Cat Chat 2021

[SkunkedAgain]

Hey everyone sorry for the delayed score updates. Between farming and my father in laws poor health and eventual passing it’s been a busy time and I couldn’t keep up with everything. But I’ll try to do better. For those of you who knew Rich, it was a rapid down turn from fishing with me a month ago to passing on Monday, will sure miss his company on the water, he was a lot of fun. Condolences to Biggriggs who lost is Dad.  Sorry Greg and Landon we’ll sure miss him. Later Jeff

Sorry to hear about your Father in law. Even though when someone passes they are in a better place, it is still hard on those that knew him best, especially family and friends.  Condolences to all.  Thanks for all you do Jeff.

Thanks, Jeff it's still pretty hard to think he is gone.

Yes it is, Saturday’s trip wasn’t the same. Except for me not catching much. Next time we’ll have to go during fishing hours. Later Jeff

[catchinon]

On the scoreboard the North leads by 4 but Richard's recent 29.5"er should knock it down to 3.5. In reality it is closer than that. Just the points above 30" will determine the winner. Right now the North has 2" and the South 1.5. Besides, the momentum will be shifting towards the South, so watch out. Those 30+ inch cats are just waiting for us. But it will take a bunch of them to win. I predict a one-point win with scores in the low 3-teens, like maybe 313-312. May the best team win.

[Mooseman75]

Things have gone to crap for the moose family again this year. I'll give the one hopeful bright note. I took the boat to the mechanic I have and he of course told me what I know and that is parts for my motor are near impossible. But he used Lucas stop leak in the hydraulic cylinder that trim the motor up and down and so far so good.
Now the downers. My wife had an emergency gallbladder removal 3 weeks ago. She is doing a lot better now but that set us back in life. Then I got deathly sick last week. I was in the ER and didn't know who I was,where I was,had 104 fever. They checked me for stroke and pneumonia and ran tons of labs and nothing. After 5 hours I started coming out of it. Come to find out from family that I had salmonella poisoning I got from eating at a 2 4th celebration food truck. 150 others did to. But to our knowledge no one replied loss off self knowledge......
The next day from ER while I was in a Dr appointment with my wife we got weird phone calls. I don't ever answer but for some reason I did and gave my phone to my wife and she says our house is on fire. Dr says we were done so go. So we left. We get to our house and there is 2 rise trucks. It wasn't big fire, just one wall but the smoke damage is horrendous. We will be out of our house a minimum of 2-3 months.
So that is my life right now.

[Jig-fisher]

Things have gone to crap for the moose family again this year. I'll give the one hopeful bright note. I took the boat to the mechanic I have and he of course told me what I know and that is parts for my motor are near impossible. But he used Lucas stop leak in the hydraulic cylinder that trim the motor up and down and so far so good.
Now the downers. My wife had an emergency gallbladder removal 3 weeks ago. She is doing a lot better now but that set us back in life. Then I got deathly sick last week. I was in the ER and didn't know who I was,where I was,had 104 fever. They checked me for stroke and pneumonia and ran tons of labs and nothing. After 5 hours I started coming out of it. Come to find out from family that I had salmonella poisoning I got from eating at a 2 4th celebration food truck. 150 others did to. But to our knowledge no one replied loss off self knowledge......
The next day from ER while I was in a Dr appointment with my wife we got weird phone calls. I don't ever answer but for some reason I did and gave my phone to my wife and she says our house is on fire. Dr says we were done so go. So we left. We get to our house and there is 2 rise trucks. It wasn't big fire, just one wall but the smoke damage is horrendous. We will be out of our house a minimum of 2-3 months.
So that is my life right now.

Wow, In am so sorry to hear about all that bad karma going on down there.  I hope everyone recovers and that your house situation resolves itself quickly.  How's your back?

