East of there, Hoop lake, Spirit lake, Sheep creek, long park Res, brownie Res. Lots of great places to fish on the North Slope. Thanks for bringing back some old memories.

China is an interesting lake and currently only accessible by foot. When I first started going up there you could take an ATV in but they closed those trails. I need to try out some of those lakes in your list, it's always fun to try new spots.

Looks like an awesome get away

Thanks, it's always refreshing to get away and unplug for a while.