Lindon Qwik Trip 6-25-05

[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Family commitments dictated that if we were going fishing Saturday we needed to make it short and sweet. It was.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Launched the tubes just after 5:30 AM and moved fairly fast (for tubes) toward the outlet of the harbor. I was casting a plastic for whatever might be hangin' inside and got smacked by a 3# channel cat right out in the middle, about 5:45. Nothing else, even around the point of the north jetty. One small twang, probably from a white bass.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Stopped briefly to throw some plastic around the creek mouth. Not even a tap. Kept moving north along the reed line and sailed out a chub minnow, no bobber and weightless. Got a pick up and run almost immediately. Another 3# cat in the basket before 6:30. Picked up a third one, about the same size, on a half of a large chub minnow just before 7.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]TubeBabe scored a cookie cutter 3# channel and then lost a couple more to the nearby flooded brush. That tamarisk is tough stuff and some cats seem to be programmed to playing slalom through the stickups. She did land one more before things shut down about 8.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I had a series of hit and run artists...picking up the bait and playing with it, but not getting the hook in their mouths for a good hookset. I finally landed my fourth and final channel...about 2#...and then nothing. We fished our way back to the marina and were on our way back to Salt Lake before 10. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Didn't observe too much going on from the north dike. Saw one small channel cat hoisted up, under a bobber.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Water temp was 70 when we launched and 72 when we got out. Skeeters were held at bay by a liberal dose of "Utah Cologne" just as we got out of the car. There were clouds of midges early when there was no breeze, but I suspect the freshening breeze as we left helped keep them down some.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I did observe that when I kicked my fin out over our regular spot, that a cloud of more turbid water would rise to the clearer top layer. I think the recent winds have clouded up the lower layers of water and we need some calm weather to get things back on track.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Sorry, no pics this time. Not much picture worthy.[/#0000ff]
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[Theekillerbee]

I think that Utah cologne you speak of is the same southern cologne I used to use when I lived in Florida. I hated those chiggers and no see ums, and we used to apply it liberally before venturing off into the brush.
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Actually it is just Deep Woods Off. Can't help it if they label it improperly.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]As you and I discussed, I have also had some run-ins with those southern bugs. The "noseeums" were the worst. They can cover a bare arm and all chomp out a bite before you know they are there. Then the bites hurt for hours and itch for days. Down below New Orleans I once got caught out away from my bug repellent, in my float tube, when a gang of them chose me as a target. I never launched without a hefty application of DEET after that, nor did I fail to keep extra handy in my tube.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I found it interesting that those big burly Cajuns down there were so sold on Avon Skin So Soft. They all smelled pretty, in the bait shops early in the morning, but I never did have much luck with it.[/#0000ff]
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[Marshall_Law]

I went out there about 9:30am and fished till3pm... i didn't do well.

I think things are slowing down.

I even hit Salem Pond and didn't catch anything either.

I thought the whities were going to start up.
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Hey LawMan, sorry you did not get into the fishies. This recent wierd monsoon weather pattern has had the wind blowing every afternoon and evening, and it has been blowing hard. Besides putting more mud in the water, it unsettles all the fish. Most seasoned anglers will agree that their best fishing usually happens after at least two or three days of steady calm weather, giving the fish a chance to settle down and form a pattern of feeding. Even one full day without heavy winds is better than nothing.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Whatever you thought you knew about white bass in Utah Lake is subject to revision this year. There is more water, cooler water and more shoreline structure than there has been for several years. Factor in that there has been a heavy "cooler harvest" and low reproduction the last two or three years, and the white bass population is probably as low as it has been in history. There just aren't as many of them, and their patterns are different this year.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]There is also a heavy predation upon the white bass this year by the larger remaining walleyes. With fewer babies of any species to feed on, the walleyes are targeting every white bass they can chase down. Some larger walleyes taken recently have had white bass up to 12" long in their gut. 12" whities are spawners...if they get to live long enough to do the job. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]White bass should be through spawning by now. But, there are still quite a few that still have eggs and milt in them. Why? I don't know. But, it does concern a lot of us who would like to see them have good spawning and recruitment this year. We will just have to wait and see if we start catching the little "young of the year" 4 inchers later in the summer or early fall. There weren't very many last year, and the walleyes cleaned up most of them.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]So, if you do get into a bunch of whities, don't feel like you have to keep a cooler full. Keep a few for the table, or kitty bait, but release as many as you can. They need all the help they can get.[/#0000ff]
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[Marshall_Law]

To be honest I have not caught a 1. My son caught 1 but we let him go. I see people catching them but not in droves. And most of them use them for kittie bait.

Ya the weather patern has been weird, but good as for as our water situation goes. I Fished yesterday through that little wind/rain storm that kicked up in the afternoon. A guy I met out there the previous night was with me and he shared some carp meat with me. Had one hit but that was it.
I don't care if I don't get anything, it's very relaxing for me to just head out and relax.

Was thinking about heading down today, but it depends on how Mrs. Law is doing.
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