Lindon Sunrise Services 4-16-17

[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]'Bout had it with the old guys joke about being able to hide my own Easter eggs. So I didn't hide any this year. Never find them all anyway.

Made a last minute decision to take my newly modified PVC craft to Lindon...to try to collect enough Easter "eggs" (fish) for the smoker. Good move.

Not much of a sunrise for "sunrise services". Kinda cloudy...but a nice 43 degree air temp at launch. Water temp inside the harbor was 54 and water depth was a solid 3' all the way out. Water warmed up to 56 by the conclusion of services about noon.

First "egg" found was a carp. Didn't want to put him in my basket to crowd all the other eggs I planned to catch so I perforated him, gave a complimentary gillectomy and released him unharmed.

Water levels are rising but I still had to get quite a ways offshore to find water deeper than 3'. Used the electric motor to get up on plane (yeah, right) and roostertail down to the bubbleup.

Water depth at the end of the buoys was just under 5 feet. Only a few feet at the shore end of the pipe still out of water. Still need a lot of water.

I optimistically worked a whole bunch of plastics and some cranks along the pipe...from deep to shallow along one side and then back to deep along the other side. Nary a nudge from fishkind. Began to wonder if I might be getting "punishment" for worshiping at the Church of the Seventh Day Angler. But I've backslid before and usually do ok.

No white bass or walleyes were harmed during the duration of this trip. I finally broke out the bait and rigged for cats. I rigged one rod with one of my left-handed, blue-eyed chubs and kept pitching plastics with the other...as I began making big S turns on the way back to the harbor. Dragged and pitched from 3 feet out to 5 feet...and then back.

The sun broke through the clouds and the water warmed a degree or so. Then I found my old "zone"...where TubeBabe and I have gotten to play with lotsa kitties over the years. Pow...zing. The bait rod got an inquiry and line fed off the open bail. When I closed the bail and set the hook there was some weight on the end. Yee hawww. First kitty. About 20 inches. Just right for the smoker.

My mama din't raise no fools...'cept my sister. I put up the non-productive plastics and put out two bait rods...hoping to accelerate the "services" and to get out of "church" in time for planned family activities.

After that it was tugs aplenty. Some were tentative "pop and drop". But others were "gulp and go". I went through a couple of bags of minners and got to bend my sticks and stretch my string for the next couple of hours.

Also got to test out my new "bump board" that I mounted on the front of my tube. Worked great but I need to adjust the positioning a little.

As per my pre-established goal, I kept six cats for the smoker...a couple of 20 inchers and four 2-footers. Released a few others...including my two largest...a 25 incher and a 26 incher. Used my cat contest tag on the 26 incher...just in case I might wanna enter it. Hoping I catch some bigger ones on later trips.

Lotsa folks camping and picnicing at Lindon. But only a couple of boats left the harbor while I was there. I suspect that as the word gets out about safe depths there will be more boating activity.

Saw a few bank tanglers...both inside and outside the harbor. But I never saw any of them catch anything. I suspect the water needs to warm a bit more to bring some fish in closer.
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[Piscophilic]

Nice report and pictures, as usual. I'm glad you enjoyed the services on Easter morning and didn't lose any eggs. They get to stinking after a while...well that's what I've heard any way[]

I love your new bump board! I noticed the hinges and I'm thinking I might add some mine so it is easier to store. How did you do the "headboard" and do you have a way to lock the hinged board in place?

Thanks,

Pisco
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[WaveWolf]

The BLING BEADS strike again!
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[MSM1970]

Glad to see you made it out, nice looking cats, your just gona have to keep trying for those others that have been eluding you. maybe that's it you just forgot where you left them[]

Its been tough this year since the storms came back, but that's good, looked at the water going in and its up to 619cfs a provo, I know the sp fork river is running high and muddy, hopefully we get at least 3 more ft this year before they start sucking it out[frown]
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[TubeDude]

[quote Piscophilic]Nice report and pictures, as usual. I'm glad you enjoyed the services on Easter morning and didn't lose any eggs. They get to stinking after a while...well that's what I've heard any way[]

I love your new bump board! I noticed the hinges and I'm thinking I might add some mine so it is easier to store. How did you do the "headboard" and do you have a way to lock the hinged board in place?

