Fishing Forum

[cool][#0000ff]Today was election day. I already voted no on "all of the above" so I decided to spend the day at another "pole-ing" place...Pineview. Hoped I could find some perch and crappies that would vote for me. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Lovely calm morning. Air temp 34 when I launched about 8 AM at the Port Ramp. Water temp 51...inching up to 52 before I got off the water about 1. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Motored out past the end of the dock, watching the sonar. Started to see potential voters on the screen about 38 feet deep. Didn't have to wait long for "inquiries" after dropping my jigs to the bottom. Dinkster city. Picked up right where I left off on the ice last January. Probably the same dink perch.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Constant "rattle rattle" dink doinks with only an occasional pull down or heavier weight. The latter sometimes produces lunker dinks up to about 8 1/2 inches. Oooh. Ahhh.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Moved slowly toward Browning Point, dragging a double dropshot on one rod and vertical jigging a tandem jig rig with the other. Felt some "load" on the jig rod, pulled up to feel more weight and some "rubber band" stuff. Snapped the wrist to set the hook and rassled up the first crappie of the day. A healthy "footlong". Allll right! That's what I'm talkin' about. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Got into the crappie zone at 41 to 42 feet. Got about a dozen in short order...but most were very small...under 8 inches. But, I did catch a couple more slabbos, including one over 14". I threw out the marker buoy and stayed in the area but I either caught them all or they moved. I did pick up a few other small strays, including one that was half of a two species double I got later.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The perch were deerickulous. Couldn't fish with two rods. Cost too much in worms and perch pieces. But, by not setting the hook on rattles and waiting for weight I did get a few 8 to 9 inchers. Kept a few for bait and released the rest.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Had to make an early day of it so I hit the ramp about 1. Wow. Santa Claus was there with his kayak. At least it looked like him. He was testing it out after making some repairs to the hull. See the pic "Power Squadron".[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Talked to some guys going out in a boat about the same time I was launching. They had been fishing Pineview fairly regularly recently. They also moaned about all the small fish and had not even caught a decent one in a week. I felt better about that. They also said they were getting munched off a lot around the docks when fishing lures in that area. Seems a gang of tiger hooligans has taken over that area and intercepts the stuff you offer to the other fishies.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Saw a big tiger roll almost on shore at Browning Point. And, I had "SOMETHING" put a major chomp on a small perch I was reeling in. About took the rod out of my hands and got away with the perch. No hookup or line cut.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Not sure I want to spend too much more time on Da View until the average fish size improves. Not only is it not fun to catch dink crappies, but it results in a lot of mortality too. When they come up from over about 35 feet deep they float and can't get back down. Of course the seagulls appreciated that, but when it comes ice fishing time the underside of the ice will be covered with dead crapettes. That is a waste.[/#0000ff]
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Nice looking fish Pat,

Shawn
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At least you got a few nice crappies! I may try a night fishing trip this weekend for them. I'll let you know how I do.

[cool][#0000ff]Crappies are a worthy target for night fishing. I know a couple of guys who did very well on them in the narrows at night about this time last year.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The fish are going deep now and I did not see much evidence of stratifying at mid depth. In fact, just about all the crappies I caught were on a bottom jig of a tandem rig...actually dragging on the bottom. They would just pick it up off the bottom and hold on. Very tough bite to detect. I lost several good fish because of poor hooksets (too late, dummy).[/#0000ff]
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Yeah me too voted no on all the above haha[cool] Nice report n pics as always. Dosent look like you had a "crappie" day at all. I didnt know crappie had that air bladder problem thought it was more like 60ft+. Not sure but also heard there is a way to deflate them by using a needle.
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The only times I've limited out without spending the whole day there is at night. I usually anchor and vertical jig in 40+ feet when it gets cold. I'll probably start at the narrows and move out towards browning point.

Awesome report and pictures TD, I'm ready for some of that crappie action as you know. Going up thursday night for a while, I'll let you know what happens. Thanks again for info on the flies and jigs.
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Thanks for the great entertaining report. I am not happy to see that the perch are still so small[mad] I was hoping that the regs regarding the muskies would have started to have some effect on the size. Probably a year or two more to go. Santa Claus looked um, how do I say it...interesting!
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Thanks for the report, I will probably be heading there thursday. I saw santa there on friday when i was leaving at around 1ish as well. Those perch looked about the same as the ones i got as well, I haven't seen many nice perch there at all this year, majority seamed a little on the small side, with only a couple nice ones.
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Is that a new net I see? The quest for the perfect landing net is a worthy cause.
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"I didnt know crappie had that air bladder problem thought it was more like 60ft+. Not sure but also heard there is a way to deflate them by using a needle."

