Tour of Utah and Arizona Part 2: Panguitch Lake Utah

[Natural Lefty]

June 30, 2011

My wife and I wound up in a town called Richfield, UT the day before, although we had planned to go to Beaver. Looking at the map, I narrowed down our choices to 3: Fish Lake area, which we had been to before; the Puffer Lake area near Beaver which was my original plan; or the famous Panguitch Lake which I have seen some reports about on this site, but always by the same person, and always trolling from a boat. Looking outside that morning, after a day of off and on torrential thunderstorms the day before, I saw that Fish Lake was out, since that area was clearly having a downpour. I saw from the map that Panguitch Lake would actually be about as close to drive to as Puffer Lake from Richfield, so I decided to try Panguitch. Actually, I had gone there once on a family vacation when I was 12 or 13 years old, and we all caught small Rainbows on the bobber/fly technique in the evening there. I figured I could at least tell my parents that we went back to Panguitch, plus check out the shorefishing there. This day was to be Eunice's special fishing day, because I bought a 7 day fishing pass for Utah beginning on my birthday, June 23 -- after all, this was my birthday trip -- and Eunice started hers for some reason a day later, which meant she had a valid permit on June 30 but mine had expired. As it turned out, Panguitch was a good choice for Eunice and it was a special fishing day for her.

We got to Panguitch a little after noontime, and ate at an outdoor burger place near the highway by the lake. By the way, Panguitch Creek was one of only two streams in Utah we saw that wasn't a muddy torrent. That state had record or near record snowfalls this winter, much like our Sierras. However, unlike the clear, rocky streams of California, Utah is full of ancient red sediment which easily washes away, a la the Grand Canyon. The other clear creek was Duck Creek which springs out of the ground in Duck Creek Pond as one of two Navajo Lake outlets (another strange lake I have fished). Even the inlet to Panguitch Lake called Clear Creek, ironically, which I looked at, was high and muddy, but the lake itself wasn't bad -- not clear, but not muddy either.

Panguitch Lake is actually in a volcanic area, a large natural lake of about 500 acres, round in shape, so I am guessing it's an ancient caldera. It's surrounded by sagebrush covered hills, so it doesn't appear glacial.

After eating lunch, we headed for the road which circles the lake in order to find a good fishing spot. We wound up parking on the shoreline by a boat rental place. I really don't remember the time. Anyway, I had Eunice try heaving out worms behind a partially filled sliding bobber (since I wasn't allowed to fish) with no luck, and the guy next to us wasn't catching anything, either. I noticed a boat fishing in the little marina by the boat rental place, so I went there to investigate. The two men in the boat were flyfishing and using Scuds (shrimp imitation), which means that the fish have lots of shrimp to eat there, which is usually the case where trout grow large and pink-meated. They had caught several trout, they said, including a few Rainbows and a Cutthroat, which was encouraging. Their fishing methods struck me as strange but they worked. They were using small fly fishing bobbers, casting about 10 feet from shore, and just leaving their flies stationary while waiting for a trout to cruise by and swallow their scud. I guess the fly imitates a dead shrimp, which a trout will readily eat. Even a live shrimp doesn't move very fast I suppose.

I decided to bring Eunice to fish from the little jetty there, but after a while there with no bites, a boat rental employee came out and told us that people weren't allowed to fish from the jetty, although fishing in the marina from a boat was okay. Thus, we headed back to the shoreline to the left (east) of the marina. This was on the north/northwest shore of Panguitch Lake. I continued put on worms for Eunice and heave them out there in hopes that something would bite, even though the employee told us to try Rainbow Power Bait along the shoreline and insisted that it was a good place to fish. After some more futile catching attempts, another man showed up -- a local who appeared to know what he was doing. He put on Rainbow Power Bait, and about a minute later, reeled in a nice size Rainbow Trout. He told us we ought to try Rainbow Power Bait. The thing with me is that I have hardly ever had any luck with Power Bait, and it appears to me that it mostly catches freshly planted stockers, which I am not that interested in, anyway. However, lo and behold, I looked in my fishing bag, and found a bottle of Rainbow Power Bait, of all things, with enough left to rebait a treble hook only a few times. I promptly set up Eunice with a size 14 treble hook, filled the bobber completely with water so it would sink, and put some of the Rainbow Power Bait on the hook. Meanwhile, the guy next to us caught 2 more trout on his Power Bait. Then, as usual, being her designated helper, I heaved the bait out there as far as I could. In less than a half minute, Eunice's line straigtened up, she lifted her pole, drag began screaming, a really big fish splashed where I had casted, and her line snapped. Dang it! That was definitely a big fish. Nonetheless, we realized we had figured out how to get the fish to bite at Panguitch. I retied my wife's line, making sure to have good knots on the 4 pound line this time, and put on another glob of Rainbow Power Bait. At that point, it was on!