[Mooseman75]

My back is doing OK but I'm still having pain but it's not as intense as it was a month ago. I still have my father living with me, or I should say I'm taking care of him but I'm at his house right now. I did go by fish lake yesterday. That new south marina, I can't think of its name but since they re did it that it is nice.

[SkunkedAgain]

Justin, sorry to hear that, man your life could make a better plot for the soap operas. better start writing scripts.... But hey it's got to get better right? Pretty sure that 36"er must be waiting for your next trip or the one after that... Hope things get better buddy and we're all in your corner if you need us let us know.... Got boat issues myself, think it's the motor in the trim, so took it apart and found a wire disconnected, hope that was it... now if I can get it to go back together things will be good... Take care... Jeff

[catchinon]

Wow, sounds like a tough time, but then you're tough, too. The only good thing I can think of: When you have troubles in the future you can say, "It's not that bad. Let me tell you about the time I almost died and our house nearly burned down...and...and...and...." Hang in there. I'm nearby so call if you need anything.

[Mooseman75]

Thanks guys. The tough part is backing the truck up each day and avoiding my boat down here at my dad's. Ive had a few say go to fish lake since I'm in Sevier County or otter creek but 1) i don't know trout well and 2) it's not catfishing lol. But it would be fishing if anyone wants to go pm me and we can set something up to meet there.
As far as my house it's on the back burner (pun). With all the flooding Utah had well flooding disasters get precidence over other disasters because of potential mold and other diseases that can arise from flood so at all the scheduled cleanup is gone from my place for 2-3 weeks minimum. So we are still looking for someone who wants to rent for 3 months roughly and it's not going well. Anyway glad to see some fish being caught acme read some adventures.

[SkunkedAgain]

Boy if you have time, I'd be fishing fish lake, it has a great selection of fish from Mac to perch... If you don't know how to fish trout, do some reading and go learn while you have a chance... It's true that you may need some way to fish deeper this time of year, but you could at least learn how to jig for the deep Mac, or play with the perch near the weed line.... I have a deer tag down on that unit coming up, so when you get the pond figured out let me know and I'll bring my gear down during the deer hunt.... Later Jeff

[Tin-Can]

 30 August 2021 -  2 months remaining in Catfish Contest -

The current scores are not completely confirmed official, but MrsJ and r2u2 have posted Cats in the past week or so that have pushed them up toward the top of the score board. 

MrsJ is tied with jig-fisher for 1st place at 92.0 points. 

Ahi1953 and r2u2 are tied for 2nd place at 89.5 points. 

The water levels at Utah Lake have been dropping, but with possibly cooler weather coming, this is getting into the same time of year that the big Cats come out to play, as proven by last years 34 incher  caught by BLK.  

The water level up on the Bear River Bird Refuge (as of a trip I took  25 Aug -  photo included) was higher than I expected, sort of. All of the irrigation gates from the Reeder bridge to the O-Line gate were closed and the water on the outlet side of gates was just about none.  But from Whistlers Bend area to the bottom bridges the water level was at just about the full mark.  At the 3 bridge gates the north-west, west, and south gates were partially open allowing flow out into the duck hunt areas.  

   

   For possible large Cats in the north team area, this may just be the last area that is available to the north to compete with UL in the south.

[Jig-fisher]

 Pretty jealous of the reports coming from down south.  The Bear river has been more like the backed up slough than a river for almost the entire contest.  Little to no flow at all.  Nearly all the side canals that usually produce some of the great fish we catch up north are stagnant and the fish all died in them a couple of months ago.  What a stenchy mess that was.  You couldn't go near the water because of the smell. Even now, there is barely any flow in the main river and the popular spots at the bottom of the refuge have been hammered.  Ran into Ahi down there on Thursday and he says he has been fishing the river almost every day and no big fish to show for it. We are hoping at the end of Sept into October when the irrigation canals in the upper valley are shut off and the water diverted back into the river, that we might find a few.  The drought has killed us up north for the cat contest and for the most part, I have chased other species instead.  Again, congrats to the south team for your great catches the last couple of weeks.

