10-11-2024, 06:15 PM
(This post was last modified: 10-11-2024, 06:16 PM by Piscophilic.)
A friend of mine named Ricky approached me at a neighborhood gathering back in August. He asked if I had been fishing lately. With a 
, I gave him my usual Sunday answer, “Well, not since yesterday.” He proceeded to tell me about David, a friend of his that was complaining at work.
Apparently, the guy really loves catfish. He had been hitting Utah Lake for over a month with no success. He even said, “I’m so desperate I’m thinking of trying to catch a carp!”
Well, I couldn’t rest knowing that a cat fisherman might have to stoop to chasing those things, so naturally I offered to help. “It gets really tough fishing for cats from the shore in late summer,” I said, “but if he wants to go out with me on the boat, we can find him a cat or two.”
It has taken almost 2 months and several failed attempts to get out together, but it is finally going to happen this weekend. Yesterday, I decided to go out after bait for the upcoming trip.
I hit the harbor about 8 P.M. and things were slow. Only one 5” YOY whitie in the first 20 or 30 minutes, so I moved to a new spot. Jon and I had tried that spot a week or so ago and got mostly 6–8-inch crappie, but I needed more bait so I tried it again, hoping for more whities in the mix.
I must have missed 10 fish before I finally hooked up. The hits seemed like crappie, but the fish don’t always know how the are supposed to hit. First hook up and guess what, a 6” crappie. Second one, an 8” crappie. Sometimes I sure wish they were legal for bait at UL!
Then something changed. I started casting more parallel to the shore and rattle, rattle, set…I got another whitie! The next hit came almost at my feet and was clearly stronger than anything so far…I love ultralight fishing. To my surprise, it was a perch about 10 inches long!
Wow, up to 3 species and that guy would provide several good chunks of bait!
The next half hour produced half a dozen more whities, including a couple of the larger 6–8-inch variety, 2 more crappie and a 6-inch perch. Perch don’t usually feed much at night, so I was grateful these hadn’t read the perch handbook. I now had enough for Friday’s trip, but I was having fun. “I’ll just get a few for Saturday,” I rationalized in that twisted reasoning I use when I don’t want to quit.
Another half hour gave about the same results, another half dozen little whites and a couple 6-8-inch crappie. Then I had another heavy-ish fish hit. Another good perch, I hoped, but it was another surprise, a 6” bullhead. As I released it, I thought, “4 species and not a channel cat or a carp!”
I set a timer on my phone so I would stop rationalizing and be able to get some sleep before work on Friday. Just before the timer went off, I found another hard fighting little guy. Yet another surprise, a 6” green sunfish! I decided to call it a night, before I started rationalizing about how I could get a 6th species!
![[Image: Sunnie-after-dark.jpg]](https://i.postimg.cc/5Xz64Ymh/Sunnie-after-dark.jpg)
All in all, a surprisingly fun bait run with 5 species and enough whites and perch for the weekend outings!
![[Image: IMG-3781.avif]](https://i.postimg.cc/v1dDcYqc/IMG-3781.avif)
, I gave him my usual Sunday answer, “Well, not since yesterday.” He proceeded to tell me about David, a friend of his that was complaining at work.Apparently, the guy really loves catfish. He had been hitting Utah Lake for over a month with no success. He even said, “I’m so desperate I’m thinking of trying to catch a carp!”
Well, I couldn’t rest knowing that a cat fisherman might have to stoop to chasing those things, so naturally I offered to help. “It gets really tough fishing for cats from the shore in late summer,” I said, “but if he wants to go out with me on the boat, we can find him a cat or two.”
It has taken almost 2 months and several failed attempts to get out together, but it is finally going to happen this weekend. Yesterday, I decided to go out after bait for the upcoming trip.
I hit the harbor about 8 P.M. and things were slow. Only one 5” YOY whitie in the first 20 or 30 minutes, so I moved to a new spot. Jon and I had tried that spot a week or so ago and got mostly 6–8-inch crappie, but I needed more bait so I tried it again, hoping for more whities in the mix.
I must have missed 10 fish before I finally hooked up. The hits seemed like crappie, but the fish don’t always know how the are supposed to hit. First hook up and guess what, a 6” crappie. Second one, an 8” crappie. Sometimes I sure wish they were legal for bait at UL!
Then something changed. I started casting more parallel to the shore and rattle, rattle, set…I got another whitie! The next hit came almost at my feet and was clearly stronger than anything so far…I love ultralight fishing. To my surprise, it was a perch about 10 inches long!
Wow, up to 3 species and that guy would provide several good chunks of bait!
The next half hour produced half a dozen more whities, including a couple of the larger 6–8-inch variety, 2 more crappie and a 6-inch perch. Perch don’t usually feed much at night, so I was grateful these hadn’t read the perch handbook. I now had enough for Friday’s trip, but I was having fun. “I’ll just get a few for Saturday,” I rationalized in that twisted reasoning I use when I don’t want to quit.
Another half hour gave about the same results, another half dozen little whites and a couple 6-8-inch crappie. Then I had another heavy-ish fish hit. Another good perch, I hoped, but it was another surprise, a 6” bullhead. As I released it, I thought, “4 species and not a channel cat or a carp!”
I set a timer on my phone so I would stop rationalizing and be able to get some sleep before work on Friday. Just before the timer went off, I found another hard fighting little guy. Yet another surprise, a 6” green sunfish! I decided to call it a night, before I started rationalizing about how I could get a 6th species!
All in all, a surprisingly fun bait run with 5 species and enough whites and perch for the weekend outings!