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[#0000ff]Last Tuesday, BLK (allegedly) really hammered the cats off Lincoln Beach. He graciously offered to show me his secret spot and introduce me to an endless horde of big hungry cats. So I joined him in his BLK Maru at 6:30 and we headed out.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Air temp was 64 and water temp was about 10 degrees warmer. Lots of leftover clouds from last night's thunder bumper brigade. A nice red sunrise. You know what they say about that. And the water was still a bit murky from the accompanying blow. But I knew BLK wouldn't steer me wrong, so I rode shotgun in his boat with bait on my breath...or however that goes.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We arrived at the mark BLK had put on the water on his last trip and began working fligs and chubs. And working. And working. Nada. Hardly a blip on the sonar screen and no bendo on the rods. But I still believed...and hung in there. It was over an hour before I let him catch the first one. A measly cookie cutter...but a fish.
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[#0000ff]In anticipation of a good day to test some new fligs and rigging I was dragging some different stuff. I might as well have not even had my lines in the water. There were just no fish in that area. Only rarely a small blip on sonar and usually they had closed mouths and middle fins upraised.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We made some big S turns and tried shallower and deeper. We finally found a semi zone...with a couple of fish...both of which munched BLK's perple purch flig...not what I was using.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I finally tried a new way of rigging a big whole chub and scored several cats in quick succession...at least over a period of less than an hour. One was a catitude kitty of about 27 inches...my biggest of the day.
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[#0000ff]And then it dried up for both of us and we moved to another once "hot" area. Again, nada, zip, zilch. So after another half hour of washing fligs fruitlessly we opted to rocket out to an area off the point that is almost always productive...ALMOST. Took another hour or so of fruitless fligging until we finally got into a few more before hanging it up. One was another daddy cat...caught by BLK on one of my fligs...using one of my chubs. This one was another 27 incher but looked like it had lost a few rounds with a meat tenderizer. The front section of his head was pretty chewed up.
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[#0000ff]I think the weather was a contributing factor to the slowdown in action today. That rock and roll storm last night had to have unsettled a few fish and probably made them move elsewhere. Happens a lot. And then today the wind direction kept changing from east to west to south, etc. And alternately becoming strong enough it became problematic with controlling the boat. Add to that the intermittent rain cells that blew in and we did enjoy some "variable" conditions.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Still, as always, a good day on the water with good company. As we both agreed, it was better than staying at home and watching TV...or almost anything else not fishing.
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Pat, had to be the weather. I was at Willard's north marina at 6:30. Same story as UL. By eight I'd tricked a couple of fish, but it was much slower than the other day. About 9 I moved down to the feedlot and found a few scattered kitties. Ended the morning with seven or eight, but none of them were easy. A pink flig seemed to out perform the purple purch.
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Well!... it appears that my veracity has been called into question here. I tell ya, the cats were there last Tuesday... lots of ‘em. I caught so many I lost track of the total, five or six 28 inchers and one that just touched 29 inches. Granted, I was alone and I have no proof, photographic or otherwise, but they were bunched up in that “hot” spot and I caught a grundel of them. They apparently vamoosed for some unknown reason... could be that someone brought bad luck with them when I graciously agreed to share the “hot”spot with a formerly trusted friend.
Dunno what happened for sure – fish move is my best explanation. Now, I’ll be in that same “hot” spot tomorrow morning, and, this time I will have time-dated photos of several big cats -- watch for the report and photos.
The top menu item today and last Tuesday was the PPF with chub meat; 3-4 inch whole or cut chubs dragged on the bottom worked, too.. TD’s fligs have served me very well and I always have at least one rod with a flig setup – got a few new ones to try today. Thanks.
Thanks for a good day Pat. Let’s do it again, next time in your “hot” spot.
BLK
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What is  to the rest of us wanabees is that 10 or 12 cats is a slow day for you two. Hurmppppp. Wait till I take you all to my hot spot we land a sunburn and a blind mud cat.
Thanks for the update you two. Ya sound like ya had a ton of fun anyway.
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[#0000FF]It has been generally recognized that sudden radical weather phenomena can drastically alter fish locale and activity levels. Big thunderstorms scare me, much less the fish.[/#0000FF]
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[#0000FF]And as for the change in color preferences, that is common too. While we did score a few on the PP fligs today, fire tiger turned out to work better in the stained water.[/#0000FF]
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[#0000FF]Ya gotta treat fish like women. Let them tell you what they want and don't argue.
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[#0000FF]Hey Lynn, old buddy old pal, as a friend and fellow fisherman I would NEVER presume to question ANY claims you might make as to fish sizes or numbers.
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[#0000FF]That is, as long as you afford me the same consideration. Otherwise we of the angling persuasion would never have any credibility even among our own.[/#0000FF]
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[#0000FF]If nothing else, today's experience reinforces my policy of planning trips only after at least two to three days of stable weather. But when we planned today's trip it was (too) hot and calm. No way to foretell last night's Ma Nature's hissy fit.[/#0000FF]
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[#0000FF]I always enjoy our trips. The fish catching is nice when we get into them but it does not ruin a trip when fishing is slower. I got past that stage a long time ago. Good times with good friends become more meaningful as the years go by.
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[quote Cowboypirate]What is to the rest of us wanabees is that 10 or 12 cats is a slow day for you two. Hurmppppp. Wait till I take you all to my hot spot we land a sunburn and a blind mud cat.
