06-30-2019, 05:37 PM
I used to fish quite often and tried to post something helpful, or at least entertaining, but my sons grew up and went off to college and I don’t get out fishing much anymore, and I haven’t participated on BFT in years. But I felt inspired yesterday.
I like to hit Utah Lake in June because I’ve typically been able to average 15-20 cats per person. Friday was no different. My son and I arrived at Bird Island bright and early (12:05 pm). I was really curious to see how high the water level was, I’ve never had to find the submerged Island with pure GPS before. Didn’t have to, but it wouldn't surprise me if all that's left visible are a few bushes if water continues to rise.
[inline Island400.jpg]
Silly me, I like the island to ourselves, sharing it with a bazillion birds I mean, but there was another boat in the area so I picked my spot a hundred yards or so away. Couldn’t tell how they were doing, we were too busy catching fish.
We had two hook-ups in less than 2 minutes and it stayed like that for over an hour. I like to fish with two poles, one shallow and one deep to figure out where the fish are, but having two people and 3 poles with fish seemed more like stress than fun. (My yogic desire to practice mindfulness and focus on enjoying the gift that was presenting itself to us prevailed.)
We anchored the boat up in about 4.5 feet of water and cast toward the island. The fish have been in less that 2’ of water other years, and was so again. I like to fish with bait under bobbers, between 2 and 3 feet this time. I like the bait on the bottom, but not have the line too long as to tangle or lose touch with it, but also not too short so the wind moves it where the fish are not. I normally fish with ¾” carp chunks, but this time we used white bass for bait.
The weatherman was wrong. Wow… shocker! (note: sarcasm) The wind was blowing in exactly the opposite direction than predicted. I like to pick an area of the island that is protected. But it wasn’t so strong of a breeze to present a problem and the wind from the North kept the boat right where we wanted.
[inline ConCan400.jpg]
All of the fish were big’uns. I think only two were under 20 inches the whole day. (It’s worth nothing that my son is 6’2" tall, for perspective.)
[inline Confist400.jpg]
The bite did slow significantly around 2:30 pm. but never enough for the need to move the boat. Plus, being able to sit and talk without fish grabbing at our lines is part of the fun of fishing for me.
The fish were really well fed and had extended bellies. We had a lot of fish that would pick up the bait just to play with it, so we had to be patient with our hook sets. But sometimes the fish would hit so hard that it about pulled the pole the water without a good grip. Great fun when the fight was so hard that they pulled the boat. (I felt no desire at all to be one of those folk that prefers drifting flies in a stream hoping to catch a few small slimers.)
In the afternoon the wind completely shifted and came from the South. But it proved advantageous because the fish also moved out deeper, say to 4.5ish feet and the action kept up comfortably paced and we could put our attention to our sunburns.
I’m not as detailed as some about such things, but the water was in the mid 70s when we arrived and raised a couple of degrees to 78 by our departure about 5 pm. We were balanced in our catching of male to females. Made me wonder where they were at with spawning. I felt no guilt if they were and by my redefining "hook-up" by making it a threesome. They were commanded to "be fruitful and multiply" after our interruption.
People often don’t believe me when I say that we can catch as many cats in a day as we did, but it was the faster than I can ever remember it being. My son will be moving to Detroit soon and who knows if I’ll get another day like this with him. The universe was VERY kind to us. I was wondering if any mermaids of unicorn were going to show up, then I caught this:
[inline UniCat400.jpg]
Normally I try to stay out of pictures, it’s my way of being kind to others, but my wife likes a record to know I exist so I had this one taken. I’m not sure the species. Like so many things in life, it remains a mystery.
[signature]
I like to hit Utah Lake in June because I’ve typically been able to average 15-20 cats per person. Friday was no different. My son and I arrived at Bird Island bright and early (12:05 pm). I was really curious to see how high the water level was, I’ve never had to find the submerged Island with pure GPS before. Didn’t have to, but it wouldn't surprise me if all that's left visible are a few bushes if water continues to rise.
[inline Island400.jpg]
Silly me, I like the island to ourselves, sharing it with a bazillion birds I mean, but there was another boat in the area so I picked my spot a hundred yards or so away. Couldn’t tell how they were doing, we were too busy catching fish.
We had two hook-ups in less than 2 minutes and it stayed like that for over an hour. I like to fish with two poles, one shallow and one deep to figure out where the fish are, but having two people and 3 poles with fish seemed more like stress than fun. (My yogic desire to practice mindfulness and focus on enjoying the gift that was presenting itself to us prevailed.)
We anchored the boat up in about 4.5 feet of water and cast toward the island. The fish have been in less that 2’ of water other years, and was so again. I like to fish with bait under bobbers, between 2 and 3 feet this time. I like the bait on the bottom, but not have the line too long as to tangle or lose touch with it, but also not too short so the wind moves it where the fish are not. I normally fish with ¾” carp chunks, but this time we used white bass for bait.
The weatherman was wrong. Wow… shocker! (note: sarcasm) The wind was blowing in exactly the opposite direction than predicted. I like to pick an area of the island that is protected. But it wasn’t so strong of a breeze to present a problem and the wind from the North kept the boat right where we wanted.
[inline ConCan400.jpg]
All of the fish were big’uns. I think only two were under 20 inches the whole day. (It’s worth nothing that my son is 6’2" tall, for perspective.)
[inline Confist400.jpg]
The bite did slow significantly around 2:30 pm. but never enough for the need to move the boat. Plus, being able to sit and talk without fish grabbing at our lines is part of the fun of fishing for me.
The fish were really well fed and had extended bellies. We had a lot of fish that would pick up the bait just to play with it, so we had to be patient with our hook sets. But sometimes the fish would hit so hard that it about pulled the pole the water without a good grip. Great fun when the fight was so hard that they pulled the boat. (I felt no desire at all to be one of those folk that prefers drifting flies in a stream hoping to catch a few small slimers.)
In the afternoon the wind completely shifted and came from the South. But it proved advantageous because the fish also moved out deeper, say to 4.5ish feet and the action kept up comfortably paced and we could put our attention to our sunburns.
I’m not as detailed as some about such things, but the water was in the mid 70s when we arrived and raised a couple of degrees to 78 by our departure about 5 pm. We were balanced in our catching of male to females. Made me wonder where they were at with spawning. I felt no guilt if they were and by my redefining "hook-up" by making it a threesome. They were commanded to "be fruitful and multiply" after our interruption.
People often don’t believe me when I say that we can catch as many cats in a day as we did, but it was the faster than I can ever remember it being. My son will be moving to Detroit soon and who knows if I’ll get another day like this with him. The universe was VERY kind to us. I was wondering if any mermaids of unicorn were going to show up, then I caught this:
[inline UniCat400.jpg]
Normally I try to stay out of pictures, it’s my way of being kind to others, but my wife likes a record to know I exist so I had this one taken. I’m not sure the species. Like so many things in life, it remains a mystery.
[signature]
