06-03-2016, 01:27 PM
[#0000ff]My Kitty Queen (TubeBabe) has been busy flitting around the country. Kids, sisters, friends and consulting gigs have kept her going and kept the air miles adding up. But they have kept her off the water all year so far. Yesterday (Thursday) put the brakes on the projects and put TubeBabe in a float tube for the first time this year.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Launched at Lindon (Utah Lake) about 6:30 am. Clear and warm…57 degree air temp and 68 water temp. First waderless trip for me this year too. Yay team![/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Unbelievable. With all the runoff filling reservoirs along the Wasatch Front, Utah Lake at Lindon was about 6” down from where it was on my last trip…about 2 weeks ago. Still filling Salt Lake at the expense of Utah Lake. Dericulous.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Less than 3 feet deep all across Lindon Harbor. Down to 1.5 feet in some spots just before the outlet channel. And the water both inside the harbor and out into the main lake was really pretty murky. Either a lot of recent wind or all those carp doing the scaly Lambada have really stirred things up.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The carp were rolling everywhere away from shore…and splashing and thrashing in the shoreline rocks and weeds. Too bad all species in the lake are not able to spawn even in a low water year under adverse conditions.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]TubeBabe and I worked plastics around the rock points at the harbor entrance. Nada, zip, zilch. Unless you count a couple of carp scales. Moved straight out until we finally found some 3-4’ depth. That was several hundred yards from shore. Semi trolled while casting jigs and spinners all the way to the bubbleup. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]With murky water, low water and no water coming from the outflow pipe, there were no white bass or walleyes snuggling up to the pipe. Lots of uninterrupted retrieves. Tossed out a minnow on one rod while continuing the plastic pitching. Game on. Plenty of hungry channel cats…and bullheads…hanging around the area. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Over the next couple of hours both TubeBabe and I were kept pretty busy with minnow munchers. Channel cats averaged about 22-24 inches, with a few slightly larger. My biggest was a 26 inch black daddy cat…skinny and ugly…that hit one of my jigs worked right next to the pipe. He was no doubt setting up housekeeping under the pipe. Kissed and released that one. I also got a spawned out hungry carp on another jig a while later. Invited him home to donate some flesh for future kitty fodder.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Since the water was under 4’ deep, at one point I rigged with a bobber and 3’ of line…ending with a “bobberhead” jig…for fishing a minnow off the bottom. Hoped for a walleye. Caught a couple of channel cats. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Not remembering the old saying about the definition of insanity, I kept pitching a tandem jig rig along the pipe. I DID find a small school of white bass. Very small. Two whities on two casts. Then nothing for the rest of the morning. But that did complete a 4-species slam. A walleye would have made a 5-species “grand slime”.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Besides TubeBabe and myself there was one guy in a pontoon. Turns out it was fellow BFTer "southernbass". Shoulda asked him if he was "kin". There were also two other guys in a boat…all working along the bubbleup pipeline. Everybody got a few mudders and/or a couple of cats. Didn’t see any other white bass and no walleyes.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We had plenty of tugs and all the fun we could stand by about 11…when a south breeze began building a bit. So we trolled/jigged our way back into the harbor. Got to the ramp just as the power squadron was swarming in and tuning up for the afternoon shift. Water temp had climbed to about 72 as we packed up. No telling how warm it will get over the next few days…or what that will do to (or for) fishing.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Launched at Lindon (Utah Lake) about 6:30 am. Clear and warm…57 degree air temp and 68 water temp. First waderless trip for me this year too. Yay team![/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Unbelievable. With all the runoff filling reservoirs along the Wasatch Front, Utah Lake at Lindon was about 6” down from where it was on my last trip…about 2 weeks ago. Still filling Salt Lake at the expense of Utah Lake. Dericulous.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Less than 3 feet deep all across Lindon Harbor. Down to 1.5 feet in some spots just before the outlet channel. And the water both inside the harbor and out into the main lake was really pretty murky. Either a lot of recent wind or all those carp doing the scaly Lambada have really stirred things up.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]The carp were rolling everywhere away from shore…and splashing and thrashing in the shoreline rocks and weeds. Too bad all species in the lake are not able to spawn even in a low water year under adverse conditions.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]TubeBabe and I worked plastics around the rock points at the harbor entrance. Nada, zip, zilch. Unless you count a couple of carp scales. Moved straight out until we finally found some 3-4’ depth. That was several hundred yards from shore. Semi trolled while casting jigs and spinners all the way to the bubbleup. [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]With murky water, low water and no water coming from the outflow pipe, there were no white bass or walleyes snuggling up to the pipe. Lots of uninterrupted retrieves. Tossed out a minnow on one rod while continuing the plastic pitching. Game on. Plenty of hungry channel cats…and bullheads…hanging around the area. [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Over the next couple of hours both TubeBabe and I were kept pretty busy with minnow munchers. Channel cats averaged about 22-24 inches, with a few slightly larger. My biggest was a 26 inch black daddy cat…skinny and ugly…that hit one of my jigs worked right next to the pipe. He was no doubt setting up housekeeping under the pipe. Kissed and released that one. I also got a spawned out hungry carp on another jig a while later. Invited him home to donate some flesh for future kitty fodder.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Since the water was under 4’ deep, at one point I rigged with a bobber and 3’ of line…ending with a “bobberhead” jig…for fishing a minnow off the bottom. Hoped for a walleye. Caught a couple of channel cats. [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Not remembering the old saying about the definition of insanity, I kept pitching a tandem jig rig along the pipe. I DID find a small school of white bass. Very small. Two whities on two casts. Then nothing for the rest of the morning. But that did complete a 4-species slam. A walleye would have made a 5-species “grand slime”.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Besides TubeBabe and myself there was one guy in a pontoon. Turns out it was fellow BFTer "southernbass". Shoulda asked him if he was "kin". There were also two other guys in a boat…all working along the bubbleup pipeline. Everybody got a few mudders and/or a couple of cats. Didn’t see any other white bass and no walleyes.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]We had plenty of tugs and all the fun we could stand by about 11…when a south breeze began building a bit. So we trolled/jigged our way back into the harbor. Got to the ramp just as the power squadron was swarming in and tuning up for the afternoon shift. Water temp had climbed to about 72 as we packed up. No telling how warm it will get over the next few days…or what that will do to (or for) fishing.[/#0000ff]
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