SUMMER 2015
W
hen Roy Hawk and I made plans to fish
Utah Lake, the pro from Lake Havasu
City, Ariz. told me to adjust my expec-
tations accordingly. I didn’t necessar- ily need to set a low bar, just understand that the ac-
tion would probably be more clustered than dispersed.
Indeed, that’s how the day turned out, but I can
honestly say that I left Utah Lake impressed and
willing to return when/if the opportunity arises.
First off, a little Utah snapshot:
Located south of Salt Lake City, the lake sits in
the Utah Valley, surrounded by the Traverse, Wasatch
and Lake Mountains. Covering about 95,000 surface
acres, Utah Lake is a remnant of the much larger Lake
Bonneville, which once covered the entire valley.
Stretching 24 miles long by 13 wide, the lake’s primary inflows are the Provo and Spanish Fork Rivers, with the Jordan River handling the outflow. With an average depth of about 10 ½ feet, this relatively flat bottom lake gets pretty murky when the valley winds whip.
The largest natural freshwater lake west of the Mississippi River, Utah Lake is a bit of a geographic oddity as a true warm water fishery surrounded by some of the region’s finest cold-water streams carved through the surrounding mountains. The forage base is pretty thin on shad, so white bass, bluegill, juvenile carp and young walleye feed the largemouth.
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