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LINCOLN BEACH 11-11-13
#1
[#0000FF]TubeBabe finally finished up her annual fall family traveling schedule and wanted to go fishing this week. Today looked good, weatherwise, so we opted for Lincoln Beach. Supposed to meet up with Utwalleye but...like his namesake...he was a no show.

Launched our tubes about 7:30 am. Air temp 29 and water temp inside the boat channel 42...warming up to about 46 by 1 pm. Utah Lake has come up almost a foot in the last few weeks...since they closed the outlet gate of the Jordan River. Water depth inside the boat channel was just under 3 feet in most spots. Slightly deeper in others and about 5 feet just outside the channel entrance.

TubeBabe headed kinda easterly...to prospect for cats or ???? I motored around to the rock shelves and gravel bars off Lincoln Point. Zig zagged from 3' to over 7' of water on the way...watching sonar. Thought my sonar was broken. No fishies on the screen.

Made some casts around first spring with assorted plastics. Got some good "rockfish" but nothing that resembled the targeted walleyes. Worked all the usual past productive hangouts with nary a sniff on the plastics. The rocks that have been covered with water since 2005 are now emerging above the surface again. Hope we get some good snow this winter.

Moved out to deeper water (6') and began to drag some bait...small whole white bass. Hoping for a walleye but willing to settle for a nice channel cat. Had to deal with a "bull-eye" instead...a nasty little mud cat that snarfed my whitette. About that time TubeBabe announced on the walkie talkie that she was also being pestered by the pesky mudders.

As I moved down the shoreline of Lincoln Point I moved in to pitch lures from time to time...moving back out to drag bait and pitch small jigs the rest of the time. Picked up a few small white bass on the little jigs but nothing larger on larger stuff.

TubeBabe worked her way over to where I was fishing and we stayed close for the slow return back to the ramp. We both dinged a few more mudders and whities. I set the hook on one bullhead and it had shoulders. Turned out to be the solo channel cat of the day...about 23 inches. Kinda slow fight in the cold water but much better than anything else we brung in.

It was a pretty late fall day with mild temps and very little breeze. Almost glass most of the time. One of the highlights was a small plane that came by very low. If I had my 3" magnum loads I coulda dumped him fer shure.

Water was warming in the channel when we got out after noon. An old gent was just getting set up for the afternoon shift...soaking worms off the ramp. He advised that the white bass had been coming in late in the afternoon on warm days and that several folks were catching the heck out of them.

Had a nice outing with my child bride and got to stop at the "Lehi temple" to pick up an order I had waiting. What a great day.
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#2
Ncie to get out. This looks to be one of the last nice days in a little while. Storm front coming in mid week through the weekend. Enjoy it while you can.
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#3

looks like I didn't miss very much, my mother had a doctors procedure today
so I thought I better stick around to see whats going on. she's ok so I'm off
to try it in the morning even though you didn't do that well.
is the hot spring all exposed now with the dike on the east side ??
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#4
Those mudders sure are butt ugly! Do you eat those? Thanks for sharing the report on UL. Bet you cannot wait till it freezes.
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#5
"is the hot spring all exposed now with the dike on the east side ??"

[#0000FF]You can identify where the spring is...and the deep pool below it. But as has been the case for several years, there is not enough water flowing in from the spring to affect the temperature. Water inside is just the same as the surrounding lake. But there are supposedly some bullhead cats schooled up right in front of the spring in shallow water.

I did see some suspended fish out in front of the rock shelf but don't know if they were carp or good guys. They weren't having anything I offered.

Sorry we missed you. Good luck if you get down today.
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#6
[quote TyeDyeTwins]Those mudders sure are butt ugly! Do you eat those? Thanks for sharing the report on UL. Bet you cannot wait till it freezes.[/quote]

[#0000ff]Beauty is in the eye of the beholder...and I be older.

Yes, we do eat bullheads. Absolutely delicious. Small but filletable. And even though the meat is a bit dark when uncooked it turns nice and white when cooked.

The pics below show the uncooked and cooked fillets...and a BLT (bullhead, lettuce, tomato) poboy sammich made from the fillets. Good stuff.

