Last Hurrah in the Cat Contest at Utah Lake

[joatmon]

I made it our Friday and Saturday for about 4 hours each day (afternoon into evening), trying to get a 30" or longer catfish to help my score in the contest.  With catchinon out of town, I had shore or canoe options available to me.  So canoe it was.  

I launched my canoe off the rocks near the big spring off Lincoln Point.  It doesn't take long going north to get into deeper water (deeper meaning 5-6 feet).  I also assumed that that area of lake may have seen less pressure the last couple of months due to low water at Lincoln Beach harbor (see pic).

Friday I paddled towards Bird Island and made it a little more than half way (see pic).  I dragged a santee rig off one side and a spin-n-glo off the other side, both tipped with white bass chunks.  Had one bite on the way out, no hook up.  I was able to drift most of the way back and that constant slow motion seemed to do the trick as I caught a couple in the 22-23" range, then hooked a bigger fish.  In the canoe with me it seemed like a monster, and really hoped it would meet or exceed 30".  Not to be, as it ended up at 28.5".  I had to start paddling soon after that to get off the lake for an evening activity, so no more bites.  I caught two cats on my white with red spots spin-n-glo rig with noisemaker (small plastic bubble with split shot in it, see pic) and the other cat on a chartreuse spin-n-glo rig.

Saturday I launched about an hour later, but stayed until after sundown.  This time I circled back to the northwest around the point and in the general direction of the Knolls, but not nearly that far.  I caught my first fish about an hour in, a feisty 26" cat.  I missed several bites before catching a 25-incher.  I turned east and tried to drift but it was almost dead calm.  I even tried jigging for a few I could see on my finder, had one bite, but didn't really have appropriate gear for jigging.  So put both rods out with fresh white bass chunks.  At a very slow drift, and with low expectations, my right side rod tried to exit the boat.  Luckily I had it tethered.  Surely, I thought, this is the target 30-incher!  Meh, another 28.5" cat.  All three cats came on the white spin-n-glo rig with noisemaker.

So I ended up with three cats each day, no bumpers for the contest, but it gave me a chance to troll with the canoe (and get a bit of a workout).  Generally, I caught fish in deeper water (5-6 feet) and further from shore.  The rocks on the bottom seem to extend some ways out, and I believe all fish I caught were beyond the rocks or at least where it was more sediment than rock.  I did get hung up one time closer to shore and had to circle back to free my rig. I tried really hard to be consistently slow while paddling, but it was hard to maintain a smooth slow speed and direction.  All fish were caught going 0.7 mph or slower (according to my speedometer app) and most came while drifting.

It was a great cat contest for me, as I was able to earlier get a 31.5" cat at Utah Lake off catchinon's boat and another 31.5" cat from shore up north.  Most of my trips were with catchinon and I'm grateful he has a boat and invites me along.  It's sure a lot easier than canoeing!