Day 15 on the water – April 10th, 2022
Every year my fishing friends and I look forward to ice off, which usually takes place in April. A little earlier at lower elevations and considerably later at higher elevations. In Utah we have a few high profile lakes where ice off is a really big deal. When big fish will cruise the edges of a lake or reservoir looking for a meal. Some of the lakes are lower profile locations, but each has an ice off story or approach. April is also the month that we need to be mindful of the fact that rainbow and cutthroat trout are building and minding their redds. These redds are a gravel bed that the female prepares and ultimately will lay her eggs and then the male will fertilize them. Responsible fly fishers can identify these areas in a lake or stream where the redds are being prepared and will avoid them. Irresponsible fly fishers target the redds thinking they can make the easy catch. We ran into a couple of those today….
Three of my friends and I visited one of these lower profile lakes today. The story at this lake is that sometime in mid-April the scuds appear on the edges, hiding in and feeding on the weeds there. The presence of the scuds (a small freshwater amphipod aka: shrimp) brings the fish to the edges too, in search of a green, high protein meal. Normally those fish are dispersed throughout the lake. This concentration of fish is really great for fly fishers. We know where they are, we know what they are targeting and because they are on the edges, we can easily reach them.
And today was supposed to be that day, except the scuds were nowhere to be seen, and because they were missing, so were the fish. But we were there and I had an eat early on on a chironomid, so that was a start. Scuds were not working at all. So we spread out and while battling 20-30mph winds and 40mph gusts, we did our best to get casts out there. I’m not gonna lie, it was slow. It was difficult finding fish, determining where they were at in the water column and did they have a specific target or were they open to multiple food types.
This was one of those days when we had each other to commiserate with, share info and enjoy lunch together without wearing a mask. My guess is we were just a week early. Note to self: fish this place next year, but after April 15th!
