bad morning on willard

[lunkerhunter2]

Hit willard this morning with Lil'Lunkerhunter, Yper, Tubedude, Leaky, Flycasting, and Ugmecaveman. Started off with a bang as my big motor took a healthy crap on me. Could not even get it to turn over. Finally rigged it so we had forward throttle pull starting it and headed to the north marina for the meet-up. Just as we got to the marina the big motor cut to 1/3 throttle and died. Wonderful!!! Started the kicker and putted to the party. Got some bait from the "Dude" and met everyone else. Good to meet you guys finally![] Rigged up the poles and started drifting and the wind stopped completely.No prob. Started the kicker again and moved around a bit. TD called and said he had a few on the finder so we anchored by him and started fishing. Went to set up the Vexilar and realised i had forgot a battery for it. On top of that i forgot my little boy's bug spray(without deet). Thank god the bugs were non-existant. Well the skeeters anyway. So far so terrible. Fished for an hour or so and the w... came up so we went to the marina and tried to borrow some tools. Found some (thank you who ever you were) and tried to fix the motor to no avail. Piss on this and headed for the south marina at a blazing 6 or 7 mph sitting on the edge of the bow trying to get a half-hearted plain out but still only about 8 mph. Got to the marina and tried to trailer the boat but it died just shy of the bunks. Luckily i had enough momentum to grab a little and got her on.
All in all a horrible day and only 2 hits for the entire trip. Looks like it will be the little boat again for a while.[unsure][unsure][mad][mad][pirate][pirate]
The other guys can tell you how their morning went.
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[PACKFAN]

Sorry to hear about your bad morning at the Bay, I'll wait to see how the others did. They really bit last Friday, especially for Td and TB. We didn't have the bait they were using and that may have made a difference, But we still caught 10 that made two meals for us. I'm going to try and make it out this Sunday as a fellow BFTR from Idaho (Lunddude) is comming down for a few days to fish the Wipers.
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[Flycasting]

We did well, but I will leav the report to TD. He writes it so much more eloquently that I do. []
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Hey Brody, you got my undying sympathy (to go along with the minnows). Wouldn't life be so much better if boats, cars, computers, wives and kids all behaved like we would like them to? Yeah, right.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Flycasting and I were the early shift. We were afloat shortly after 6 AM. Saw lots of nice bluegills playing on the surface in the shoreline stickups. They were gorging on the OVERABUNDANT BUGS. Once we got away from the vegetation around shore, the bugs thinned out to the extent that we could see the mountains again.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Water was calm and 80 degrees at launch. That's warm. Air temp in Salt Lake when I left at 4:30 AM was still 81. Summer is here.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We saw a few wiperettes abusing small shadlets early but they would not hit our artificial offerings. I dragged a minnow on one rod while casting plastics with my second rod. Got my first kitty at 6:30, within five minutes of casting out my first minnow.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Flycasting and I split up. He went out away from the dike and I moved in closer, to see if anything was feeding near the rocks...besides bugs. Got several cats, keeping another one in the basket and releasing the rest. Once I got within casting range of the rocks, I started pitching a tandem rig of two small plastics right up close. That began a series of about 40 small smallmouth. I mean small. Biggest might have gone 8 inches. I did get one bonus bluegill that would have been welcome in a basket with another 20 the same size. It was just under 9 inches. Hit a white glider jig.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]As Flycasting came into the rocks to reseat his leaking tube valve (to avoid having to walk back to shore), I headed back toward the launch area to greet Leaky and the "boating boys". Caveman was also working his way out in his raft. Handed off some minnows to LH2 and Yper, and then joined Leaky (without Sparky) to give him some pointers on the catfishing. Also gave him some minnows but he pooh poohed them, saying he doubted if he would need them.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I picked up the occasional kitty, but they were not hitting in the same areas they have been. Got Leaky "lined out" and we went different directions. Felt sorry for the boating boys when they were spending all their time tinkering with the motor and not enough quality fishing time.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]At 9:15 the formerly light breeze shifted to a noticeable wind. The fishing ripple turned into small waves and soon became "popcorn". I saw Caveman paddle back to the launch area in his raft. Leaky, Flycasting and Da Dude stuck it out, bobbing on the waves. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I let the wind blow me back toward the shallows. Flycasting was coming there from the other direction. When we both got into about 12 feet of water, somebody rang the dinner bell for the kitties. Both of us caught several in quick succession, releasing most but keeping a few for the basket. At one point, both of my rods took off, with the lines going out in different directions. I set the hook on the first one and reeled him in almost all the way to the tube and then put the rod in my "escape proof" rod holder. I then picked up the second rod and set the hook on it. Brought that fish all the way in, removed the hook, released it and then finished reeling in the first fish. It turned out to be my largest kitty of the morning at about 17 inches.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I noticed that Leaky had worked his way back closer to us. He had caught one cat on a worm but had no other bites. He finally succumbed to my suggestion (begging) that he use some of those minnows. Within a few minutes he was bendo with a kitty and caught several more in quick succession. I think he believes me now.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Flycasting and I had all the cats we wanted so we finished up by throwing some more lures for wipers. I had a couple of light hits on my plastics and FC caught a couple of little wiperettes (8 inchers) like I caught on my last trip. Hey, they were wipers and they fought good.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Before FC and I left, we stuffed my big duffel bag with a bunch of the trash left behind by the beer-drinking morons. Never could understand why people just dump their trash when there is no trash can. It is just as easy for them to take it back home in their car as it is for me to load it and carry it in mine.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Leaky was still bobbing out on the water when we left. Hope he enjoyed himself.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Great fishing with all you guys, even if there was some misfortune involved. Hope the motor is fixable...and it doesn't cost too much jerky.[/#0000ff]
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[Theekillerbee]