While fishing for our neighbors on both sides pretty much stalled at that point. Eunice cranked in her limit of 4 fish from approximately 6:15 to 7:15 p.m., Utah time, all on what was left of my Rainbow Power Bait. I think Eunice hooked fish on 6 consecutive casts, with the first one breaking her line, and she lost another one about halfway in. The other four, she landed. Her drag tended to loosen, so I would guide each fish to shore or into the net. The first fish was 16 inches long, the second, 15, the third, only about 11 (not measured), and the last, 16 3/4 -- the biggest and fattest of the bunch. All of them were Rainbows. It would have been nice to catch a Cutthroat, but we were okay with Rainbows, especially given that all Cutthroats between 15-21 inches must be released at Panguitch, which would have applied to 3 of the 4 fish that Eunice caught. Worse, it is pretty difficult to successfully release fish caught on Power Bait. All 4 of the trout swallowed the bait, so the only way to release them alive would be to cut the line, and it would still be very difficult for the fish to eat until the hook dissolved.

Anyway, we kept all four fish, with the biggest and last fish making a fitting ending to Eunice's best ever large "pinky trout" catching expedition. We wound up bringing all but the smallest of the Panguitch fish home, along with the trout, the Walleye I caught and the 2 jumbo perch from Starvation Reservoir, plus another trout Eunice caught later in Arizona.

I guess my Power Bait jinx lives on, but Eunice apparently never had one. I think that was the first time she had ever used the stuff. Actually, I think that even I could have caught fish at Panguitch Lake on the Power Bait. I believe the reason that Eunice outfished everybody else, was the use of the water filled bobber, since fish were surfacing from time to time and were mostly suspended at mid-depths. Eunice's rig cast farther than the weights all the others were using, plus it gradually sank and stayed somewhat higher in the water column, giving the fish more opportunity to eat the bait.

The photos show the first and last trout Eunice caught at Panguitch. For some reason, my photos always seem to wind up out of order here. The one in the middle shows the fishing area and the marina, and should be the first photo. The one on the left actually shows the final fish of the day, while the photo on the right shows the first fish of the day. We ate the 15 incher yesterday and it was delicious, by the way, with superpink meat.

[old pudd fisher]

I loved it and has to be one of your best reports ever. Sure like the size of the trout in the first picture.

[Natural Lefty]

Did I mention that was the only bottle of Power Bait that I had, it was close to being empty and it had to be like 15 years old? When we finished, it still had enough bait to cover the hook just one more time.

That last fish (in the first picture) was one of the strongest fish I have seen. It kept making runs for about 10 minutes before it finally wore out, and it was definitely big and fat. It seemed like the perfect way to end our trip to Utah.

[old pudd fisher]

15 years old ! Thats amazing, did you have to add water and mix it so it would stay on the hook ?

[Natural Lefty]

Old Pudd Fisher, the Power Bait hadn't dried out at all, and worked just fine as it was. I guess I had the lid on really tight. However, I have had trouble with Gulp baits, Crappie Nibbles and some other concocted scent baits whose names I cannot recall at this time, drying out very quickly, so I don't find them useful unless used right away.

[SierraPeaks]

Cool Lefty. Glad to see someone else here besides myself was able to enjoy Panguitch. I love the place.

[Natural Lefty]

We should have gone there the first or second day in Utah in retrospect, but it worked out well and now I know.