February is winding down and the pheasant hunting season at Falcon’s Ledge only has a few weeks left. This winter has been mild and the warm afternoon temperatures have made the pheasant hunting season ideal. If you have not had a chance to come out and hunt with us this winter you still have a few weeks left to come out and enjoy the beautiful Pleasant Valley Hunting Preserve. The mild winter temperatures and sunny afternoons have also created thin ice on the lakes around Falcon’s Ledge, so we will be seeing open water on the lakes at Falcon’s Ledge in just a few weeks. In this blog we will share a few tips for early spring fishing on the lakes in Utah.
When the ice melts off the lakes in Utah the water is still very cold and the cold water temperatures makes fish metabolism very slow. This is one of the most important things to remember when fishing Utah lakes in early spring. Fish are lethargic due to their slow metabolism in the early spring and they don’t want to chase stuff down, so they are looking for an easy meal. Flies such as balanced leeches hung off of a strike indicator or woolly buggers jigged slowly along the bottom on a sinking line will often produce strikes as fish swim around looking for a big, easy meal.
The second most important thing to remember in the early spring is that the surface water temperature is near freezing and can even form a thin layer of ice if the nights get cold. The water temperature down near the bottom of the lake is much more constant in the early spring and more comfortable for fish. They also spend most of their time near the bottom of the lake, because most of the food this time of year is near the bottom of the lake. In the early spring we will often measure the depth with a fish finder or by tying a heavy object onto fishing line and lowering it to the bottom of the lake. We can use this measurement to determine how deep to fish. We will work flies such as leeches and woolly buggers right along the bottom or hang a balanced leech or midge off a strike indicator and hang it just a foot off the bottom of the lake.
We hope to see you out on the water in March for some early spring fishing!