Sounds rough Brody. Any thoughts on what happened to the motors now that you are home?
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[POWMOW1]

went out at 4:30 last night, it seams too me if i was the 2nd one to cast into the boil i just could not hook up!!!! but on the other hand i went out with bearclaw, you got to be fast to beat that guy. i saw him cast 3 time and seen him hook up 3 times but i did not come home with out some dinner
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[leaky]

LH2, sorry guy, maybe next time will be better for ya. As usual, TD said it all. Ran out of those po-po minnows so I headed in shortly after TD and flycasting. Do you think Sportsman's minnows would do the trick or do they have to be "special" with the TD brand on em? Went to the check the gate, drove all thru the park, came back and went to the admin. offices and could find no one, so I was unable to get an "official" answer as to park boundaries and where I can have Sparky off leash. Oh well---------. Anyone hear how caveman did? Thanks again Pat.[]
TD did forget to mention one thing. I had my own equipement problem. My seat was ripping out under me. [shocked] LOL It happened the last trip I went on and I thought I had fixed it. NOT That even made it more interesting while bobbing in the waves. Asked TD to watch and if he noticed if I disappeared under the tube to let my wife and the fish cops know where I was last spotted. Luckily it stopped ripping after awhile. [crazy]
Leaky

[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Time for you to get one of those new Fish Cat 4's, like RatMan. I kept watching to see if your hat was floating, but I guess you kept it together okay.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]So, whatta ya think about my minnows now, Mr. Stubborn? Actually, minnows is minnows. Right? Nope. I have never bought any minnows from Sportsmans, for two reasons...one, they looked freezer burned and two, they are pretty pricey. When I get my own, I grade them by size, put plenty in each bag and fast freeze them with a little water to keep them from getting freezer burned. When they thaw, they are about as close to "fresh dead" as you can get. At least the kitties (and wipers) seem to approve of them.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Plenty of guys buy and use the Sportsmans minnows, but getting your own is both cheaper and better. TubeBabe and I usually are able to harvest several hundred in a couple of hours, with a combo of minnow traps and small jigs tipped with worms. Costs us about $15 in gas to bag up over a hundred dollars worth of minnows. And, TubeBabe has a lot of fun catching them two at a time on the little jigs. So do I.[/#0000ff]

[#0000ff]You should try to PM BFT member Utahsteelheader. He is a ranger at the north marina and should be able to give you the real scoop on the regs. Sorry, I do not have an exact link to his BFT handle.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Let me know if you want to go gather some. Got a place with plenty of space for Sparky to play and no old geezers to yell at him.[/#0000ff]
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[Troll]

Leaky,
I have a springer spanial that loves the water. She has actually gotten a ticket for off leash as I believe like you do that a dog should be able to hang out on the beach off leash and fetch her ball till she is to tired to think.
We were at Willard on Sunday and she and 2 goldens had a ball playing on the beach off leash.
That said, there is a small beach on the SW corner of willard that I always head to with "Katie" it is a good place to launch a tube, fish, and let your dog just be themselves. Try it out.
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[Flycasting]

It was fun fishing with you again TD. It was also nice to meet you Leaky and LH2. Leaky, did you ever end up throwing plastics for the wipers? It seems the dinks were schooled up in that corner.

