Reconnaissance Trip

[dubob]

Decided this AM to take my bride for a road trip this afternoon.  We left the house about 12:30 PM and drove over North Ogden Canyon to Liberty.  There were lots of vehicles parked at the trail heads along that drive.  From Liberty we drove around the west and south sides of Pineview for a look-see.  I very small patch of ice remained in the very north end of the north bay.  We pulled in at the Port Ramp and found 3 empty boat trailers attached to vehicles.  The pull off just south of the Port Ramp had about a dozen cars parked there.There was one vehicle near the dam in the narrows area.

Drove around to the south side and went up over Trappers Loop heading to Lost Creek.  After leaving I-84 at the Croydon Exit, we passed at least 15 vehicles coming back down with one of them pulling an 18 to 20 foot boat.  There were 4 vehicles parked at the Lost Creek dam and about 4 in the area below the dam.  The reservoir is ice free.  Drove around to the boat launch ramp and saw one trailer.  We could just barely see the boat towards the back of the northeast arm (going straight away from the dam).  A DNR LEO was parked in his truck at the bottom of the boat launch.  There was one toon out in the launch ramp bay that we could see.  There were 8 to 10 bank tanglers in that arm as well.

Got back home about 4:15 PM.  Nice trip and definitely nice to get away from the house for a few hours.  Lots of folks out enjoyin' Mother Nature's bounty today.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Tight lines y'all.  

[gofish435]

Thanks for the recon report.

I wish Lost Creek was closer to home.  The  slot limit along with the wakeless regulation should help produce some great fishing.  Now if they could just get the gate removed from the county road that would make it an even better place to fish. 

I'm sure your trip was much more pleasant since they have fixed the road.

[jjannie]

Nice look-see report, Bob. 

We're still not quite warm enough at night to start using our greenhouse without needing to heat it at night and the forecast for later this week it gets down to the low 20s, so maybe in two weeks, we hope anyway. Monitoring the temps inside it overnights looks like it would have had to heat it for about 4 hours to not fall below 40 and that when our lows have been low 30s. Day temps have been in the 80s or warmer.

[dubob]

Now if they could just get the gate removed from the county road that would make it an even better place to fish.

I'm curious about that statement.  I assume you are talking about the gate that's location is where the turn-off to the dam spillway area is located maybe a quarter mile from the top of the dam.  There is a road side sign on the road leading up the the dam that says the gate is closed at 10:00 PM and there isn't any turn around at the gate.  The gate itself has an attached sign indicating it will be closed at 10:00 PM as well.

I believe that gate is a hold over from when Lost Creek was a State Park.  Several years ago there was a small guard-shack at the same location of that gate but that structure is no longer there.  Since there isn't any organization that manages Lost Creek as a fee recreation area, why would you think it necessary to remove the gate?  The United States Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) owns the dam and it is operated by the Weber Basin Water Conservancy District in Layton, UT for culenary and irrigation water.  Is the USBR or the Conservancy closing that gate on a daily basis throughout the year?  I have boat fished and ice fished Lost Creek many times during daylight hours and have never seen that gate closed.  Again, I'm just curious to know why you think removing that gate will impact the reservoir (make it a better place to fish).

And YES, that road is now great, all the way to the boat launch entrance.

[JArner]

Nice report Bob. I spent a few hours Saturday morning fishing LC from my yak. Managed a few nice rainbows for my efforts.

I know there is a gate if you continue past the boat ramp around to the NE side, IIRC there is a private big game operation that runs the property beyond the gate. That is the only gate I've ever seen closed up at LC.

[wiperhunter2]

Amazing that ice is gone already but it was a warmer last week. That route you took was the exact way my wife and I took last week, except we went the opposite direction, hitting Lost creek first and going over North Ogden pass last. Are you planning on hitting one of those lakes this week?

[AFDan52]

   Thanks for the recon report dubob , I sure wish we could get up there for some action . Trying to finish up some projects before i get to the fishing gear.

