We had a great time fishing Currant Creek Saturday evening. We were surprised to find it was totally ice-free. The road around the reservoir was mostly dry with no snow or ice. It was washboardy, but that is normal. The boat ramp was open and usable.

We say snow beneath trees on the hillsides but none around the reservoir.

Fishing success was slow when we first arrived, about 4 pm. We talked to a group who had only caught one, on Powerbait. We tried various lures without and luck until the sun sunk low in the sky.

About 6 pm action picked up dramatically. We caught several very nice fish, rainbows, cutthroats and tiger trout. They were fat and healthy. The biggest was a brightly colored rainbow that was about 18 inches long and almost measured the same around the girth. These were nice fish that struck hard and fought well.

In all, I caught 7 and Kevin lost count but probably landed 6-7. It has been a long time since I've caught that many solid fish in a one-day trip. We hooked fish using various lures, Castmaster, Jake's, but the Pointer Minnow proved to be the most effective.

They will soon stock the reservoir; after that most people will catch small, planted fish. But it is nice to know there are larger, hold-over fish available. Each fish we caught was carefully released.

We saw dozens of deer at dusk in open areas around the reservoir.

As we drove by Strawberry, we saw that it had some fishable open water – but not as much as I had expected. Peak ice-off action there will probably happen about May 1.

- Dave Webb

Ice-off fishing has started at Strawberry. This weekend will be a key time to fish if you want to catch the ice as it pulls back. Action will continue into next week. By next weekend the ice may be totally gone.

This report came in last night from Jay Nersisian: "Drove up to check lake this afternoon myself after fishing Weber with Larry Heinhold this AM. 10-30 yds of fishable-from-shore water at Laddrers inlet and north up beach along shores Chicken Creek bays.  Expect plenty of "floatable" water by the wkend (at least until ice starts breaking into floes and gets pushed around by wind!)."

Wayne Guestaveson reports that fishing is very good for all special at Lake Powell right now. He predicts the peak time for spring smallmouth will happen during the last week or April and the first week of May. So get down there right now.

See Waynes excellent report. Below are excerpts.

The lake is stabilizing, ready to start filling. Sight fishing is best in crystal clear water.  Rising water causes bank sloughing which clouds the shallow water and reduces visibility. All these factors suggest that the last week of April and first week of May will be the peak time for spring bass fishing success.

Runoff from the Colorado River will cool and muddy the water from Hite to Good Hope Bay. Backs of northern lake canyons will have greater visibility, warmer water and good fishing but with the Hite launch ramp high and dry there is no reason to pass up the great bass fishing at midlake canyons.

May is the best month to fish for walleye lakewide as they try to recover from spawning stress and rebuild their muscle mass. Walleye search for food continually in these low forage conditions while waiting for shad to spawn and grow. Trolling along muddy shorelines may be the best strategy for walleye.

Striped bass are still found along every shoreline in the southern lake. Bait fishing is the most successful technique as stripers patrol along the canyon walls from the dam to the back of Navajo Canyon.  From Padre Bay to Rincon stripers are found in isolated spots along the shoreline and can be readily collected by casting jerk baits (Lucky Craft Pointers) into the shallows.  Bait fishing is improving in the Bullfrog area but it is not yet producing the incredible numbers found near the dam. Expect Bullfrog striper bait fishing to improve as water temperature warms into the 60s.

DWR reports that Utah has a new catch-and-release record for channel catfish! John Konzelman caught this 36-inch fish on April 16.

More details to come.

A USU study finds that fishing brings in $259 million or more annually for Utah economy. The Salt Lake Tribune has this article about the study. Below are excerpts.

The economists say that conservatively, they estimate anglers contributed $259 million in direct spending to fish in Utah in 2011 — about $184 million of that spent specifically to fish Utah’s Blue Ribbon waters.

This study showed that Wasatch County benefitted the most from Blue Ribbon Fisheries, with more than $110 million of total economic input from anglers heading to waters like Strawberry Reservoir, the middle Provo River, Jordanelle Reservoir and Currant Creek.

Daggett/Uintah counties pulled in second as the favorite destination area for Blue Ribbon Fisheries with the Green River and Flaming Gorge Reservoir being the main draws. Garfield County saw more than $17 million in contributions from anglers visiting Lake Powell, Panguitch Lake, Panguitch Creek and Corn Creek.

Read the entire article.

Quagga mussel larva have been found in various spots at Lake Powell. No adult mussels have been found, but officials have changed the invasive species label for Powell from Undetected to Detected.

What that means is that boaters need to be diligent in cleaning, draining and drying boats.

Utah's DWR provided this news release about the issue:

Microscopic Invasive Mussels Found at Lake Powell
Boaters must be more diligent in decontaminating their boats.

In 2012, the National Park Service collected water samples from multiple locations in Lake
Powell. A few of those samples tested positive for the presence of microscopic, larval-stage quagga
mussels (called veligers). No adult mussels have been found in the lake. This discovery prompted
the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR) to change Lake Powell’s mussel status from
Undetected to Detected.

Individuals who boat at Lake Powell often travel to other Utah waterbodies. Boaters need to be exceptionally
careful in decontaminating their boats after they visit the lake.

What this means for boaters
If you are a boater who likes to visit Lake Powell, this means you will need to be more diligent in
cleaning, draining and drying your boat, especially if you plan to boat in other Utah waters.

What this doesn’t mean for boaters
While unfortunate, this news does not necessarily mean that Lake Powell has an established
population of quagga mussels. It does not mean that you shouldn’t boat in Lake Powell. We
encourage you to boat at Lake Powell — it is a wonderful place!

