Provo River, Lunch Hole, Starvation
Last week's fishing was pretty slow, so I didn't bother to make a report for it at the time. A really nice trip to the south was planned, but it fell through at the last moment, leaving me with limited resources for much of a trip.
The Provo River is where I ended up and the fishing was rather dismal for what I'm used to. Despite the slow fishing (3 small browns all day), the scenery was nice and it's always a pleasure to get out and wet a line anyway.
A few bald eagles were hanging around the area and this one decided to pose for me.
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Another treat was seeing some swans in the backed up section of the river, just upstream from Deer Creek Reservoir.
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Nothing was working for anyone fishing the river that day. Flies, lures, bait...NOTHING! Finally, after fishing for hours, a nighcrawler rested on the bottom of a deeper pool below a riffle got some bites. Luckily, these dinks were hooked in the lip and successfully released.
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In the middle of the week, I stopped at the lunch hole for a quickie and lucked into a pretty decent brown in the irrigation box.
It was nice to feel a real tug on the line, at least. This one was also released.
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After reading about peoples' success on Starvation's ice lately, I caved and just had to see it for myself. It was a beautiful day and felt more like October than the middle of January. Blue skies, no snow, no wind, and healthy rainbows!
The ice was nearly a foot thick and it felt like a mile with the manual 8" auger I was using. Luckily I only needed the two holes I drilled.
Having never tried ice fishing at Starvation and only catching trout there once before, I carefully scouted out areas where I believed would be a good place to try my luck.
One spot that stuck out to me was a point at the mouth of a small bay, quickly plunging into deep water. It seemed safe to assume that any fish passing from the main lake into the bay or vice versa would need to swim by that point. I also recalled reading that the rainbows were typically around 15 feet deep.
All of this was accurate and most of the day was spent running from hole to hole, attempting to set the hook on time. Great fun!
The rainbows were all the same size, 17 inches and 2lbs on the dot. Quite a few were brought up and three round females were kept for the table.
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Like I said, the conditions were excellent and it wasn't hard to stay comfortable, even though the temperature hovered around freezing all day.
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My setup:
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Small pearl/pepper tube jigs tipped with a meal worm were getting the most action, although a large pearl jig with a minnow was played with quite a bit. Nothing ever came of that though.
The small bay I made camp at the mouth of:
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My holes certainly weren't the first in the area.
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Once the bite had vanished for over an hour, my attention turned toward the Strawberry River, below the Starvation Dam. Some nicer fish are in the river and I've seen plenty.
Unfortunately, the only brown that wanted to play today was on the small side. A few nice ones teased me by following my lure though. Oh well, it was a great way to cap off a superb day on the water and a beautiful area to spend the time.
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Happy Fishing, Humans.
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