Fishing Report

Saturday I picked up a friend and we headed out to Guist Creek Lake. I wanted to find some bank fishing spots. It turns out there is really just one public access location to the bank at Guist Creek. I had suspected that we'd find more if we hunted and were willing to hike – and I still believe that, if one is willing to hoof it through underbrush, there's a pretty big area of access. It's just hard to get to.

Anyway, we fished there for 2-3 hours. He caught a small bass, and I caught a small longear sunfish (photo 1) and three small striped bass. I'd have taken photos of the bass, but they were too small to show up on camera.

I also found a Shelby County High School class ring. It had a name on it, so it should be easy to return.

In the grass I found a wire creel basket, in very good shape – looked almost new.

I also found two channel catfish on a stringer. I looked around and didn't see anyone nearby to whom they might have belonged. I pulled the catfish out of the water a checked them out. One of them was under the 12 inch limit for channel catfish at that lake (both of them might have been, but I didn't measure. The second one looked to be about a foot long). So, after waiting around to make sure there wasn't someone close by about to claim them, I released them back into the wild.

After driving around a while looking for other access spots, we decided to go to Taylorsville Lake. We parked near the dam there, and hiked down to the water a decent way from the dam. The water there was still very high, up in the timber, so it was very difficult to fish (photos 2 and 3). There was no way to cast out more than ten feet in any direction. We fished a little and ate lunch. My friend very bravely tried a rooster tail spinner, and actually managed not to lose it.

Then we decided to try hiking around the shore of the lake to find someplace easier to fish. The walk was on a steep muddy slope with lots of undergrowth (photo 4); it was very slow going, and my friend ended up hurting his knee in a fall, so we decided to go to the Salt River tailwaters nearby instead.

The tailwater area was much more accessible and we spent the rest of the day there. While tying a hook on my line as I knelt in the grass, my friend walked over and pointed out a snake there was just a few feet away. (photo 5). It was holding very still, and was so close that we might have easily stepped on him. I got his photo and then shoed him away. I don't know what he was; maybe a black racer?

I caught a largemouth bass at the tailwaters (photos 6 and 7). He was much bigger in person, I swear!