11-23-2002, 05:04 PM
[center]![[Image: winner.gif]](http://www.bigfishtackle.com/images/gforum/winner.gif)
[#ff0080][size 1]Report winner week of 11-23-02[/size][/#ff0080][/center] [center]![[Image: fog_on_the_bear.jpg]](http://home.attbi.com/~bearlakemack/fog_on_the_bear.jpg)
Predator and Skeeter jigging in the fog
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]As we crested the mountans over Bear Lake during the pre-dawn hours, you could see that the lake was shrouded in a thick layer of fog. No big deal, right? The sun will come up and burn it off by 10:00 or 11:00 am; seen it a hundred times.The fog started at the Chevron Station on the outskirts of Garden City. Little did we know, as we entered it that sunshine and clear skies were not going to be a part of our day.[/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]We arrived at the State Park Marina around 6:40 am. We went through the usual ritual of preparing the boat and launched around 7:00 am. We also were expecting Predator and Skeeter to arrive some time later and would find each other's location with our cell phones. We head toward the opening of the harbor, not being able to see it, just knowing it layed head somewhere in the mist. The visiblity was about 25-35 yards. As we left the marina, I headed to a usual first stop just a half mile out of the marina to start our day of fishing. [/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]Now realize, we had no compass or GPS, just that manly man's sense of direction that never let's you down. C'mon, who need as GPS or compass on Bear Lake, right? I headed out of the marina to the northeast and was quickly engulfed by the fog. I used the sonar to watch the depth, knowing that as you head out, it gets deeper, right? As I continued to gage our progress, I was noticing that the sonar depth, 60 ft, had leveled out. What? Now its getting shallower? NO WAY. MY SONAR IS MESSED UP! At 10 ft I started to get nervous and idled the boat down. At 3 ft, you could BARELY see it, but there it was; The sand shoreline of Bear Lake! I had done a complete 180! So much for a manly man's sense of direction! I decide right then that sonar does not lie and as good as I thought my sense of direction was, 25 yards of visiblity and no land references, compounded by the fact that a boat will atomatically pull due to the prop, is a recipe for getting very disoriented. We head out again, believing every image the sonar showed and zig zagged out to 77 ft deep and started fishing.[/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]The fishing started out great. There was a lot of activity on the sonar, we were catching fish, cutthroats and macks but nothing over 4-5 pounds. One of the fish, a 2 pound cutthroat had a large bite mark on it's body. Obviously the intended meal of something much larger. I showed my buddy the fish's wound and said I ought to keep him on for bait and catch what tried to eat him. I released the fish thinking nothing of it. I had just hooked up again when my buddy pointed to a fish that was belly up in the water. That last fish, with the bite mark, looked like it was going to be dinner. I backed the boat to the fish and went to grab it. It decided it had more life then that and raced for the bottom when I touched it. We dropped our lines and started fishing again. I had just made about half a dozen jigs and BAM, another fish. I reeled him in and it was the same dang fish with the bite mark. I had caught him again! We let him go, AGAIN, hoping that he had learn a valuable lesson. I'm sure that fish will not last the winter. Karma says he's a meal one way or another.[/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]As we we're having a good time catching small fish, the cell phone finally rang. It was 8:30 - 9:00 am and Predator and Skeeter were at the marina and ready to come out. I told them where I thought we were because the fog had not let up at all; in fact it was thicker then before! I also told them we were catching fish and should get out and join the fun.[/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]15 minutes later, the Cell phone rang. "Where are you?". My reply " 77 ft of water, north of the marina, I THINK!". To make a long story short, 1 1/2 hours, 6-8 cell phone calls later, and two spent cans of compressed air from my air horn, we were finally united. It's now 10:30 am and the fog is still as thick as ever. C'mon, Mr. Sunshine, do your thing. Burn this nasty vail of uncertainity off and let us be on our way![/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]Predator and Skeeter hadn't caught any fish yet so we fished for about a half an hour with no bites! Now realize, Myself and Ron, my fishing friend, had caught and release about 12 - 15 fish by this time. Again nothing big but at least there were a few fish. "You caught fish here? Sure...yea right...." were the comments coming from the other boat. They were convinced that there was more crap drifting through the air besides fog! (Sorry guys, I got a few pictures of some of the small fry we caught.) Since the fish had gone tight jawwed, I made the suggestion, since Skeeter's boat had a compass; (a comodity he never realized he had or used until today), "Let's head down to the rockpile area and try our luck down there". That was the area last weekend where Predator put a hurtin' on one very nice cutthroat and a decent Bear Lake lake trout. [Opps, sorry Predator, I didn't mean to give away your secret spot! ;-) He'll probably never tell me his secret spots again. :-( ][/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]Ah! Let the adventure continue! We headed south at a neck wrenching speed, My junky little boat at full throttle and Skeeter's hot bass boat barely breaking a plane. We head south for about 10-15 minutes, passing a few boats with hardy captains, in the fog. The visibility was a whopping 50 yards! OK, where are we now? Hey! Let's go catch the shoreline and follow it and then we'll know where we are, right? Brilliant idea. The real problem was with 50 yards of visibility and the low water levels at Bear Lake, you only see sandy beach for 50 yards! DOH! We ended up finding the Ideal Beach High and Dry Marina; at least that is what it looked to be. It was just a dark blob in the distant fog. We made a compass calculation and head towards the rockpile.