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Neighbor and I got spring fever this afternoon & decided to hit UL. Launched at the marina just north of Pelican Point, dunno for sure what it's called these days. Went south and fished both north and south of the point. Used minnows and carp meat. I only scored two bullheads, neighbor Steve caught four bullheads and one real nice (guessin' 6 lb.) channel cat. Back in the shielded shallows the water is up to about 60 deg. and out in the open lake it's about 54. Lake is still really low. Guessing 4' below the high water line. Don't expect it'll even fill this year. With the warming water GOOD TIMES A COMIN'!!
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The lake is 54 degrees?
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That's what I said.
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That's what he said chaos.
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I took my tube down to AF harbor today for the years first voyage. This years first voyage also became my first skunk at Utah Lake.
I don't know what the deal was. I've fished the exact same spot with the exact same bait for the last 4 years and always caught some catfish. I even gave up on the cats and started throwing some jigs just so I could grab a white bass and not get skunked... No dice. I had something on a silver blue fox, it felt big, but got off.
Sad day.
The weather was nice. The water was pretty cold.
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same here. I hit the bubble up, water treatment plant, AF harbour, even hit south Knolls. Burned a lot of gas though. Oh well. Were you the one I saw in a small fishing boat at the AF ramp? good luck next time......
rich
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That could have been me ricon. I was in a small blue pontoon just outside the harbor. Don't feel too bad they didn't like anything I had either. Skunked!
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Nah, I was just in a blue float tube. Got to AF harbor about 6 a.m. and left about 10 a.m. I did see a decent amount of boats launching early though. I was worried I was gonna get hit, haha.
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i saw you. You were on the east side of the east dike at AF. I have fished that spot too with much success, esp at night in summer when the kitties are doing their thing. Last time I hit it was when they had closed the AF due to flooding so nobody was fishing the rocks and we came in via Lindon and hit it good. Sorry you didn't catch much. I got totally skunked.-----nada., nothin. oh well.
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[quote GEEZER] Lake is still really low. Guessing 4' below the high water line. Don't expect it'll even fill this year. [/quote]
Just as a matter of interest, not argument, Utah Lake is actually just 1 foot below compromise level right now. Today's level is 4488.0', and compromise level is 4489', at which point water is let out, or pumped out, into the Jordan. So we're only down 1 foot right now, although of course the level does certainly rise above compromise quite commonly. I was at Lincoln Beach the other day and I was impressed at how high the water was on the ramp. We're actually in pretty good shape, but we'll have to see if spring runoff is good to us. Utah Lake is so big and so shallow that a very large percentage of its volume is lost to evaporation, which isn't so important in smaller, deeper lakes. So Utah Lake depends very much on a constant inflow from the Provo River in particular, but that requires releasing water from Deer Creek.
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Thanks for the information on the compromise level. I was unaware of that. Gotta say this though, that 1' would make a whale of a difference in access to some of my favorite catfishing spots. Couldn't get to them last fall without runnin' my prop in the mud big time.
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[cool][#0000FF]I have been using the depth inside Lindon Harbor as a benchmark to guage depth. It dropped below 3' average depth in November last year. It is now over 6'. But at the "bathtub ring" it is over 8'.
There is only a minimal runoff yet but the outlets for Utah Lake at the pumphouse are still closed...to allow additional water-free work on the big construction project on the new pump setup. The control gates are closed and there is a wide dirt dam across the old Jordan River channel.
The manager of Lindon Harbor said the lake is rising about 3" a week at present. That will change drastically pretty soon when the final runoff comes in. However, there is not a heavy snowpack in most of the back country that supplies the Provo River drainage.
We can only hope there is enough water to fill both Jordanelle and Utah Lake...and that somebody doesn't just pull the plug on Utah Lake like they did last year. The water was not being used for irrigation. It was just to drop Utah Lake level. It ain't like we need another foot of depth in Salt Lake.
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I apologize for my lack of knowledge in this category, but who decides to pull the plug or not on UL? I fished UL first time last summer and thought is was great. If the water level on the lake stays high through, say June, would it be safe to say fishing is going to be even better than last year?!
I got to get me a tube!
[fishon]
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[#0000FF][cool]There is a polyglot of downstream water users who own the water and dictate the flow rates at any given time. But there are minimum pool conditions is place that prevent it from being drained.
After low snow falls during the winter of 2011-2012, there was little runoff into Utah Lake. The year before had seen the lake at record high levels. In June 2012 the water was about 2 feet lower than at the same time the previous year. And then there was a bigger demand on irrigation water since there was a shortage of spring rains. By late summer the water was at least 4 feet lower than high water and by late fall it was about 6 feet down.
The dropping water levels left the protective reed beds and shoreline structure high and dry...making for poor spawning and recruitment for some species. And the predators that typically hang out close to the reeds during the summer for feeding had no grocery store. Much different fishing in 2012 than in 2011.
The lake would probably be even lower right now if not for the closing off of virtually all water leaving the lake at the Jordan River outflow...during the construction project at the pumphouse. It remains to be seen whether or not it will come up more and if it will maintain a good healthy level for the fish this summer.
[/#0000FF]
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Do you think the lake will rise enough to flood the shallow fields to the south of Lincoln Beach? That is where the best carp shooting is, and it never got that high last year.
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[quote TubeDude][#0000ff][cool] Much different fishing in 2012 than in 2011.
[/#0000ff][/quote]
Boy you could say that again.
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Live to hunt----- Hunt to live.
It's always been solid there. I moved farther and farther south hoping I would run into some cats, but they never came. 