[SkunkedAgain]

Don’t surrender yet, Bryton is carrying the flag for team north. Got a two o’clock call again last night with him landing another hog. More to come. I’ve been finding bigger fish lately as well if I could keep them out of the motor so they didn’t break off. We don’t have the numbers of the south, but maybe the extra size will keep us in the fight. Looks like team north needs 3 more over 30 and I think we can do that. I’m willing to try anyway. Later J

[SkunkedAgain]

So this is totally unofficial, since Forest has been keeping the records this year, and I have just tried to catch my spreadsheet up and I may have missed stuff... In fact if I have something wrong, please let me know so I can fix it... I try to keep a record of each years contest results so we can go back and see what happened on previous years... Anyway.... I was going nuts to see what the current scores were, so this is what I have found unofficially, in fact I added one fish that was caught last night and hasn't been posted yet, but I got a text photo and I could verify the size... So this is what it looks like...  Keep in mind Jim has had a monster day since the last update and Bryton has found some monsters as well in three nights of no sleep... Anyway this is what I think the current scores are...  Later J

[SkunkedAgain]

After Richards 32" beast I'm showing the south back in the lead by 1 point... Congrats, now I guess I need to go fishing and catch something over 30 to stay competitive... Way to go Richard... Later J

[Mooseman75]

Sorry for my lack of uninvolvement this year. But great job to those keeping things exciting. I may make it out next week weather permitting and that I won't have anyone coming to work on the house, which cuts out 2 days already with duct and furnace cleaning and electrician. So here's hoping I can get out and fish.

[SkunkedAgain]

Good luck Justin, the cooler water temps has kind of shutdown the bite up north... Was looking at 60-61 degrees yesterday after a fairly warm afternoon, so now the chill is on the way, I'm afraid things will really slow down up here... I see Richard is still pulling in 30"ers, so maybe things down south are still going... Best of luck... Later J

[Ahi1953]

Want to send out a big thank you for the work Jeff and Forest put into this contest. and Way to Go to all the Whisker hunters. Hope to see you all next year

[SkunkedAgain]

Well, I'm slow, sorry had a busy day yesterday. But I have confirmed Forest's results are accurate per what i had been keeping track of as well. So Forest will post the official final score board for 2021. It was an incredible year with a new record high score for our contest at 97.5 points that's a full inch bigger than last years previous tied top season. Congratulation Bryton (bblake98) for team North... our 2021 Champion and new holder of the prestigious BFT Catfish Contest Trophy.... (Lynn I'll have to make arrangements to pick that up so I can get the new dog tag attached. ) Anyway we have split this year with the champ on the north, but team south by 2 points wins the top ten title again this year. Our top rod on the south this year was Jim (Piscophilic) followed closely by the dynamic duo Richard and Vi.... Paul for team north was right in that group followed by John and the catchup kids Craig and Brett that came from the very back and ended up top ten... Lynn and Sharksugar was also top ten... Our youth winner this year was IguanascanFish... and I think that pretty well wraps up the award categories... Not sure what we have for prizes this year, other than the overall trophy... We'll see if we can round up a little something, but sorry it won't be like some years past.. Anyway thanks so much for your interest and hours of dedicated cat chasing, hope you have had an enjoyable season wrastling with the monsters... Thanks for keeping the interest going so the contest stays fun and successful... I know I've caught a lot bigger fish because of the contest and you guys pushing me to keep trying... Thanks all...Later Jeff

[Tin-Can]

Want to send out a big thank you for the work Jeff and Forest put into this contest. and Way to Go to all the Whisker hunters. Hope to see you all next year

  Hey John, Nice looking Cat. I'm assuming that one wasn't big enough to give you a contest bump   .  But looks like maybe they are biting again at the river.  Just might have to make some more trips back up there, now that the contest pressure is off    and I'm getting ready to put the boat up for the winter.