08-12-2018, 04:37 AM
With the news that all of Utah Lake was under a warning advisory for HAB’s, Dave and I decided to try it one more time before they close it again! Well maybe they won’t close it, but it made a good excuse to go. We got to the ramp at Lincoln a bit before 6 AM with the intent to try and get some young of the year whites before heading out.
There seemed to be decent surface activity but they didn’t like my tiny flies with worm on them. I did pick up 2 adults though. While we were at it ice_sled joined us. He got enough for the day just as we were launching Dave’s pontoon.
The water in the channel read 2 to 2.5 feet on the way out. Water temp was 72 and there were some patches of greenish scum toward the back of the harbor. There were also some clumps of the more blue green stuff on the shore. Once out in the main lake the algae were only little bits here and there.
We started off down by the orchards in 5 to 6 FOW and it was pretty slow. We gave it an hour or so and picked up two cats around 20.” Just as we were plotting where to go next, I got a hit on my “bigger baits, bigger fish” rig. The fish had good weight and headed for middle of the lake at a moderate but strong pace. “Oh goody,” I thought, “this feels like a really good one.” After losing about 40 yards of line I leaned on the fish to see if could turn it or slow it down. “You better follow this one with the boat, I said. “IS he going to spool you?” “Not yet, but I can’t slow him down.” We had just stowed the electric, so Dave fired up the 115 and eased us in the direction the fish was headed. After a few minutes I saw the flash of a tail. “It’s a carp,” I said in disbelief. I have never had a carp hit an 8” strip of white bass before. The next time the fish surfaced things got even weirder. It seemed to be hooked in the front of the dorsal fin, but I saw my white bass chunk with both hooks dragging about 12” behind its tail.
I leaned on it harder to cut down on the lost catfishing time, but the “hook” held. When we got it in the net, neither of us could believe it, there was no hook in it at all. I had a walking sinker on a dropper line with a barrel swivel at the top so a fish could run with the bait without dragging the lead. The two lines had twisted together and that unlucky carp had gotten its first dorsal spine wrapped between those twisted lines. The “carp loop,” as we now call it, released as soon as the fish hit the bottom of the boat. I didn’t want the poor thing to go back in the lake without losing any blood, so I gave it a complimentary gillectomy and returned it to the water.
Next we headed to the Island and dragged baits all over. We found small pockets of fish every half hour or so, but only managed to land 4 more cats and a couple of whites. We had more missed hits than I have had in a couple of years. Some clearly looked like whites, but at least a dozen just stopped the baits, held on for a second and let go. We were back at the ramp about noon having landed and released 6 cats and 4 whites. Our largest was 26.5, and all the others were 20 to 23 inches and they all came on fresh cut white bass.
We ran into ice_sled at the ramp and he had the same story, lots of whites harassing the baits and a bunch of hits that acted like cats and just let go. He had ended the morning with 5 cats, but nothing over 24”. It was good to visit with him again.
It was a decent morning, good for relaxing and enjoying the company, but quite smoky and a bit slow for cats. We spoke with a guy from the DNR as we were pulling the boat out and he said all week that has been the story, a bit slow. Maybe they don’t like the smoke either.
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There seemed to be decent surface activity but they didn’t like my tiny flies with worm on them. I did pick up 2 adults though. While we were at it ice_sled joined us. He got enough for the day just as we were launching Dave’s pontoon.
The water in the channel read 2 to 2.5 feet on the way out. Water temp was 72 and there were some patches of greenish scum toward the back of the harbor. There were also some clumps of the more blue green stuff on the shore. Once out in the main lake the algae were only little bits here and there.
We started off down by the orchards in 5 to 6 FOW and it was pretty slow. We gave it an hour or so and picked up two cats around 20.” Just as we were plotting where to go next, I got a hit on my “bigger baits, bigger fish” rig. The fish had good weight and headed for middle of the lake at a moderate but strong pace. “Oh goody,” I thought, “this feels like a really good one.” After losing about 40 yards of line I leaned on the fish to see if could turn it or slow it down. “You better follow this one with the boat, I said. “IS he going to spool you?” “Not yet, but I can’t slow him down.” We had just stowed the electric, so Dave fired up the 115 and eased us in the direction the fish was headed. After a few minutes I saw the flash of a tail. “It’s a carp,” I said in disbelief. I have never had a carp hit an 8” strip of white bass before. The next time the fish surfaced things got even weirder. It seemed to be hooked in the front of the dorsal fin, but I saw my white bass chunk with both hooks dragging about 12” behind its tail.
I leaned on it harder to cut down on the lost catfishing time, but the “hook” held. When we got it in the net, neither of us could believe it, there was no hook in it at all. I had a walking sinker on a dropper line with a barrel swivel at the top so a fish could run with the bait without dragging the lead. The two lines had twisted together and that unlucky carp had gotten its first dorsal spine wrapped between those twisted lines. The “carp loop,” as we now call it, released as soon as the fish hit the bottom of the boat. I didn’t want the poor thing to go back in the lake without losing any blood, so I gave it a complimentary gillectomy and returned it to the water.
Next we headed to the Island and dragged baits all over. We found small pockets of fish every half hour or so, but only managed to land 4 more cats and a couple of whites. We had more missed hits than I have had in a couple of years. Some clearly looked like whites, but at least a dozen just stopped the baits, held on for a second and let go. We were back at the ramp about noon having landed and released 6 cats and 4 whites. Our largest was 26.5, and all the others were 20 to 23 inches and they all came on fresh cut white bass.
We ran into ice_sled at the ramp and he had the same story, lots of whites harassing the baits and a bunch of hits that acted like cats and just let go. He had ended the morning with 5 cats, but nothing over 24”. It was good to visit with him again.
It was a decent morning, good for relaxing and enjoying the company, but quite smoky and a bit slow for cats. We spoke with a guy from the DNR as we were pulling the boat out and he said all week that has been the story, a bit slow. Maybe they don’t like the smoke either.
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] I have decided to back off for week or two and see if we can get some cooler weather and less smoke.
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