07-02-2022, 04:02 PM
I finally got out for a good day of fishing yesterday. Three trailers in the parking lot when I arrived, all rather small. My sonar popped between .9 and 1.5 fow; I bumped my skeg once because I forgot to raise my motor up high. Later in the day a few bigger boats went in and out but we're just about out of water. I prefer to fish out of LB but may have to go to Provo in the future.
I got lines in the water at 8:30 and within minutes had my first fish on. It proved to be the biggest of the day, just kissing the 28" mark. By the time I quit at 1:30 I had boated 25 cats, mostly small to medium. I mainly used defrosted wb. They liked it whether cut small or large. At one point I put a large piece of bass on my Santee rig and forgot that I had left the small piece up the line in front of it. That worked great. With the float added in the mix it must have looked like a whole wb to the fish. On the other line I had a Kong-sized flig with a purple or blue back. I baited that one up sometimes with shrimp and worm. That seemed to work as well in attracting bites but I failed to hook up as often as I did with the circle hook. Eventually I got to a fish that had gotten itself hooked a little deeper and I messed up the body of the flig in removing it. This was fairly late in the day so I opted to fish that big hook bare (except for the bait, of course). Still caught fish just dragging it across the bottom, although the hookup rate suffered. I tried to keep the drag speed to .5 mph (by guess and by golly) but I'm sure with the wind I exceeded that at times. Didn't seem to make any difference to the fish. Early on I was catching at the rate of 6 per hour and then it slowed slightly around midday, ending with only one every 12 minutes on average. I had a lot of doubles. I even had a point where I had two fish in the boat and a third one bouncing my pole. Luckily he got off or it would have been a three-ring circus in the back of my boat. In case you're wondering, I cast back out again after I unhook a fish and before I release it. Pisco taught me to do that because time in the water=more fish.
The wind settled a bit after noon (just when the forecast said it would pick up) and I stayed out long enough to catch the number for the week I need to reach my goal of 400 fish by the end of the contest, October 31. I could have stayed out longer but I was tired and sore. It's amazing how hard those fish fight, even the smaller ones. And some of the smaller ones fought way over their weight class. Its not othe size of the fish in the fight, ....
The water temperature was about 72 when I started and 75 when I quit. Water depth was between 5.2' and 6.2', this where in years past it was as high as 10-12 fow. The State Park site says the lake level is a little over 50%, which jibes. I mainly fished from straight out from the jaws to as far down as the middle of the orchards, quite a way out. I hate to get hung up on the rocks closer in. Ordering some slinky weights is on my to-do list today.
Previous to this I had only caught about 7 cats in a few outings. Good wind reports next Wednesday to Saturday, so I should be able to make some major inroads towards my goals. If I don't get too tired. Since this is the halfway point of the contest, if you skip March, it's about time I get serious.
I got lines in the water at 8:30 and within minutes had my first fish on. It proved to be the biggest of the day, just kissing the 28" mark. By the time I quit at 1:30 I had boated 25 cats, mostly small to medium. I mainly used defrosted wb. They liked it whether cut small or large. At one point I put a large piece of bass on my Santee rig and forgot that I had left the small piece up the line in front of it. That worked great. With the float added in the mix it must have looked like a whole wb to the fish. On the other line I had a Kong-sized flig with a purple or blue back. I baited that one up sometimes with shrimp and worm. That seemed to work as well in attracting bites but I failed to hook up as often as I did with the circle hook. Eventually I got to a fish that had gotten itself hooked a little deeper and I messed up the body of the flig in removing it. This was fairly late in the day so I opted to fish that big hook bare (except for the bait, of course). Still caught fish just dragging it across the bottom, although the hookup rate suffered. I tried to keep the drag speed to .5 mph (by guess and by golly) but I'm sure with the wind I exceeded that at times. Didn't seem to make any difference to the fish. Early on I was catching at the rate of 6 per hour and then it slowed slightly around midday, ending with only one every 12 minutes on average. I had a lot of doubles. I even had a point where I had two fish in the boat and a third one bouncing my pole. Luckily he got off or it would have been a three-ring circus in the back of my boat. In case you're wondering, I cast back out again after I unhook a fish and before I release it. Pisco taught me to do that because time in the water=more fish.
The wind settled a bit after noon (just when the forecast said it would pick up) and I stayed out long enough to catch the number for the week I need to reach my goal of 400 fish by the end of the contest, October 31. I could have stayed out longer but I was tired and sore. It's amazing how hard those fish fight, even the smaller ones. And some of the smaller ones fought way over their weight class. Its not othe size of the fish in the fight, ....
The water temperature was about 72 when I started and 75 when I quit. Water depth was between 5.2' and 6.2', this where in years past it was as high as 10-12 fow. The State Park site says the lake level is a little over 50%, which jibes. I mainly fished from straight out from the jaws to as far down as the middle of the orchards, quite a way out. I hate to get hung up on the rocks closer in. Ordering some slinky weights is on my to-do list today.
Previous to this I had only caught about 7 cats in a few outings. Good wind reports next Wednesday to Saturday, so I should be able to make some major inroads towards my goals. If I don't get too tired. Since this is the halfway point of the contest, if you skip March, it's about time I get serious.
The older I get the more I would rather be considered a good man than a good fisherman.
on your face
