# Otter Creek 3/21 -- 3/23



## threshershark (Sep 7, 2007)

El Matador and I, lacking soft water here in the North, decided to hit Otter this weekend. Water temperatures at the surface ranged between 38 and 41 degrees, perfect for the beginning of turnover. Lots of fish were stacked around the thermocline at 28 feet, but the flip flop was not yet in full gear and the bays seemed to have enough trout in them to keep things entertaining.

Piute appears to be in the middle of turnover, Otter will likely start in earnest shortly so my guess is that fishing will be slow for a couple weeks.

The rainbows are healthy and well fed as is to be expected here. Most fish were between 15" and 22", with a few between 10" and 14" every once in a while. All are hard, acrobatic fighters despite the cold temperatures. Should be an absolute ball in a couple weeks when turnover is finished and the fish move to the shallows in droves.

We also drove by to check out Koosharem -- still completely iced over but there is some softening at the edges.

3 long days on the water netted 96 rainbows.


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## .45 (Sep 21, 2007)

THOSE are really fine look'in fish Thesh !! :shock: 

I would assume you were on your toons....did you happen to get toward the inlet ? 

Thanks for sharing the story and the pictures...I always look forward to your reports on your fishing trips....


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## threshershark (Sep 7, 2007)

Thanks guys, we also happened upon Jeremy28 and at one point I may have seen Orvis1 but I'm not positive. We didn't get over by the inlet, we fished bays on the West side of the lake for the most part. Lots of wind from the North, and yes we were in our pontoons getting blown around.


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## .45 (Sep 21, 2007)

Thesh....it looks like you and El Madador might be keeping closer tabs on the fish you catch this year.....it's going to be tough on ya....I'm up to *6* already... *\-\* *\-\*


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## El Matador (Dec 21, 2007)

Threshershark takes some amazing pictures, but sometimes he omits some details that are pretty important. On such early season excursions the nighttime temperatures can get rather low. So we decided, as we are wont, to stay in a hotel. With morning temps hovering at 15 degrees this turned out to be a good move. For anyone that has never been to Circleville, we highly recommend Butch Cassidy's Hotel and Cafe. The ribs and steak were amazing. And man has seldom seen the likes of the bone-in ham which is the keystone of their Circleville Classic Breakfast. It's a good pound of ham. Seriously, you should never order one by yourself since two would be hard pressed to finish it. 

Another thing. If you see a boat that appears to be powered by a 1968 2-cycle Johnson motor, you should exercise extreme caution. It is in really bad need of a tune-up. In only a few seconds it can engulf large areas of the lake in smoke that is like unto tear gas. 

It was a fun trip, hopefully we can get back there in a few weeks :mrgreen:


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## Greenguy88 (Sep 7, 2007)

Great looking fish guys! A couple of them look like they were pretty healthy bows! Glad to see a report from toons, im itching to get mine out!


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## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

Nice job. Good move on the motel. Waking up really sucks when it's super cold outside.

Great looking fish. Otter is definitely on the list in a little while.


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## orvis1 (Sep 7, 2007)

Goody Goody Gumdrops! A group of us are headed there this weekend. Those pics are very nice and get me fired up for the weekend ahead! I wasn't there that weekend but look for me in a white dodge ram with a 16ft lowe sea nymph on the water if your back again next weekend. I might have to look into that whole hotel thing instead of trying to get my fishing in all in one day.... Thanks for the report and the pics... If you wouldn't mind PM me with some spots to try, I have never fished otter creek we hit piute 2 weekends ago.


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## Jeremy28 (Dec 1, 2007)

I gotta tell everyone that the brothers El Matador and Threshershark have the fishing almost down to an artform with walkie talkies and knowledge of temps/what to use/retreive etc. Seems like everytime I looked there way one of them had a fish. I started at about 10:30ish until 4:30ish and ended up with 10 or 11. I had about 20 other strikes that I didn't land as well. The biggest was 19.5".

I too ended up staying in a hotel because of the extreme coldness. I was supposed to stay the night in Panguitch Saturday in my great grandparents deserted home (except once every summer for a family reunion), but ended up in a hotel at 10:00 at night because the house had no heater and the wood burning stove had no outlet (smoked up the whole house and almost started a fire trying to get the burning wood out....it was actually quite terrifying!).


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## sittingbull (Feb 1, 2008)

Beautiful pics! Thanks for posting them.


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## El Matador (Dec 21, 2007)

orvis1 said:


> Goody Goody Gumdrops! A group of us are headed there this weekend. Those pics are very nice and get me fired up for the weekend ahead! I wasn't there that weekend but look for me in a white dodge ram with a 16ft lowe sea nymph on the water if your back again next weekend. I might have to look into that whole hotel thing instead of trying to get my fishing in all in one day.... Thanks for the report and the pics... If you wouldn't mind PM me with some spots to try, I have never fished otter creek we hit piute 2 weekends ago.


For some reason, after reading your "open seats in the boat" thread, I thought you guys were going down this weekend. We saw a few hooligans in a boat kind of like yours so we thought it might be you. Good luck on your trip next week though.

Jeremy28, I don't know if its really an art form yet. More like scribbling. But the walkie talkies are imperative to our kind of fishing. For instance, threshershark may want to ask me how I'm managing to keep all the fish off my line while he is fouling his fly with large trout on nearly every cast. If I am out of earshot, he could easily continue snagging trout if he is unable to communicate.


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## threshershark (Sep 7, 2007)

El Matador said:


> ...the walkie talkies are imperative to our kind of fishing.


Yes, and when El Matador ties up a one-of-a-kind bead head, and it is the only fly catching fish, the radios come in extremely handy. He was able to keep me tighly in the loop regarding his tally of rainbows on a single fly, which reached 29 I believe, before a fish mercifully broke off what was left of the tatters.

Has anyone ever heard of a ploy wherein an angler claims to have only 1 fly of a certain type when it appears to be the singular fish catching pattern available at the time?


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## Christopher30 (Nov 9, 2007)

Your pictures are amazing, they look like centerfolds for field and stream. Was the water still milky or has it cleared yet?


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## americanforkdude (Sep 13, 2007)

Awesome pics! Glad to see a report. Me and Hockey went down last spring and caught some hogs and I was kind of wondering how it is doing. I would love to get out with you 2 and do some fly fishing and pick up some new advice.


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