Fishing Forum

It is almost time for Crappie at willard!! Start tying size 14-12 Chartreuse scuds for float tubing in the north marina of willard. You may want to tie White wooly buggers and white Zonkers to throw for wipers while your there.
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Maybe this year will be the year I stick a wiper again

Trent
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[cool][#0000ff]Why the wimpy flies? I have always done well on "fry flies" (small minnow imitations) on size 8 and 6 3X long. I use white, yellow, gold or silver bodies, with either grizzly hackle wings or ginger wings flat over the back...and a red wisp of a tail. Very simple but they take all species, including wipers, walleyes and cats.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Later on, after the baby cats hatch out, black wooly buggers get a lot of attention fished along the rocks.[/#0000ff]
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Crappie Dude! they are very subtle bitters this time of year.
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[cool][#0000ff]Just the wimpy ones. I go for the bigger fish with a little more aggression. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Agreed, until the water warms a little they can be more tentative. But, once they get more active you will get doubles on the larger flies when you rig tandems.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Here's a pic of a triple limit taken from Willard on the same day, mostly on flies. Even the cats hit flies. The limits on crappies were more generous then.[/#0000ff]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][blue][size 3]Do you eat all thoughs, or is that why your garden looks so good[sly][/size][/blue][/font]
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[cool][#0000ff]I would never waste good gamefish in my garden. I also normally do not keep a lot of fish, but on that day I was fishing for a family fish fry...for about twenty people. It was one of those rare days when all the fishies came out to play and I helped them. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]That was taken in the days before wipers were in Willard and it was wall to wall crappies. I probably released over a hundred crappies that day, and maybe another ten or twelve cats. I think the two walleyes were the only ones I got that day, but I have had 20 fish days on walleyes in Willard too. They love white zonkers fished next to the rocks.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]By the way, how do you know what my garden looks like? You been spyin'? It does receive the "leavin's" from some catfish filleting on occasion. Tomatoes and zucchini like catfish leavins.[/#0000ff]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][blue][size 3]I hear that. You can only eat so much of a fish. You are lucky, I love the taste of fresh trout with a little bacon and garlic inside, but my ol' (cranky) man won't let me cook it in the house and he uses charcoal outside and I hate trying to get that stuff started, so needless to say, I don't keep any cause he won't let me cook it to eat it.[cool][/size][/blue][/font]
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[cool][#0000ff]So...he's depraved and you're deprived.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Lotsa good eatin' fishies in Utah. We definitely gotta get a fish fry "cookin'".[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Back in the early 80's I put together a book on taking advantage of Utah's non trout species. Used to set up "show and tell" sessions to demo filleting and cooking and everybody wanted my recipes. So...[/#0000ff]

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Sweeet! The book looks awesome. About the fish fry....anytime, anyplace, any day............
Thanks
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Tube dude,

Thanks for the tips. I might have to have you so me some of your tricks at willard. I'd love snag some catties

Trent
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[cool][#0000ff]I'll be spending lots of time up there this year...not only for wipers but all the other goodies too. My wife loves fishing for cats (and eating them) even more than walleyes.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Of course the cats are all over the lake, but there are some areas that are easier to fish them from tubes and with greater expectation of success. We usually do not have trouble finding a few to play with. They have been smaller than they used to be, with all of the predator competition from the wipers, but there are lots of good eating size and still some bigguns.[/#0000ff]
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What is the best, basic tactic for float tubes? Fly rod or spinning rods? Sinking line or floating? If fish are suspended, how do you find the depth? I have a float tube and would like to learn how to use it. I'm sure there are volumes written on it, but I would like just a crash course (figuratively speaking) on the sport. Thanks in advance.
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[cool][#0000ff]I am in the fifth complete rewrite of a book on float tubing that I have been working on for over twenty years. Those are all issues that are addressed in each of several chapters. The most obvious variables are time of year, type of water (still or flowing), depth and temperature (and clarity), species pursued, etc.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]By the tone of your question, I am sure you realize all that. I am not trying to make light of your question or be condescending. It's just that there is no simple answer. There are some generalities, but much of the answer depends also on personal preferences.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]When I go afloat I have room for five rods. Sometimes all five are spinning rods. Other times I may have a couple of baitcasters in the mix. On still other occasions I may have only a couple of flyrods. The best tackle is whatever it is going to take to present the bait or lure that offers the best chance of success on the targeted species on any given trip. I use all kinds of tackle and enjoy them all equally. Well, almost.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Speaking strictly of fly fishing from a tube or toon, there are varying opinions. Some like shorter rods because they can position themselves closer to the fish and do not have to make long casts. Others prefer a longer rod, to help with line control from a relatively lower casting position.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]You choose your lines the same way you would whether wading or fishing from a boat. It all depends on where you want to present the fly in the water column, and how fast you want it to get there. It's a no brainer if you are fishing dries or emergers. Floating line all the way. After that you go with sink tip or full sinking, in densities to reach the depth you want to fish. For most of the shallow water fishing I do, for warm water species, I use a sink tip.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Locating the depth of suspended fish is easy if you have a sonar. Most tubers and tooners these days are setting up their craft with sonar. There are inexpensive and lower powered models that are great for tubing applications. If you do not have sonar, then you need to "count down" your sink until you finally score a fish, and then duplicate that count on succeeding casts.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]If you have not found us, I also moderate the float tubing board for BFT at [url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?forum=81;"]FLOAT TUBING BOARD[/url]. Come on over and click on "The Best of the Best" thread at the top. It is a collection of titled links from all the past threads. You can choose what you want to read and then go for it. Of course, like all of our boards, we welcome questions and have a good group of tubaholics that can cheerfully help you through your apprenticeship.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]CRASH!!![/#0000ff]
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I caught one on a fluke there, when I was fishing for wipers

Trent
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[cool][#0000ff]Not uncommon. Seems like all the fish in Willard are interchangeable. Guys trolling for wipers catch walleyes and cats. Walleye chasers often hang wipers and cats. And, what is really surprising is that guys fishing with "catfish bait" often hook both wipers and walleyes. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I once watched a family fishing off the rocks, using crawlers, carp meat and wieners catching wipers regularly, while the guys trolling by in the fancy boats were just washing lures. It really grossed me out when the little girl caught about a 6 pound walleye on a one inch piece of hot dog. (no mustard and relish)[/#0000ff]
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What do you mean gross you out

Trent
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[cool][#0000ff]Walleyes are considered tough to catch. I work my behind off to get them, using lots of fancy lures and high tech tackle, and here some little girl scores a big fat walleye on something totally out of the ordinary. That's kind of like watching somebody catch a big trout you have been working on for months, on a big gob of catfish stink bait.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I guess "gross out" is a bit strong. I will leave it at "greatly surprised".[/#0000ff]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][#ff4040]I don't know TD, "gross out" sounds about right. Last year my little brother in law caught an 8 pound wally using WB meat, while I was flinging my expensive stuff. I was pretty "grossed out!"[/#ff4040][/font]
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[cool][#0000ff]People catch a lot of walleyes on white bass meat. That's part of their normal diet. But, I'll bet those walleyes have never seen a hot dog swimming through their kitchen before.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]By the way, this is a fly fishing forum. We really hijacked it good.[/#0000ff]
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