09-16-2019, 06:46 PM
I made a short trip, so no ES this time. I arrived at the Utah Lake State Park about 5 P.M. on Friday the 13th. The only bad luck was that the trip came together at the last minute and Julie couldn’t come with me. It was one of those beautiful early fall afternoons with mild temperatures and almost no wind. The air was 75 and the water about 72 when I left the harbor.
I tried to pick up a WB going out of the harbor, but they didn’t want to play. I had talked to a guy at the ramp that was just leaving. He said he had filled his cooler with whites. He must have gotten all the hungry ones in the area.
I went south and set up in about 6 FOW at about 5:30. I had two rods out with FLAITs and cut WB. One of them was a smaller piece of bait on a 1/0 hook. The whites liked that one and I got 2 in the first 15 minutes. Then the first cat hit. It was a feisty 27 incher. Good start for the evening.
I got two more whites small bait and another cat on the larger one. Since both the cats hit hard and stuck, and I had enough bait, I traded out the smaller bait rod for a larger one.
The cats came in batches about every 30 minutes or so. They seemed to have recovered from the recent storm and were hitting hard, but seemed scattered and on the move. At one point I got 2 in a row at 28 inches, so I marked the spot and pulled a U-turn and fished that area again. No sign that the cats had ever been there.
About cat number 7 or 8, I got one at 28.5” and a bit over 9 pounds. That turned out to be the largest of the trip.
I fished from 4 to 8.5 FOW and dragged the baits between 0.3 and 1 MPH. Most of the fish came between 5.5 and 7 FOW and they seemed to prefer 0.5 to 0.7 MPH. All were caught on cut WB.
There was a gorgeous red sunset and just after it was dark I got a text from Julie. I had been updating her via text, but she wanted to know if I was OK. I called her to chat and found that we had miscommunicated about the time I would leave for home and the time I would be there. I told her I would pull the gear and head in. Just as I hung up, another cat stuck. It was just 8:30 and it turned out to be the smallest of the trip at 22.5”.
It would have been a great evening for night fishing, but bad luck won out and I had to leave. As I went through the pictures at home I had a slight shiver as I realized that Friday the 13th had given me exactly 13 cats. I’m still not superstitious though!
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I tried to pick up a WB going out of the harbor, but they didn’t want to play. I had talked to a guy at the ramp that was just leaving. He said he had filled his cooler with whites. He must have gotten all the hungry ones in the area.
I went south and set up in about 6 FOW at about 5:30. I had two rods out with FLAITs and cut WB. One of them was a smaller piece of bait on a 1/0 hook. The whites liked that one and I got 2 in the first 15 minutes. Then the first cat hit. It was a feisty 27 incher. Good start for the evening.
I got two more whites small bait and another cat on the larger one. Since both the cats hit hard and stuck, and I had enough bait, I traded out the smaller bait rod for a larger one.
The cats came in batches about every 30 minutes or so. They seemed to have recovered from the recent storm and were hitting hard, but seemed scattered and on the move. At one point I got 2 in a row at 28 inches, so I marked the spot and pulled a U-turn and fished that area again. No sign that the cats had ever been there.
About cat number 7 or 8, I got one at 28.5” and a bit over 9 pounds. That turned out to be the largest of the trip.
I fished from 4 to 8.5 FOW and dragged the baits between 0.3 and 1 MPH. Most of the fish came between 5.5 and 7 FOW and they seemed to prefer 0.5 to 0.7 MPH. All were caught on cut WB.
There was a gorgeous red sunset and just after it was dark I got a text from Julie. I had been updating her via text, but she wanted to know if I was OK. I called her to chat and found that we had miscommunicated about the time I would leave for home and the time I would be there. I told her I would pull the gear and head in. Just as I hung up, another cat stuck. It was just 8:30 and it turned out to be the smallest of the trip at 22.5”.
It would have been a great evening for night fishing, but bad luck won out and I had to leave. As I went through the pictures at home I had a slight shiver as I realized that Friday the 13th had given me exactly 13 cats. I’m still not superstitious though!
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