Sheepish tubing

[TubeDude]

[#0000ff][cool]We normally don't like to fish the early morning just after a cold front had moved through. But we could only fish a short day today so we launched at the Knolls about 7 AM. Not to sounds of chirping birds but to the drive-you-crazy bleating of a thousand sheep. They were running down the road next to us and up the hills...each trying to outbleat the other. And there wasn't a cute one in the bunch.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Water was calm and the sun was coming up as we launched. Air temp 40 and water temp 56. Too cold but we got a few white bass out away from the bank as we worked our way to the point. Then the SW breeze that was forecast came blasting in from the east. Standard. It got worse and worse as the morning passed and it was hard to fish with any kind of finesse. It was supposed to be glass after 9 am but the glass got broken.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Couldn't even fish our spots for catfish. Barely able to smack a few white bass...and one silly carp that climbed on my second jig while I was reeling in a white bass on the top jig. Toothless golden walleye. Good fight and accepted my invitation to come home to the fillet board...for future bait.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]About 10:30 the wind was blowing harder and the water temp had barely reached 57. We motored back toward our vehicle and got almost there...just as the wind died down. Now that it was a bit calmer we put out the catfish rods and found a few willing kitties. TubeBabe scored the first and the biggest...about 25" and just over 8#. We each kept 4 for the smoker...with each of us catching fish in the 22" class as well as a couple of cookies.[/#0000ff]

[#0000ff]Had to get off the water about 1 ish so we hit the beach and were packing up when Fishkillr and Ivan showed up. Double trouble. Good to hear that the whities moved in shallow. Water temps were just bouncing off the underside of 60 when we left.[/#0000ff]

[#0000ff]At least that place smelled more like sheep than skunk today. Turned out pretty good after all.[/#0000ff]
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[pa]

Great report and pictures as usual. In the "not far from the car " picture, how deep is the water there? I'm heading out there Sunday I think. Good job Pat.
pa
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[BigEZ]

Seems like it's only about six feet or so right there. What say you TD?
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[idahopanfish]

Great report and awesome day!
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]TubeBabe and I caught all of our cats in water over 6 feet deep. The magic depth seemed to be about 7 - 7.5 feet. That was also the best depth on my last trip there a couple of weeks ago and almost always produces at the Knolls.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]However, with the warming temps the cats will move shallower...if you can find shallower water. The lake has risen almost two feet in the past couple of weeks. It is now over 4 feet deep right off the bank in many spots.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The cats are not ready to spawn yet. A couple of the females we kept yesterday had egg skeins but the eggs were still very small and undeveloped. It will probably be a few weeks yet before the cats are rollin' in the rocks and reeds. But they will still move into the shoreline structure to feed and bait under a bobber in shallower water will be a good way to catch them. We did not get one bite on bobber-bait rigs in shallower water yesterday.[/#0000ff]
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Last week it would have been about 5.5 to 6' deep where we caught the cats. But the water has really come up a lot since then. Now it is well over a foot deeper.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]In that picture "High Tide Launch" you can see the flooded brush. Two weeks ago the water line was right at the roots on those bushes when I launched there. I thought it was high then. See pic.[/#0000ff]
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[peter805]

Love the report as always TD. Those Sheep are cute =)
Thank you for sharing.

Peter
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]I didn't see any cute ones but several were giving me the eye. And when they say "Baaaa" it can sound a lot like "Paaaat". [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Too bad my wife was with me...or maybe it was a good thing. Those cross-species relationships never work out.[/#0000ff]
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[BigEZ]

Honest officer, I was just helping that sheep over the fence. []

A few weeks back that water was right at the roots as you said. The water is really rising.
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[peter805]

lol []
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