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[cool][#0000ff]We didn't get out fishing this past week so TubeBabe INSISTED that we hit the water today. Launched from the ramp at Lindon about 6:30, swatted a couple of skeeters and powered out of the harbor. Water temp was 69, which was comfy since we were waderless.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]No fish around the point of the jetty and nothing stirring at the creek. Decided to start with some of the large chub minnows I acquired last week. Had a pickup and run on the first cast, within seconds of the bait settling to the bottom. First cat in the basket just after 7. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Had a couple more "pop and drop" on whole minnows, so started cutting them in half. BANG, BANG...a couple more kitties in the basket. TubeBabe was now using the halved chubs too and we stayed even until we both had 4...about 8 AM. We remarked that that was about the time the fish had started hitting on our last trip. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I worked and finessed to add four more cats to the basket, while TubeBabe managed only a couple more before the kitty bite died off. I worked plastics for awhile, and lost a walleye that would probably be about 5# and brought in two fiesty white bass. One was male and the other female. Neither had spawned yet and both were ready.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Our cats ranged from 2.2 pounds to 4.8 pounds. I had three over 4.5 pounds and the rest were between 2.2 and 3.1. TubeBabe's fish averaged smaller, but she did have one just over 4.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Water temp was 72 when we splashed out about noon. Lotsa big boats and PWC taking advantage of the warm day.[/#0000ff]
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Nice report TD . Wish I could get out more this year . Last year I hit that area for the first time and slayed them this time of year . I bet I wouldn't even recognize the place with all the water that is in that lake now .
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[cool][#0000ff]Hey, ya gotta make time...not just find time. Get on the water. Good therapy for ya.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The water levels are amazing. Last year, when we got back up here from Arizona, you could just about walk out of Lindon Harbor without getting wet above the ankles. Now it is 6 feet deep and still rising. Only about another 3 or 4 feet and the north dike will be soggy. I doubt it will get too much higher, with them pumping water out into the Jordan, but it has sure flooded a lot of area that hasn't been wet for awhile.[/#0000ff]
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[  ]Excellent report as always Dude. I couldn't make it out on dads day today. But sure wanted to. How do rig up for these nice kitties anyways? Usually I just slip bobber em with no weight and of course the meat of choice for the day. Good on ya.
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Saw you and the babe leaving today. I was shore bound with the family.
Caught 15 white bass just casting from the shoreline with a white yamamoto curly tail below a bobber using a pop-pop-pop pause retrieve. Really slow pops. Most hits were on the pause. Missed several strikes.
Caught 1 cat is all on bait on the bottom. The majority of the whites I fileted up were full of eggs and ready to pop.
Nice catch Dude. Kitties are great fun.
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Thanks for the report and what a great way to spend Father's Day. My wife and the kids decided that we will be celebrating Father's Day tomorrow night with a little bit of fishing also, location will be my choice. Since I am close to LBH, I may head out there tomorrow evening. Are the bugs still in full force, or is the wind helping out a little bit. Anyway, nice pics and nice haul!!
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Good to see them kitties are starting to reallt bite now![laugh]
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[cool]Nice report, Tubemeister. Sounds like you two had a ball, and what an awesome way to spend fathers day-doing what you love! I'll bet the water temp wasn't 72 at Lincoln when I was there Fri. night.
