Cat-O-Rama

[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Met up with Wildcat94 and his brother Wes at the South Marina of Willard Bay this morning. Me in my float tube and they in their toons. We had wipers in mind but ended up settling for a lot of playtime with those everlovin' cookie cutter kitties.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Air temp 72 and water temp 76 at launch, about 6:30 AM. Absolutely clear and calm. Surprisingly, no bugs of any species. Somebody was lookin' out for us kids today.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Surprised none of us got even a touch on either bait or lures on the way out the channel. Lots of fishy marks on sonar, but none of them had their little mouths open. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I didn't get my first hit until almost 7:30. Got a fairly skinny cookie cutter kittie on a minnow. A few minutes later I got a munch on the tandem jig rig I was throwing on my second rod. Didn't fight like a catfish...because it was a perch. A dandy 12 incher. Lovely.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]As I worked to the north, a ways out from the dike, I kept moving from deeper to shallower. Caught a couple of strays intermittently. Catfish...not wipers. Didn't see any signs of surface activity and not much evidence of bait schools. The fish were evidently in another part of the lake.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I finally reached the fringes of my "Kitty Condo" area and it was GAME ON. They were there in force and they wanted action. As I put my third in a row in the basket I hollered for the Wildcat boys to get over and join in the fun. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Just as they were cruising in on their motorized toons, I experienced something I have never done before...a TRIPLE. Let me explain. I had two bait rods dragging minnows out behind me. The first one went zing and as I set the hook, the second one had a pickup and runner. I put the first rod in a holder, to let the fish fight itself, and set the hook on the second fish. I had made only a few turns on the reel for the second cat when a rod I had laying under my left arm, with a jig about two feet out of the rod tip, suddenly came to life and almost got pulled overboard behind me. I put the second rod in a holder and brought in the fish on the jig rod. Then I brought in the other two. Got all three safely aboard. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The jig fish may be considered illegal, since I do not have a 3 pole permit. But, I was really not fishing with it. I merely had it in the water to keep the worm from drying out in the heat...only a foot or so under the water. I couldn't help it if a stupid catfish came up off the bottom in 13 feet of water to smack it. Just to be proper about it, I release two out of the three anyway. I did not think I would have much trouble keeping a limit if I chose to.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]As the Wildcat boys watched, I proceeded to catch two or three more doubles right in front of them. On one occasion I had a minnow soaking about 5 feet under a bobber on one rod. I was throwing jigs on the second rod. No third rod in the water this time. The bobber went down and I set the hook. I had put the jig rod in a holder, with a few feet of line still trailing out that I hadn't taken the time to reel in when the bobber went down. Yep, you guessed it. Another masochistic kitty whacked one of the "dead sticked" jigs and impaled itself on the sharp Matzuo hook. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I directed the Wildcat boys as to which landmarks to watch for along the dike and at what depth to keep fishing. I left them to work the kitty condo while I went prospecting for wipers. I did ultimately have a couple of wipers on...briefly...on plastics. But none on minnows or hardbaits.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]On the slow leisurely kick back down the dike, I went through 2 bags of minnows and most of a box of crawlers. The rod with a minnow on it seldom settled into the rod holder before the line popped out of the clip and i had to set the hook in another cookie cutter. During brief lulls in the minnow munching action, I got to make casts with my tandem tube jigs...tipped with crawler. I got bites on almost every cast with the jigs. Unfortunately, as I discovered by hooking a few, many of the pesky little devils were very small catfish. I haven't caught little cats like that in Willard for a long time. However, I did catch a few "average" size cookie cutters on jigs too. They are always fun on the light rod I use for fishing small jigs.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The Wildcat boys done good too. They both ended up with nice baskets of cookie cutters for the fish cleaning station. They were already anticipating an evening fish fry.[/#0000ff]
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[url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=51181"][#63626b]LAUNCH TIME.jpg[/#63626b][/url] (171 KB)
[url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=51182"][#63626b]TOONS ON GLASS.jpg[/#63626b][/url] (121 KB)
[url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=51183"][#63626b]WILDCAT BOYS.jpg[/#63626b][/url] (179 KB)
[url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=51184"][#63626b]NICE COOKIE.jpg[/#63626b][/url] (236 KB)
[url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=51185"][#63626b]PERCH SURPRISE.jpg[/#63626b][/url] (194 KB)
[url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=51186"][#63626b]ANUDDER JIG MUNCHER.jpg[/#63626b][/url] (191 KB)
[url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=51187"][#63626b]KUTE KITTY.jpg[/#63626b][/url] (331 KB)
[url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=51188"][#63626b]ITTY BITTY KITTY.jpg[/#63626b][/url] (218 KB)
[url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=51189"][#63626b]BRYCE SCORES.jpg[/#63626b][/url] (201 KB)
[url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=51190"][#63626b]COOKIE BASKETS.jpg[/#63626b][/url] (294 KB)
[url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=51191"][#63626b]OLD DUDE'S DINNER.jpg[/#63626b][/url] (362 KB)
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[peter805]

WOW WOW WOW, what a day of fishing !!!!!!!!
Three rods going off at the same time, thats just
unreal. Man, i wish I was there............[]
Great job !
Thank you for the report and nice pictures TD.

