Utah Lake Burbot....No, but it looked like one

[Piscophilic]

OK, ok I know it isn’t a Burbot, but it is the weirdest looking and skinniest 30” catfish I’ve ever seen!





 
I got together with my longtime friend and fishing buddy Doug for a morning chasing cats out of Utah Lake State Park and what a morning it was! The companionship was great and the weather was almost perfect, even the cats cooperated very well.
 
We got to the harbor a little after 6 A.M. the air temp in the upper 60’s and the water ???? who knows, my *!#! Hook2 is on the fritz again, but that is a story for a day when things aren’t going well. (Update: after the factory sent a new unit and it also had problems I replaced the power cord and life seems better)

While I prepped the boat, Doug got just enough adult white bass for our trip, 1. We could only fish until 11:30 A.M. and then I had to get cleaned up for work.
We put the rods in at about 1 long net handle deep and started strolling and making s turns between 0.5 1 MPH. I had already cut and baited the cat rods with 3 day old WB chunks so we used those for the first 45 minutes or so. During that time 2 nice cats just over 28” came aboard and got some excitement, then as all the cats that day, they went back home to grow more.





After a lull of half an hour or so I switched one of the rods to fresh cut from the mornings bait volunteer. Ten minutes later it got hit and another nice cat. We gradually switched over all the rods and were glad we did.

About the 5th  or 6th cat I hooked one that didn’t hardly fight at all. It just kind of rolled over and over and came right to the surface. When I saw the dark color I thought it must have been another late spawner. Once in the boat, Doug said: “Look how skinny that thing is!” I said: “yah but look how long it is, it might just look long because it is so thin, but I’m going to measure it anyway.” To our surprise it was right on 30”! Only an hour in and I had a bump fish for the contest. Probably won’t ever see another 30” cat that weighs less than 5 pounds. I nicknamed it “Burbot Cat” and sent it back home.

3 or 4 fish later I got a god one, over 10 pounds and it also measured right on 30”. I have made my annual goal of 3 cats 30” or longer for the contest!





Another 4 or 5 later and it was almost time to go when I got clobbered on my side rod. We were at the shallow end of an S turn (less than ½ of a long net handle deep water) and as I fought to free the rod from the holder, the fish erupted on the surface thrashing and almost coming clear out of the water. “That’s a good fish!” we both said and I went to work trying to tire it out. It was about halfway to the boat when one of the back rods went down hard. As Doug tried to get that rod free a big wide tail slashed the surface. We looked at each other and grinned. “We might have two 30 plus cats on at once,” I said.
As they got closer to the boat, both fish headed in opposite directions several times and Doug and I did the one over and one under dance as they did. When mine came in the boat we both said: “That’s a really good cat.” Doug’s was a good cat, but had a really wide tail. On the board mine measured 31 and his 28”. Another bump fish!


        


By the time we got the measuring and pictures done, it was almost noon. I dropped Doug off by his car and headed home to shower and hurry back to BYU. I walked into my lab class just as the bell rung!

We were both too caught up in catching up and I had forgotten the video camera so we had to guesstimate. We got somewhere between 12 and 16 cats in about 4.5 hours of fishing. The company and the fish were h1gh quality and it was a great morning!

[wiperhunter2]

Great report and some awesome cats, you guys killed them today and all that in 4.5 hours, amazing. You got the same seats in your boat that put in mine, how do you like them?

[Piscophilic]

Thanks, it was a great morning! I like them, but the current mounting leaves me feeling like I am leaning too far back. I'm experimenting with the mounting so they feel more level or slightly forward.

How do you like yours?

[wiperhunter2]

Thanks, it was a great morning! I like them, but the current mounting leaves me feeling like I am leaning too far back. I'm experimenting with the mounting so they feel more level or slightly forward.

How do you like yours?

Love them, my original ones still worked but because of the aluminum frame they had a lot of flex in them when you leaned back. By the way I was thinking about that skinny cat and it made me wonder if it ate something that blocked it from digesting food, like a hook down in it's gut

[Mr. J]

OK, ok I know it isn’t a Burbot, but it is the weirdest looking and skinniest 30” catfish I’ve ever seen!





 
I got together with my longtime friend and fishing buddy Doug for a morning chasing cats out of Utah Lake State Park and what a morning it was! The companionship was great and the weather was almost perfect, even the cats cooperated very well.
 
We got to the harbor a little after 6 A.M. the air temp in the upper 60’s and the water ???? who knows, my *!#! Hook2 is on the fritz again, but that is a story for a day when things aren’t going well. (Update: after the factory sent a new unit and it also had problems I replaced the power cord and life seems better)

While I prepped the boat, Doug got just enough adult white bass for our trip, 1. We could only fish until 11:30 A.M. and then I had to get cleaned up for work.
We put the rods in at about 1 long net handle deep and started strolling and making s turns between 0.5 1 MPH. I had already cut and baited the cat rods with 3 day old WB chunks so we used those for the first 45 minutes or so. During that time 2 nice cats just over 28” came aboard and got some excitement, then as all the cats that day, they went back home to grow more.





After a lull of half an hour or so I switched one of the rods to fresh cut from the mornings bait volunteer. Ten minutes later it got hit and another nice cat. We gradually switched over all the rods and were glad we did.

About the 5th  or 6th cat I hooked one that didn’t hardly fight at all. It just kind of rolled over and over and came right to the surface. When I saw the dark color I thought it must have been another late spawner. Once in the boat, Doug said: “Look how skinny that thing is!” I said: “yah but look how long it is, it might just look long because it is so thin, but I’m going to measure it anyway.” To our surprise it was right on 30”! Only an hour in and I had a bump fish for the contest. Probably won’t ever see another 30” cat that weighs less than 5 pounds. I nicknamed it “Burbot Cat” and sent it back home.

3 or 4 fish later I got a god one, over 10 pounds and it also measured right on 30”. I have made my annual goal of 3 cats 30” or longer for the contest!





Another 4 or 5 later and it was almost time to go when I got clobbered on my side rod. We were at the shallow end of an S turn (less than ½ of a long net handle deep water) and as I fought to free the rod from the holder, the fish erupted on the surface thrashing and almost coming clear out of the water. “That’s a good fish!” we both said and I went to work trying to tire it out. It was about halfway to the boat when one of the back rods went down hard. As Doug tried to get that rod free a big wide tail slashed the surface. We looked at each other and grinned. “We might have two 30 plus cats on at once,” I said.
As they got closer to the boat, both fish headed in opposite directions several times and Doug and I did the one over and one under dance as they did. When mine came in the boat we both said: “That’s a really good cat.” Doug’s was a good cat, but had a really wide tail. On the board mine measured 31 and his 28”. Another bump fish!


        


By the time we got the measuring and pictures done, it was almost noon. I dropped Doug off by his car and headed home to shower and hurry back to BYU. I walked into my lab class just as the bell rung!

We were both too caught up in catching up and I had forgotten the video camera so we had to guesstimate. We got somewhere between 12 and 16 cats in about 4.5 hours of fishing. The company and the fish were h1gh quality and it was a great morning!

Just got to read your post. That's great , you catching some bumpers. Vi or I, cant remember which, cought a 30" just like the skinny one you got. Ours came earlier in the season.

From reading your report there are now some WB showing up in the harbor? On our last two trips out to the harbor I have not seen so much as a dimple on the water surface. With all the Midges that have been swarming I would think there should be WB all over the place. I think our Asian friends were more disappointed than I.

For reasons out of our control we haven't been able to get on the water for a few weeks, it's hurting me. It's one thing after another.

Did you notice if the rains have made a difference in water level?

Keep it up friend.

rj