Fun Fall Cats on the Flats...LB 10-11-10

[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Didn't get on the water at all last week. Overdue. Hoped to find some wallies at Lincoln Beach on a spur of the moment trip this morning. No wallies but the kitties came out to play...for serious.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Launched inside the channel at the end of the south dike. Good gravel. Good launch. Air temp a cool 42 and water temp down to 57. Fall is fallin'. Water a nice green color. Lookin' good for some lure munching toothy critters. NOT. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I did have a "suspicious" rod bender on a plastic pitched to the end of the south dike right at daybreak. Good thump, heavy head shakes and then nuttin'. It can be a walleye if I want it to be.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]No more hits around the points so I started dragging bait on my way to the rocks off the springs. Once I reached about 7.5 feet of water my bait rod bounced, line zinged out and I set the hook...into a white bass. Sheesh. Bait stealers.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Rebaited, recast and in only seconds the line popped loose and started out again. %^&$ white bass. Tried to jerk his head off with the hookset. Whoa. Some weight there. First kitty of the day. But not the last.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I started fishing about 7:30. By 8 I already had 4 cookie cutters in the basket for the smoker. I only wanted 6 so I got into C & R mode. Caught and released a grundle of cats...maybe a grundle and a half...over the next few hours. All the way from the smallest 17 incher to a couple of daddy cats in the 25 to 27 inch category. Several 2 footers and multiple 20 inchers. All hit hard and fought well.[/#0000ff]

[#0000ff]The cats are definitely moving into deeper water. I did catch a couple in just under 7 feet today...and two or three out in 9 feet. But most came at the 7.5 to 8 foot depth...the same as my best catches at the Knolls two weeks ago.[/#0000ff]

[#0000ff]I was fishing both chub minnows and some perch meat from Starvation dinksters I had kept for "walleye chow". Kitties loved them both today and I almost ran out of bait.[/#0000ff]

[#0000ff]At one point I put up the bait rod and moved in and out over the rocky structure out off the springs. Low water made it tough to fish the spots I wanted to target. Tried to find other good habitat but did not get any hits on plastics or hardware. I had heard that there were some walleyes showing up but most were off the shelves down by the orchard. Too far for a tube...even with an electric motor.[/#0000ff]

[#0000ff]I was hoping that the front moving in would get the walleyes active. Maybe it did but I just didn't find any. It definitely got the kitties all hot and bothered. Also got the white bass and bullheads moving. They cost me a lot of bait today but I spanked a few of them and sent them back to tell their buddies to leave me alone. Didn't seem to work much.[/#0000ff]

[#0000ff]General information: [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]1. Fish cleaning station closed for the year.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]2. Water level is low and dropping. Maximum depth at the entrance of the boat channel is less than 5 feet.[/#0000ff]
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[TheCarDoctor]

Thanks for the great report. My son and I are going to try and make it out there on Saturday in search for white bass.
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[JiggyJus10]

Always great post, lots of detail and fat fish. The ones you kept sure are fat!
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[MisterCompletely]

[font "Comic Sans MS"][#502800]Thanks, I needed that report to give me some encouragement since I'm headed down there myself with my tube. If I do half as well as you did I'll be happy. Sorry to hear the cleaning station's closed [frown]. [/#502800][/font]
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]That cleaning station was either closed or inoperable most of the summer. People do not read the instructions and fill it full of fish before turning on the disposal...jamming it. There have also been a couple of times I have gone to fillet some fish and found the disposal full of cans and trash.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Some people's kids.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Good luck on your trip. I did best by just slow dragging baits on about a straight north line from the marker buoy outside the channel entrance. I caught fish all the way out to 9.2 feet before I cut back over to fish the springs.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]However, when I had finished (fruitlessly) trying around the rocks I headed back toward the point of the north dike and began catching cats again as soon as I hit about 6 feet of water.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]There are a couple of areas out there with quite a bit of rock on the bottom and you will get snags. If you get a snag, move out a few yards further and resume fishing.[/#0000ff]
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[lavaman]

You are the Catfish King....thanks for sharing those pics.

As far as Catfish species in UL, do the Channel variety outnumber the others, or vice versa? What would you say the ratio of (all) species would be in UL?
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Only two species of cats in Utah (officially)...channels and black bullheads. I would say that the channel cats far outnumber the bullheads. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]There have been cycles in the past where the bullheads seemingly outnumbered the channel cats and you couldn't fish for channels without being pestered by the bullheads. However, it is not common these days to even catch a single bullhead on most trips. (no married ones either) [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Tough to guess species ratios. Biologists tell us that carp are 90% of the total biomass. The rest is divided up among all the other species. I would think white bass would be second in total volume, followed by channel cats, walleyes and then crappies, largemouths, bluegills and perch. Could be off by a factor of 100 - 200 percent.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Pineview is one lake where there are ONLY bullheads...no channel cats (officially). But even though they are fairly numerous they do not make up a large part of the average angler's catch. And I think the tiger muskies include them on their food pyramids too. [/#0000ff]
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[lavaman]

Good info- thanks.

Was fishing the Cutler Reservoir (which is more like a winding river and obviously not at all related to UL), and catching little Mud Cats left and right...so I was wondering how many Channel Cats might be in there as I didn't catch a one.
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Cutler is not a good body of water for learning about ALL cats EVERYWHERE. It is a unique ecosystem with very shallow water and very little of the kind of habitat large channel cats generally prefer. Mudders can adapt and live anywhere.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The point is that the bullheads/mud cats are much easier for the "average" angler to catch...on any given trip...because they are more widely scattered and they are always on the chew. They will hit almost anything at any time. On the other hand the channel cats move around to find suitable conditions for resting or feeding. They look for water that is the right temperature and the right chemistry...and they tend to stay near where their primary food source is. That can change a lot from week to week...or even day to day.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Those who have spent a lot of time on Cutler and gotten to learn the patterns of the kitties usually do better than "casual" tanglers. But even the most knowledgeable Cutlerites still get blanked. If anybody says they always catch cats they will lie about other things too.[/#0000ff]
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[lavaman]

This brings up another quick question (and I apologize- not meaning to hi-jack your thread): catfish are hearty creatures- where can you catch them besides UL, Jordan River, Bear River, and Cutler?
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Willard Bay comes to mind.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Also a few in several other lakes and streams...like Yuba, Sevier River, DMAD reservoir, Gunnison, etc. There are also some good ones in Huntington North. Further south there is Lake Powell. Probably some other spots...like the community ponds.[/#0000ff]
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