Fishing Forum

[center][#FF0000]NOTE: I have an important question I would love answered. I'll pose the question after my brief story here:[/#FF0000]
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Tried Condie this evening. Fished from about 4:30 to dark. Unfortunately, my tackle was in the back of the family hauler... which was with the family... in SLC.

But with the family all gone, I couldn't NOT go fishing - so I got desperate.

First, I ran to Harbor Freight and bought a 2" hitch for the boat, because our one-and-only 1 7/8" ball was ALSO in SLC with the wife and kiddos.

Tired of dealing with one oddball trailer (all my others are 2"), I got out my grinder and cut off the old one and welded on a new one.

Yes, that's right, ladies and gents - I permanently modified my trailer so as to not miss a fishing opportunity.

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THEN I had to dig around through all my old fishing crap and look for any lures that might be sitting around. (I was basically relegated to fishing exclusively with tackle I had let rust, or discarded for whatever reason. Wasn't too excited to be limited like that, I assure you.)

Eventually began fishing and, to make a long story a little less long, had a blast. I haven't had fishing that fun since I was a tweener in the midwest!

I ended up catching roughly 2 dozen bass, and lost a handful of nice ones. In fact, I lost - bar none - the biggest bass of my life 8 feet from the boat. He'd hammered a crankbait that I cast out and saw the hook was wrapped around the line - so it was doing twirlies on the surface. (Yes, twirlies. If that wasn't an official word before, now it is.) Anyhow, I shook it there where it landed, hoping to fix my problem.

Well, my problem was apparently just what that behemoth had ordered for dinner, because it exploded up from underneath it and took it down! I reeled my cheap a$$ Kmart-fall-clearance $7 Zebco Bullet combo for dear life. I've never had my arm/hand get tired reeling a fish... until this moment. What on earth? I think this POS must have a negative gear ratio, because this is absolutely ridonculous.

Anyhow, as it approached, its mouth was fully opened. I kid you not, a softball would easily have fit in that yapper! And then, just like that, my crankbait pops free. The fish sits there for a minute, stunned... or mocking me, I suppose... before it dives down and away. Alas, woe is me.

At that point, it's dusk. I look for ANY surface lure in the tackle box - and I only have one. You can play Where's Waldo in the pix to see what one it was.

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For the next 15 minutes or so, I have the time of my life watching bass smash this thing on almost every cast! It was so exciting, I actually hoped it would work after dark, wherein I'd stay as long as they kept biting - but once it was dark, all the fishies went to bed...

I wish it could've lasted longer. Then again, considering I snapped a pole and stripped out the gears on a reel hauling in a biggun, perhaps I couldn't handle the financial hit that this trip was dealing me.

So, with the free Harbor Freight flashlight (I'd picked up for free when I bought the trailer hitch - did I mention it was free?) in my teeth, I motored back to the ramp and pulled my boat out of the puddle and headed for home, happy but not content.

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Okay, so now to my important question. While I was able to catch fish, the fact of the matter is this: my normal techniques sucked here! I was catching most of my fish while doing experimental junk fishing with whatever old crap I could find in my retired tackle box.

[center][#FF0000]COULD SOMEONE SHARE A POINTER OR TWO ON HOW TO ACTUALLY CATCH BASS [font "Arial Black"][size 3]ON PURPOSE[/size][/font] AT CONDIE?[/#FF0000][angelic]

[left]Feel free to PM me if you want to keep it on the down-low. Thanks!
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Darn you, I love Condie at dusk, but I was stuck at work. I do fish there a bit, I'll PM you with what I use up there.
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nice read. thanks for sharing.
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sounds like fun !
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Though this sounds like a lame answer that you would probably expect to hear....well here it is. I was up there this weekend throwing all of my normal susupects at that lake and only catching a hand full of bass/pig bluegill. Knowing there were much bigger bass in there I started just pulling random colors of jigs out of my bag of jig wonders that I have collected over the years. Once you find the right color on that lake it makes all the difference but with that said almost everytime I go there seems to be a change and you have to find it. This time happened to be a clear jig with purple flakes. Went from a few 10' or 12' in fish to all the sudden smacking some very healthy fish. If I could figure out my new dang phone I would post pictures again. Any who there is my spill. lol
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Thanks for sharing. Epic story.