Thanks,

Pisco[/quote]

[#0000FF]Yeah, two of the eggs I found last year were ones I had hidden the year before. Really added a new "dimension" to the egg salad sandwiches I made with them. YUCKO

Attaching some pics of the bump board as I was fabbing it. I always do that for something new. The main board is some lightweight PVC (what else) door jamb material...ribbed. 6 or 7 inches. I used three small hinges as pictured...leaving some hanging over to provide a stop when opened. For transporting closed I put a couple of small bungee cords around it. It stays flat and out of the way until needed. And the fish keep it open when in use. But you could put a catch on it if needed.

The end piece is simply a few inches cut off the length of the PVC I bought...screwed to the bottom section. If you wanted it to ride flatter you could put a hinge on that too. Another option would be to use pins and holes to push the end piece in place when open...and to hold the back piece open when in use. That would require attaching the yardsticks back an inch or so to account for the insert.

Like all of my new creations this one is likely to see a couple of tweaks before I move on to something else.
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[TubeDude]

[quote WaveWolf]The BLING BEADS strike again![/quote]

[#0000FF]Strangely enough, the beads did not work as well yesterday as hiding the hook. I did catch two of my fish on the beads, but I also had more tentative takes and pop and drops with them. Normally in colder and murkier water the beads help get more fish. Not yesterday. When fishing two rods I had one with beads and one without. The non-beaded caught more fish...and the biggest ones.

On the flip side, there have been days when beads outproduced non-beads by a wide margin. It always pays to switch up if what you are usin' ain't gettin' bit.
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]With the amount of current runoff...and what the hydrologists tell us is still to come...I am thinking the lake will at least approach full pool.

I use the end of the Bubbleup pipe as a guage. The deepest I have ever fished it was right at 12 feet. It was barely 5 feet yesterday. If my slide rule is still working that means we have another 7 feet to go.

I'll be anxious to see how they handle the control gates at the pumphouse when they start sending water downstram this year. Hopefully they send only what they need to send...and not open all three gates. We don't need to refill Salt Lake at the expense of Utah Lake.
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[Boatloadakids]

A very painful post there Pat. I've been cabin-bound by the lousy non-stop windy weather for the past couple of weeks and the cravings are becoming unbearable. Worse still, no sign of better weather in the near future. It's gonna be another tough week... but soon Mother Nature will calm down.

I too like your bump board. Maybe a project like that will mitigate the craving a bit until I can get on the water again. I'll need one a little longer than the one you made but I'll come up with something similar.

Glad you got out... save some of those minners.

Our time will come.

BLK
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[Piscophilic]

Thanks for the info on your board. I may have to reconsider my old wood one.

Where did you get the PVC material for that?
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]My trip was not planned out well in advance. I just double checked the wind forecast Saturday night and it looked promising. Got the vehicle loaded and then got up early Sunday morning and checked again. Still looked good...and no Easter eggs to hunt...so I headed for the water. Glad I did. Looks like Mama Nature got all torqued about me getting to go fishing and now she is having another hissy fit.

No worries about the "super chubs". Didn't touch that supply. Took some older bigguns and some smaller ones. Funny...I caught the smaller fish on big minnows and the bigger ones on smaller ones. Go figger.

No worries on the size of the board. I have a 2 foot extension I can snap in when I go fishing in your boat next time. But I might need a longer one.
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[TubeDude]

[quote Piscophilic]Thanks for the info on your board. I may have to reconsider my old wood one.

Where did you get the PVC material for that?[/quote]

[#0000FF]Lowes. They have a section with a lot of different pieces of PVC materials...baseboards, shelves, planks, etc. I don't just have an addiction to PVC dust. I like it because it is strong and does not warp if it gets wet.