[cool][#0000ff]A lot of the non-trout species have problems with being suddenly dragged up from deeper water...even bass. Most ice fishermen are familiar with catching perch with their air bladders protruding from their mouths. But crappies "keep it all in". There is no room for the distended air bladder to swell outside the body cavity so it creates harmful pressure on the organs. They go into a kind of shock and even if you are successful at "fizzing" them they usually don't survive if they are brought up too far too quickly. Even their eyeballs pop out and damage is done to them.[/#0000ff]

[#0000ff]My basic knowledge of physics seems to reckymember that atmospheric pressure increases every 12 feet or so...so that at 36 feet there is about 3 atmospheres of pressure. You could probably reduce the shock by reeling the fish up more slowly, but that also increases the potential for "papermouths" to wiggle off the hook. And, there ain't many anglers who don't just wanna haul their victims to the top as fast as possible.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]By retrieving very slowly you might also violate Utah's angling regulations by hooking a tiger muskie who mistakes your slow retrieve for fishing with live bait. That HAS happened.[/#0000ff]
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[quote Northman]Is that a new net I see? The quest for the perfect landing net is a worthy cause.[/quote]

[cool][#0000ff]Not a new net. I have had it for several years but don't use it all the time. It is a heavy rubberized mesh that helps avoid tangles with fish and lures. But it has a shallow bag and is not a good choice for handling larger or more active fish. Big kitties laugh at it and bouncy troutskis use it as a trampoline to rocket up and out and back into the water. But I still like it for trout because it does not wrap them up and damage their skin or remove slime if I plan to release them...by choice.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I brought that net yesterday mainly to test a new design on my utility rack for the net holder. I figured that if it could successfully hold that heavy sucker it would work for the other nets too. That part worked fine.[/#0000ff]
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if you snap those little dink crappie in the head hard with your middle finger they swim back many times , if they float make tom yum soup out of them, very tasty.plenty in pineview wont hurt anything.
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Nice work Pat. Glad you got "a little" action. Sorry there wasn't more of the slabby variety.
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Nice report Pat, glad to see your enjoying the beautiful weather still around.
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[quote gettingthereok]if you snap those little dink crappie in the head hard with your middle finger they swim back many times , if they float make tom yum soup out of them, very tasty.plenty in pineview wont hurt anything.[/quote]

[cool][#0000ff]If I thunked them on the head with my middle finger they would definitely not make it. My thumping finger was a feared instrument of fatherly punishment and my kids referred to it as "The finger of death". [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I generally tried to just reach down and disconnect the little tykes as quickly as possible, but none of them could be induced to even making an effort to dive back down. They just went stiff. Crappies are wimps. But, I quickly developed a "fan club". Several seagulls kept me company and as soon as a "casualty" floated off more than a few feet from me it reentered the local ecology in a different form.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]On the other hand, all of the perchlets quickly dove right back down. Evidently the "zone" was right at the upper limits of their depth tolerance and they did not suffer the bends as much.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I agree that the loss of a few small ones is not going to adversely affect the crappie population. Just part of the natural attrition that is necessary to eventually producing a decent crop of larger fish. They evidently had a good spawn during the last couple of years and should be good sized in another couple of years. But they hit the same stuff you fish for the larger fish and beat the big ones to the hook. That is if the dink perch don't get there first. Pesky little devils.[/#0000ff]
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Yup - more proof that I must suck as a fisherman.
Finally got my first outing to Pineview, and had a great 'venture, but not so much catching as fishing. At least I wasn't alone - talked with several other anglers that also had "no bite syndrome". I did find those schools at the end of the docks, but they didn't want to play with my jigs, tubes, and spinners. I either got some knocks at one point, or dragged bottom [blush]

Calm at launch - that mist must always be in the valley in the morning. A tooner and tuber were floating around the docks, while a canoe-er ventured around (though he wasn't fishing). Couple other boats loaded out, but really - quiet on the lake. Number of shore tanglers spotted here and there.

Washed lures and flies on planers down the middle south towards the road and bend to the narrows. Figured I'd target the narrows - look for crappie, perch. And maybe taunt some bass. Found current seams, of sorts, where slime had lined up on the surface. Figured if it did it on top, why not down below. Indeed spotted up fish under the trails, down low mostly. Should have stopped and dropped some bottom rigs, but thought I'd try dragging a diving crank through the trail. Got on target pretty good, but no invites.
Hit some dropoffs along the south. Found low lying fish on the very bottom, some seemed buried in the muck. Dropped a fat tube down and bumped along bottom, hoping to annoy a bass into a strike. Seemed when it was about 50ft deep - some 30 feet or more from shore was where they were at mostly. Couldn't see perch/crappie unless that's what I was looking at. Seemed bigger that I'd expect their marks - especially after seeing your dink perch.

