First fishing trip of this year

[Tin-Can]

I made the drive down to UL Provo marina yesterday (Friday). Didn't take the boat. Fished off several spots along the north and south sides of the marina dike and along the Provo river . Was an effort to land some white bass or even carp to store away and use as bait for future UL trips. 
Weather was really nice. Not too cold and not too hot yet. Almost dead calm. Only saw 4 boats on the water from the Provo marina, and several tunes, tubes, and kayaks. 


     



Got my first lines in the water on south side of marina at the river edge.  Had no joy there. Didn't take any photos. Worked my way around the west side dike. Saw several folks with lines wet, but none of the spots I tried rendered any fish.  
Went around to the north side of dike, and found the Handicap pier empty. Well that was fine by me. Set up my lines, chair, tackle bag and made myself comfy. 



I could see a good size group of Carp just under the surface of the end of the pier. They were obviously more interested in setting up spawning beds cuz I dropped, my weighted heavy line over them, around them, and right on top of a couple. They showed no interest what so ever. Didn't even send them into a hissy fit like it does later in the season. 

I made myself comfortable with one line baited with a big ball of night crawlers on the bottom about 30 to 40 feet out from the pier, and casting various small fligs tipped with a hunk of worm, weighted jig heads (non floating) with Gulp grubs of varied color and size under a bobber. Then just  a small bait hook with a worm about 3 feet under a bobber. 
I was just contemplating making it an early day and packing up when my heavy rod started dancing. There wasn't much weight or fight so I hoped it was a small carp or a white bass that had a big mouth.   Neither one.  Was a standard UL size Bullhead.   It saved me from having to ride home with a skunk, but just barely. 





Today, Saturday: I figured since I had my gear in my truck and a tub of worms left over and still viable, I'd make the much shorter trip up to Bear River Bird Refuge.  Don't know who else has been catching on the river, but Ahi1953 has landed several. Got a late start but went all the way to the bottom over the bridges, and turns out, I pulled in behind John just as he was getting set up.  I moved down about 30 yards past him and set up my 2 lines.  Put my Skeeter Beaters on the truck windows so I could leave them down to get the light breeze, reclined my seat and went into lazy, retired, fisherman mode.



Again, like Friday, was just about decided to move on to another spot when one rod bent over and drag screamed. 
Now this wasn't any Bullhead or White Bass.  Maybe a Carp (I need to restock my bait).  Nope: Unlike Friday I was able to keep the skunk at bay with a fairly reasonable Cat. Not a monster, but a start.  That was the end of the day for me. Would have stopped somewhere else as I worked my way out of the refuge, buuuut.....  the first really nice Saturday of Spring, every other accessible spot along the river was occupied.