Windriver
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Now i dont fish this lake often enough.... but from my experience... this lake is small enough and gets fished enough that those big fish get big and stay big by getting away from the norm, this goes the same for ice fishing condie as well. I say this but it seem the same tactics but diffrent shades seems to work the best. but like i say i dont fish this enough... but I dont fish enough in my opinion... but whats enough. []
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It's never enough. As for Condie, I usually do quite well there, but I don't feel like I'm doing anything too crazy or outside the box, but then again it seems like a lot of the bass fishermen around here are bank pounders exclusively and are stuck in the 80s for their fishing techniques.
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Great story! Loved reading it! As for the question I've been wondering the same thing after my only two times there.
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EPILOGUE:

Took my six year old back out there with me last night, this time armed with my non-crap-tackle. We didn't get there til about 6:30pm, but that put us on the water for the prime hours.

The weather was overcast but calm. For the moment. (More on that in a minute.)

I wanted to explore the other sections of the lake I didn't make it to the day before - and go inspect the locations of my dusk catches, so as to ascertain the conditions I could observe through my polarized lenses.

The first stop was a fairly shallow cove. Hucked a few cast out and pulled this guy in when my crank was almost back to the boat:

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I hope y'all noticed my thriftiness there with my fish measurer. Why spend $20 on the fancy gold one when I can use my old rafter square? I suppose I ought to put a lip on the front of it to butt the fish up against, but - hey, it works, right?

Anyhow, we wended our way around the lake perimeter while I tried a couple lures I trust and tried a couple new things.

I nailed a couple of bass on my first attempt with a shaky head. Both bass were hooked on by the time I picked up the slack line after casting. That's always fun! Of course, there's so much vegetation in the lake that at first I assume I'm just embedded in the salad, so I yank it up.

When the tension stays - and wobbles my line... well, those are happy moments, indeed.


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It began to grow breezy, so I had to implement my Poor Man's Anchor (that would be: a cinder block tied to a rope). I was shocked at how deep it got, so close to the shoreline I was casting towards!

Eventually ended up in the cove where I was catching the monsters with the Zara Spook the evening before. I had thought I was fishing some ultra shallows, but I was completely wrong.

The vegetation was up to the surface (which, at dusk, is what gave me the impression that I was throwing into skinny water), but I dropped anchor there and it was at least 8' deep.

That helps explain why there were so many bass in what I had thought was only 1-2' of shallows. The bass must've been chilling in those underwater shrubbery and swimming up to ambush my lure...

As the wind escalated, we motored around til we found some still water. There, I decided to see if the fish were ready for surface lures. I tied on a Lucky 13 just like the one I used as a kid. I haven't caught a fish on one since I was probably 13, but nostalgia had me convinced that this was still a deadly weapon.

I cast it out over 2-3' of open water and began popping it back to the boat. A stealthy LMB came up and sucked it down with almost no disturbance at the surface.

I pause for a second and then RIP my rod back. Fish on!

Let me pause here and just point out the obvious: there is no form of fishing (in my mind) more exciting than chasing bass with surface lures. It never gets old, and you never get over the rush of excitement of WATCHING and HEARING your lure get slammed. BEST EVER!

My 6 year old, bored out of his mind because he can't even get the bluegill to take in his hook (they just nibble the tails on his little grubs), is staring off listlessly while I have this fish on. So I call him over and have him reel in this bass. (This is the 3rd one I've had him reel in and count as 'his catch' to fight the ain't-catching-jack-doldrums.)

He's too cute. He embeds the butt of the rod in his chest, through the gap in his life jacket. The fish is big enough that it's difficult for him to keep hold of the rod.

Meanwhile, he is attempting to reel it in, half a turn of the handle at a time. The only problem is: his lifejacket is in the way of the handle and he can't hardly turn it. Oh, I wish I'd videoed his efforts. Too cute.

It takes him a full minute to bring the fish 15'. Then he tries to lift it out of the water while on the line, but doesn't have the leverage. So daddy gives him an assist.

Here's his prize:

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Well, to bring this drawn out rambling to an end, at about 8:20pm or so, a storm blows in, fast and furious.

The rain starts coming down so hard that its impact hurts. My 6 year old has to get down on the bottom of the boat and hide beneath his seat for protection while I race back to the launch ramp.

As I approach, I see a fellow fisherman and his young boy trying to control his little boat on the shore so they can trailer it.

