06-11-2018, 01:52 AM
ES: Fished out of Lincoln on 6/9 from 5:15 until 11 AM. My wife and 2 younger sons joined me at 8:30. Water temp was 67 at launch and 71 at the end of the trip. The water in the channel was 3.5 feet. The winds were calm until about 10:30 and had gusted to 15 to 20 mph by 11:30.
It was a unique day for me, the first five fish I caught were five different species: A walleye on crank bait, a bullhead a piece of crawler, a carp and a white bass on a jig and a channel cat on cut white bass. Just as unique was the fact that my wife Julie joined me and caught her first 3 channel catfish.
We ended the day with 15 channels from 20 to 28 inches and one of each of the other species. All the cats were in taken 4 to 7 FOW on cut white bass. They liked the fresh cut better than the frozen.
FS: Caution, this is a bit long, but it was a meaningful day to me.
About 2 weeks ago I saw that Free Fish Day (FFD) was June 9. I always want to take my wife Julie along on fishing trips, but I rarely get her to come. So rarely in fact that she had only caught 1 fish in our 35-year marriage. A year or so ago I asked her to go and there was a flicker of hope. “I wouldn’t mind going, if we didn’t have to stay so long” she said. I guess not everyone is as crazy about it as I am. We agreed that 2 hours on the water would be a good trip length for her.
When FFD was about two weeks away she and my 3rd and 4th sons (Jeremy and Zach) were at Sunday dinner. “How about we all go fishing on FFD?” I asked. “I’ll keep it to 2 hours on the water and you won’t have to get up at 4:30 A.M. I about fainted when they all looked at each other and said, “OK.”
The stage was set, well mostly. The day before I asked them to go, I was at Lincoln and just as I was putting the boat on the trailer, my shift/throttle control gave out! I had ordered one on eBay and it got to me the Wednesday before FFD. Thursday night I got a break from painting the inside of the house and got it installed. It was OEM and attached easier and worked better than the aftermarket that was on the motor when I got it.
I finished the install and went to tilt the motor back up and I had no juice. I tested the ignition key and nothing. I assumed I must have lost a ground connection again and started looking for the bad wire. After 30 minutes, nothing, I was starting to panic. This couldn’t happen now! After taking a deep breath I decided to try the trolling batteries. The tilt worked fine and the engine started right up. A quick charger test and I determined that my starting battery had died. What are the odds that right in the middle of fixing one thing, something else dies that I didn’t cause? Well the starting battery had given me 7 good years so Friday I picked up a new one and everything was back to normal.
Since the shift/throttle controls were untested “on the water” and I had no time left, I told my family I would get up at my usual time and get the boat launched and tested. They could meet me at the dock at 8 A.M. for the two-hour tour (hopefully not like the famed “3-hour tour, a 3-hour tour”). I anticipated a crowded ramp and didn’t want to be broken down clogging things up and looking stupid, so I thought going early was the best option. I never considered that if my repairs worked right the first time, I would be on the lake at daylight with 2 or 3 hours to fish[
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When I got to the ramp about 5:15, the parking lot was empty. In the pre-dawn light I could see a boat anchored between the jaws and the slough mouth. He must have been camping and left his trailer at his campsite. The air temp was 60-ish and the water 6 or 7 degrees higher. Before I launched, I tossed a small crankbait and fly combo a couple of times looking for an early white or a late walleye, hope springs eternal. While I was casting the guys that had been anchored came back to the dock, so I launched and headed out.
I made a stop near the jaws to toss the crank a couple times, even though my hope for a walleye had been dashed by the returning night shifters. Second cast I felt a little bump that might not have been a rock, but got no hookup. Third cast an I hooked fish! Small, so I got excited, “I’ll have a fresh white for bait.” Halfway to the boat it just gave up and laid on its side open-mouthed. “Crappie?” I guessed. I lifted it over the side and what to wondering eyes should appear, but a miniature walleye, eight inches darn near.
Well that was a pleasant surprise so I worked the area over for another ten minutes. Unfortunately, tiny was the only one not scared off by the other boat.
I headed around the point toward Goshen bay. I thought I would start where I had gotten into both whites and cats a couple of weeks ago. I got there close to the same time and nobody was there. Not a good sign. A dozen casts with the crank and nothing so I switched to dark purple grub with a bright yellow tail. I have been told that is a hot combination at Utah Lake. I’ve never caught a fish on it. Ten casts later I put on the Chart/grey one they had loved last time. Second cast and a solid hit. Fish on and it was no white bass!
I noticed right away that it was heavy and not fighting like a cat or a carp. Could it be another walleye? I shouldn’t even think that. It stayed down but didn’t go racing away, maybe. After a minute of slowly loosing line, it started a harder run. It still stayed down but the run gave me most of the information I needed. The fish was tail hooked. It must be a carp. On my ultralight gear a large tail hooked carp was formidable. It was an epic battle, lasting over 20 minutes and taking me half a mile from where the fish was first hooked. Because it stayed deep, I would occasionally think maybe it was a big cat, by my hope was mostly gone. I should have just broken it off and saved 30 minutes of prime fishing time. I got it to the net and it was about 8 lbs of future catfish bait.
