03-04-2020, 10:45 PM
I was recently contacted by a group of BYU students who were working on a class video project on Utah Lake. They were referred to me by the Utah Lake Commission. I provided them with a grundle of info and pictures but they wanted to risk destroying their video cameras by shooting me in my tube on the lake. So we all showed up this morning at Lindon a little before 7 am.
I was dressed for the 28 degrees but the younguns weren't. A couple of the girls only had single layer yoga pants and thin tennies. Cool...to say the least. At least Abraham...the video cameraman...was both properly dressed and tough. He wanted to get shots of me setting up the tube and Utah Lake waking up on a nice sunny morning. I think he got what he wanted.
After launching in the 40 degree water I motored out to the main lake. Water temp just over 40 inside the harbor, with average depth a bit over 6 feet all the way out. But the water was a sickly green color and I saw no fishy marks on sonar inside the harbor. I'm guessing a combination of cold water and poor water chemistry after ice-off.
Tried pitching plastics around the rocky points of the harbor entrance but nothing wanted to play there either. So I moved out a bit offshore...and was being tracked by a video drone. Spooky. Too bad I couldn't provide a bit of excitement with a fish or two.
After a fruitless hour of fishing one of my usually productive areas I came back in to shore for some final audio stuff. Then the crew left about 9:30 and I was free to fish. (at least reasonable) Powered over to an area out off the inlet for Battle Creek that is often good early in the year. Not today. Saw nothing on sonar and even less on my line. Then, at about 10 am...in only 4 feet of water...the rod with a whole chub minnow did a quick bob and line started moving off the open spool. I closed the bail and set the hook into a FISH. Yee Hawwww! Turned out to be a healthy 2-footer. Got it to pose for a couple of pics and put it back in the cold water.
Only a few minutes later, my new heavy duty Ugly Stick cat rod developed a big bend as a kitty munched my baited flig and tried to abscond with the evidence. But I brung him up short and invited him aboard for a quick photo session. My first two Utah Lake cats for the year. Neither would be worthy of honorable mention in the contest but they bent my sticks and stretched my string. Good enough for starters.
Fished another hour and a half without so much as another sniff. A cool breeze was starting to come up again so that I had to put my gloves back on. So, without any further fishy encouragement I headed for the ramp and boogied.
A beautiful day for both video and fishing. But I couldn't help but notice all the debris in the water. It was mostly pieces of reeds that I assume had been frozen and cut off by the ice and was now just floating free on the lake. By the way, the marker buoys for the bubbleup are still not in place. Usually about the first of April for that.
Note: Some of the pictures show too large for the screen. Right click on them and click on View Image and you will see the image in the right size. This system is still squirrely.
I was dressed for the 28 degrees but the younguns weren't. A couple of the girls only had single layer yoga pants and thin tennies. Cool...to say the least. At least Abraham...the video cameraman...was both properly dressed and tough. He wanted to get shots of me setting up the tube and Utah Lake waking up on a nice sunny morning. I think he got what he wanted.
After launching in the 40 degree water I motored out to the main lake. Water temp just over 40 inside the harbor, with average depth a bit over 6 feet all the way out. But the water was a sickly green color and I saw no fishy marks on sonar inside the harbor. I'm guessing a combination of cold water and poor water chemistry after ice-off.
Tried pitching plastics around the rocky points of the harbor entrance but nothing wanted to play there either. So I moved out a bit offshore...and was being tracked by a video drone. Spooky. Too bad I couldn't provide a bit of excitement with a fish or two.
After a fruitless hour of fishing one of my usually productive areas I came back in to shore for some final audio stuff. Then the crew left about 9:30 and I was free to fish. (at least reasonable) Powered over to an area out off the inlet for Battle Creek that is often good early in the year. Not today. Saw nothing on sonar and even less on my line. Then, at about 10 am...in only 4 feet of water...the rod with a whole chub minnow did a quick bob and line started moving off the open spool. I closed the bail and set the hook into a FISH. Yee Hawwww! Turned out to be a healthy 2-footer. Got it to pose for a couple of pics and put it back in the cold water.
Only a few minutes later, my new heavy duty Ugly Stick cat rod developed a big bend as a kitty munched my baited flig and tried to abscond with the evidence. But I brung him up short and invited him aboard for a quick photo session. My first two Utah Lake cats for the year. Neither would be worthy of honorable mention in the contest but they bent my sticks and stretched my string. Good enough for starters.
Fished another hour and a half without so much as another sniff. A cool breeze was starting to come up again so that I had to put my gloves back on. So, without any further fishy encouragement I headed for the ramp and boogied.
A beautiful day for both video and fishing. But I couldn't help but notice all the debris in the water. It was mostly pieces of reeds that I assume had been frozen and cut off by the ice and was now just floating free on the lake. By the way, the marker buoys for the bubbleup are still not in place. Usually about the first of April for that.
Note: Some of the pictures show too large for the screen. Right click on them and click on View Image and you will see the image in the right size. This system is still squirrely.