What you need to do

1. Enjoy Lake Powell!
2. After removing your boat from the lake, pull out the drain plug and pump out your ballast tanks/livewells. Lake Powell’s water is now a serious threat to other Utah waterbodies. Removing this water greatly reduces the threat.
3. Wipe down the outside of your boat.
4. When you arrive home, spread out all equipment and toys that were in the water and allow them to dry for seven days. This includes skis, wakeboards, life vests, anchors, ropes and water toys. Open all compartments to allow your boat to dry out. The veligers found in Lake Powell cannot survive without water for seven days in the summer.
5. If you plan on boating before your seven-day dry time has expired, contact your nearest DWR regional office and ask for a professional decontamination. Employees will be happy to help you. If you delay professional decontamination until you arrive at the ramp of your next water, there might be a long wait before you can decontaminate and launch.
6. If you are traveling on I-15 or across U.S. Highway 6, you can arrange decontamination at the DWR’s Cedar City office (435-865-6100) or Price office (435-613-3700) on your way home.

Why is decontamination a priority?
It is critically important to protect all Utah waterbodies from invasive species. If our recreation
areas become infested, access to your favorite lake or reservoir could be severely restricted. We
don’t want to see this happen, so we want to work with you — the boaters — to help keep Utah’s
waters clean and open for everyone.
For more information on invasive mussel monitoring at Lake Powell, visit
http://www.nps.gov/glca/parknews/musselupdate.htm.
— Published February 6, 2013

Which waters in Utah are the most popular? Well, how do you define and measure that?

One indication is the number of views a water gets on the Internet. Utah DWR has a comprehensive website with good basic information about most of our fishable waters. And the DWR can easily measure the number of views for each page.

Writing on the DWR's blog, Crystal Ross gives the list, along with insights about each water. The post is worth reading. See it here.

Below we give the popular waters:

1. Strawberry Reservoir

2. Lake Powell

3. Rockport Reservoir

4. Utah Lake

5. Deer Creek Reservoir

6. Panguitch Lake

7. East Canyon Reservoir & State Park

8. Starvation Reservoir

9. Scofield Reservoir

10. Flaming Gorge

11. Mirror Lake

12. Lost Creek Reservoir

13. Fish Lake

14. Currant Creek Reservoir

15. Mantua Reservoir

Do you agree with that list? I think the top 2 are right on, but I think the rest of the rest is skewed. I'd be interested to know the time period for the stats. I suspect that a summer snapshot would look different.

- Dave Webb

The recent "Burbot Bash" at Flaming Gorge showed the strange invasive fish is doing very well in the big reservoir. DWR reports the event drew some 1,170 anglers and resulted in more than 4,000 burbot being caught and removed from the reservoir. Here are highlights from this DWR news release about the event:

The largest burbot caught by an adult angler weighed 7 pounds and was 35 inches long. The largest burbot caught by a youth was 32 inches long while the smallest was a mere 9 inches.

In two nights, anglers caught 4,287 burbot. That edges the previous record set in 2011 when 485 anglers caught 4,022 burbot in eight nights.

Biologists have tagged 766 burbot in the reservoir since November 2010. That total includes 112 burbot that were tagged in January 2013 with 87 internal passive inductive transponder (PIT) tags and 25 external anchor tags.

A total of 13 tags were returned at this year's event, which ran the nights of Feb. 1 and Feb. 2. The tags included 10 PIT tags, two anchor tags and one sonic tag that had been inserted into a burbot as part of a Utah State University study.

Each tag guaranteed the angler at least $300, with the anchor tags providing the best chance for the biggest money. Mosley says 25 burbot were tagged with anchor tags. "Amazingly," he says, "two of the 25 fish were caught."

Unfortunately, Mosley says, neither of the tags brought the anglers who caught them a big cash prize. "One tag number was only one-digit off from being a $2,500 winner," he says.

The Logan Herald Journal has this interesting article about burbot. It gives background on the fish and talks about potential problems if the burbot population continues to increase at Flaming Gorge. Here's a quote:

Not only do burbot have an odd appearance, they behave oddly as well. During the late spring, summer and early fall these fish are widely dispersed and found in deep water. Come winter they form large spawning congregations. These swirling balls of spawning burbot are found in shallow water, near shore and often under the ice. It is this spawning behavior that explains why most burbot are caught during winter while ice fishing.

Anglers report lots of slush on top of the water at Strawberry, making it hard to operate snowmobiles and 4-Wheelers. The ice is still solid under the slush and many anglers report very good fishing. Wear water-proof boots.

DWR reports excellent perch fishing at Pineview: "Anglers report great fishing for perch. Families have been having fun experiences with youngsters catching plenty of perch. If you are lucky enough to catch a tiger muskie through the ice, remember to take some quick photos and release it as soon as possible."

Echo Reservoir also has good perch fishing.

DWR reports that Smith-Morehouse is good for rainbows and access is possible via snowmobile and 4-Wheeler.

Sleigh rides through the elk herd at Hardware Ranch will be offered this weekend and then will be discontinued for the season.

Every year hundreds of wild elk winter in the meadow at Hardware Ranch, in the mountains southeast of Logan, in northern Utah. Utah wildlife officials feed the elk there to keep them in the mountains away from farmers fields in Cache Valley. Several large bulls have been seen among the herd this season.

Sleighs are used to transport hay out to the elk. The wild animals become accustomed to the sleighs and allow them to approach quite closely. Visitors at the ranch can ride the hay wagons and get close-up views of the elk.

With average temperatures warming and spring just around the corner, snow will be melting and so the sleigh rides will soon stop running. As snow melts the elk will migrate into the surrounding mountains.

Seeing the elk is a great wildlife viewing opportunity. See this news release for details.