deer creek 5/25/18

[_6x_]

Went to deer creek yesterday morning, and also last Wednesday. Wednesday was overcast, which I associate with good smallmouth fishing. We caught a couple of fairly large (for me, for deer creek) fish, including the 15.5 inch fish in the picture, ending with around 12 overall.

Yesterday morning was also good fishing (better for numbers but a little smaller average size). The water was calm and the power boats didn't get out till relatively late in the day, so it was a great day to be on the water. Early morning I caught some small males up shallow. Later I caught some slightly larger fish off deeper ledges, in around 15 feet of water. After the sun was high in the sky I was still able to pick up fish along shoreline cover in rocky areas. The combination of wood and rocks seemed to be good. A thing that impresses me about Deer Creek is there seems to be smallmouths in lots of places. Other reservoirs I've fished it feels like they will stack up in specific locations and then there is a lot of dead water. Maybe that will be more true later in the year?

Another stray observation: I started with a couple dozen night crawlers and some gulp minnows. My finding is that the gulp minnows will work almost as well, with two qualifications. I think that the night crawlers catch larger fish, and during the flat water time early I was able to observe fish spitting out the gulp minnow relatively quickly. Sometimes I would see a fish inhale the minnow completely, hold it, and then exhale it--all without registering any motion at all on my semi-slack monofilament line. In the past my experience is that smallmouths can provide some of the most subtle strikes.

Final thought: On Wednesday we also tried for trout and walleye, with no success for either. Last spring I did well on trout in Deer Creek, but this year hasn't produced in the same way. Maybe it's just me.

Very final thought: I also fly fished the lower Provo last week--but it was slow so I filed no report. With the water level now quite high, I think I might wait for the green drakes and then try the middle Provo.
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[gofish435]

Thanks for the great information.

Nice Smallmouth!

Have you ever tried your fly rod on the Smallmouth?
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[wiperhunter2]

Nice detailed report, thanks for sharing it with us. That water must be pretty clear for you to be able to see the fish inhale the bait then spit it out. Were just sitting still in the boat or slowly working the shoreline with an electric trolling motor?
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[_6x_]

Yeah last year I primarily used a fly rod at Deer Creek. I've done fairly well with standard streamers and nymphs. My typical rig is a minnow or crawdad imitating streamer (sparkle minnow, woolly buggers, ice pick, etc) followed by a size 12 or so nymph (prince nymph, hare's ear, flying squirrel, whatever). Sometimes there's a few mayflies coming off, and then the nymph will do better. Without any bugs, the streamer usually does better. I like nymphs that are tied in a fairly conspicuous way--smallies seem to prefer them to more subtle patterns, but who knows?

For a nice comparison, a friend of mine used primarily soft plastics. I found that early in the season, I could match him fish for fish, or sometimes even pull ahead. But after the water got warm--for whatever reason--I could never match soft plastics with flies. My guess--although i haven't done this comparison directly--is that live bait will also take bigger fish than flies.

Later in the summer I've also caught smallmouths on topwater flies--gurglers or chernobyl ants, stripped back. I think I might give that a try against live bait and see how it goes.

I wish I were enough of a purist to stick with the fly rod, but sometimes I give in to the temptation of more bites
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[_6x_]

Yeah the water is quite clear now. I could only see the takes when I was close, and the wind was flat. But when it's calm you can do a little sight-fishing along the shoreline, especially with favorable light.

Wednesday we were out in the boat and mostly anchored on likely positions (there was a fair wind that came up, so boat control was an issue).

Yesterday I was out in the float tube. Happily the weather cooperated and the wind stayed mostly down into the early afternoon.
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