Chilly Floatilla on Utah Lake

[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Met up with fellow tuber/tooners Hnaf and pkred at Lincoln Beach this morning. Launched about 8:30 AM in 25 degree air temp and 38 degree water temp. Water not as muddy as I thought it might be.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Found a bunch of carpinskis stacked up in the shallow cover to the south of the boat dikes. Stretched my string on a few. Kept one for bait and perforated the rest on behalf of the Junies.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Also got into some white bass early. Only four feet of water. Some of them hit like midsummer. Little but fun. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Moved on down the flats toward Benjamin Slough. No hits on worms or minnows. Finally got a couple of white bass on a crawler and had one good chomp and boogie on a minnow. But, the dumb fish dropped it before I could do a lip piercing.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Found a few more white bass in 4 feet of water off the inlet of Benjamin slough. But, no toothy munches on anything I threw. Only white bass on small plastics and some of my drop shot flies.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Weather forecast said SE breezes. Actual? A cold north wind starting soon after we got on the water and lasting until we left at 2. Gee. That's never happened before. Destroyed my faith in weather forecasts...again.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Got a few more white bass back in the shallow cove area. So did Hnaf. Pkred caught at least one whitie but he had to leave early so not sure of his tally.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Water temp still only a little under 40 when we left. Still too chilly for much action on wallies or kitties. It will come.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]At least we all caught SOMETHING. No skunk smell today. And the tooners both got to check out some new mods on their rides. All in all a better day on the water than doing almost ANYTHING else.[/#0000ff]
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[albinotrout]

I hope to get out there this next week. Hopefully wednesday or thursday. Toon almost ready to play with.
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[idahopanfish]

Those white bass look fun, never have caught one
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[TubeDude]

[quote idahopanfish]Those white bass look fun, never have caught one[/quote]

[cool][#0000ff]They really are fun to catch...all year long. They bite well beneath the ice and are some of the first willing customers after ice out. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Whities have a big fan club. They are generally fairly easy to catch...when you can find them. They school up in a few spots in May for spawning and it is possible to catch two at a time on a tandem rig for as long as you want to keep making casts.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The state record white bass is about 4 pounds but that was caught many years ago during a cycle when there were fewer but bigger fish. Right now they average about 10[/#0000ff][#0000ff]" to 12" in Utah Lake, but there are quite a few taken in the 14" to 16" inch range each year. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]They typically hit hard and fight hard so they really are fun on light tackle. Great fish for kids and dads like to take their kids fishing for whities. But, they don't like all the cleaning that goes with it if they keep all the fish. If they do keep them they are great eating. Kinda like perch of the same size.[/#0000ff]
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[Majja]

Glad to see ya found some open water, and ya didnt even have to use a chainsaw to get it. Is this the first time you have been out on the tube this year?
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[TubeDude]

[quote Majja]Glad to see ya found some open water, and ya didnt even have to use a chainsaw to get it. Is this the first time you have been out on the tube this year?[/quote]

[cool][#0000ff]Utah Lake is ice free. But, last week when I tried to fish out of Lindon I got out of the open harbor and then got chased back in by a big sheet of windblown ice. All the time I was kicking up a roostertail to beat the ice back to the harbor I could hear Celine Dion singing in my head...the music from Titanic.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We are officially done with ice at Utah Lake and soon to be open completely at Willard. Planning an outing up there about next Tuesday. Leaving Celine Dion at home. No auger either.[/#0000ff]
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