Geezer Gathering at Lincoln Beach 7-20-23 (VIDEO ADDED)

[TubeDude]

I have been exhibiting geezerlike tendencies for quite a few years.  But today...my 80th birthday...it sorta becomes official.  Wife is visiting family out of state so I called BLK...a fellow geezer...to join me on "Golden Pond.  We met up a bit after 6 am...me with my red tube and he with his yak.  And wonder of wonders...another geezer showed up.  Mr. J drove up with his boat and his wife.  Now I know Mr. J is over 80 but as a gentleman I didn't confirm the age of Mrs. J.  No matter.  She is a great partner for Richard and they are a great fishing couple.


We all got launched and headed different directions.  I originally planned to work out from Benjamin Slough, but changed my mind and headed toward where BLK was yakkin' out off the first spring.  My aim today...besides just enjoying being fishing on my 80th birthday...was to give a further workout to the line of buzz blade whirly fligs I have been playing with...with crawler rigs.  I have caught some nice walleyes about this time of year in the past out in the deeper water so thought I would try for something besides cats.


As soon as I started seeing evidence of fish life below on my sonar I put out two buzz flig rigs.  One fire tiger and the other chartreuse with red spots.  The latter got the first hit...within 10 minutes of beginning fishing.  Not a walleye, but a crawler chompin' kitty.  No pride.  No problem.  Then I got two more cats in fairly quick succession...both on the fire tiger with crawler.  These were both chunky 26 to 27 inchers...with no "love marks" on them from the recent spawn. 
 

Worked a variety of other baits and colors for the next hour and a half with only a couple of missed munches and no wet nets.  Decided to head over to my originally intended fishing spot...on the flats east of Lincoln Beach.  Stopped to chat with BLK in his yak on my way by.  He had caught a half dozen cats by then fishing shallower water...6-8 feet as opposed to the 10-12 feet I had been working.  So that is where I began fishing when I got out off Benjamin Slough. 


Fishing wasn't fast but I did pick up a few more cats...plus 3 white bass on the buzz flig crawler rig.  And those whities appeared to be well fed...on the growing crop of baby white bass.  One of them actually had a tail of one of the little tykes protruding from his gullet.  And there had been lots of baby whities eatin' midges off the ramp when we launched.  Looked to be about 2".  Maybe they got off a good spawn this year.
 

By 10:30 the fishing had cooled but the temperature had not.  Once it gets much past 80 the enjoys begin to decline.  So I headed for the ramp...as did BLK.  He said he had caught a total of about a dozen cats...fishing primarily for cats.  I figured I got 7...not even fishing for them...so it wasn't all bad.

One interesting tidbit was that there was a big black blob just off the bank near the ramp.  As I watched, it changed shape an moved up and down in the water column.  Then it occurred to me that it was a ball of newly hatched baby bullheads.   When they got close enough to the top you could see individuals rolling around.


Great day for geezerdom.  Good company, good fishing, good weather...good grief.

LINK TO VIDEO

[2knots]

Happy Bday Pat, glad you got to celebrate it with something you love to do

[RockyRaab2]

Happy Octogenarianism!

So, Apollo 11 landed on the moon on your birthday, huh? In your honor, obviously.

[lovetofish]

Happy Birthday, I'm not too far behind as I turned 78 in June. Nothing big for me last Monday I caught 3 small Walleyes at Deer Creek. Think I'm going to give East Canyon try next week. I haven't fished there in years.

[Boatloadakids]

'Twas a nice day with good company. Good to talk to the other old geesers and commiserate about all our in common ailments that seem to accompany geezerdom. Sad part of it is that the old body parts continue to fail as the years pass. Best to fish all ya can while ya can.

The kitties I caught today were good lookin' fish... nice green backs with big white bellies and lots of pulling power. I only caught a couple that were heavily battle (love) scared. I agree with Pat, food is plentiful now and the cats are in recovery mode from a torrid season of love. Looking forward to the cool of Fall when the action heats up instead of the temperature.

I enjoyed the day Pat, Richard, and Vi, hope to meet up again soon.
BLK/ Lynn

[Cowboypirate]

Congrats Pat. You give all us less than 80s a lot of hope for our fishing future. Now when you catch that walleye on your 100 we will all show up for the fish fry.

[MrShane]

Happy Birthday Pat!

[wiperhunter2]

What a great way to spend your birthday and catching some big cats and whites must have been icing on the cake, congrats Pat.

[gofish435]

What better way to celebrate a birthday than on the water with friends and willing fish.