TD gave me another demo of his filleting skills. That man fillets 8 cats in under 3 minutes... must be some kinda record. []
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[Frozenover]

TubeDude,
Where can you get a minnow net? After I get a net where's a good place to try catching my first batch of minnows?
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]If you mean "cast nets", you can buy them at Cabelas and probably Sportsmans. However, there is a lot of difference in cast nets and you should do your homework before you buy one. Many of the ones I have seen in Utah are cheap, stiff monofilament nets with mesh far too large to catch the small minnows that are sometimes the best for bait. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The best nets are 1/4" mesh, with lots of weights, and made of quality nylon cord...not monofilament. Maximum allowable size in Utah is 10 feet. That is plenty big and is about the limit of what most guys can throw effectively.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]You will need to devote some time to learning to throw one properly. There is a good video at [url "http://64.119.173.247/~vsimedia/media/3-how-to-throw-a-castnet-300.asf"]Learning To Throw A Cast Net [/url][/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Sometimes the depth of the minnows, or the snaggy bottom conditions makes using a cast net impractical. In those cases you can use the little wire minnow baskets, with the funnel ends. They are about $10 at Sportsmans...much less expensive than cast nets.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Most minnows can also be taken very easily with a small hook and a bit of worm or dough. That's how TubeBabe and I harvest most of our minnows. Where we go, it is difficult to use cast nets because of all the weeds and trash on the bottom. I set out two of the wire minnow traps and then we fish tandem hook rigs, using tiny jigs baited with a speck of worm. We bring in two chubs (or shiners) at a time, as fast as we can cast. On the other hand, getting a dozen minnows in each of the two minnow traps is about average for the same time. I once figured that I would catch more minnows with the little jigs in the amount of time it takes me to set and empty the minnow traps.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Send me a PM and I will see if we can meet up for a minnow expedition. The location of a private minnow stash is not something to be posted on a public forum. You will need to be drugged and blindfolded before being taken there.[/#0000ff]
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[Frozenover]

Thanks, for the info. I'll send you a pm.
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[fencekid]

sounds like a rough trip bro. we all have trips like that from time to time. sometimes it's like the fishing gods are out to get you, no matter what turn you make it's always the wrong one. o well, hopefully your next couple trips will go smooth as glass, with hella fish pulling. laters
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[Kent]

I've had a few trips like that. A few years ago I took a BFT member, who I had never fished with before, to Strawberry for an early spring trip. Short of capsizing the boat, I managed to mess up almost everything else. I'm sure the guy thought that I was a real basket case (and for that trip I would have had to agree with his observation). You ended up getting a free gas tank as a result of that trip. Strange how we sometimes have those days when everything seems to go wrong. Fortunately, not all trips are total disasters.
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[lunkerhunter2]

No luck on fixing the motor yet. Thanks again Kent for ther gas tank.
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[Kent]

Need to fix the boat before I can have the outboard checked out. I am considering my options.
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[leaky]

Ok, you guys, now I'm pissed![mad] So what you say, well I guess I can go to the corner and suck my thumb. [unsure] You guys all give lunker all those condolances and me, nothing, except for TD who says he was looking for my hat. Well, I'll have you know that the bottom ripping out from under ya in a tube out in the middle of a lake with wind and waves is scary. Ok, I'm exaggerating a little but it's more scary than a motor going on the "fritz".
Seriously though, lunker, hope you're able to mend the motor and get back to God's gift of fishing. [] Obviously, it wasn't scary enough to stop my fishing.
Leaky

[ugmecaveman]

Well I guess my morning started out good, met leaky, nice again to meet you. and finally got my raft in da water. Rowing was easy enough, rowed out to LH2, on the way saying HI to TD. Thanks again for the minnows TD. No luck catching any fish though, more likely due to inexperience since I seen TD, FC, and Leaky catching some. Then the wind really picked up, which likes to blow my raft around alot. I anchored down about 75 feet from the bank. No luck there. So I rowed ashore, put the raft away and fished from the dike till about 11:30, still no luck, got some hits but no fish. I did find a nice lure though, looks brand new, Ill have LH2 tell me what its for. Still though, got out of the house, away from 2 jobs, and met some peeps, so I give it a 7 outta 10 for my day. [unsure]
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[lunkerhunter2]

I feel for ya leaky![unsure] I know how it is to have everything go wrong and have a tube go poop on ya. I was on the se corner about 150 yards out and a wiper spit a rattle trap at me from 3' and right into the right side of my kickboat. I was scared to death because i was loosing air faster than i could paddle![shocked] I finally made it to the dike with just enough air to keep my torso above the water. I will never have a single air bladder craft again!. Also, let this be a lesson to all who don't carry a life jacket![]
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