I went back to the same area I had wanted to fish and put the anchors back in the water. The second cast gave me my fresh WB for bait. Just then I got a hit on the cat rod and missed it. A few seconds later it tried again and this time it wasn’t so lucky. Neither was I as it turned out to be a bullhead. “Wait a minute,” I thought. I’ve caught 4 fish today and they were 4 different species. I guess that was a slam or something.
Ten minutes later I got another hit on the cat rod and this wasn’t a bullhead. After a good fight, a 2-foot channel joined me in the boat. 5 fish and 5 different species! That has never happened to me before, at least not on the golden pond. What do you call that? What would be next, Crappie, Perch, Northern? I didn’t get to find out because it was 7:35 and I had to get back to the ramp to pick up my family.
Part 2 of the FFD adventure started as family outings often do, with a text that somebody was running little late. The fish didn’t care. I picked up Julie, Jeremy and Zach at the dock at 8:30. We motored out by the point and found a spot to anchor in 6 FOW. Within 10 minutes we had a fish on. It was Julie’s first channel cat, a feisty 4 pounder. It was a little dark, but nothing like some we would see later. Jeremy got the next one and then Zach got 2 in a row. Julie got nice one and then it went crazy. I was unhooking and re-baiting and netting constantly. By 10:40 we had netted 13 cats, Jeremy got the longest at 28”. I got the heaviest at 8.2 pounds. Julie’s and Zach’s largest were both right at 6.5 and Jeremy’s 7.8 lbs.
When Julie was fighting her largest, she said her arms were burning and the life jacket was in the way. I gave her my tournament PFD and she was a lot happier. What a great morning! At 2 hours I said: “Are you ready to go in, I said I would keep it to 2 hours?” They all said we could give it a few more minutes so I started cleaning the 4 fish we had decided to keep. While I was cleaning Zach go the last one and the forecasted southerly wind jumped to about 15 mph. Just then a ski boat went by and when the wake rocked us around pretty good, Julie said “That’s it, take me in!”
The water temp was 71 when we got back to the dock at 11:30. Surprisingly, the parking lot wasn’t even full. I thought FFD would be a mad house, but they must have all gone to Strawberry and Willard bay. All the cats we caught were on white bass cut bait. The fresh carp never got cut up. Most of the bigger fish seemed partially or completely spawned out and had swallowed the baits.
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It was a unique day for me, the first five fish I caught were five different species: A walleye on crank bait, a bullhead a piece of crawler, a carp and a white bass on a jig and a channel cat on cut white bass. Just as unique was the fact that my wife Julie joined me and caught her first 3 channel catfish.
We ended the day with 15 channels from 20 to 28 inches and one of each of the other species. All the cats were in taken 4 to 7 FOW on cut white bass. They liked the fresh cut better than the frozen.
FS: Caution, this is a bit long, but it was a meaningful day to me.
About 2 weeks ago I saw that Free Fish Day (FFD) was June 9. I always want to take my wife Julie along on fishing trips, but I rarely get her to come. So rarely in fact that she had only caught 1 fish in our 35-year marriage. A year or so ago I asked her to go and there was a flicker of hope. “I wouldn’t mind going, if we didn’t have to stay so long” she said. I guess not everyone is as crazy about it as I am. We agreed that 2 hours on the water would be a good trip length for her.
When FFD was about two weeks away she and my 3rd and 4th sons (Jeremy and Zach) were at Sunday dinner. “How about we all go fishing on FFD?” I asked. “I’ll keep it to 2 hours on the water and you won’t have to get up at 4:30 A.M. I about fainted when they all looked at each other and said, “OK.”
The stage was set, well mostly. The day before I asked them to go, I was at Lincoln and just as I was putting the boat on the trailer, my shift/throttle control gave out! I had ordered one on eBay and it got to me the Wednesday before FFD. Thursday night I got a break from painting the inside of the house and got it installed. It was OEM and attached easier and worked better than the aftermarket that was on the motor when I got it.
I finished the install and went to tilt the motor back up and I had no juice. I tested the ignition key and nothing. I assumed I must have lost a ground connection again and started looking for the bad wire. After 30 minutes, nothing, I was starting to panic. This couldn’t happen now! After taking a deep breath I decided to try the trolling batteries. The tilt worked fine and the engine started right up. A quick charger test and I determined that my starting battery had died. What are the odds that right in the middle of fixing one thing, something else dies that I didn’t cause? Well the starting battery had given me 7 good years so Friday I picked up a new one and everything was back to normal.
