Rainbow Reservoir offers a unique fishing opportunity
If you ask 4-year-old Caleb how his first fishing trip went, he wouldn’t mince any words.
“My mom caught a fish, and Grandpa killed it!”
We went out to Rainbow Reservoir, which is located on the Deseret Chemical Depot off State Road 73 past Eagle Mountain on the way to Tooele County.
My grandpa, Oliver Peasnall, is an avid fisherman and loves toting along grandkids, and now great-grandkids to enjoy his favorite pastime. Rainbow Reservoir is his favorite spot for kids because you can hardly get your line cast before a fish grabs it. In fact, when we checked in at the main gate of the depot — a requirement when you visit the reservoir — we found out they’d just planted 1,000 fish the week before.
So we anticipated an afternoon of reeling them in and throwing them back.
But that’s not exactly how the day went. We did a lot of fishing on the banks of the reservoir, but we didn’t do a whole lot of catching.
That one fish was all we got in the three hours we sat on the dock. But as everyone knows, waiting is a big part of fishing.
It wasn’t a total bust, however, because the reservoir is such a nice facility. The small body of water has two wooden docks and a cement ramp that has handicap parking and accessibility. Several pavilions with picnic tables surround the reservoir and provide the only shade in the desert surroundings. There is also a fish-cleaning station and fantastic restrooms, actually stocked with toilet paper, soap and paper towels.
So we enjoyed our picnic lunch, and watched the bright orange bobbers float on top of the water, desperately looking for any signs of a fish tugging on them from below.
Caleb was intrigued by the plastic-whipped topping container full of grass clippings and earthworms. He put himself in charge of making sure the worms stayed cool in the shade of a bush growing near the shore.
Grace, 6, on the other hand, was a little standoffish when it came to the worms. We walked down the shoreline to try out a different spot, and when walking with her pole, baited line in hand, she had to give it up because the worm kept flipping onto her arm, something she wasn’t quite comfortable with.
But when I pulled that fish out of the water, and it flipped and flopped on the end of the line, both kids were fascinated, they wanted to see and touch it. Grandpa dug the hook out — the little bugger swallowed it so there was no hope of releasing it back into the water — and strung it up on the rope (there’s the killing part).
When we’d been there long enough, and the wind was really blowing (a huge contributing factor to our lack of fish on the end of our lines) we decided to pack up, clean the fish, and head for home.
For their first experience with fishing (and killing), they were excited to eat the fish — though I traded our little trout for some beautiful Wiper fillets from Willard Bay that my grandma gave me out of her freezer.
We’ll have a nice fish fry with those.
Rainbow Reservoir
Where: Deseret Chemical Depot. Take State Road 73 past Eagle Mountain toward Tooele. Hang a left onto the Deseret Chemical Depot. Stop and check in at the main gate, then take a left at the sign to Rainbow Reservoir.
Permit: A state fishing license is required, as well as an on-site permit. Permits are $10 for the season (open May-October), and are available at the Outdoor Recreation Center and the Fitness Center at Tooele Army Depot or the Southtowne Grill at Deseret Chemical Depot.
Info: (435) 833-3100