Happy Birthday my friend.  I'm not far behind you but I'll never be able to catch up.

[Therapist]

So what is the official age to qualify as a Geezer???? Happy BD Pat!!

[TubeDude]

Happy Bday Pat, glad you got to celebrate it with something you love to do

Thanks.  Appreciate ya and enjoy your posts too.

---

Happy Octogenarianism!

So, Apollo 11 landed on the moon on your birthday, huh? In your honor, obviously.

Thanks, Rocky.  I think not...on the Apollo thing.  But it was interesting to contemplate when it happened.

---

Happy Birthday, I'm not too far behind as I turned 78 in June. Nothing big for me last Monday I caught 3 small Walleyes at Deer Creek. Think I'm going to give East Canyon try next week. I haven't fished there in years.

Thanks...youngster.  Good luck at East Canyon.  Been producing some big trout this year.  But those "other species" show up now and then too.

---

'Twas a nice day with good company. Good to talk to the other old geesers and commiserate about all our in common ailments that seem to accompany geezerdom. Sad part of it is that the old body parts continue to fail as the years pass. Best to fish all ya can while ya can.

The kitties I caught today were good lookin' fish... nice green backs with big white bellies and lots of pulling power. I only caught a couple that were heavily battle (love) scared. I agree with Pat, food is plentiful now and the cats are in recovery mode from a torrid season of love. Looking forward to the cool of Fall when the action heats up instead of the temperature.

I enjoyed the day Pat, Richard, and Vi, hope to meet up again soon.
BLK/ Lynn

It is always great to join you on the water.  But if I wanted to fish with someone older than me...just to make me feel younger...I don't got a lot of options.  Thanks for being there...and once again for trying to teach me how to fish.

---

Congrats Pat. You give all us less than 80s a lot of  hope for our fishing future. Now when you catch that walleye on your 100 we will all show up for the fish fry.

Thanks, my friend.  But I'm afraid that the age 100 fish fry will not be a likely event.  Still...fun to anticipate.

---

Happy Birthday Pat!

Thanks, Shane.  It turned out to be a fine day.  Wife out of town, fishing and lots of calls from family and friends reminding me why I wanna hang around a few more years.

---

What a great way to spend your birthday and catching some big cats and whites must have been icing on the cake, congrats Pat.

Thanks, Curt.  But no cake...and no candles.  Fire marshal wouldn't allow that much fire indoors.

---

What better way to celebrate a birthday than on the water with friends and willing fish.

Happy Birthday my friend.  I'm not far behind you but I'll never be able to catch up.

Thanks, Tom.  No worries on the "catching up".  You far exceed my abilities and fishing accomplishments in your own favorite fishing style.  And it should never be about competing...but more about just getting the maximum enjoys you can from every trip...and not making comparisons with anything anybody else does.

---

So what is the official age to qualify as a Geezer????  Happy BD Pat!!

Thanks, Matt.  There ain't no hard and fast rules delineating official geezer status.  Some of us just age into it.  Others have it "thrust upon them".  Lots of definitions if you plug "geezer" into your search engine.

PS...I think you might qualify.

---

[Bduck]

Happy Birthday Pat, you couldn't have picked a better way to celebrate.   

[SkunkedAgain]

Happy B-lated Birthday Pat.... Glad you celebrated it right... I was taking my nephew out on his 12th birthday yesterday... We fished the night before, only a couple smallies, but pulled the kids on the tube and knee board yesterday.... Heard a fat old man in levis was seen boarding as well... dang power squadron anyway... Happy Birthday... Jeff

[Mr. J]

It was good to see you two out there, and good for me that I was able to bum some bait, other wise I would have driven through the parking lot and headed home.  ( thanks Lynn )

We headed out to the Island for a while then over to Mud Lake then Spanish Fork River. Two or three fish each place. Nothing really on fire except for the heat. We are still looking for the magic spot. Some place where the cats are starving to death and can't resist eating anything in front of them.

rj

[TubeDude]

First of all, thanks to all who have left kindly comments on this post...and for the emails and PMs from others.  Nice to know that someone still reads my geriatric ramblings and cares enough to offer congratulations or commiserations on my milestone birthday.

Secondly, I have been getting questions about whether or not I will be putting up a video on this trip.  I originally planned to do it up right, but my camera played a dirty birthday trick on me.  Somewhere about the middle of the trip it began shooting still photos instead of video.  Musta hit the wrong button at some stage.  So I lost quite a bit of the content that would have helped make a much better video.  Still...got enough footage to at least provide some enjoys and a bit of fish porn for those who can tolerate it.  At least got 3 of the 7 cats and one of the 3 white bass...plus some tackle tips...and a shot of a school of bullhead fry back in the harbor...after I discovered the camera malfunction.

