Fishing Forum

[cool][#0000ff]Several tubin' BFTers played fish hooky today and convened at Lincoln Beach. The ice has been out since last Friday and there have been a few walleye and white bass being taken. At 7 AM, TubeBabe and myself were joined by UTWalleye and Fuzzyfisher, both of whom have new Togiak tubes. Fuzzy's Jeep also disgorged Coldfooter who had left his truck up on the road.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Air temp was 24 and water temp was a chilly 36 at launch. TubeBabe was first on the lake, but UTWalleye drew first blood with a quick couple of white bass. That was all any of us scratched for several hours.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I had just worked into position to begin casting to the prime holding area off the first spring, when I was joined by a couple of the "locals". These guys are down there in their cartop pram almost every day. They are good fishermen, and catch a lot of fish. Problem is, they keep everything they catch and have no shame about moving in right on top of somebody. The last trip TubeBabe and I saw them, they had a large stringer of oversize walleye, including one we saw them bring in that was tail hooked. Today, they just pretended I was not there and dropped their anchor right on top of the spot I had been casting to. Oh well.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I had several light hits, including three in three casts that I was sure were white bass. I downsized my plastics and quickly caught a half dozen small whities before the school moved out. TubeBabe managed to add one to her basket. That was it. No walleyes for any of us, while we were there.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We all got out about noon. TubeBabe and I packed to leave, as did Coldfooter. We left Fuzzy and UTWalleye going back out to try for some afternoon eyes. One of the wading anglers landed about a 4 pound walleye while we were jawboning on the bank.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]When we stopped by last Saturday, on the way home from a bustout at Yuba, the springs were open, but there was a narrow band of ice between shore and open water. Today, the ice had blown in and stacked up in the spring, but the lake (at least the south end) was completely open. We did see a large sheet of ice floating around between shore and Bird Island.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]A beautiful day and great company. Not much action, but that is not always necessary for a good trip. Did save a few whities to fillet and to introduce to some butter and garlic in my saute pan tonight.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Hey Ron and Chuck, did you guys score anything after we left? (besides numb toes)[/#0000ff]
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Great day, great company! The only lacking was the catching on my part. Pat you forgot to mention that big Stealhead I landed! Boy for what little meat it had on its bones it was sure hard to drag off the bottom! It kept its head down the entire battle but in the end, it was mine. [laugh]

"disgorged Coldfooter" LMAO!!!!!!!
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Nice report tubaholic.

Wish I could get away this week for one last stunt @ Utah Lake.
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[cool][#0000ff]Sorry Don, I meant to get a pic of you holding up your trophy "steelhead" for the wall of fame.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]What Deadly Don is referring to is a prize catch. He actually hooked and landed a fairly large anchor that somebody had lost off their boat. He must be using line a lot heavier than the 4# I was casting.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Did you leave that beauty laying there or did you take it home?[/#0000ff]
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hey TD you hit it right on the nose!! numb toes is all i got on the return trip out.. realy slow for me today..

but like you said dont have to have great fishing to be a great day!!

could not have asked for better weather or better company..

thanks TD. TB. utwalleye, coldfooter..

dude on fish?
Ron
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[cool]Hey Tubemeister, nice report. Sounds like a good time, even if the fishin' wasn't too hot. Let's hope it continues to snow bigtime in the mountains so that there will actually be decent spawning areas next year for the whities and wally's, otherwise, there won't be much of a future for that lake.[pirate]

Speaking of not much of a future for that lake, don't those non-english speaking "locals" have jobs?? My goodness, they are there pretty much every day.[pirate] Maybe they secretly work for some of the rice serving restaurants in the area, eh? It's really too bad that those people rape and plunder such a great fishing spot. Thank goodness that's one of the only places they do it at. If those people fished at every one of our favorite fisheries, we'd really have some problems!!
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[cool][#0000ff]Careful, Geoff, we are likely to get WWIII going again. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The plain old truth is that "subsistence" fishing will occur wherever and whenever those who practice it can both catch a lot of fish and not have to worry about getting caught and punished. Those guys have it down to a science. They carry their little boat down from the road. When they leave, they carry up the boat first, to make sure there are no DWR folks lurking to check them. They have left their fish on stringers, in the water, and retrieve them and make a mad dash for their truck once they know the coast is clear. It is extremely rare for them to be at risk for being checked. If there are officers, they leave the fish to avoid being nabbed and return for them later. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]These regulars have been reported by several folks and have been busted a time or two by officers who watched with binoculars. But, they DO know the laws and how to get around them. Ignorance is NOT their excuse.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Don't they work? Who knows? Down in Arizona they conducted a survey on a group of regular "anglers" at one of the urban fishing lakes. Many of them were on welfare and food stamps...but drove new vehicles and had new fishing tackle. Some of them left with limits every day, and sometimes several times the same day. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]In truth, there really are not that many walleyes harvested from Utah Lake. Most of us have a tough time catching any at all, and the law-abiding among us usually only take home one or two when we have been successful. I guarantee that there are a lot more walleyes in that lake than fishermen alone could clean out.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I try to overlook some of the "harvesting" by imagining that the fish are all utilized to feed families that need the protein. In many instances, I am sure that is the case. However, a lot of us know firsthand that many fish are being sold for profit too. That's the part that gets my motor racing.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The good news is that by my own unofficial estimate, the lake level has risen several inches in the last month. I judge that by shoreline marker rocks and what shows on my sonar. We definitely need more snow in the hills, but thankfully we are off to a good start. The bad news is that both Jordanelle and Deer Creek upstream are way down too, and will get first dibbs on most of the runoff. At least if they have water they can release more to Utah Lake.[/#0000ff]
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Them be fightin' words.

To some who were born without a "funny bone".
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EASY O4T, non english speaking! "Those People" Maybe an e-mail or PM would be a better place to stow it!! All of us are from somewhere.
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[cool]Hookemup, I'm glad that my heated words got you to finally register and join us. Welcome to BFT/Utah. Looking forward to your fishing reports in the future.

You are right, I probably should have pm'd TubeDude about that particular subject. I got a little heated there, and maybe a little out of line. However, if you don't have a clue where I'm coming from on that post, perhaps you need to fish the first springs at Lincoln Beach to truely understand where we are coming from on this. There is a serious problem that exists there, that only those of us that fish it are aware of. Well, the DWR have heard about it, but unfortunately they are a little understaffed, and underbudgeted to go clear out there very often to do anything about it.
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I left it laying in near your lauch area. And your right, I was twisting 8 on my grinder.
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O4T/ I Know exactly where your coming from, I`ve been fishing all over Utah Lake for 20+ years. Believe me I know!

Take it easy, see ya on the ice.
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