I don't hit Utah Lake much under the ice. And this year it is likely to be pretty tough...with the drastic low water level. The harbors will all be too shallow for prime ice fishing and that is where most folks go on Utah Lake. Otherwise the fish roam around a lot under the ice and they are hard to find. Big lake.
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#7

I fished out about 100 yards from the spring in 6 to 7 feet of water. caught 7 whitebass and 4 mudders. no eyes hmmmmm. nice day though.
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#8
[#0000FF]Glad you were able to get out but sorry the wallies ignored you too.

Did the Aqua Seal patch hold up okay?
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#9

yep it sealed fine, I was out for over 6 hrs. and nice and firm all day. 2 guys showed up and fished right in the spring and were catching mudders in there pretty regularly.
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#10
Darn walleye....finicky fish anyway... I made a short trip to the pond myself this week...Didnt pound them or anything but had a few white bass that insisted on hanging on to one of your chartruese minnow head jigs. I was pleasantly surprised by both the size and the condition of the whities. Maybe I got lucky but most were 11 inches with a couple a little over 12 and they were not the skinny fish I have caught earlier in the year....Hope we have a good water year. Nice to see you got out with your sweetheart...never a bad way to spend the day.
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#11
"Nice to see you got out with your sweetheart...never a bad way to spend the day."

[#0000FF]Just don't tell my wife or I am in big trouble.

Glad you found some willing whities. In spite of the big hit they took during low water and long winter there have been some areas of the lake where they seem to have survived and prospered. Have had several good reports lately...of multiple fish and in good condition. They are also developing eggs and milt for a spawn in the spring so there is hope for a good reproduction year. To paraphrase a line from the movie Jurassic Park...whities always find a way.

Up until last week there were also quite a few walleyes coming in. Many over the 24" top end requirement. And they have been very fat and healthy...weighing much more than average for their length. But, like always, walleyes go where they want, when they want, and feed only when they feel like it. When food is plentiful...with all the young white bass still in the lake...they are often not in the mood at the same time anglers are.
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#12
I'm coming over to eat at your house TubeDude!!! Those look like some YUMMY FISH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Any advice on areas near Saratoga Springs that might be good right about now? They have just finished digging out our marina with a big back-hoe and probably ruined fishing there for a while. It was getting shallow and needed to be done though.

I'm hoping the fish won't stay away too long.

The pump house stopped pumping quite a while ago, and the river side is pretty much a puddle with lots of ground showing where the water used to be.

I think I'm going to head out on Saturday and see if I can catch anything, weather permitting of course.. I'm not one that likes Utah Lake when it gets windy.

Was going to hit Strawberry this morning, but my buddy was a bit wiser than I and suggested we wait for a day where it wasn't snowing. Maybe next week..
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#13
So what size shot would you use on that "duck" TD? Is that a 3" 2 shot kind of deal or are we stepping up to BBB?
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#14
[#0000FF]The west side of Utah Lake has not been seeing many successful reports lately. Water is too shallow and the slope of the bottom is too gradual to find many fish close to shore. You need to get out far enough to find at least 5 to 6 feet of water in the main lake. But there are white bass and mudders coming inside American Fork and other harbors...even in the shallower water. That's because that shallow water warms up faster than the main lake on warm days. Think late afternoon and fish the south-facing banks.

With the warm springs coming into Saratoga it won't take long for the fishies to move back in. They will love having both deeper water and a hot tub. If you go afloat you can also fish outside the springs to the north of Saratoga Harbor.

I have not fished the channel (old Jordan River outlet) at the pumphouse since they diked it off last year. But most years there is additional depth in that channel and white bass and cats move in during the pre-iceup periods. Also some walleyes at first light and right around dark.

Good luck and post your reports. Lotsa folks kinda anxious about the potential for fall and winter fishing in those parts.
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#15
[quote fish_or_die]So what size shot would you use on that "duck" TD? Is that a 3" 2 shot kind of deal or are we stepping up to BBB?[/quote]

[#0000FF]No, no, no. You misunderstood. When I said 3" magnum I was referring to an anti-aircraft round about 3" across. Maybe my .50 cal. PWC gun might take care of it.[/#0000FF]

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