Saw lots of jumpers and floppers - I presume Musky having a go. But didn't see schools of minnows along the shores like I see at Newton. They might be off in shallower arms. Tried pitching to shore, and letting a jig, spinner drop down the ledge into deeper water.

Got windier, battery running down, time to head. May have come out with an empty stringer, but I had a full-experience on a new water. It's a big lake, but the way it's spread into arms - it's not big like Willard is across. Guess that's a downside when the ski-squadron is racing about waking up the whole water. I did get one solid hookup and the planer took a dive, but it wasn't exactly what I'd been targetting. Unfortunately there wasn't even any bling left on the snarl once I'd horsed it in. Probably hanging off some Musky's mouth!

Deep Crappie: Saw a technique on a fishing show - whereby they took a crappie - ice fishing, pinched it's gill plates down, then made a seal over their mouth with your mouth, and blow. Then promptly point them face down and launch them down into the water. Supposed to help with the air-bladder issue, but can't say I've tried it. They do say it's good luck to kiss a fish.

"Saw lots of jumpers and floppers - I presume Musky having a go. But didn't see schools of minnows along the shores like I see at Newton. They might be off in shallower arms. Tried pitching to shore, and letting a jig, spinner drop down the ledge into deeper water. "

[cool][#0000ff]The surface floppers are mostly carp...rarely muskies.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The young perchlets are now going deep...down to 50 feet or more. That's why the bigger perch and crappies are down there too. With a good sonar and practice you learn to recognize the bait schools and know to fish around them because that is where the larger fish will be hanging out.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Unfortunately, when they moved the buoy line further away from the dam they eliminated some of the best deep water fishing area for anglers. Some of my best spots were well within the current restricted area. It was common to see huge schools of baby perch, surrounded by stacks of larger fish. You can still find a couple of productive areas outside the buoy line but with low water levels they are not as good.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Not to rub salt into your wounds but trolling on Pineview at this time of year...well, you might as well be trolling in Salt Lake. There is a potential for finding a stray tiger along the shoreline...or for catching one of the few trout in the lake...but otherwise it is just washing lures.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Right now it is all about finding fish on the bottom in deep water and then finessing them to bite. Simple, right? The hard part is finding fish large enough to make it worth the effort.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I also saw that show about "French kissing" the crappies. I laughed. They were making a TV show and they did not show it all. If they had put the crappie back in the water and it floated...and then they had "treated it" and it lived...I would be more impressed. I had heard of that "trick" years ago and have never been able to make it work with crappies. I have no problem with fizzing perch because they are tough. But once a crappie goes rigid with the bends it is a goner.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The only successful way to help a crappie is with one of those devices that you hook in their lower jaw and send them back down to the depths with a weighted line. It is like putting a diver into a pressure chamber to relieve the bends. It puts the fish back into the higher pressure of the depths and gives it a chance to recover. But I have had reports from guys who use it on deepwater crappies in open water and they say that there are still a lot of floaters that come back up to the top.[/#0000ff]
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i having been flicking crappie with my finger for years and it works, not all the time but it is worth trying. i do it alot ice fishing let them float in the hole flick them every minute or so. i have been ice fishing for only crappie at pineview for over 25 years. i dont think to much of perch.
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It's funny - cuz whenEVER I see I fish flop on the surface I say - "ah, probably just a carp". Usually the case, but some of these - I saw stripes, I saw long bodies - they weren't no carp. I know for a certain fact that that kind of activity at Newton was musky action (watching the basslings panic - fun stuff). But I think there's less water surface, and seems like lots more youngins to snack on at Newton. Though there is PLENTY of Pineview I had yet to explore.

Yah - my whole plan had been for deep water jigging - tubes was the jig of the day, and I did plenty of that. But somehow - not enough. I dragged the planers mostly to get from point-A to B.

Funny that you say - as I tooled past the "restricted zone" barrier - I just had a feeling there was some action on the other side (jumpers too - probably just carp). Too bad they moved the barrier.

Hit up Hyrum this evening with my boy. Found a few frisky slimers come to play. Washing our spoons and spinners we had a number of hookups, and landed a few. Nothing to write home about, but fun tugs nevertheless. And good company - he's the net master, but I got him in charge of some reeling too. Funny - we had a hit on the planer, but as he reeled we watched it flip and jump away, only to have another fish jump on, so the reeling continued!!! That was fun - busy fish.

So - colder = deeper. THAT's the equation!