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[cool][#0000ff]Rigging? Seems like everyone has their own special way that works best for them. We often try the bobber technique, but find that we hook a higher percentage of our biters by fishing with no weight and no bobber. When a fish picks up the bait, we let it run for a few feet before setting the hook.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We fish almost exclusively from float tubes. We toss the bait out about fifty feet behind the tube and then let it settle. If fishing with a spinning reel, we keep the bail open and our forefinger holding the line. Sometimes the fish hit hard, going away, and line immediately starts flying off the reel. Other times we feel a slight tap, as the fish tests the bait. Then we stop and just let the fish play with it until he gets serious.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Yesterday we had to really finesse some of our fish. They would pick up and drop the bait two or three times before we could get the hook into them. We were not using circle hooks, but most of our fish were hooked in the corner of the mouth. We both had a couple that did a "gulp and go", and we had to snip off the hooks and retie.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We both have two pole permits, and we often drag a piece of bait arond on one rod while casting plastics or spinners with another. I have rigged up PVC rod holders that hold the bait rod out away from the tube and we leave the bail open on the reels, tucking the line under a loop of a rubber band wrapped around the rod tube. When a fish picks up the bait, it pulls the line free and we reel in and put up the second rod before picking up the one with the fish running. That usually gives the fish enough time to have the bait well inside its mouth and to get a good hookset.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We used to fish Willard a lot for cats, when there were more of the larger ones in there. We still used no weight and left the bail open. If we propped the rod up in the rocks, we would loop a wrap of line around an empty drink can. Then, when a fish took off the can would fall over and alert us to take care of business.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I seldom use hooks larger than size 2 unless fishing really large chunks of bait. I favor either octopus style or the ring eye bait hooks from Eagle Claw. Plain old baitholder hooks work just fine.[/#0000ff]
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[cool][#0000ff]BUGS? AT UTAH LAKE? Nah, never happen. However, there are some nasty birds with sharp beaks that land on you and suck your blood.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Until the last two or three weeks, most of the pesky insects have been the clouds of midges that add to your diet if you are not careful. Then, the skeeters began getting thicker. They are still not at full power, but they are getting worse.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Typically, shore fishermen get hit worse than boaters or tubers. The bugs hang around near the shoreline reeds and weeds. The more vegetation around, the more bugs you will likely encounter. Don't even think about crashing your way out through the greenery around the lake to go wading. If you do, you'd better tie a rock to your leg so they don't carry you off.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]When we float tube at Lindon, we weigh the tradeoff between applying "Utah Cologne" (bug spray) or swatting a couple of skeeters while launching and then fishing out away from them without having to sniff the lovely aroma of repellent all day. They are worse early and late, and a little breeze helps keep them from being too bad.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I am dreading the next two to three months. All of the water we have had this year has left lots of mosquito breeding areas, and the abundance of greenery makes for lots of places for them to gather. I wonder if anyone will be able to fish many of the areas around the lake at night, when the bugs hit their full potential.[/#0000ff]
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Is it just me or are the whites spawning quite a bit later than normal? It seems like I always used to catch them at the mouths of the streams starting on about May 20 and rarely later than the first week of June.
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It's not just you. I tried to hit the Provo last Tues. to see if I could get some spawners, but they haven't even headed up the river yet. I think the spawn has really been delayed this year because of cold water temperatures do to the unseasonably cool and wet May and early June. Normally they are up there in the river the last week in May to the first week in June and then they disappear back into the lake. The provo is still running very high with all that cold snowmelt runoff, and I bet it's just too cold for them to get into "the mood". I wouldn't be surprised if they gave up on spawning up the river all together this year and just spawned in the lake along the newly submerged areas along the dikes.
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Last week after I stringered a white bass, I clipped to my waders, I had a few other fish splashing around me. I joked with my friend that we should have brought a net to scoop up the horney ones[  ]
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[cool][#0000ff]Your reckylections are correct. White bass traditionally spawn not too long after the walleyes, which means sometime in May. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I have really been surprised to see eggs in some of the white bass caught recently. I think I mentioned that some I saw appeared to be being reabsorbed by the fish, which happens when fish are unable to spawn on schedule.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]One of the regulars I know, who fishes the Lincoln Beach area several times a week from a boat, has also made the same observation. He has also had both males and females "spewing" when he lifted them into his boat. There is undoubtedly some spawning going on, but it may not be the great spawn that the whities need for a major rebound.[/#0000ff]
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I caught a nice stringer of white bass last week at Lindon and all of them were spawners, mostly females full of eggs.
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