Since the shift/throttle controls were untested “on the water” and I had no time left, I told my family I would get up at my usual time and get the boat launched and tested. They could meet me at the dock at 8 A.M. for the two-hour tour (hopefully not like the famed “3-hour tour, a 3-hour tour”). I anticipated a crowded ramp and didn’t want to be broken down clogging things up and looking stupid, so I thought going early was the best option. I never considered that if my repairs worked right the first time, I would be on the lake at daylight with 2 or 3 hours to fish[
]When I got to the ramp about 5:15, the parking lot was empty. In the pre-dawn light I could see a boat anchored between the jaws and the slough mouth. He must have been camping and left his trailer at his campsite. The air temp was 60-ish and the water 6 or 7 degrees higher. Before I launched, I tossed a small crankbait and fly combo a couple of times looking for an early white or a late walleye, hope springs eternal. While I was casting the guys that had been anchored came back to the dock, so I launched and headed out.
I made a stop near the jaws to toss the crank a couple times, even though my hope for a walleye had been dashed by the returning night shifters. Second cast I felt a little bump that might not have been a rock, but got no hookup. Third cast an I hooked fish! Small, so I got excited, “I’ll have a fresh white for bait.” Halfway to the boat it just gave up and laid on its side open-mouthed. “Crappie?” I guessed. I lifted it over the side and what to wondering eyes should appear, but a miniature walleye, eight inches darn near.
Well that was a pleasant surprise so I worked the area over for another ten minutes. Unfortunately, tiny was the only one not scared off by the other boat.
I headed around the point toward Goshen bay. I thought I would start where I had gotten into both whites and cats a couple of weeks ago. I got there close to the same time and nobody was there. Not a good sign. A dozen casts with the crank and nothing so I switched to dark purple grub with a bright yellow tail. I have been told that is a hot combination at Utah Lake. I’ve never caught a fish on it. Ten casts later I put on the Chart/grey one they had loved last time. Second cast and a solid hit. Fish on and it was no white bass!
I noticed right away that it was heavy and not fighting like a cat or a carp. Could it be another walleye? I shouldn’t even think that. It stayed down but didn’t go racing away, maybe. After a minute of slowly loosing line, it started a harder run. It still stayed down but the run gave me most of the information I needed. The fish was tail hooked. It must be a carp. On my ultralight gear a large tail hooked carp was formidable. It was an epic battle, lasting over 20 minutes and taking me half a mile from where the fish was first hooked. Because it stayed deep, I would occasionally think maybe it was a big cat, by my hope was mostly gone. I should have just broken it off and saved 30 minutes of prime fishing time. I got it to the net and it was about 8 lbs of future catfish bait.
I went back to the same area I had wanted to fish and put the anchors back in the water. The second cast gave me my fresh WB for bait. Just then I got a hit on the cat rod and missed it. A few seconds later it tried again and this time it wasn’t so lucky. Neither was I as it turned out to be a bullhead. “Wait a minute,” I thought. I’ve caught 4 fish today and they were 4 different species. I guess that was a slam or something.
Ten minutes later I got another hit on the cat rod and this wasn’t a bullhead. After a good fight, a 2-foot channel joined me in the boat. 5 fish and 5 different species! That has never happened to me before, at least not on the golden pond. What do you call that? What would be next, Crappie, Perch, Northern? I didn’t get to find out because it was 7:35 and I had to get back to the ramp to pick up my family.
Part 2 of the FFD adventure started as family outings often do, with a text that somebody was running little late. The fish didn’t care. I picked up Julie, Jeremy and Zach at the dock at 8:30. We motored out by the point and found a spot to anchor in 6 FOW. Within 10 minutes we had a fish on. It was Julie’s first channel cat, a feisty 4 pounder. It was a little dark, but nothing like some we would see later. Jeremy got the next one and then Zach got 2 in a row. Julie got nice one and then it went crazy. I was unhooking and re-baiting and netting constantly. By 10:40 we had netted 13 cats, Jeremy got the longest at 28”. I got the heaviest at 8.2 pounds. Julie’s and Zach’s largest were both right at 6.5 and Jeremy’s 7.8 lbs.
When Julie was fighting her largest, she said her arms were burning and the life jacket was in the way. I gave her my tournament PFD and she was a lot happier. What a great morning! At 2 hours I said: “Are you ready to go in, I said I would keep it to 2 hours?” They all said we could give it a few more minutes so I started cleaning the 4 fish we had decided to keep. While I was cleaning Zach go the last one and the forecasted southerly wind jumped to about 15 mph. Just then a ski boat went by and when the wake rocked us around pretty good, Julie said “That’s it, take me in!”
The water temp was 71 when we got back to the dock at 11:30. Surprisingly, the parking lot wasn’t even full. I thought FFD would be a mad house, but they must have all gone to Strawberry and Willard bay. All the cats we caught were on white bass cut bait. The fresh carp never got cut up. Most of the bigger fish seemed partially or completely spawned out and had swallowed the baits.
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