WHERE THE FISH ARE
Joined by Hawk’s son and fellow Rayovac FLW Series competitor Sunny Ridge Hawk, we saw more than half of the lake and sampled just about every type of scenario it had to offer. From the manmade cover of marinas and the Jordan River Pumping Station, to natural features such as reed fields, river vegetation and some natural springs, Utah Lake actually offers enough fishable habitat to keep you plenty busy without a lot of repetition.
During our trip, it was the manmade stuff – some accented by natural features – that produced the fish. We started off by pitching and flipping Texas- rigged plastics and jigs and casting frogs and crankbaits around shallow cover in the Provo River. With this promising stream remarkably stingy, we decided to check a couple of reed fields before committing the day to marina hopping.
On our way out of the Provo, we spotted a half dozen boats clustered on a flat outside the channel. All were yanking white bass as fast as they could hit the water, so slid around the outside of the fleet and settled in to see if we could find a green one feeding on this obvious abundance.
Both Hawks quickly found the white bass interested in their crankbaits, but after releasing several each, it was clear that the big heads weren’t on the scene.
“Around those (creeks and rivers) will be the highest energy spots – that’s where the most life is,” Roy Hawk said. “When we moved out and saw all that white bass activity, they were all congregated
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around that (Provo River mouth) area, but it wasn’t really good largemouth bass habitat in that spot. It’s basically about a foot deep and all mud.”
On this day, a steadily increasing wind did two things: First, it stirred up the shallow lake and turned exterior waters to chocolate milk and second, it hastened us to the marinas where wind breaks maintained fishable conditions. Moreover, the design of a manmade marina wall would provide an essential habitat element that’s hard to find in the main lake.
“The lake is really slow tapered and there’s very
little depth change throughout the lake,” Hawk
said. “But these harbors are dug-out, so
there’s an instant depth change, they’re
all rock-lined and the bass live here. I’m
figuring that if we go through enough
of the harbors and keep moving around,
we’re going to find a little
patch of bass.”
A prophetic outlook,
to be sure, Hawk’s plan
proved productive.
Utah Lake wasn’t
exactly generous
on this day, but
sometimes, the
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