The revival of Uintah's Pelican Lake: Anglers once again finding bass, bluegill

PELICAN LAKE — In the 1980s, the bluegill here were big, some of the largest in the country, and numerous. And there were as many largemouth bass, although somewhat smaller. Mysteriously, the populations of both fish crashed.

It was later discovered low water and freezing temperatures killed the fish.

The question then became: Would the lake ever regain its greatness? Now, on a good day, a well-schooled fisherman has caught upward of 200 fish — bluegill and bass. A lesser angler has caught upward of 100 fish, and a true novice has simply caught "lots of fish." Otherwise, fishing has been excellent.

A few of the bluegill caught have come close to the one-time giants of Pelican Lake, with some

reaching more than 2 pounds. Most of those caught now, however, are closer to the "average" size, which is around half a pound.

There are tradeoffs to this great fishing. Mosquitoes are a real nuisance at this time of year. Then there's something called "swimmer's itch." This is an infection caused by a "trematode parasite" that causes an annoying itch. Snails and vertebrates host the parasite, which shows up when water temperatures near 70, which is close to where they are now.

"So, don't swim and don't even wade into the water to retrieve a boat. And, put on lots of insect repellent," said Ed Johnson, fisheries biologist in the Northern Region for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.

The story at Pelican Lake, however, is more about fishing.

In the beginning, Pelican was a secret little lake located in a remote area southeast of Vernal that no one knew about ... and the fish there grew fat and large.

Then, back in the 1970s and early 1980s, Pelican's bluegill received world attention and fishermen started showing up from all over to cast a line for the giants, and few of those who came ever went away disappointed.

"The lake got a lot of pressure, and people who fished were cropping off the top or keeping the big fish and returning the smaller ones," Johnson said.

While that reduced the number of giants, smaller fish filled in the catch rate.

At first it was felt that maybe pressure had something to do with the crash. Other guesses were fertilizers from nearby farmlands that may have gotten into the water, birds (pelicans) and a drought.