Fishing Forum

[#505000]The initial plan was to get off work at 10pm on Wednesday, catch a few hours of Z's then roll out of bed at 4am and leave by 5am to fish Lincoln Beach. That WAS the plan but it all went horribly wrong.[/#505000]
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[#505000]After getting off work 4 hours late (2am [crazy]) I decided 2 hours of sleep wasn't worth crawling into bed for. I loaded up the car with my gear and hit the road. I rolled onto the the south jetty of Lincoln at about 3:30am.[/#505000]
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[#505000]The water was a little rough from the previous day's storms, and it was VERY VERY COLD (the beach and the water)!!! [shocked] I loaded up with some carp meat on circle hooks the tossed my bait. When I was at Sprotsmans the other day I found some little bells that attach to the end of poles. I bought a few and decided to attach them. I threw on a coat, wrapped up in a blanket, and tried to keep warm and check my eyelids for holes. [/#505000]
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[#505000]Because the water was so cold, I didn't have high hopes. I was also a little worried since I didn't bring my auger and if it got much colder I was likely to need it. After about 15-20 minutes I was startled to hear a distinct jingling sound. I stood up, saw line was being stripped and began to reel. In came the first customer of a day a 20" channel cat. I was really torn on whether or not to keep it. It was rather large in the belly area, and I was concerned about keeping a "pregnant" channel cat. My growling tummy won out and into the basket it went.[/#505000]

[#505000]Two more quick hits by mudcats and the action died down a little. [/#505000][#505000] I was excited to see the circle hooks prevented the mudders from "gutting" my hooks and they were promptly released.[/#505000]
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[#505000]A little later I noticed line being stripped off one of my reels painfully slow. I also realized I had cast the pole to the south and my line was clearly north of me. I started to reel and in came the second channel cat. This one was distinctly blue, and looked like it was trying to disguise itself as a flathead. I have never seen a channel cat with a head that big. With such a strange looking cat I had no choice but to release it into my fish basket. [] The second channel cat looked as if it had relieved another fisherman of some tackle. He was hooked through the lip with a snapped off line. [/#505000]

[#505000]By now the fishing had really slowed down. I managed to score a walleye, but the wee 10 incher was released unharmed back into the lake. I don't have high hope for the walleye since he had been caught and released before (I could see someone had cut their hook that was in him) I figure a walleye that dumb is bound to be caught again and again until he is big enough to eat. [/#505000]

[#505000]It was getting close on 9:30am and I needed to leave. I was seeing large schools of carp off shore and decided I better gather some bait before I left. Now some of ya'll have fancy bows, homemade slingshots, laser guided missles, spears and other means of "catching" carp. Me being a purist I dug deep into my tackle box and produced the hottest carp lure I have ever owned.[/#505000]
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[#505000]I tied the 1/8 oz. hand painted black jighead onto my line, and attached a black curly tail Berkley Power Grub and cast beyond a school of carp. I began to reel and....... nothing. I tried again.....began to reel....... and using my best well honed carp foul hooking technique I snagged a biggun' right on the dorsal fin. I pulled in the moster and in the basket she went. Knowing my good freind Rvanman2000 would never forgive me if I didn't score a carp for him I cast out and foul hooked me another. Knowing I have limited room in the freezer I stopped at two carp. [/#505000]
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[#505000]With two channels and two carp I decided to call it a morning. It was finally starting to get warm and the lake was finally glass. I kinda started to wish I brought my tube, then I remembered..... "Oh ya its still kinda cold!!". I don't much care for cold unless I am ice fishing. [] All in all it was a great night/morning. [/#505000]
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[#505000]Oh and for those wondering.... the pot bellied cat was not pregnant... it was just a fat VERY VERY well fed hog!!! [/#505000]
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Good to hear that you are getting to be an expert with circle hooks.And save some kitties for me ![] The female channels will be gold and the males have huge black heads .I release the females and keep the bigger males.By the way is the water almost covering the dikes yet? Next week i will be hitting lincoln more .Been working a lot lately so fishing only on weekends for now.
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[#505000]There is still about 2 - 2 1/2 feet before the dikes are in trouble. [] It's nice to see the water so deep. I'm just excited I got them danged circle hooks figured out . I think I likes them, I likes them a lot. Especially since I like the high dollar hooks and I hate when mudders swallow them.[pirate][/#505000]
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[#505000]Maybe I'm a hook snob, but when I buy the nicer "premium" hooks it seems my hook-ups improve. I think they are sharper out of the package, and just better all around. On the down side it hurts a lot more when you lose them!![/#505000]
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[#505000]Oh and just a quick update.... I turned those two channels into "Gary's Blackened Catfish" and they were might good!!![/#505000]
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Thanks for a great post. Very entertaining. I think your new name should be "The Punisher ... of Carp." [cool]
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[cool]Nice report, Gary. Glad you got into some fish today. CBR and I hit Linden tonight, and it sucked. Too much W-didn't even make it out of the harbor, but CBR did just long enough to find out that it sucked out there, so we both tubed the harbor for a couple of hours tossing jigs and roadrunners at the fish. CBR marked tons of fish on his sonar, but none of the little buggers would bite. After being tired of getting blown around the harbor, we decided to try some bait chucking off of the West dike into the main lake, and then after no bites there, we headed to the North dike fishing into the harbor, and (you guessed it) no other bites there either. We were trying white bass meat and worms, and the fish (even the freakin' mudcats) had a serious case of lockjaw. We only saw one fish caught by anyone the whole day, and that was a tiny mudcat. We think we might have seen Kent pulling out, but not sure if that was him.
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[size 1]"We think we might have seen Kent pulling out, but not sure if that was him."[/size]
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[size 1]That be me. BTW -- I have a BFT sticker on each side window on my boat.[/size]
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I am thinking the lower elevation warm water fisheries wont be back into bite mode til beginning next week. This onslaught of crappy spring weather realyl shut the fish down. I think its back to chasing the trout for a couple days.
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I hear ya on hitting the slime rocket fisheries! I just found out that I have a kitchen pass for tomorrow afternoon/evening, so I think if it's not raining too much that I'll head up to 'da berry to catch some troutski's and crawdads for the first time this spring. Hopefully all of the free fishing day-powerbait chucking folks will have gone home by that point, but if not, I'll be at a less crowded spot anyway.
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Willard is iffy so Sunday we have decided to head for the slimers. Still deciding on Strawberry, Rockport, or East Canyon.
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Hey let us know how you did with the dads up there.I want to crawdadding really bad.
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[cool]Will do, ocean.
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[#505000]Thanks I try to inject a little "life" into my reports so they are more interesting to read. I also like your idea about the Carp Punisher. I have added a little quote to my posts now!![/#505000]
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Gary,

If you keep up this crazy fishing lifestyle I'm going to get in trouble for fuelling the fire. Your wife might get mad that I am encouraging your latest obsession.

Oh, by the way, California sucks when you stay with family that has nothing better to do than watch TV. I can't wait to get home so I can do some more fishing.
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[#505000]I'm curious how much the bribe was to get free and clear of this weekend's festivities here in Utah?? [][/#505000]
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