Blake Welch and I decided last minute to go dive Deer Creek at night. No boat, no crew, just the two of us at the main boat ramp. We showed up at 6, were in the water at 7:20, and were out the gate by 8.
I called it our least official Fathom dive in the video, and I meant it. We were not there to pick up trash. We wanted to see what Deer Creek looks like after dark.
Straight Down
The bottom off the main ramp drops off fast. We were at 70 feet in a couple of minutes and topped out at 76. Total time in the water was 23 minutes.
Visibility was maybe 5 feet. The water was 45 degrees and the air was 47. In a few spots the silt was so thick it washed out everything past our lights.
We kept it short on purpose. It was a last minute plan, and I did not want to push into decompression time.
Blake's light cutting through the dark on the way down.
Who We Ran Into
A big fish cruised right past us over the sand and stuck around for a good ten seconds. We are pretty sure it was a walleye. It had the white tip on the bottom of its tail, which is the giveaway.
A walleye cruising the sand at night.
We also caught a crawdad out on night patrol and a couple of smaller fish hanging around the rocks.
What We Saw on the Bottom
Old rope and fishing line tangled across the bottom
A can sitting on the sand
A plastic bottle sitting in the silt
A can on the bottom, lit up by Blake's light.
We left all of it this time. We want to come back for it. Right off the ramp the bottom drops off quick, so it is a job for experienced divers.
Deer Creek Fun Facts
Work on the dam started in the spring of 1938 and finished in 1955, but the reservoir was holding usable water by 1941.
The dam is 235 feet high.
The reservoir is about six miles long and 137 feet at its deepest.
Deer Creek supplies drinking water to 479,221 people, including Salt Lake City, Provo and Orem.
Some of its water comes from the Duchesne River, through a six mile tunnel bored through the Uinta Mountains.
The Utah spearfishing record walleye came out of Deer Creek on April 11, 2024. It was 29 inches long and weighed 13 pounds 8 ounces.
At 76 feet we were deeper than most of the lake. By our depth model, only about a quarter of the reservoir's area sits below 80 feet.
Every number on the reservoir comes from our Deer Creek Reservoir page, where each figure is cited.
If You Want In
You do not need a certification to help, and you do not need to get wet.
Come to a cleanup. Dates go up on our website as they are confirmed.
Report something. If you have seen trash, a vessel, or a vehicle on the bottom of a Utah lake, tell us at fathomrestoration.org.
Donate. It helps get more volunteers in the water.
Fathom Restoration is a disabled-veteran-led Utah 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to lake cleanup and the recovery of submerged vehicles, vessels, and debris from Utah's lakes and waterways. Donate / Volunteer / Report a vehicle at fathomrestoration.org.
Sources: Fathom Restoration, Deer Creek Reservoir; KSL, These were Utah's 7 new fishing records set over the past year, January 9, 2025
