Made a plan for Utah Lake

[lifeshort]

Kent and I made a plan to try to bump his catfish contest score yesterday. Texted Craig to see if he was interested again. He replied he is in.
Same plan as last week.

Hit the Lake at daylight
Recruit some volunteer white bass for bait.
Go do the Pisco Stroll for cats.
Kent catch some bump fish

We arrived at daylight.
Launched
Started casting for rising white bass right at the docks
Had a hell of a time hooking them. They are only maybe 3 inches long
Got enough for bait and headed out in the lake
I got up front to drive
Craig filet the volunteers
I had Craig hand ne the smallest volunteer
Slid it on a flig and let er out
Kent baited his outfits and let them out
BENDO on my rod. A 29"er
Kent was a gentleman and did not catch any until Craig was finished with the filet job and baited up and fishing.
Then he went to work
He landed several over 30"s and got 2 bump fish for the contest
Criag and I were landing our share just not quite as big as Kents fish.
Everything going as planned until the plan fell apart about noon.
Craigs rear rod went WAY BENDO. He fought the fish for quite a while.
It just did not want to come up off the bottom. Finally Craig was able to tire it out. Kent scooped it up in the net
and fought to lift it in the boat. Oh my what a fish. A little over 34"s long and weighed over 18 pounds. 
That fish screwed up and did not follow the plan and hit the wrong lure it was supposed to hit Kents. 

What a fun morning

[Kent]

What a great day and I couldn't ask for nicer guys to spend one-half of a day strolling with.

---

A couple pictures of Craig with the monster.

[Dirt Bag]

What a great day and I couldn't ask for nicer guys to spend one-half of a day strolling with.

---

A couple pictures of Craig with the monster.

What a great fish and a great morning!

[Piscophilic]

That is a tank! Congrats! Glad you guys found some more fish and convinced that monster to bite and Craig's rod . 

It is time for those 3" whities to be showing up. I have rigs tied with #12 hooks for this time of year. It is shaping up to be a great Fall!

[lifeshort]

That is a tank! Congrats! Glad you guys found some more fish and convinced that monster to bite and Craig's rod . 

It is time for those 3" whities to be showing up. I have rigs tied with #12 hooks for this time of year. It is shaping up to be a 

Would not have happened without your help a couple of years ago

[Piscophilic]

That is a tank! Congrats! Glad you guys found some more fish and convinced that monster to bite and Craig's rod . 

It is time for those 3" whities to be showing up. I have rigs tied with #12 hooks for this time of year. It is shaping up to be a 

Would not have happened without your help a couple of years ago

Thanks for the kind words. I'm glad it works for you. I get excited about other peoples successes too!

[BHuij]

Wild day out there, I didn't know UL had cats that large.

If you don't mind me asking - what was working for the WB? I'm taking a YM group out with basically no fishing experience this evening. We'll be on Provo docks trying to catch enough WB to make some fish tacos.

I've had success on those docks in the past with dropshots and soft plastics on jigheads in general (curly tails, paddle tails, grubs, etc). But these kids are not experienced and I'd love to see them reel in some good ones to eat.

[TubeDude]

Wild day out there, I didn't know UL had cats that large.

If you don't mind me asking - what was working for the WB? I'm taking a YM group out with basically no fishing experience this evening. We'll be on Provo docks trying to catch enough WB to make some fish tacos.

I've had success on those docks in the past with dropshots and soft plastics on jigheads in general (curly tails, paddle tails, grubs, etc). But these kids are not experienced and I'd love to see them reel in some good ones to eat.

When they are in, it is harder to find something they WON'T hit.  But any small jig with a tiny piece of worm should get them enough action to keep them happy.

[lifeshort]

Wild day out there, I didn't know UL had cats that large.

If you don't mind me asking - what was working for the WB? I'm taking a YM group out with basically no fishing experience this evening. We'll be on Provo docks trying to catch enough WB to make some fish tacos.

I've had success on those docks in the past with dropshots and soft plastics on jigheads in general (curly tails, paddle tails, grubs, etc). But these kids are not experienced and I'd love to see them reel in some good ones to eat.

When they are in, it is harder to find something they WON'T hit.  But any small jig with a tiny piece of worm should get them enough action to keep them happy.

thats it small jigs with a chunk of worm or berk;ey maggot. Also fly and bubble.

[BHuij]

We ended up fishing for a couple of hours. I set everyone up with a variety of 1/16oz jig heads using various soft plastics. Unfortunately it was all dinks all evening. We'd get action on every cast, especially after the sun went down, but the fish were by and large too small to get the hook in their mouths. We're talking like 2"-ers.

Kid who caught the most happened to be using an ice jig with a chartreuse hellgramite-looking plastic and a ~#8 hook. Everyone else using 1/16th oz round heads in various colors, and curly tail or paddle tails. I think those hooks were more like a #4. Go figure. Largest white bass of the day was 4"

Still, I think a good time was had by all.

Last year at this time, I managed to land 3 or 4 pretty tanky ~12" white bass at the same spot using a dropshot rig. Not sure why the ratio of tiny ones to eating-sized ones was so off on this trip.

[lifeshort]

We ended up fishing for a couple of hours. I set everyone up with a variety of 1/16oz jig heads using various soft plastics. Unfortunately it was all dinks all evening. We'd get action on every cast, especially after the sun went down, but the fish were by and large too small to get the hook in their mouths. We're talking like 2"-ers.

Kid who caught the most happened to be using an ice jig with a chartreuse hellgramite-looking plastic and a ~#8 hook. Everyone else using 1/16th oz round heads in various colors, and curly tail or paddle tails. I think those hooks were more like a #4. Go figure. Largest white bass of the day was 4"

Still, I think a good time was had by all.

Last year at this time, I managed to land 3 or 4 pretty tanky ~12" white bass at the same spot using a dropshot rig. Not sure why the ratio of tiny ones to eating-sized ones was so off on this trip.

The last couple of weeks we have been catching very small ones in the harbor as you noted. The last time we bait fished for cats at bird island in the rocks we couldn't keep the white bass off the gear. They were very nice size fish. Maybe you could pick up some larger ones in the rocks out on the dikes.