Part 1
I've not spell-checked nor edited this story... call me lazy. I wager you'll get the feel of it regardless. If not, go ahead and criticize my laziness. I love my indifference to it sometimes.
Having gone to bed earlier than usual so that I would awake when my alarm clock signaled that it was 5:00am (about an hour before dawn), I was easily awakened by the annoying sound at the appointed time this last Friday morning. Since my part-time job requires me to work from 3:00pm to 7:00pm it allows me time in the mornings to go fishing, so long as the fishing hole is not too far from home. This morning's destination was a place called Willow Pond, one of four relatively small fishing ponds created in within or near Salt Lake City as a result of the Urban Fishing Renewal Project here in Utah. These mid-city ponds are stocked with catchable-sized Rainbow, Albino, Golden and Cutthroat Trout, Channel Catfish and in some cases brood stock from the state's hatcheries, 3 to 8 pound breeding fish which are no longer sufficiently productive to justify keeping them for stocking the hatcheries with gamefish fingerlings. Early in March, Willow Pond received from Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, 400 Lake Trout brood stock fish, which I have tried in vain to catch all Spring. Most of the time I catch a few good-sized Rainbow Trout for my efforts. But I had seen a couple of these large Lake Trout swimming near the shoreline, so I knew they were more than just a rumor.
Willow pond is a beautiful 3 surface-acre pond situated in the middle of an urban park just 7 miles and 15 minutes south of my home west of Salt Lake City. It is fed by two small mountain streams which wind through the grass-covered grounds of the park. Willow pond is so named because it is in a park which boasts several very large, picturesque, old Weeping Willow trees, the largest of which is in the middle of a peninsula-like "point" jutting out into the pond from the eastern shore. The park is a great place for family fun with several barbeque grills, bench tables scattered about the lawn and under a huge covered dining pavillion, a large children's playground with slides, things to climb on, swings, etc. and there's even a well-kept baseball diamond with bleacher seats and covered dugouts, and a full size soccer field. There are also large men's and women's latrines on the west side of the pond and a nearby, covered "fish cleaning station" which is very handy. There are lots of birds in the park including Canadian Geese, four or five species of ducks and other geese, Magpies, Seagulls, Robins, Red-wing Blackbirds and dozens of species of beautful songbirds and hummingbirds which make their homes at the pond or in the many assorted trees which populate the more than 20 acres of grass and flowerbeds. On Saturdays and Sundays the park is usually pretty crowded and sometimes those who fish in the pond are literally elbow-to-elbow along the shoreline and on the handicap fishing dock which extends about 25 feet out from the western shore. But during the weekdays the park is only minimally used during the morning hours until mid-afternoon and there is no shortage of places to cast a line out into the pond in hopes of catching a few pan-size fish, or even one of those huge Lake Trout which had successfully eluded me and all but a few lucky anglers for several weeks.
I've not spell-checked nor edited this story... call me lazy. I wager you'll get the feel of it regardless. If not, go ahead and criticize my laziness. I love my indifference to it sometimes.
Having gone to bed earlier than usual so that I would awake when my alarm clock signaled that it was 5:00am (about an hour before dawn), I was easily awakened by the annoying sound at the appointed time this last Friday morning. Since my part-time job requires me to work from 3:00pm to 7:00pm it allows me time in the mornings to go fishing, so long as the fishing hole is not too far from home. This morning's destination was a place called Willow Pond, one of four relatively small fishing ponds created in within or near Salt Lake City as a result of the Urban Fishing Renewal Project here in Utah. These mid-city ponds are stocked with catchable-sized Rainbow, Albino, Golden and Cutthroat Trout, Channel Catfish and in some cases brood stock from the state's hatcheries, 3 to 8 pound breeding fish which are no longer sufficiently productive to justify keeping them for stocking the hatcheries with gamefish fingerlings. Early in March, Willow Pond received from Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, 400 Lake Trout brood stock fish, which I have tried in vain to catch all Spring. Most of the time I catch a few good-sized Rainbow Trout for my efforts. But I had seen a couple of these large Lake Trout swimming near the shoreline, so I knew they were more than just a rumor.
Willow pond is a beautiful 3 surface-acre pond situated in the middle of an urban park just 7 miles and 15 minutes south of my home west of Salt Lake City. It is fed by two small mountain streams which wind through the grass-covered grounds of the park. Willow pond is so named because it is in a park which boasts several very large, picturesque, old Weeping Willow trees, the largest of which is in the middle of a peninsula-like "point" jutting out into the pond from the eastern shore. The park is a great place for family fun with several barbeque grills, bench tables scattered about the lawn and under a huge covered dining pavillion, a large children's playground with slides, things to climb on, swings, etc. and there's even a well-kept baseball diamond with bleacher seats and covered dugouts, and a full size soccer field. There are also large men's and women's latrines on the west side of the pond and a nearby, covered "fish cleaning station" which is very handy. There are lots of birds in the park including Canadian Geese, four or five species of ducks and other geese, Magpies, Seagulls, Robins, Red-wing Blackbirds and dozens of species of beautful songbirds and hummingbirds which make their homes at the pond or in the many assorted trees which populate the more than 20 acres of grass and flowerbeds. On Saturdays and Sundays the park is usually pretty crowded and sometimes those who fish in the pond are literally elbow-to-elbow along the shoreline and on the handicap fishing dock which extends about 25 feet out from the western shore. But during the weekdays the park is only minimally used during the morning hours until mid-afternoon and there is no shortage of places to cast a line out into the pond in hopes of catching a few pan-size fish, or even one of those huge Lake Trout which had successfully eluded me and all but a few lucky anglers for several weeks.
. That one on the other hand was caught in the baltic sea and trouts living there are usually much larger than the ones living in ponds and alike.