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LOAH
09-21-2008, 09:13 PM
After having a ton of fun floating Jordanelle last week, and in the spirit of staying closer to home, I thought I'd try to "bury the hatchet" with an old foe: Deer Creek Reservoir.

Since I was a little boy, I've fished Deer Creek with family or friends and have never managed to pull out a trout. I've caught plenty of tiny smallmouth bass and perch over the years, but never anything to make the trip worthwhile.

Well, today I was confident that with the aide of my float tube and a hopefully a little bit of luck, I'd get my trout.

The morning air had a bit of a chill to it, but the water was calm and smooth. I started out in some pretty deep water that I had to hike down a pretty steep rock slide to get to. I parked at the first access to the south after the railing, somewhat near the dam. I was on the water by 6:30 and before the sun shone its light upon the valley.

As usual, the massive carp were flying out of the water all around me. Some of them were brave enough to get within 10 feet of me before alerting me of their presence. While I kicked, I drifted a worm with some split shot weights up the line on one rod and a big brown bugger on the other.

The sun crept up over the distant mountains and lit up the backside of Timpanogos:

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii272/justisaurusbucket/IMGP2902.jpg

Taking advantage of the peaceful waters, I kicked out to the buoys nearest the dam and followed their line to the opposite shoreline without so much as a nibble. :? I tried a slew of different lures and flies to no avail as I kicked my way to a shallow bay where I took a quick break and tried some casting from shore.

Still nothing. It didn't look to promising for me. Deer Creek was, once again, working me over as I had grown used to over time.

No. Not this time. I was determined to make something happen. A couple of hours had passed, but I had all day and there was no way I was leaving without catching something (even a dink smallie sounded good at this point).

So from that northern shore, I kicked across the lake once again toward the State Park area. It wasn't until I had made my way to the boat ramp (about 50 feet out), that my rod started twitching. Something finally had my worm.

At first, I thought it was a walleye since it didn't put up much of a fight. Once I got it closer to my tube, I saw the tell tale markings of a rainbow trout and a broad smile spread across my face. 8)

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii272/justisaurusbucket/IMGP2905.jpg

Yes, I know that it's just another finless wonder bow (although a 17 incher), but it was definitely a noteworthy triumph in the book of LOAH.

Shortly after rigging up another worm and tossing out, another rainbow found it and made sure to give me a real fight this time. The bow was 16 inches, but fought much bigger. It actually worked my drag a bit. I didn't get a photo, but this one had nicer looking fins, but was lacking one of the pectoral fins. Weird.

After the second rainbow in as many minutes, the action stopped again and I continued my journey toward the Wallsburg arm while the mighty Timanogos looked on:

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii272/justisaurusbucket/IMGP2908.jpg

The colors are really starting to pop. Pretty soon the canyons will be a mosaic of colors.

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii272/justisaurusbucket/IMGP2907.jpg

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii272/justisaurusbucket/IMGP2906.jpg

Once I arrived at the far shoreline of the Wallsburg arm, I felt a quick nibble before my line was snipped by, I'm guessing, a walleye. That motivated me to work that shoreline with several different lures and flies, but I couldn't get anything to hand until I needed another break.

I flipped out a Blue Fox parallel to the shoreline and picked up a rather decent smallmouth in comparison to the dinks I'm accustomed to at DC:

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii272/justisaurusbucket/IMGP2909.jpg

It was very surprising how calm the water had stayed all day and I felt quite fortunate. Although the day was still young, I figured I'd had enough and should get back to my starting point before that notorious Deer Creek wind started blowing.

I was too late. As soon as I rounded the bend from the Wallsburg arm to the main body of the lake, it hit with a vengeance, forcing me to hike the shoreline back to where my float began. I tried to tough it out, but I wasn't gaining much ground against the relentless W.

So it was another long float this week and I really earned those 2 rainbows, but how sweet it is, to finally see something positive from Deer Creek for a change.

Happy Fishing, Humans.

JP
09-21-2008, 10:44 PM
Nice catch and good pics :2thumbs: