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[#0000ff]I had planned to hit Lindon at Utah Lake but couldn't get anybody else to join me. So I opted for a solo trip to Willard. Might as well get my customary first trip skunk out of the way.
North Marina. 7:30 am to 11 am. Air temp 32 - 49. Calm and clear...only light breeze. Water clean and rising...up about 1 foot since the end of November.
Started with the usual. Pitching small tubes on one rod while dragging a chub minnow on the second rod. No love on the plastics but within a few minutes of putting out the first minnow I had an inquiry. Turned out to be the longest kitty of the day...about 22" but lean and mean. All the other cats I got were healthy...some with abundant visceral fat reserves. They been eatin' okay.
Got three cats before the sun peeked over the mountains. Then it got busy. Those silly kitties were either lonely after a long winter or they just couldn't resist my blue-eyed, left-handed chub minnows. I could not get in much plastic pitching 'cause everytime I got through unhooking one cat and casting out a new minnow it was pow zing all over again. You'd a thunk it was mid summer the way they hit, ran and fought in the cold water.
I took one bag of about 15 minnows. I caught a cat on every one except one. Swing and a miss. No problem. I kept a limit of 8 and kept releasing them until the minnows were gone...trying for something besides cats.
No walleyes or wipers were harmed in the research for this report. However, I did have one plate sized crappie on a small white gulp that arranged his early release for bad behavior. Had to move my bait rod over to another holder to bring the crappie in and gave it JUST THAT MUCH slack. Bye bye. I was happy to confirm that the marks I was seeing at middepth were of the slab persuasion. Next time I go up there I will be better prepared and more focused.
Saw two boats go out of the harbor after I launched. But watched them moving around all over the lake without seeming to spend any time in any given area. The lake was glass and I could see clear to the other side.
After running out of minnows I fished some Gulp and some crawlers. Had one good hit on crawlers. Probably another cat. The only hit on Gulp was the aforementioned crappie.
Bailed out early...11 o'clock. Met Wiperhunter2 just getting ready to launch, with his crew member Gene. Hope they did well.
Got home in time to zip the fillets off my kitties and get the remnants in the garbage barrel before it was picked up. A good ending to a good day.
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Lookin good TubeDude! Thank you for the report. I hope to make it out sooner than later...
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Great Post as always.
I really wish I could have made it today to share in the fun and enjoy the wonderful weather. Sounds like it will be changing abruptly tomorrow so great timing as usual.
All the bait I harvested this last season thawed into a state of severe nastyness and was discarded with my dead fridge so I'm going to have to do some harvesting here soon. I had a great collection of BWB for UL too.
Keep up the good preseason Scouten[  ].
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Outstanding!. It was a beautiful day glad you got out to enjoy it. Sounds like we will see a change in the weather pattern and maybe get a little snow to fill the lakes a little. Looks kinda scary lookin at the mountains right now. Great job on the kitties and great report as always.
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Hey Pat that's one heck of a Skunken. Nice job as usual it's nice to hear the fish were willing. I thought today looked like it had great potential, but I wasn't confident enough to burn a day of vacation. Thanks for a great report. J
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[#0000FF]Lemme know when you wanna go minnowin'. Got another spot to show you that can be either good or bad. (ain't they all). Some years gangbusters. Others not so much.
And I assure you that the BWB will show up again. I still have some for joint trips until they do.
By the way, I had a whole freezer die in my garage a few years ago. Besides a lot of bait I had salmon, halibut, elk meat and other fine frozen goodies. By the time I discovered the freezer was no longer freezing my garage was a toxic waste dump.
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[#0000FF]Thanks. And you're right. The mountains look more like June than February.
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[#0000FF]Thanks. I may be overstepping a bit but I'll bet that even YOU could have caught some of those cats today. Unlike some trips they seemed to be scattered over a wide area...not just in a couple of small spots. And they definitely had the feed button pushed.
Maybe I'll have to wait for next trip to take care of the skunk. But if the next trips are any better I don't know if I can take it. Just need to sprinkle in some more species.
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As always, a great report and story. You had a wonderful weather day to spend harassing those fish.
I didn't hear you mention the knee so the water therapy must be helping.
By the way, we bagged our trip to Starvation tomorrow. We didn't have a chase vehicle to pick us up on the down wind side of the pond.
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Man that must of been good if I could have broke my skunk streak. Should have bagged work, maybe next time. Later J
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Well Pat, I looked out my building several times today and thought "Bet it would be a good day at Willard" weather is forecast to change in the next day or so, and the Cats always seem to bite good on the front end of a cold front. By the time I will get the time to get on the water this week, it could be raining or snowing. And as much as we really need the water, I am never happy about getting "weathered out" of fishing on a day I don't have to work. It may be just as well that I have to work Saturday if the weather goes bad as forecast. Glad to see you got back on the Bay and reminded those kitties that summer is not too far off. [fishin] [ ]
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Nice report and pics as usual Pat. How's the tube therapy working for your knee? Been thinking it is getting about time for me to try something like that. [ ]
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That looks like all kinds of fun. Great report TD.
I need to get a UL lesson from you this year during Walleye season.
I'm not sure whether to hope it comes sooner rather than later as the great weather today we may regret tomorrow.
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[#484848]Good job getting them stirred up after their winters nap.[/#484848]
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[#484848]I probably should hook up when you go after the minnows. I need a show and tell session from someone on catching those critters.[/#484848]
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Yup yup yup - the Kitty Whisperer takes it to em again, or maybe that's the other way around. Good think you had the right twist on the bait fish. Maybe down south you'd best switch that up, ya know like the way Toilets in Australia run.
I'd say they are scarfing on ice-kill, but - well, um. . . er. Guess there's always gonna be winter kill one flavor or another.
I'm throwing back faces on the book, and you're throwing out the hook. Always envy your weekday freedoms. Maybe I should sneak off for a Friday afternoon delight!
Good practice run anyway. Sorry the Crappie crapped out on ya. Them danged papermouths, they do know how to "shake it, shake it, shake it".
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"I didn't hear you mention the knee so the water therapy must be helping."
[#0000FF]My knee held up fine on the water. But walking that long walk up the concrete ramp to get my car afterwards didn't do it much good.
Making a short trip of it was partly in consideration of my still-recovering extremity.
Sorry about Starvy. But glad you are smart enough to not challenge the wind on that water. Been there and done that. Not a good outcome.
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[#0000FF]The knee is much better, thank you. No problem with the upward kicking but still get some pain and stiffness after a workout on the treadmill.
Whether or not tubing would be good therapy depends on the nature and location of the knee injury. As you know, there are several potential damage points in that complex knee joint. Some injuries will be less affected by one motion than others.
I would check with your doctor and explain what you will be doing before doing something that might delay the healing on your new parts. But I have known of others who have had new knees and found low impact tubing to be good therapy. Just don't let yourself get caught in a big blow.
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"I need to get a UL lesson from you this year during Walleye season."
[#0000FF]I'll be happy to show you where and how I fish them. But the catching will be up to you. One of those things that are "simple...but not easy".
Most reports on walleye right now is that they are not yet showing up anywhere...not up in the streams or along favored rocky hangouts. Traditionally that starts to happen around the first part of March, even in a warmer early spring. But they will show up.
I usually don't pursue them much during the spawn. Us old guys can no longer stay up late and hang with the shoulder to shoulder crowd of wild eyed wallieholics. I prefer to start hitting them as the spawn winds down and the post spawn feeding period sets in. That can begin as soon as the end of March but gets much better in April and May.
Definitely stay in touch and we can meet up and gang up on them. Much of the best action happens early so your schedule should allow you a lot of good trips.
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[#0000FF]The combination of low water years and excessive harvest by others has rendered my top minnow venues mostly unproductive the last couple of years. I got in one minor harvest early last year but on my next trip there were no minnows to be seen in the almost dry pond...and the area around the pond was trashed.
Ditto for Farmington Bay...up your way. For a couple of years...about 5 years ago...there was great abundance of chubs and baby carp in the outlet channels during the fall drawdown. But the last two years have been virtually zero. But on my last trip I did get 3 huge carp in one throw of my new cast net...and it quickly became a "hole-y net" from the twisting and turning of those spiny beasts.
PM me around the first of April and we will get together for some minnowing...such as it is.
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Great first outing at Willard, big difference from a years ago:
http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gfo...ead#unread
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