The wind is blowing so hard that they can't even get it off the shoreline.

So I gun the motor and plow mine up the bank and hop out. The son calls out through the downpour, "CAN YOU HELP MY DAD?"

So I take my keys, wallet, and phone out of my pockets and hand them to the boy... and jump in the lake. I wade over to his boat and physically pull it out and to the side so he can back his trailer into the water.

Once the trailer is ready, he gets wet, too, and we manually, physically bring the boat around and attach it to his rig and pull him up.

Then I get my rig and we repeat the process with my boat.

By the time I trailer it, drain the motor of fuel, and pull out of the lake, there is - I kid you not - 6" of water in my boat! My tackle is all soaked... i.e. soon to be rusted... and I discover that the trailering process has taken its toll on my tackle: one rod tip snapped and one spinning reel busted in half.

Meanwhile, it is still coming down in torrents. By the time I clip the lines and secure the tackle, the road is washing out.

Unfortunately, I ended up bringing my 2wd Super Duty and had no weight in the bed of the truck...

Suffice it to say that getting back to the main road proved to be a little dicey.

But made it, we did. And now have quite the adventure story for fond memories later on.

We lost that last golden hour of prime fishing, but "we" still caught a dozen bass. No monsters this time, but a few in the 2-3 pound region.

Fun times.
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(NOTE: if you made it to the end of this post, congratulations - you're as hopelessly addicted to fishing as myself. On the upside, though, it is my opinion that this puts you in excellent company. [] )[/#FF0000]
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Great read!! Good detail for sure brings back memories of my dad and I fishing it in the early 90's in his little 12' aluminum boat with a 5 horse evinrude. Amazing how fast the water can turn on you out there.. I remember one time of it white capping on us oh what a trip that was.. Good catches always fun to watch kids expressions when catching fish..
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Glad the shaky head worked for you. More broken gear? You've had quite the expensive week.

That road is way treacherous when it's wet. I just have a little car, so I have to book it out of there at the first threat of a storm.
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Nice read! That was a good post. Never been to Condie. How's the ramp there? Good way to improvise and make do with what you have.
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[quote Bassin1] How's the ramp there?[/quote]
It's good. The only thing is that there's a deep rut just in FRONT of it. I snagged a steel bar on my little trailer as I backed up and it did some damage I now have to repair.

If you approach it to the side or at an angle, it's avoidable.

The angle is steep enough that I could launch my ...um, yacht... without even needing to put my 2wd into the water.

No dock, though.
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Great read! Condie has always been a strange and fickle reservoir for me. Great one day and the next time you think it has been fished out. It is fun anyway.

The road is horrible! If it rains, just get out while you can.
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[quote cpierce]Condie has always been a strange and fickle reservoir for me. Great one day and the next time you think it has been fished out.[/quote]
I've only gone twice, but so far I've found success. Interesting to note, though, is that it's been feast or famine both times. I might rip out 4 bass in 15 minutes... and then go an hour with nary a nibble before slamming another few at a time. Makes me just keep casting, waiting for that next batch.
[quote cpierce]The road is horrible! If it rains, just get out while you can.[/quote]
Normally I use the Suburban because it's 4x4. When I have it, I have zero concerns. But I don't even like to put my truck's tires in the water for fear I won't even be able to pull the empty trailer back out - those tires slip so easily it's absurd.
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I was going to go there today, but that nasty road kept me away. There were too many thunderstorms in that area showing up on radar to risk it.

It definitely has it's better days. I've never been skunked there, but I have had days where I've only caught a few. I would agree with Pharticus, they do tend to be scattered and I usually have flurries of action followed by dry stretches.
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[quote gstott]I was going to go there today, but that nasty road kept me away. [/quote]
I'm headed out now with 3 of my kiddos. I was supposed to be working a 12 hour day spraying lawns, but with the risk of rain, I get the day off. Hence, in the words of Simon Peter, "I go a fishing."
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Good luck. It looks like the weather has cleared up, so you guys should be fine. I have to work tonight, so the delay made it not worth the drive. I have tomorrow off, so I'm going to give it a try then. I have a bunch of ideas for things to try, hopefully I made good choices.
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Thanks for the info on the ramp conditions. What about the road there from the highway. How's that road? One of the other folks mentioned a bad road.
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