07-25-2005, 04:12 PM
A friend and I fished Electric Lake all day Saturday. We got a bit of a late start leaving Utah County early Saturday morning, so we didn't arrive at the lake until 9 a.m. Upon arriving, we quickly launched the aluminum 14 footer and oared our way towards the inlet.
After anchoring in about five feet of water, I began fishing a minnow about three feet below a bobber about ten feet from shore. It only took a minute or two before the first cutthroat of the day took my offering. It was rather small, about 12-13 inches, and very skinny.
Its coloring, however, was amazing. Blaze orange cutthroat markings under its mouth, iridescent pastel hues on its gill plates, and countless dark spots running the length of its light-colored body. I released it and a few others like it throughout the early morning as more fish engulfed the suspended minnows I offered and took my bobber for brief runs below the surface of the water.
While fishing for cutts with line and rod, I also fished for minnows via a minnow trap I bought on Friday at Sportsman's. Using a couple pieces of chicken inside the trap, I had poor luck trapping any minnows for the first few hours of the morning.
I could see them swimming all around the trap like miniature sharks swarming a carcass, but they were either too smart or too dumb to make their way into the holes at both ends of the trap. It wasn't until I threw the trap into very shallow water, almost to the point that the top portion of the trap was only a few inches below the water, that I began to trap a few.
Before day's end, I probably only trapped about 30 minnows, but they all came home with me and are now in my freezer awaiting the walleyes at Utah Lake this coming fall and winter. Hopefully, they won't fall apart when I go to use them, as I didn't immediately put them on ice, but they were kept quite cool throughout the day in a cooler I'd brought along.
I believe it was around 11 a.m. or so before I caught my first 16-inch keeper cutthroat, which wasn't so emaciated as its predecessors. Again, it succomed to a minnow suspended below a bobber, although the leader was probably closer to four or five feet by then, as I continued to add space between the hook and the bobber as the sun climbed higher in the sky and we began to fish in deeper water.
The weather at times was downright chilly, which was a welcomed change from the incessant heat we've been experiencing here in the valley for the past month. A few times during the early morning we were rained on rather hard, and at times I was actually wishing that the sun would break through the clouds to warm me up.
We fished E. Lake from about 9 a.m. until 8 p.m. The fishing was never as good throughout the day as it was during the first hour or so after we arrived. In hindsight, then, it would have been great if we would have arrived at the lake closer to 6 a.m. or so, as we probably missed the best fishing of the day by not arriving until 9.
When the fishing was slow, I tried casting Krocodile lures and slow-jigging weightless minnows to no avail. My friend, Les, however, did have fairly steady success on some bigger cutts by casting a weightless minnow, letting it fall, and reeling it in very slowly. He probably hooked up with half a dozen cutts using this method.
His best fish of the day came after he saw some shiners jumping out of the water near the shore and threw his weightless minnow into the fray. His minnow no sooner hit the water and a 17-inch cutt attacked it.
My two best fish came in rapid succession around 4 p.m. as we were drifting with the wind several hundred yards from the inlet. While drifting past a fairly shallow, flooded stretch of shoreline I caught two 17-inch, big-shouldered cutts within seconds of each other.
From then on as the evening progressed, the fishing became less and less steady. Les seemed to do the best as the sun began to sink behind the distant mountains, catching most of his while slow-reeling his weightless minnows off the bottom. As the light began to fade, bobber fishing became nearly fruitless.
All in all it was a wonderful day high in the mountains in Fairview Canyon. What a beautiful spot E. Lake is. It's always nice to get high enough in elevation to fish amidst aspens and pines, "where the deer and the antelope (or elk, in this case) play."
The only negative that I care to mention is concerning the size of the cutthroats we caught. With all of the shiners swimming around in that lake, one would think that some big cutts would call that place home. Yes, we did catch some fairly long fish, but not one of them was what I would consider fat. I know the lake is in an area where it's very cold for much of the year, but still, the cutts sure seemed skinny. Any thoughts as to why we didn't catch fatter fish?
