06-26-2009, 12:11 AM
[cool][#0000ff]A motley group of us tubers and tooners convened upon the shores of Utah Lake, at the Knolls this morning. There was TubeBabe and myself, Waljustia, Wildcat94 and his brother Wes and a newbie tuber...FishKillr. Air was almost 70 and partly cloudy, but only light breezes almost all day. Water was clean green and 67 at launch, warming to 73 by the time we got out after 1 PM.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]TubeBabe was first launched...as usual. That girl don't mess around when there's catfish to be chased. She was anxious to kill the skunk that she brought home from Yuba on Tuesday. Waljustia was right behind her.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Bryce and Wes launched their toons next and started down the shoreline, west toward the rock point. I launched next and coaxed FishKiller into his first launch in his new tube. He did great. A video of his first launch would not have been worth much on Funniest Videos. Didn't take him too long to get the hang of using the fins for turns and straightaway propulsion. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Wildcat94 scored the first fish, a nice kitty on a Roadrunner jig being cast for whities or wallies. Brother Wes caught the second cat, fairly close to shore, under a bobber.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]TubeBabe and Waljustia had moved right down off the rocky point and were reporting a few bites but no fish landed. TubeBabe finally scored a 22 incher to kill her skunk. Yeah, TB. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]My first fish was a spotted 13" bitty kitty. Took his picture, spanked him and sent him back to Mommy. My second was a bit better...a 22 inch "Utah Lake cookie cutter". We ended up catching several that size today.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Fishing was slow. Waljustia had to boogie back to work before it warmed up. Not sure how our newbie tuber did. I think he beat a hasty retreat back to the car when an unanticipated breeze came up from the east. After what I had warned him about, he did not want to get caught too far away if the wind got serious. I suppose his inexperienced tuber legs were probably feeling the exertion too.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Once the sun fought its way out of the clouds, the water temp jumped up a bit and the kitties got more busier. We were all getting bites and hooking a few fish. Bryce (WC94) popped a few nice ones. But, his biggest...and probably our biggest overall fish of the day...was too big to fit in his wimpy net and his wimpy basket. He landed it on a light rod okay but could not fit it into his small basket. I donated a 30 year old custom rope stringer I had made long ago for fish too big to go into the basket. But...the fish, who we shall now call Houdini, did an escape act and got away with my heirloom stringer. Poor Bryce felt worse about losing my funky old stringer than losing his big fish.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]TubeBabe and I kept pace through the day, with both of us announcing fish caught and released fairly regularly. We both ended up with about 10 caught...keeping a combined total of about half of that...throwing back several bigguns and keeping a few cookies for the fillet board. We both released fish in the 26 to 27 inch category. I think WC94's biggest cat (Houdini) would have probably beat our best by a couple of inches.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Poor Wes. He was undergunned in the tackle department. He landed one cat early and lost a couple more, including one big one he rassled for a long time before it tangled up in his net and broke off.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The highlight of my day was a DOUBLE. i had fished a long time without a bite. Then, just as I was trying to take a bite of a sandwich, one of my two bait rods bounced, the line popped out of the clip and I had a runner. I set the hook and was battling a spunky cat when suddenly the line on my other rod started streaming out too. So, I adjusted the drag on the first rod and stuck it in the right side holder. Then, as the fish fought itself, I set the hook on the second rod. Two large cats hooked up at the same time. Much fun. Got the first one worked in and scooped in the net. Propped that rod in a holder, picked up the second rod, fought that fish in and scooped it in the net with the first fish. A daily double on 22" chunky cookies.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Lots of carp wallowing against the shore today. Waljustia scooped one in his net as he came in to leave for work. I was wishing I had brought my bow. Lots of toothless golden walleyes.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Good company, good weather and fairly good catching. For anybody else planning a trip, we didn't find many fish shallow. And several groups of bank tanglers did not last long. They left after going fishless for a while. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]All of our best action was in 9 to 10 feet of water. Early we caught most fish on carp meat, but later we caught our biggest fish on whole large chub minnows.