My son,nephew,brother and I went to Utah Lake today and had a great time. My son nephew and I arrived around 9:40 and my brother came at about 10:40. We landed fourteen cats and missed a few. One is out there dragging my bobber and leader around like Jaws right now, I got a bit aggressive with the hook set and had the drag a bit tight, then to show me what's up he did a drive by near my boat dragging the bobber. Anyway we stayed till the wind showed up around 2:30 and went back to the marina after we had enough. We launched at Am. Fork marina and fished mainly just west of the marina near the reeds. They were in the shallow water around 2.5-3 ft. Deep. Had a great time with the kids and my bro and will be having a fish fry for dinner. The cats are good sized and willing to play. When we got into them they did not seem to care what we used for bait. We used night crawlers, chubs and shrimp. Get out there with some kids and have a great time!!!
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Great report thanks for sharing. [cool]
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Ha! A couple years ago I broke one off at the Knolls like that, where I think the bobber had a sharp corner. I had to watch that guy swim all around, back and forth in front of me all morning. When the bobber came to rest in the phrag, I waded out slowly and almost got hold of the line, but he took off and I never saw the bobber after that.
Glad you found em. UL is probably gonna be my next trip.
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[#0000FF]I think I spotted your "Houdini" cat at the Knolls. I must have worked off ten pounds trying to catch up to that bobber in my float tube. Everytime I got close he took off in another direction. He zigged, I zagged. Finally said to heck with it.
Kinda reminded me of "jug line" fishing down south. You tie a few feet of line and a baited hook below a gallon jug and just pitch it out and let it float around. When it starts leaving a roostertail you know you got a customer. But catching up to it in a rowboat is tough, even when someone else is up front to catch the line. Sometimes you gotta just cast a lure across the line to get it. Oh yeah, the fish can be flatheads up to about 50 pounds.
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Well I hope I find him next time. I have a question for you tube dude, can you think of any body of water with the right conditions that would actually work for Blue cats in the state of Utah? I have been wanting to make a post about this but I did not want to hear a bunch of bantering and fighting between everyone. I know it would be next to impossible for the state to do this with our varied and sensitive ecosystems but I just wanted to know if it could be possible for them to live here. I have seen many YouTube videos about blue cats and I really want to fish for them. I am thinking about a trip to Milford Lake in Kansas. Great for wipers and cats, walleye and bass as well I believe. This lake seems to have it all. It seems the Blue cats like the deeper water, all I could think of would be Powell, Starvation and the Gorge but it would never happen on those lakes, but would it be possible?.......
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[quote Johnr]. . . all I could think of would be Powell, Starvation and the Gorge but it would never happen on those lakes, but would it be possible?.......[/quote]
Or Cutler - because at least up north they'd have a chance of growing big! [cool]
Good question. Would be curious what our DWR friends would have to say. We could put White Bass and Blues in Cutler and it'd be a win-win! [
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Love the pic!!
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I wouldn't care what lake they were in as long as they were a reasonable driving distance. They do have them in Arizona, I just wish it could happen here. The cat in that pic looks like a huge flathead, hey they would be welcome too!!
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[#0000FF]The cat in that picture is a wels...from several big rivers in Europe.
Blue cats in Utah? They would likely survive and do well several places...but would NEVER be planted by DWR. Ditto for flatheads. I caught lots of flatheads in Arizona...and in the south. Love 'em. Have also caught some big blues in the midwest...up to about 50 pounds.
Since Utah is primarily a trout state (justifiably) the DWR is not likely to introduce more big top predators to any water with trout in them. Ditto for June suckers or any other fish that might become a menu item for the big boys.
There are a lot of transplants in Utah...anglers from other parts of the country that have other species. It is only natural to want to have them here too but we gotta live by what the DWR biologists have planned for any specific water. Probably a good thing that access to lakes with these species are not closer to Utah. Otherwise the bozo biologists would be trucking them in their livewells.
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Huh, one of the few times a big fish is ruining the picture. [cool]
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The Snake River has blue and flathead cats (I've caught a couple of blues from there), so I would think that Utah could have them as well, but as has been stated already, we are a trout state primarily so adding a couple more apex predators to the list is probably never going to happen. We can always dream of it though!
Actually, I bet its just a matter of time before some idiot bucket biologist tries introducing them (if they haven't already, I've heard they have been caught in powell).
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CS - Except for the BIG Wels Cat, I would say that almost looks like a shot taken at Mantua....[
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I've heard it's pretty murky there now. Guess turnover's in effect?
Usually not till later in the Summer/Fall that the split-pea soup takes over. Serious blooms a year back or so. Bit more warming, I'm gonna need a float over that way. Give the kitties a break.
Gotta pay my Barney TIthings for the Policemen's Ball.
And yeah - Pat called out the Wels cat alrighty. I guess they do have 'em in Texas, you know what they say about everything being big in that state.
I almost thought you were joking until i looked it up on the IDFG website. They do list flatheads in the snake river but not blues. I have heard lots of people say they have caught blue catfish from the bear river but im pretty sure it is misidentified with a channel cat that is either a little darker or lighter then normal. Im not saying you misidentified the blues from the snake but the IDFG doesnt list them as being in the system.
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As far as I know there are no blues or flatheads anywhere in the state, but if there were, my bets would be on Lake Powell. The cats in the Bear river are definitely Channel cats, there is quite a bit of difference in the way that the two species look and it is not just a color difference. Its like the difference between a mudcat and Channel cat, it's that distinct. The cats that guys are calling Blue cats are just dark, ugly Channel Cats, Usually in the larger size range. I've fished for, and caught, blues many times and definitely know the difference
The blues that I caught were actually about where the border with Washington and Idaho are on the Snake. It was several years ago and The lake was called Granite lake or lower Granite lake.
I do have a couple of friends from Idaho that swear they caught them on Brownlee reservoir and they have the pics to prove it, definitely blue cats. They claim that they are rare, but when they do catch one there are usually a few more to follow, which may actually be the case since the two I caught were within 10 minutes of each other and up to that point I had only been catching Channel Cats.
I caught them like crazy in Texas when I lived there for a couple of years and if they are under 5 pounds, I thought they were a lot better tasting than the channel cats, very white mild meat at that size. I wish we had them here, but not at the expense of the fish that we already have.
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