I originally thought I might make it out of 1" X 6" stuff. But then I saw the lighter weight corrugated door jamb material...about 7' for about $14. As long as you place the screws into the thicker places you are golden. However, don't use heavy torque drills on those screws. The PVC will strip if you overdo it.
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[Piscophilic]

That sounds great. I had looked online, but I couldn't get anything that cheap to come up. With the excess I could put an old clamp on a piece and have new easy clean fillet board.

Your innovative ideas always give me new inspiration!
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[SkunkedAgain]

Hey Pat,
Glad you got a productive trip in... I can't seem to find the cats... Snuck out Saturday night again and the carp were on fire... Nailed 6 over 25" in about an hour with the biggest at 27.5"... Lots of bait, but nothing to feed it to, guess I better relocate to a different area and try again... Glad you found what I was looking for.... Seems your better at the egg hunt than I... Later J
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]An old Easter bunny once told me..."If you wanna find eggs, look where they are"...or sumpin' like that. With the crazy weather and water situation up your way you gotta mix in a little luck with best guestimate. Until everything stabilizes a bit and the fish settle down in the predictable areas you need luck to find them and good timing to find them feeding.

You know the fish are SOMEWHERE. The tough part is matching your desire and enthusiasm with their movements and moods.
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[high_n_dry]

Well done as usual Pat. I like your plan better than ours. We chose to catch up on yard work, and the only eggs we found were left by the local deer population on the grass. Thary and I were at Lindon last year about this time and only managed a couple. Most the pipe was out of the water that trip. Only trip I made to UL in 2016. Hope to do a couple this year at least now that the water is coming up. Keep up the good work[]
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]The low water last year really shut down a lot of the fishing on Utah Lake. I hit it early from Lindon a couple of times and caught fish. But after I finished playing on Willard the water levels had dropped a lot lower on UL and I didn't go back until late in the year to try to add a couple of larger cats for the contest. By that time you could almost wade across the lake. Almost.

Glad to see more depth already this year and hoping for a full lake. Would also like to share some water with you guys again. Get your yardwork finished and get out your inflatable craft.
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[SkunkedAgain]

That sure seems to be the truth, someday I'll cross their paths again. Hey Pat you ever use a side planner from your tube? I put together a PVC derek post last night to try on my toon, if it works I'll post up some pictures. Do you think a side planner would reduce the need of s turns? I'm going to try this thing and see what happens. Later J
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]Yeah, just what I need...something else to dangle off my already overloaded tube.

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I do occasionally do some bottom bouncing but I almost never troll. I can run at 2-3 mph with my electric but it sucks the juice pretty fast with all the drag from my legs, fins and fish basket (hopefully).

I generally prefer to move around until I find fish on sonar and then fan cast around...using different lures and retrieves...until I get some votes...or not.

In answer to your question about S turns...yeah, verily. That is one of the good things about making S turns while you troll. The outside rig speeds up on the turn, while the inside one slows down. Once you see a pattern of hitting on one or the other you can adjust your trolling speed to compensate and troll straight. And planer boards will help too.

It has been observed that planer board have their greatest value when running gas motors or kickers. The noise of a gas motor will send some fish out away from the boat and they won't even show up on sonar. But kicking with fins or using a quiet electric at low speed does not seem to spook the fish as much.

I have caught countless fish over the years right below my tube in only a few feet of water...while quietly kicking around with fin power alone. Maybe that's because I use Smelly Jelly on my athletes' foot problem.
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[2fishon]

Good pic of my brother's motorhome and his group of bassaholics. He's very friendly and spends more time on UL than anyone I know. He doesn't do social media, but he's more than happy to talk your ear off about fishing if you stop by.
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]Yeah, they all seemed to be having a good time. Some of them were soaking lines off the point but I don't recall seeing anyone catch anything. As I mentioned, water is pretty shallow. Although that point can be productive at night when the walleyes are spawning.

Here is another pic I took of them as I was going out earlier in the morning. They definitely had all the accommodations and toys to cover anything they might want to do.
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