Peter
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[OlDirtyBasser]

That is a real consistent fishery you have for those cats. They're always there for you to fall back on when other species aren't cooperating. Looks like a lot of fun.
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]They are usually reliable...for some of us. A few kitty specialists can almost always count on getting a few, even when the other species are playing hard to get.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The cats hit hard, fight well and are very good on the table. Not a bad "Plan B".[/#0000ff]
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[idahopanfish]

Great Day Fishin[]

I was wondering do you have a picture of the chair setup on that other toon?
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[TubeDude]

[quote idahopanfish]Great Day Fishin[]

I was wondering do you have a picture of the chair setup on that other toon?[/quote]

[cool][#0000ff]Sorry, I did not take any closeups or make any diagrams. I meant to do that for both toons. Bryce has taken all the mods we put on his toon and painted them black. Looks cool.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I am attaching a couple of pics that I cropped from the large file pics I did take. You can see that it is a "pedestal seat", such as those used by bass fishermen on their low slung bass sleds. It is not standard on that "Cimarron" pontoon...which is actually a low priced toon and also not really big enough to do that if you are a big guy. By raising your center of gravity you leave yourself open for a turnover or worse if you get in high wind and choppy water.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I have seen other craft around the country that have taken this kind of toon tricking to a "higher" level. You can buy pedestal seats and mounting brackets almost anywhere boating supplies are sold. All you need is a stable base on your toon, and either a platform or extra framework for your feet. In looking closely at picture number 3, it looks like tall lanky Wes is just using the regular foot rests.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]That toon was borrowed from another fishing buddy. Not his. And he had some "issues" in handling it at first. But, once he got the hang of it he did some good work.[/#0000ff]
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[idahopanfish]

Thanks Td
I just looked interesting, but I agree without the water being glass or absent of all boaters it could be a little precarious.
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[peter805]

On picture #3 you can see that either the man is too big
for the craft or the craft is too small for the man.
I do like the seat idea but it needs to by on a bigger toon.

Peter
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[TubeDude]

[quote peter805]On picture #3 you can see that either the man is too big
for the craft or the craft is too small for the man.
I do like the seat idea but it needs to by on a bigger toon.

Peter[/quote]

[cool][#0000ff]Persactly. I was really watching the wind & weather yesterday, ready to get him off the water if it got rough. Almost had a "test" of the stability when some joker water skier decided to do a "fly by". The boat was headed right for me until I pulled up my camera to take his picture. Then he veered away. If you look closely in the attached pic you can see them all looking at me. We have a law in Utah that you cannot come within 150 feet of another boat or watercraft if that craft is not moving. As soon as I brought up the camera one of them yelled...TURN.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]While that was a novel idea, for someone much smaller than Wes, it could have proven problematic if the water had not been glass all morning. Again, it was a borrowed craft. Wes has his own, but it is strictly oar powered. No pedestal seat. He just wanted to keep up with Bryce.[/#0000ff]
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[peter805]

Thats some crazy and scary $hit with the stupid water
skies people. When a boat is coming at you at full speed
or close to it that must be some scary feeling. I had a gun
point at me at about 5 feet once and I will never forget
that feeling.I was thinking that it must feel somewhat
like that.
Anyways, I bet the camera is very good tool for that.
That is a picture evidence if you want to do something
about it.
Thanx god I dont go to lakes where people ski and stuff.
I do get bass boats coming very close to me sometimes
but not at full speed, just troling motor,maybe 10 feet,
which I dont like very much either. Next time Im going to do the camera trick if that boat guy is a$$. Sometimes
boat guys are cool and ask if they are crowding me and
sometimes (most times) they just dont care.

Peter
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Jet Skis and water skiers are bad enough. But some of the most unsportsmanlike conduct I have endured on the water has been from other anglers. A lot of them do not think float tubers are serious fishermen and do not deserve respect and consideration. I too have had tricked out bass boats maneuver right in on top of where I am casting. When I challenge them I usually get something like "Quit whining. You don't own the lake." Like they think they do because they have a more expensive ride.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The camera thing helps me relieve stress, even if it does not always solve the problem. One of my favorite things to do is to take a picture of someone who is deliberately crowding me...sometimes only a rod length away. When they get huffy and ask why I am taking their picture I say something like "I am writing an article on inconsiderate %$#@& and I think I am going to use your picture as the focus picture for my article. Might even make the cover."[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]TubeBabe and I were fishing on a lake down by Phoenix one day. We were the first ones on the lake and were catching some nice crappies and bass right off a little point. The first boat on the water was a big ski boat...and, you guessed it...he came right across the lake to where we were fishing and kept blowing by us at mach 3. He had the whole lake, but had to harass us. And, as water skiers seem to do, he dumped his skier almost right on top of us. I had enough and yelled at him to go ski someplace else and leave us alone. His reply was that he could ski wherever he wanted to and suggested that we fish back inside the swimmers area, buoyed off to prevent boats. My suggestion back to him was to go water ski on the freeway. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Sadly, there always seems to be an element that feels that just because they have a bigger and faster craft they can do whatever they want. They are like playground bullies. And, most of those folks are really nice people when they are off the lake and not in their high powered water craft...with a full load of "refreshments".[/#0000ff]
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[peter805]

Yeah, I know what you saying TD. Boaters can be a real
pain in the a$$. That is one of the reasons why I like to fish in early spring ,fall and winter-NO water sking. Its just too cold for those wimps.
Fall is by far my most favourite time of the yeah. Trees
are in full colors and there is nobody on the water.
Even if the fishing is not the best sometimes, Im still
happy to just be there and enjoy.
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