Thanks for the update you two. Ya sound like ya had a ton of fun anyway.[/quote]
[#0000FF] Glad you enjoyed our report. Yes, we did have fun. But we have both endured a whole lotta trips with far fewer fish too. Thankfully, as your experience data bank increases your successful trips tend to increase too. But the worst thing that can happen is to become complacent and overconfident. Fish are diabolical in their ability to dish out some humility. So we are always properly grateful for the good days and philosophical about the others. Helps keep us from senior temper tantrums on the bad days. That's not a purty sight.[/#0000FF]
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I did enjoy the post, as always. You two are great about sharing tips and info...I hope I have half as much fun as you all do on your trips fishing or otherwise. Good friends are worth thier wieght in gold
For those of you who are wanting a bit more detail on dem "hot spots" they were working...please note
When I heard TB and BLK were headed out to thier top secret locations, I crossed my blue tooth on my note9 phone with the wifi on my ipad and hacked into the military grade KH-11 spy satellite (a real thing), hooked onto the therm FLIR sensors to locate the heat gradient coming off two dudes having way to much fun, tagged the boat with a active trace tracker (ATT) and proceeded to log the way points as they proceeded on thier way. I considered launching sidewinder missile at one point when they landed that 25" fish, but that seemed a mite excessive.
I have saved the data, and uploaded it onto the dark-web for safe keeping. I will consider selling specific gps coordinates of the routes for Krispy cream doughnut, dozen boxes, or buffalo jery 1 lbs packs - at least until the fed catch up to me.
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Be nice to Lynn. I can vouch for at least one of his cats, he showed it to Violet and I after turning the boat around to come back to say Hi. When he lifted the fish to show us I told Vi that was at least 28". (Lynn, I could stretch that with a little persuasion.)
I can hardly wait to get back out. I had some work done on my knee Wed. so that has set me back some. The storms should be gone by the time I get back out. We are hoping for the first part of the week.
rj
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Sounds like you still found some willing participants to keep you interested. Pat it sounds like BLK had the right idea with the Purple Perch flig, better not give up all your secret weapons.
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Aha! Your post explains why the satellite reception for my I-Pilot was a little wacky today. Might even explain why the cats had cleared the area. Nice play.[  ]
Fun times.
BLK
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[#0000FF]I see that Lynn has already replied. But he didn't divulge that whatever "hacking data" you may think you acquired is probably invalid. I always carry a sneaky-squelch jamming device that automatically changes the output on any tracking systems that attempt to follow me. If you upload whatever data you think you may have accumulated you will find that my device put us right in the middle of a big sewage processing pond. You are welcome to try to duplicate our results in that spot. You probably won't catch any cats because even they have scruples. But you might catch some "browns".
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You guys are a real hoot..........................[laugh][crazy]
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"OCD = Obsessive Catfish Disorder "
Or so it says on my license plate holder
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Another day. Was on the "hot spot" again today at 6:30... great fishing! I think I got the bad luck out of my boat yesterday. Dead calm this morning, much different than yesterdays rough seas.
Marked lots of fish and caught about 15 before I had to leave. Nothing big but nice heavy, feisty fish. The PPF with a chunk of chub was the best producer. White bass worked too.
Pat, we just picked the wrong day but that's the way it goes sometimes.
I'm done until the next few stormy (?) days pass. It will be good to have the day time temps drop a few degrees.. should trigger a feeding frenzy.
Fish on.
BLK
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[#0000FF]Definitely Mama Nature in a better mood. And it can make a difference both in how the fish act and in boat control.[/#0000FF]
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[#0000FF]As far as bad luck...ya cain't blame that on me. Can you remember as far back as our previous trip...when I was keeping two rods busy...and you were doing pretty fine too once you started using my fligs and my bait.[/#0000FF]
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[#0000FF]I have long been a believer in the old saying: "Ya gotta taste the bitter to appreciate the sweet." That is equally true of fishing. An occasional downer day helps keep you humble and appreciative of the bananner days. Heck, I am always grateful just to be out on the water. Catching fish too is nice, but it ain't the only measure of a fun trip.[/#0000FF]
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[#0000FF]I'm sure that with proper planning our next joint venture will be memorable...for the right reasons.
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Hey Pat, somehow I totally missed this report. I must not be spending enough time on the forum! I must admit though if I have any free time, I try to spend it at the lake.
It looks like you and BLK went out the day before my last outing. I'm guessing it was the weather. We had a good trip, but it would have been like BLK described about his "hot spot" if we hadn't had so many that just lipped the bait and then let go. I had more of those than I can remember ever seeing in one outing. They must have been just starting to come back to normal on Saturday.
Boy the daddy cat is torn up! I'm surprised he even lived through it. It looks like he got hit by a prop.
Thanks again for the report and pictures. I'll look forward to more!
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[#0000FF]Thanks for reading and chiming in. As most of us have guessed, the sudden change in weather (an overnight thunderstorm) affected both the water (stained) and the attitude of the fish. When they get tossed around in a washing machine (Utah Lake with winds) they are likely to be a bit hesitant about resuming normal life for a time. That includes feeding. Instinct tells them to chomp on a food item, but they are still not ready to wolf it down like they would if they were more active.[/#0000FF]
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[#0000FF]When fish are acting like that you need to change out the circle hooks for some good sharp J hooks. And make sure the hook points are exposed and that you don't use too much bait. You want them to get it all in their mouths and then you gotta do some hook setting. Sometimes the advantages of circle hooks are outweighed by their lack of solid hookups when the fish are more tentative.[/#0000FF]
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[#0000FF]Yeah, that ER candidate catfish was ugly. Reminds me of what an uncle asked me when I came inside with a bloody nose. "Were you talkin' when you should have been listenin'?
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