Utah Late-season Rainbows

[Springville Shooter]

This is my favorite time to fish for trout in the lakes near my house. All of the crowds are gone and we were the only boat on the lake all day Saturday. We killed beautiful, plump, Utah bows that seemed to want anything we threw at them. Here are a couple of the nicer ones. I love it! I wonder why everyone gives up on fishing this time of year and waits for the freeze-over to ice fish? This shooter will be out as much as I can until the Custom Weld can't break through the ice anymore.-----shooter

[TheGreatwhitehunter]

couple of great looking fish

[ABert]

Those are still pretty plump! They'll be some good eating no doubt

[sawsman]

I agree shooter-- it's the best time time to be fishing!

Those are a couple of fattys, right there.

On the Berry or Deer Creek?

[Springville Shooter]

Deer creek, this lake is absolutely HOT this year and it wasn't bad last year. Nice fatties that hit all day long. We probably let 12-15 decent fish go and kept a couple big ones for the BBQ. I consistently catch a 3 to 4 pound fish every time we go. What a great resource close to home. We've done very well at Strawberry and Schofield lately as well.----shooter

[a_bow_nut]

Deer Creek has always had some nice trout if you know where and when to look. We have had success like that in the spring right at ice off also. Most of the time we have to weave out around the remaining ice sheets to get out to the open water to get started fishing.

Good job on some nice fish.

[Springville Shooter]

We did that last year as well. As soon as the ice melted from around the launch, we were using the aluminum jet-boat like an ice-breaker to make some room to fish! I'm realitively new here and have had a lot of locals turn their nose up at this lake. Don't know why, but it's fine with me! Maybe we'll see you guys up there some time! I'm usually in a big , loud, metal boat. ----shooter

[a_bow_nut]

The biggest thing that I have found that has turned people off of Deer Creek are all the ski boats and wave runners. Though it would be nice to have the whole lake to myself I realize that it's not going to happen so I have learned to work around it and now I have some great fishing not ten minutes from my house.

Another thing that I think has turned people off is that the DWR stopped trying to maintain that lake as a trout fishery many years ago when they figured out that the walleye in there were eating most of their planter trout that they would stock in there. At that point they changed it from a cold water fishery to a cool water fishery. That was when they planted the smallmouth bass and started regulating the perch fishery. Now they plant fewer trout but the trout that they put in there are larger so that they will have a better chance at surviving.

I love fishing there because even though you are chasing one type of fish you never know what you might come up with.

[Springville Shooter]

Great info, I wondered why you almost never catch little "planter" rainbows, now I understand. I have caught a couple of very nice browns and a pretty good cut while trolling for rainbows. I do think that the reason that the bows in this lake are fatter than those caught in other waters is the fact that there are a ton of small perch that they feed on. I don't know, but I do know that this place does produce quality fish.

You are right about the crowds early in the year, but I've found that if I can get over it, the fish don't seem to be affected. Some of my best days have been those with the most traffic.


By the way, have you ever tried Jordanelle? I haven't got there yet because I can't seem to drive past Deer Creek.----shooter

[a_bow_nut]

It's funny outside of ice fishing I don't really like going to Jordanelle. Took the boat up there a few times back before the smallmouths started doing well up there and just haven't had any desire to go back.

The one place that I love to go is Pelican Lake out by Vernal. Now that's a good time when the fish are on.