[dubob]

I know there is a gate if you continue past the boat ramp around to the NE side, IIRC there is a private big game operation that runs the property beyond the gate.

I can't say for sure since its been over ten years since I hunted beyond that gate.  But when I did hunt it, it was owned and controled by Deseret Land & Livestock.

---

Amazing that ice is gone already but it was a warmer last week. That route you took was the exact way my wife and I took last week, except we went the opposite direction, hitting Lost creek first and going over North Ogden pass last. Are you planning on hitting one of those lakes this week?

If I fish at all this coming week, it will be at Willard.

[wiperhunter2]

Deseret Land & Livestock does own all that land back there and now they own the land on the West side of the road for about a mile or so before you get to tha dam.

[dubob]

I did some more digging on this and came up with the following.  The gate I was talking about was this one below the dam on the county road leading up to the dam.  I believe this gate to be the old State Park gate.  NOTE: Click all pictures to enlarge for full view.



The gate JArner was talking about is this one (circled in red from Google Maps view).



Here is a picture of the DL&L Boundary line in the area of Lost Creek. This is from the Wild Country Outfitters website - click on the 'Deseret kmz file 1' link. It agrees with your comment above Curt. The area in the red box below is approximately where the picture above with the red circle shows the location of the gate in question by JArner.  It would appear to be on the BoR owned land.  That gate should probably be further up the road at the DL&L property boundary to allow bank and toon fishing folks easier access to the north arm of the lake - IMHO.



As with all things involving public and private property, it's complicated.  I don't have a dog in this fight, but I'm sympathetic with those that do and want/need the easier access.

[gofish435]

Thanks for the research and pictures, Bob.
Your absolutely right about the first gate.  It was put in to limit the use to daylight hours and keep the party crowd out.  They finally figured out that it was a pain to keep opening and closing the gate so they abandonded the idea years ago.

I went to Morgan County a few years back and pulled the plat plans to find out more about the gate.  The property where the gate is located is clearly on county property and the road leading up the reservoir is all on county property until you get about 2/3 of the way up the reservoir.  There is a small corner of private property (Farmland Reserve alias LDS Church/DL&L) that extends across the road.  I would say that if there needs to be a gate across the road it should be at that point.  That would be about 1 1/2 miles up the road from the present gate and open up more fishable water for bank anglers along with kick boat fishermen.   

[PACKFAN]

I know there is a gate if you continue past the boat ramp around to the NE side, IIRC there is a private big game operation that runs the property beyond the gate.

I can't say for sure since its been over ten years since I hunted beyond that gate.  But when I did hunt it, it was owned and controled by Deseret Land & Livestock.

---

Amazing that ice is gone already but it was a warmer last week. That route you took was the exact way my wife and I took last week, except we went the opposite direction, hitting Lost creek first and going over North Ogden pass last. Are you planning on hitting one of those lakes this week?

If I fish at all this coming week, it will be at Willard.

I would think you would try Newton or Porcupine I heard they are suppose to hold good fish.

[JArner]

I did some more digging on this and came up with the following.  The gate I was talking about was this one below the dam on the county road leading up to the dam.  I believe this gate to be the old State Park gate.  NOTE: Click all pictures to enlarge for full view.



The gate JArner was talking about is this one (circled in red from Google Maps view).



Here is a picture of the DL&L Boundary line in the area of Lost Creek. This is from the Wild Country Outfitters website - click on the 'Deseret kmz file 1' link. It agrees with your comment above Curt. The area in the red box below is approximately where the picture above with the red circle shows the location of the gate in question by JArner.  It would appear to be on the BoR owned land.  That gate should probably be further up the road at the DL&L property boundary to allow bank and toon fishing folks easier access to the north arm of the lake - IMHO.



As with all things involving public and private property, it's complicated.  I don't have a dog in this fight, but I'm sympathetic with those that do and want/need the easier access.

Bob, Thanks for the additional information and research.