Fishing Forum

I had to get away this last weekend so I made the run down to Utah Lake a couple times. Friday night, i was fishing with crawlers because I neglected to put out my cutbait to thaw. I caught about five mudcats and just got pretty stinkin tired wading around so I called it a night. Got in a hurry leaving the house and forgot the sleeping bag so I tried to get comfy in the front of my truck. Nissans were evidently not made with bench seat sleepers in mind.[cool] Oh well. So I woke up at about 3:30 and headed home. It had started to rain anyway. Saturday, I took a little more time and was better prepared when I left for the lake. I got there at about sixish and fished until one or so.... the wind was present but not too bad. I wound up catching about seven mudcats and one nice channel that went about four pounds. I didn't have a tape or a scale and I let it go. I did meet up with some guys bowfishing for oversized goldfish and they got one for me to cut up for fresh bait.... Thanks to them I had a great rest of the night and a wonderful day at my "church" the following morning. I started out wading the shoreline and got to a big clump of cattails where I pulled three big channels out right away. Then I fished along the shoreline getting bumps here and there but nothing too aggressive. Then I got to the second of my newly discovered "honey" holes. I fished there for a good couple hours and landed five more channels. I hooked into eight fish. One of the channels that I hooked up with was so big when I got her up and went to lift her head out to pick her up, she snapped the line i was using right off. That was eight pound test and probably breaks a little higher than that, being fairly new so I figured that fish was quite heavy. There were a couple fish that I hooked into that eventually just broke line after pulling for a few minutes.... One even snapped off on the hookset... I must have tied a really poor knot or something. One side note, using carp meat, I didn't catch any mudcats..... I got them on worms but only channels on the cut bait. I also used a big 4/0 Mustad catfish hook which may have contributed to the bigger fish (smaller fish couldn't handle the hook??) Anyway, it was a good day, found lots of ducks, fish and even saw a doe and three young deer come dancing down the shoreline.... I'd never seen deer actually out in the lake but they ran down the outside weed edge for probably fifty yards or so before vanishing into the underbrush. I have some pics of the catfish, even the one that broke line, and some pictures of the deer that I'll post up when I get them developed.
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I can see that I forgot to post where I was fishing and all I'm going to say about that is that I was off the airport dike on the East side of the lake. I wasn't at the Bubbleup or Lincoln Beach. Too crowded there for me I guess.... sure paid off. I know everyone posts up about Lincoln and the west shoreline and the bubbleup but if you get out, get some exercise and wade a bit, I think people would be really surprised how many fish they'd find minus the forked stick and a campfire. I don't know, I guess its not for everyone but I sure enjoyed it and I probably wouldn't have caught the fish or seen the animals that came by if I had been sitting still waiting on the fish to come to me.
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Hey riverrat was the water up to the dike at all yet, or did you have to walk out a ways on dry land first to get to the water?

That area of the lake can be very productive. I know some of our members would wade out there last year at night and fish with minnows and catch some big cats, I think it was fuzzyfisher. Also, I've had the exact same experience as you with the worms vs. cut up carp meat. If I used worms, I catch mudcats almost exclusively. If I use carp meat, I'll pretty much only catch channel cats (fewer fish, but bigger). I'm not so sure about your theory about the big hooks though, those mudcats also have huge mouths and can take in a pretty good sized hook as well. For some reason, the mudcats aren't as attracted to it as much.
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[font "Arial"][black][size 3]Rat,[/size][/black][/font][font "Arial"][black]Sounds like you had an awesome weekend! I’ve only driven that section as far around as the new Air Traffic Control Tower and it looked like it would be a tough time bushwhacking through the reeds and stuff to get to the water level. Can you keep going all the way around the airport perimeter? If so, is the South side of that area accessible by foot? Looks to me like that SouthEast bay might be good for bass too.[/black][/font]
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You can go out on the dike and drive from the Center Street bridge near the Utah Lake State Park entrance, then drive all the way around the airport. If you head out and follow the dike as far south as you can go, you'll hit the southwest corner of the dike, where it is a sandy somewhat open area and you can walk out from there. That is also the northwest edge of Provo Bay (Mud Lake). Other years, when the water has been deep, you can catch a lot of good fish inside the bay, but it's probably still too shallow this year.
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Thanks CatMan
Ive poked around there a bit but never fished it. I know flying into Provo it looks as though you can drive around but I wasnt sure if there were gates and such. (Besides, on final Im pretty focused ahead of me and not down)
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Right, I imagine when flying, as long as the ground is far away, you don't need to worry about it. If it starts to get very close very fast, you might need to pay a little attention to it! [angelic][][cool]
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When Im by myself its not too bad. Its the students that keep trying to kill me[pirate]
(If any of my students are reading this, Im of course refering to some other student and not you!)[]
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The water is pretty close to the dike and there is only about five feet of willows to get through to get to the water....there are also trails mushed down through all the dead weeds so getting to the water isn't too bad. the bottom is pretty firm too on that side so wading is no trouble at all. The road goes all the way around but its a wear out your shocks ride around the south side. the best way is going out center street and then taking the dike out to the control tower, parking there and walking out through the dead weeds or that big inlet on the corner of the dike there, just where the fence ends at the second corner. I went all the way down and actually hiked almost to where the channel goes back into Provo bay just because I'm istic to my body like that..... []. I would guess most people aren't that crazy/diehard. I think they graded the road out to the Control Tower so if you are worried about your vehicle, you can get at least that far comfortably. After that, you'll have seatbelt marks if you aren't careful. [cool] I used to hike out and fish some sticks that were fifty yards or so out in the lake and did really well but I fished them this time and nothing..... So, go figure....maybe they are up tight to the structure now getting ready to spawn.... I really don't know. Good luck to whoever goes out there, its a bit of work but I would guess the fish make up for it. I have gotten into bass, carp, catfish, bluegills, white bass and I'm sure there are walleye around there every once in a while with all the weeds and stuff....
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[cool]That's an awesome report, RiverRat77! Thanks for sharing. That really gets me psyched up for this middle of the week outing coming up! Look forward to seeing those pics, if you post them.
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RR77, sounds like you had a goot time, but I can't seem to figure out where you were, I'm not familiar with that area at all so putting together a mental pic, just draws a blank page. Can you get a toon into there? The kities were in the reeds? Are the carp starting their spawn yet?
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Here is a couple of crude drawings that depict the spot.



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You can totally pack a toon down to the water and where the reeds are walked down into trails, they are only about waist high so taking a tube or toon wouldn't be a problem. The water where I was wading was only about thigh deep so I don't know how effective a toon or tube would be unless you have midget genes or something... [cool] Just having short legs would work too. But really, wading wasn't bad because of the bottom being so firm... I did hit a couple sludgy spots but for the most part, it was easy walking. The carp aren't spawning yet I don't think but they are definitely staging shallow. They were all over in the shallows but from what I saw of them, they were just feeding... no thrashing around or any of that. They were jumping though so maybe fly fishermen would do well out there. I was off the west side of the airport dike fishing the shoreline where the cattails and tules meet the water. Anyway, it was a lot of fun and it was good to get into the kitties again, since it had been since last summer. Even the mudcats that I got were good sized which was nice to see.
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