Skinny fish aside, I'm sure glad we made the trip. I haven't fished for an entire day like that in a very long time. I'd recommend it, if any of you are so inclined. That's about all I have to say. Hope you enjoy the report.
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After anchoring in about five feet of water, I began fishing a minnow about three feet below a bobber about ten feet from shore. It only took a minute or two before the first cutthroat of the day took my offering. It was rather small, about 12-13 inches, and very skinny.
Its coloring, however, was amazing. Blaze orange cutthroat markings under its mouth, iridescent pastel hues on its gill plates, and countless dark spots running the length of its light-colored body. I released it and a few others like it throughout the early morning as more fish engulfed the suspended minnows I offered and took my bobber for brief runs below the surface of the water.
While fishing for cutts with line and rod, I also fished for minnows via a minnow trap I bought on Friday at Sportsman's. Using a couple pieces of chicken inside the trap, I had poor luck trapping any minnows for the first few hours of the morning.
I could see them swimming all around the trap like miniature sharks swarming a carcass, but they were either too smart or too dumb to make their way into the holes at both ends of the trap. It wasn't until I threw the trap into very shallow water, almost to the point that the top portion of the trap was only a few inches below the water, that I began to trap a few.
Before day's end, I probably only trapped about 30 minnows, but they all came home with me and are now in my freezer awaiting the walleyes at Utah Lake this coming fall and winter. Hopefully, they won't fall apart when I go to use them, as I didn't immediately put them on ice, but they were kept quite cool throughout the day in a cooler I'd brought along.
I believe it was around 11 a.m. or so before I caught my first 16-inch keeper cutthroat, which wasn't so emaciated as its predecessors. Again, it succomed to a minnow suspended below a bobber, although the leader was probably closer to four or five feet by then, as I continued to add space between the hook and the bobber as the sun climbed higher in the sky and we began to fish in deeper water.
The weather at times was downright chilly, which was a welcomed change from the incessant heat we've been experiencing here in the valley for the past month. A few times during the early morning we were rained on rather hard, and at times I was actually wishing that the sun would break through the clouds to warm me up.
We fished E. Lake from about 9 a.m. until 8 p.m. The fishing was never as good throughout the day as it was during the first hour or so after we arrived. In hindsight, then, it would have been great if we would have arrived at the lake closer to 6 a.m. or so, as we probably missed the best fishing of the day by not arriving until 9.
When the fishing was slow, I tried casting Krocodile lures and slow-jigging weightless minnows to no avail. My friend, Les, however, did have fairly steady success on some bigger cutts by casting a weightless minnow, letting it fall, and reeling it in very slowly. He probably hooked up with half a dozen cutts using this method.
His best fish of the day came after he saw some shiners jumping out of the water near the shore and threw his weightless minnow into the fray. His minnow no sooner hit the water and a 17-inch cutt attacked it.
My two best fish came in rapid succession around 4 p.m. as we were drifting with the wind several hundred yards from the inlet. While drifting past a fairly shallow, flooded stretch of shoreline I caught two 17-inch, big-shouldered cutts within seconds of each other.
From then on as the evening progressed, the fishing became less and less steady. Les seemed to do the best as the sun began to sink behind the distant mountains, catching most of his while slow-reeling his weightless minnows off the bottom. As the light began to fade, bobber fishing became nearly fruitless.
All in all it was a wonderful day high in the mountains in Fairview Canyon. What a beautiful spot E. Lake is. It's always nice to get high enough in elevation to fish amidst aspens and pines, "where the deer and the antelope (or elk, in this case) play."
The only negative that I care to mention is concerning the size of the cutthroats we caught. With all of the shiners swimming around in that lake, one would think that some big cutts would call that place home. Yes, we did catch some fairly long fish, but not one of them was what I would consider fat. I know the lake is in an area where it's very cold for much of the year, but still, the cutts sure seemed skinny. Any thoughts as to why we didn't catch fatter fish?
Skinny fish aside, I'm sure glad we made the trip. I haven't fished for an entire day like that in a very long time. I'd recommend it, if any of you are so inclined. That's about all I have to say. Hope you enjoy the report.
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