Blustery Day at Provo Harbor

[Piscophilic]

Julie and I fished out of Provo Saturday 9/18/2021. We had fun, but in the end the weather won. Got to the ramp a bit before 7 A.M. and while Julie got ready to go, I set to work catching bait. When I had 2 adult whites and about a dozen littles I decided it was enough. As I walked back to the car the wind came up and it started to rain.
 
It was forecasted to last only 30 minutes and then not rain again until mid afternoon. Julie stayed in the car and I kept after the whites. When the rain stopped and wind slowed at about 7:45 I had 3 adults and about 3 dozen shorter ones. The surface activity said they were catching midges and I was surprised how active they were even in the rainy blustery conditions.
 
As we left the harbor mouth a little after 8, we could see more rain to the west. The guessers were off a bit. Since we didn’t want a long wet windy ride back, we headed north about half a mile and put the gear in the water. 2 rods with littles and 2 with cut adults.
 
The first cat hit on my side about 10 minutes in and it fought like a nice one. The board said 28”. 9 pounds is a good way to start the day! I had a hit on a little and it got the bait. Since the first fish was nice I changed my other rod to a cut bait, maybe a bit too soon. Julie got the second one on a YOY and it acted heavier. When it came in it was hog tied around all 3 spines and 25” long. Julie also got the 3rd one and it fought hard and long. It was just short of 29” and over 10 pounds. She had a bump fish for the day! Then the second wave of rain hit. It rained harder than the first, but I could see clearing to the west so we stuck it out.
 
In the next hour, Julie got 3 more and both of us got rained on two more times. A little before 10 A.M. she said she was “colder than she had been for a while,” so I pulled the gear and we came in. As I removed the baits from each rod, Julie had littles on both of hers and I had cut adults on both of mine. She had caught 5 fish to my 1, including the best of the day. They definitely liked the YOY whites the best.
 
The air was in the low 70’s and the water almost 70. The cats would have continued to play, but the wind and wet was more than we wanted.

BTW, the last person to catch 5 fish to my one was TubeDude and a trip we shared to Willard.

[SkunkedAgain]

Nice job Jim, glad you guys are still finding nice fish... Congrats... J

[Piscophilic]

Thanks Jeff, how has the fishing been for you lately?

[SkunkedAgain]

Hey Jim, it's actually been better than usual for me this time of year... If I could just keep my boat motor running... Took off Saturday and headed north, got the boat up on plane and all was going well, then 4-500 yards out of the launch the engine just cut out and I couldn't get it to keep running after that... (I think I might have water in the gas tank and filled the carbs with water so engine wouldn't run.) Anyway since I was away from the dock I decided to not ruin an outing so I cast out and it wasn't long before I had my first 25", shortly after a 26"er joined the fun and then a 24"er to finish the trio... All of them fought well above their pay grade and so i had a lot of fun... Then the dang wind started to blow from the SE and it was pushing me further away from the ramp, so I decided it was time to get out of there... Well my electric and paddle wasn't quite strong enough to make any headway against the wind, so I headed to the east shore and got out and pulled the boat back to the ramp... It was a slick bottom and waist deep water trip, but I made it... The youth duck hunt was open so when I got to the ramp there was a Sheriff deputy and CO there watching my stupid soggy trick... They didn't come right out to laugh at me, but I knew they probably were in their trucks busting a gut... Anyway sorry long way of saying the fishing is okay... I think if I would have been able to get where I wanted to go, I may have done better, but who knows maybe I would have been skunked.. I keep wanting to get back, but seems like there is plenty to keep me busy these days... Glad you guys can still make it out on your pond, and great to see all the big fish you're finding... You've had a pretty spectacular year... I should figure out your flait rigging, it sounds like it's working really well for you... Is it like the Santee rig? I've been using that this year and it's working pretty well for me, but it seems like every other trip they want it different... I have one of Pat's Gorilla fligs set up (Is that the 8 aught size ones) and the other day I caught a bullhead on it and the hook was so big it came out the back of it's head and it hardly reached half the shank in its mouth... not sure how it got that big of hook in it's mouth, but it was kind of cool.. True over achiever... Well best of luck down the stretch, I guess we are getting into the tail end of the cat contest now, hope we can get a few bigger fish before the water cools off too much... Later Jeff

[Piscophilic]

I'm glad you are finding some fish, but WOW, that's a lot of work to get them! I had an outboard do that once and it was something in the gas. Someone had given me a 6 gal boat tank that was just clogging up their garage, "and it even has gas in it!" The mechanic said "I don't know what was in that tank, but it wasn't gas!" New plugs and some fresh gas and it ran just fine. I was new enough that I didn't know gas could get too old. I suspect it was gas in the tank but it may have sat in there for 10 years before it was given to me. Water sounds like a good possibility from what you’re describing.
My FLAITs are just a brightly colored float that slides between the weight and the hook, with a few bling beads to keep the float from interfering with the hook up. Similar to a Santee rig, without the pin to hold the float where you want it. Since I'm almost always slow trolling, the float is right at the bait. The color doesn't seem to matter much except for one thing. I turn off my garage light and shine a UV flashlight on the float. If it fluoresces, it is a good color.

Keep having fun out there!

[SkunkedAgain]

Thanks Jim, hey I worked on the motor yesterday, i pumped about two quarts of water out of the tank... Don't know if I bought it as gas, or somehow it got into the tank, but it was terrible... I just filled that tank a couple weeks ago, so I suspect it came in the gas, but I can't prove it.. Anyway boat started right up and then quit again and I haven't been able to get it started again, but I had run the battery dead since I used that battery to power my electric motor on my attempt to get back to the ramp... anyway got it charging now, so I'll see what happens today... I drained the fuel bowls on the three carbs twice now and pumped a lot of gas through the system, so I hope it should be back to normal now... If not maybe I'll have to throw the whole tank of fuel away... I let the water settle out and just skimmed the top fuel off, but maybe once water is in the fuel it's not any good any more... Hate to throw $25 away, but might be better than a motor that won't run...

Thanks for the info on the flaits, I'll have to try that sometime... Well hope you get some more trips in, I think it's getting pretty good again, at least it is up here... Has been slow for me each time I tried all summer, but the bigger fish are coming back now... Hope I can get another good one before it's over, I hate to drop in score this much this year... But it's been a fun season anyway... Later Jeff