Lindon...Plan B 3-2-22 (with Video)

[TubeDude]

Wednesday was the day I was waiting for.  Ice gone and temperatures tolerable for float tubing.  Only problem was that my first choice for launching…Provo Harbor…still had enough ice floating around to be problematic for tubing.  So I turned around and headed back north to Lindon.  Good move.  That harbor has been open for about 2 weeks.

 
Got launched by 8 am.  Air temp 32 and water temp 38 in the harbor…but stayed about 40 all day in the main lake.  Water depth most of the way out of the harbor was between 3-4 feet…slightly shallower at the entrance.  Absolutely flat glass calm.
  
My first trip of the year…on either Utah Lake or Willard…is often my first and only skunk trip of the year.  I usually get ready before the fish do.  But Wednesday I got the skunk killed before I even got out of the harbor.  It was only a white bass…but a skunk killer nevertheless. 
 
The next fish took awhile…and it was a carp…a toothless golden walleye.  But it took the small jig I was fishing for whities and fought like a champ.  Hey, I ain’t proud.  I’ll do battle with anything that bends my stick.  And unfortunately, the next fish was also a carp.  But this one was a “tail taker”…as opposed to a dorsal diner.
 
After that I lost a couple of white bass and another snagged carp before getting them to the tube.  Bites were slow and light.  I know I missed a few. 
 
I had hoped to find some prespawn walleye action.  But the water was still a few degrees cooler than they like.  And all of my lovely walleye plastic went unmolested.  So I finally swallowed my pride and rigged a catfish rod…with a 4” chub minnow.  I dragged it slowly in about 4’ of water on my way back to the marina.  While dragging the bait on one rod I made casts in all directions with my little tandem tube jig rig.  Missed a few taps but finally caught another white bass.
 
Then my line popped loose from the clip on the catfish rod…and line flowed off the open bail reel spool.  I gave it a bit of time to get the bait well before closing the bail, allowing the line to come tight and setting the hook.  BENDO on my first kitty of the year.  It didn’t have the zip and zing of a summer fish, but it was a welcome first comer of 2022.  Not a contest fish but a solid 2 footer…maybe an inch or so bigger.
 
Couldn’t have asked for a nicer day on the water.  Only a light breeze came up a time or two.  The rest of the time the lake was glass…with purtiful reflections of the snowy hills around the lake.  Note:  still need more snow.  I was back at the ramp by about noon and never saw another soul on the lake or fishing from shore.  A lotta folks missed out on a nice day for fishing.
  LINK TO VIDEO