[/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]We headed out and anchored in about 75-80 ft of water, in the same procimity where Predator caught his fish [Opps, sorry again, Predator!] and started jigging. Basically the fishing sucked. We moved around to different depths and caught a couple of guppies. Our only highlight being when Predator caught their anchor rope and thought he had the Bear Lake Monster! You know, Mike, I was very impressed by that hook set you made! Solid! The one saving grace was that the fog decide to lift a little and we could see Gus's point. Hey, we were pretty close to where we thought we were![/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]Since the fishing was so slow and Ron and I had caught fish earlier to the north, we decided to head north, out from the marina, and finish out the day close to the marina. The ride up to the marina was uneventful and we got to our spot, in 75 ft of water, in no time at all. It was now about 3:30 pm. We anchored up and fished and guess who shows up while we fished? Why our friend, Mr. Fog! That sly sucker had crept back in and again the visibility was 50 yards max! No big deal, the marina is just a bit to the south and less the 1/2 mile away. [/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]After two small fish, one each mack and cutthroat, we decided to call it a day. The evening was starting to sift in with the fog. Skeeter took a compass heading in the diection of the marina and off we went. We kept fairly close to each other and ended up getting separated only once. Where are they? Learning from the lessons of this morning, We, Ron and I, finally found the shoreline. Yup, 3 ft of water means land. Now which way was the marina? North or south? I decide to head north for a while and see where that took us. If nothing else, Skeeter and Predator were last seen north of us and we would probably run into them.[/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]We almost did. As we head north along the shoreline in 4 ft of water, there was Skeeter and Predator in 2.5 - 3 ft with the bow of there boat pointed towards shore. I thought for sure they were aground. Luckily they weren't stuck but, again, which direction was the marina? We decided to continue north for a while and see what that brought and if nothing materialized, we'd start heading south. As we idled north, Predator ask me if I was lost. I consider the question and reply " I've never been lost before; just a might
for a while!" and as I said that the dikes of the state park marina materailized before our eyes in the waning daylight and fog. [/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]An adventure no doubt; right to the end. I think, today, I'm going to finally breakdown and buy that GPS I've always wanted but could never justify......................[/size][/font]
(edit) This morning, I bought a nice little Magellan off ebay with the ram boat mount and 12 volt power supply! Old dogs do learn new tricks!
[signature]
[#ff0080][size 1]Report winner week of 11-23-02[/size][/#ff0080][/center] [center]
Predator and Skeeter jigging in the fog
[/center]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]As we crested the mountans over Bear Lake during the pre-dawn hours, you could see that the lake was shrouded in a thick layer of fog. No big deal, right? The sun will come up and burn it off by 10:00 or 11:00 am; seen it a hundred times.The fog started at the Chevron Station on the outskirts of Garden City. Little did we know, as we entered it that sunshine and clear skies were not going to be a part of our day.[/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]We arrived at the State Park Marina around 6:40 am. We went through the usual ritual of preparing the boat and launched around 7:00 am. We also were expecting Predator and Skeeter to arrive some time later and would find each other's location with our cell phones. We head toward the opening of the harbor, not being able to see it, just knowing it layed head somewhere in the mist. The visiblity was about 25-35 yards. As we left the marina, I headed to a usual first stop just a half mile out of the marina to start our day of fishing. [/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]Now realize, we had no compass or GPS, just that manly man's sense of direction that never let's you down. C'mon, who need as GPS or compass on Bear Lake, right? I headed out of the marina to the northeast and was quickly engulfed by the fog. I used the sonar to watch the depth, knowing that as you head out, it gets deeper, right? As I continued to gage our progress, I was noticing that the sonar depth, 60 ft, had leveled out. What? Now its getting shallower? NO WAY. MY SONAR IS MESSED UP! At 10 ft I started to get nervous and idled the boat down. At 3 ft, you could BARELY see it, but there it was; The sand shoreline of Bear Lake! I had done a complete 180! So much for a manly man's sense of direction! I decide right then that sonar does not lie and as good as I thought my sense of direction was, 25 yards of visiblity and no land references, compounded by the fact that a boat will atomatically pull due to the prop, is a recipe for getting very disoriented. We head out again, believing every image the sonar showed and zig zagged out to 77 ft deep and started fishing.[/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]The fishing started out great. There was a lot of activity on the sonar, we were catching fish, cutthroats and macks but nothing over 4-5 pounds. One of the fish, a 2 pound cutthroat had a large bite mark on it's body. Obviously the intended meal of something much larger. I showed my buddy the fish's wound and said I ought to keep him on for bait and catch what tried to eat him. I released the fish thinking nothing of it. I had just hooked up again when my buddy pointed to a fish that was belly up in the water. That last fish, with the bite mark, looked like it was going to be dinner. I backed the boat to the fish and went to grab it. It decided it had more life then that and raced for the bottom when I touched it. We dropped our lines and started fishing again. I had just made about half a dozen jigs and BAM, another fish. I reeled him in and it was the same dang fish with the bite mark. I had caught him again! We let him go, AGAIN, hoping that he had learn a valuable lesson. I'm sure that fish will not last the winter. Karma says he's a meal one way or another.