If you think you're confused by all this good weather, think about the poor fish.
Usually by this time they're cruising the cooler waters along the shore looking for tasty morsels to help tide them over until the ice thaws.Instead, they're finding shoreline waters too warm and heading back to summer retreats. They're coming in, they're going out. They're in, they're out.
What it's done to fishing at many of Utah's more popular "early winter" spots is, to say the least, causing some confusion.
Take Strawberry, for example. Typically, by mid-November, the fish are within a cast from shore and eager to bite. This past week, smaller fish were running at a bite-a-cast near the surface in deeper water, and the only thing close to the shorelines was fishermen.
Even the rainbows in the Provo River are confused. To spawn or not to spawn. The browns are later this year. Also, fishermen are reporting that rainbow catches are ripe with eggs and sperm, possibly tricked into thinking it's spring by the cooling then rewarming of the water the past few weeks.
Water temperatures in Strawberry are running between six to eight degrees warmer than normal for this time of year.
Fishermen trolling in deeper waters, between 40 and 60 feet, with monofilament line kept near the surface are catching all the smaller fish they could want.
"I stayed in close to shore, where I usually fish at this time of year, looking for the larger fish," said Byron Gunderson, owner of Fish Tech Outfitters, "and didn't see a fish; not so much as a swirl in the water. Usually you see the minnows in the shallow, but even they were out in deeper water."
Similar patterns are being reported at Scofield. That is, the smaller fish are near the surface in deeper water. The smaller fish are running around 16 inches. The best time to try and surprise larger fish is very early or very late or close to inlets where water temperatures are cooler.
At Strawberry, fishermen have been trolling minnow imitations, such as triple teasers, Zonkers and streamers. Fly fishermen are doing well casting Crystal Killers in purple or red, and Woolly Buggers in olive or black in water 12 to 15 feet deep.
At Scofield, fishermen have been using the same patterns. Last week a five-pound rainbow was hauled in by a boater, and the week before that a 4-year-old boy caught a four-pound rainbow throwing a nightcrawler from shore.
The rivers around the state have been offering some of the best fishing. The Green River below Flaming Gorge Dam has been excellent. The best part is the fishing pressure has been down lately.
The Ogden, Logan and Weber rivers have also been good.
The report on the Logan is excellent fishing with dry fly action starting to slow and nymph fishing starting to pick up. Recent surveys show a very high number of fish per mile in the Logan.
Despite getting little pressure, the Ogden has also been excellent fishing in recent weeks. Fishermen have been using baits, spinners and nymphs.
The browns are starting to spawn in the rivers, and fishermen are being asked to watch for redds (spawning beds) and to not disturb them.
A good pattern for fly fishermen at this time is a glow bug with a 16- to 18-inch dropper tied onto the hook with a nymph pattern.