09-09-2015, 05:14 PM
My beautiful wife abandoned me to spend the weekend with someone younger and cuter (my grand daughter) which left me all alone to spend the weekend doing whatever I wanted (as long as I finished my chores first). I wrote Saturday off because of wind and because it gave me a chance to mow the lawn and fabricate some new rod holders on Old Leaky. BTW thanks for all the input on the finer points of PVC construction, my sonar setup and rod holders turned out just fine thanks to Tube Dude and his disciples (pictures attached). A surprise visit from an old friend and a round of golf killed Sunday Morning as well so finally I launched with high hopes at The Knolls after dinner time Sunday evening (about 6:00 PM).
To be honest, I was expecting a lot more action and was disappointed with the handful of 20"-23" catfish I caught. The picture of the cat in the net is from this trip. I fished until well after dark (which was new to me in my little pontoon) and called it about 10:00 a little discouraged.
Monday morning I took care of some things around the house (not a good idea to have my wife show up to a messy house when I'm out fishing again) and launched Old Leaky at the crack of 9:00 AM. I decided to spend some time using my new sonar and trolled around the lake for a couple hours looking for any anomaly on the lake bed (I know, slim chance with how small an area I can search in the shallow water) and as you might expect, nothing. Utah lake is amazingly flat on the bottom, at least over on the west side.
There was a small army fishing the rock point to the south of the Knolls so I settled in at a rocky point to the north not expecting much. At first, not much is what I got but I repositioned in a little deeper water (only about 3.5' deep) and immediately started doing better. First I caught a few small white bass which I cut up for bait (my old carp was starting to stink and wasn't working). I baited up with the fresh WB and things started to happen. I hooked a couple smaller cats on a worm and shrimp combo but as usual the fresh bait was king.
The first notable fish was a cat that was contest worthy. I have to guess 28"-29", unfortunately, I have to guess because as I tried to manhandle the very large, very active fish into my basket tail first, he gave a couple hard kicks, launched into the air like a missile and I had to resort to a Bruce Lee worthy backhand maneuver to keep from being stabbed to death (is screaming like a little girl considered "Bruce Lee worthy"...I'm asking for a friend). I did manage a 26" cat later which felt so small compared to the other and a handful of UL standard cats as well.
I had one other interesting moment when I hooked up on my bigger setup using about a 2 square inch chunk of white bass. My reel just screamed for about five seconds until whatever I hooked returned my hook via airmail. Nice to know there's something that big swimming around where I'm fishing. Nothing like "the one that got away" to wet your appetite for next time.
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To be honest, I was expecting a lot more action and was disappointed with the handful of 20"-23" catfish I caught. The picture of the cat in the net is from this trip. I fished until well after dark (which was new to me in my little pontoon) and called it about 10:00 a little discouraged.
Monday morning I took care of some things around the house (not a good idea to have my wife show up to a messy house when I'm out fishing again) and launched Old Leaky at the crack of 9:00 AM. I decided to spend some time using my new sonar and trolled around the lake for a couple hours looking for any anomaly on the lake bed (I know, slim chance with how small an area I can search in the shallow water) and as you might expect, nothing. Utah lake is amazingly flat on the bottom, at least over on the west side.
There was a small army fishing the rock point to the south of the Knolls so I settled in at a rocky point to the north not expecting much. At first, not much is what I got but I repositioned in a little deeper water (only about 3.5' deep) and immediately started doing better. First I caught a few small white bass which I cut up for bait (my old carp was starting to stink and wasn't working). I baited up with the fresh WB and things started to happen. I hooked a couple smaller cats on a worm and shrimp combo but as usual the fresh bait was king.
The first notable fish was a cat that was contest worthy. I have to guess 28"-29", unfortunately, I have to guess because as I tried to manhandle the very large, very active fish into my basket tail first, he gave a couple hard kicks, launched into the air like a missile and I had to resort to a Bruce Lee worthy backhand maneuver to keep from being stabbed to death (is screaming like a little girl considered "Bruce Lee worthy"...I'm asking for a friend). I did manage a 26" cat later which felt so small compared to the other and a handful of UL standard cats as well.
I had one other interesting moment when I hooked up on my bigger setup using about a 2 square inch chunk of white bass. My reel just screamed for about five seconds until whatever I hooked returned my hook via airmail. Nice to know there's something that big swimming around where I'm fishing. Nothing like "the one that got away" to wet your appetite for next time.
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