Bassin' For Otter Creek Rainbows

otter creek rainbow trout

I fished Otter Creek Reservoir Saturday (March 29) and had a great time catching large rainbows. It was a chilly day with a cool breeze and the water was still cold (ice had been off about 2 weeks). Rainbows were active along the shoreline and we caught them casting lures in toward the rocks and then working them back toward the boat.

Otter Creek was glassy first thing in the morning and we started catching fish immediately. All were rainbows, most running 13-21 inches. As the sun hit the water a breeze came up and fishing settled into a pattern I'd describe as consistently good, but not red hot. Someone in the boat caught a fish every few minutes. They hit virtually every lure we tried. Jakes proved to be the hot one. We also did well with anything resembling a rainbow minnow. Pointer Minnows worked well but so did Rapalas and crankbait baits in rainbow and perch colors. We did best along the west shore, casting in toward the rocks as if we were bass fishing. A black, feathered jig also worked well cast into the rocks.

Our graph showed fish in every part of the reservoir we visited, and every depth imaginable. But those along the shoreline seemed to be more active - at least that's where we caught the most fish. The rainbows were ripe with eggs or milt.

We fished until about noon and then drove over to Marysvale for lunch (Hoovers Café, very good). After lunch we pushed out onto Piute Reservoir, which offered slower fishing that day. Wind was steady by then and the water was choppy. We seemed to do better when the wind eased, which wasn't often. Pointer Minnows in rainbow were the only thing that worked, again fished against the rocky shoreline.

One of the guys with me had fished Piute the previous week and did well, catching bigger fish than we caught at Otter Creek.

Bassin for bows! It was great. How many did we catch? Plenty. I don't keep score anymore. For me, fishing is about relaxing and enjoying the moment. Wouldn't be as enjoyable if I viewed it as a competition to win.