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Covered a lot of water today and got wored out fighting big kitties. But, I'll deal wit it.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]TubeBabe was first launched...as usual. That girl don't mess around when there's catfish to be chased. She was anxious to kill the skunk that she brought home from Yuba on Tuesday. Waljustia was right behind her.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Bryce and Wes launched their toons next and started down the shoreline, west toward the rock point. I launched next and coaxed FishKiller into his first launch in his new tube. He did great. A video of his first launch would not have been worth much on Funniest Videos. Didn't take him too long to get the hang of using the fins for turns and straightaway propulsion. [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Wildcat94 scored the first fish, a nice kitty on a Roadrunner jig being cast for whities or wallies. Brother Wes caught the second cat, fairly close to shore, under a bobber.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]TubeBabe and Waljustia had moved right down off the rocky point and were reporting a few bites but no fish landed. TubeBabe finally scored a 22 incher to kill her skunk. Yeah, TB. [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]My first fish was a spotted 13" bitty kitty. Took his picture, spanked him and sent him back to Mommy. My second was a bit better...a 22 inch "Utah Lake cookie cutter". We ended up catching several that size today.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Fishing was slow. Waljustia had to boogie back to work before it warmed up. Not sure how our newbie tuber did. I think he beat a hasty retreat back to the car when an unanticipated breeze came up from the east. After what I had warned him about, he did not want to get caught too far away if the wind got serious. I suppose his inexperienced tuber legs were probably feeling the exertion too.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Once the sun fought its way out of the clouds, the water temp jumped up a bit and the kitties got more busier. We were all getting bites and hooking a few fish. Bryce (WC94) popped a few nice ones. But, his biggest...and probably our biggest overall fish of the day...was too big to fit in his wimpy net and his wimpy basket. He landed it on a light rod okay but could not fit it into his small basket. I donated a 30 year old custom rope stringer I had made long ago for fish too big to go into the basket. But...the fish, who we shall now call Houdini, did an escape act and got away with my heirloom stringer. Poor Bryce felt worse about losing my funky old stringer than losing his big fish.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]TubeBabe and I kept pace through the day, with both of us announcing fish caught and released fairly regularly. We both ended up with about 10 caught...keeping a combined total of about half of that...throwing back several bigguns and keeping a few cookies for the fillet board. We both released fish in the 26 to 27 inch category. I think WC94's biggest cat (Houdini) would have probably beat our best by a couple of inches.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Poor Wes. He was undergunned in the tackle department. He landed one cat early and lost a couple more, including one big one he rassled for a long time before it tangled up in his net and broke off.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]The highlight of my day was a DOUBLE. i had fished a long time without a bite. Then, just as I was trying to take a bite of a sandwich, one of my two bait rods bounced, the line popped out of the clip and I had a runner. I set the hook and was battling a spunky cat when suddenly the line on my other rod started streaming out too. So, I adjusted the drag on the first rod and stuck it in the right side holder. Then, as the fish fought itself, I set the hook on the second rod. Two large cats hooked up at the same time. Much fun. Got the first one worked in and scooped in the net. Propped that rod in a holder, picked up the second rod, fought that fish in and scooped it in the net with the first fish. A daily double on 22" chunky cookies.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Lots of carp wallowing against the shore today. Waljustia scooped one in his net as he came in to leave for work. I was wishing I had brought my bow. Lots of toothless golden walleyes.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Good company, good weather and fairly good catching. For anybody else planning a trip, we didn't find many fish shallow. And several groups of bank tanglers did not last long. They left after going fishless for a while. [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]All of our best action was in 9 to 10 feet of water. Early we caught most fish on carp meat, but later we caught our biggest fish on whole large chub minnows.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Covered a lot of water today and got wored out fighting big kitties. But, I'll deal wit it.[/#0000ff]
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