LINK TO VIDEO

[doitall5000]

There is another great spot for summer walleyes, its the north end of UL. Just west of American fork boat launch have you ever gone there. ?

[TubeDude]

There is another great spot for summer walleyes, its the north end of UL. Just west of American fork boat launch have you ever gone there.  ?

If you are referring to the inlet for the American Fork River...yes I have.  But it has become so crowded with waders and small boaters that it is more like combat fishing when the fish are in.

I also used to fish right at the mouth of the Jordan River outlet...at the pump house.  This time of year the post spawn walleyes gang up out there waiting for the outflow current to deliver newly hatched baby bullheads and white bass...and they really whack jigs and crank baits worked down through them.  But I used to be able to launch a float tube at a couple of places down there...but no more.  All closed off.  A long rugged hike to get to any spot launchable.  Have also done well in a couple of spots around Lindon.  I catch some bigguns while casting small plastics for white bass around the bubbleup.


Here's a pic of a limit from former times...when there were no size restrictions.  On the day I got those fish I probably caught 25 to 30 walleyes...and none were under about 24 inches.

[fish_fear_me2]

I have been exhibiting geezerlike tendencies for quite a few years.  But today...my 80th birthday...it sorta becomes official.  Wife is visiting family out of state so I called BLK...a fellow geezer...to join me on "Golden Pond.  We met up a bit after 6 am...me with my red tube and he with his yak.  And wonder of wonders...another geezer showed up.  Mr. J drove up with his boat and his wife.  Now I know Mr. J is over 80 but as a gentleman I didn't confirm the age of Mrs. J.  No matter.  She is a great partner for Richard and they are a great fishing couple.


We all got launched and headed different directions.  I originally planned to work out from Benjamin Slough, but changed my mind and headed toward where BLK was yakkin' out off the first spring.  My aim today...besides just enjoying being fishing on my 80th birthday...was to give a further workout to the line of buzz blade whirly fligs I have been playing with...with crawler rigs.  I have caught some nice walleyes about this time of year in the past out in the deeper water so thought I would try for something besides cats.


As soon as I started seeing evidence of fish life below on my sonar I put out two buzz flig rigs.  One fire tiger and the other chartreuse with red spots.  The latter got the first hit...within 10 minutes of beginning fishing.  Not a walleye, but a crawler chompin' kitty.  No pride.  No problem.  Then I got two more cats in fairly quick succession...both on the fire tiger with crawler.  These were both chunky 26 to 27 inchers...with no "love marks" on them from the recent spawn. 
 

Worked a variety of other baits and colors for the next hour and a half with only a couple of missed munches and no wet nets.  Decided to head over to my originally intended fishing spot...on the flats east of Lincoln Beach.  Stopped to chat with BLK in his yak on my way by.  He had caught a half dozen cats by then fishing shallower water...6-8 feet as opposed to the 10-12 feet I had been working.  So that is where I began fishing when I got out off Benjamin Slough. 


Fishing wasn't fast but I did pick up a few more cats...plus 3 white bass on the buzz flig crawler rig.  And those whities appeared to be well fed...on the growing crop of baby white bass.  One of them actually had a tail of one of the little tykes protruding from his gullet.  And there had been lots of baby whities eatin' midges off the ramp when we launched.  Looked to be about 2".  Maybe they got off a good spawn this year.
 

By 10:30 the fishing had cooled but the temperature had not.  Once it gets much past 80 the enjoys begin to decline.  So I headed for the ramp...as did BLK.  He said he had caught a total of about a dozen cats...fishing primarily for cats.  I figured I got 7...not even fishing for them...so it wasn't all bad.

One interesting tidbit was that there was a big black blob just off the bank near the ramp.  As I watched, it changed shape an moved up and down in the water column.  Then it occurred to me that it was a ball of newly hatched baby bullheads.   When they got close enough to the top you could see individuals rolling around.


Great day for geezerdom.  Good company, good fishing, good weather...good grief.

LINK TO VIDEO

Belated Happy Birthday Sir!!!!?

[TubeDude]

Belated Happy Birthday Sir!!!!?

Whaaaaa?  Did somebody have a birthday?  I don't remember.

Tanks.

[JazzyM]

Happy belated birthday. I’ve been at east canyon for a few days.