[/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]As we we're having a good time catching small fish, the cell phone finally rang. It was 8:30 - 9:00 am and Predator and Skeeter were at the marina and ready to come out. I told them where I thought we were because the fog had not let up at all; in fact it was thicker then before! I also told them we were catching fish and should get out and join the fun.[/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]15 minutes later, the Cell phone rang. "Where are you?". My reply " 77 ft of water, north of the marina, I THINK!". To make a long story short, 1 1/2 hours, 6-8 cell phone calls later, and two spent cans of compressed air from my air horn, we were finally united. It's now 10:30 am and the fog is still as thick as ever. C'mon, Mr. Sunshine, do your thing. Burn this nasty vail of uncertainity off and let us be on our way![/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]Predator and Skeeter hadn't caught any fish yet so we fished for about a half an hour with no bites! Now realize, Myself and Ron, my fishing friend, had caught and release about 12 - 15 fish by this time. Again nothing big but at least there were a few fish. "You caught fish here? Sure...yea right...." were the comments coming from the other boat. They were convinced that there was more crap drifting through the air besides fog! (Sorry guys, I got a few pictures of some of the small fry we caught.) Since the fish had gone tight jawwed, I made the suggestion, since Skeeter's boat had a compass; (a comodity he never realized he had or used until today), "Let's head down to the rockpile area and try our luck down there". That was the area last weekend where Predator put a hurtin' on one very nice cutthroat and a decent Bear Lake lake trout. [Opps, sorry Predator, I didn't mean to give away your secret spot! ;-) He'll probably never tell me his secret spots again. :-( ][/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]Ah! Let the adventure continue! We headed south at a neck wrenching speed, My junky little boat at full throttle and Skeeter's hot bass boat barely breaking a plane. We head south for about 10-15 minutes, passing a few boats with hardy captains, in the fog. The visibility was a whopping 50 yards! OK, where are we now? Hey! Let's go catch the shoreline and follow it and then we'll know where we are, right? Brilliant idea. The real problem was with 50 yards of visibility and the low water levels at Bear Lake, you only see sandy beach for 50 yards! DOH! We ended up finding the Ideal Beach High and Dry Marina; at least that is what it looked to be. It was just a dark blob in the distant fog. We made a compass calculation and head towards the rockpile.[/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]We headed out and anchored in about 75-80 ft of water, in the same procimity where Predator caught his fish [Opps, sorry again, Predator!] and started jigging. Basically the fishing sucked. We moved around to different depths and caught a couple of guppies. Our only highlight being when Predator caught their anchor rope and thought he had the Bear Lake Monster! You know, Mike, I was very impressed by that hook set you made! Solid! The one saving grace was that the fog decide to lift a little and we could see Gus's point. Hey, we were pretty close to where we thought we were![/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]Since the fishing was so slow and Ron and I had caught fish earlier to the north, we decided to head north, out from the marina, and finish out the day close to the marina. The ride up to the marina was uneventful and we got to our spot, in 75 ft of water, in no time at all. It was now about 3:30 pm. We anchored up and fished and guess who shows up while we fished? Why our friend, Mr. Fog! That sly sucker had crept back in and again the visibility was 50 yards max! No big deal, the marina is just a bit to the south and less the 1/2 mile away. [/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]After two small fish, one each mack and cutthroat, we decided to call it a day. The evening was starting to sift in with the fog. Skeeter took a compass heading in the diection of the marina and off we went. We kept fairly close to each other and ended up getting separated only once. Where are they? Learning from the lessons of this morning, We, Ron and I, finally found the shoreline. Yup, 3 ft of water means land. Now which way was the marina? North or south? I decide to head north for a while and see where that took us. If nothing else, Skeeter and Predator were last seen north of us and we would probably run into them.[/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]We almost did. As we head north along the shoreline in 4 ft of water, there was Skeeter and Predator in 2.5 - 3 ft with the bow of there boat pointed towards shore. I thought for sure they were aground. Luckily they weren't stuck but, again, which direction was the marina? We decided to continue north for a while and see what that brought and if nothing materialized, we'd start heading south. As we idled north, Predator ask me if I was lost. I consider the question and reply " I've never been lost before; just a might
for a while!" and as I said that the dikes of the state park marina materailized before our eyes in the waning daylight and fog. [/size][/font][font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]An adventure no doubt; right to the end. I think, today, I'm going to finally breakdown and buy that GPS I've always wanted but could never justify......................[/size][/font]
(edit) This morning, I bought a nice little Magellan off ebay with the ram boat mount and 12 volt power supply! Old dogs do learn new tricks!
[signature]