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Weather reports be damned, I'm going fishing.
I met up with fellow BFTer UtahLakeCats and set out for a trip around the bubble up. The weather was much better than projected. Cloudy, with a slight breeze from time to time, but I've braved Utah Lake in a tube with much more ferocious weather. We made launch about 7:45 am.
One of my goals was to refill my bag of purina, and it came pretty quickly. While I was fighting the beautiful Golden Tarpon, my carp meat rod took a run... Fish on! Not for long. I was so worried about getting my bait fix for the year, that the cat rod went slack, and she was free. It didn't feel heavy anywho. Landed the carp... "legally" on a gold castmaster.
About 20 minutes later my shrimp rod took a bend. Landed a solid kitty. I was too lazy to measure it and add her to the contest, but my estimate is 24 inches. Why do our southern cats look so much nicer than the ugos from up north?
I threw a few lures/jigs for a little bit with no fish to show.
ULC hooked up with a cat as well, perhaps he'll post a pic.
Long story short, it was a slow day, but a great day. Weather was decent, fishing was fantastic, catching was slow. I think one week of 60+ degree temps and we're on.
Pics posted below. My old method of picture posting isn't working.[frown]
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Nice fish. I'm going to ask one of the stupidest questions on this forum. Back in the day I had not trouble hooking into a carp. Nowdays, I can't get them to bite. I've tried worms and bread. What do you put on your carp pole to land one of those beasts?
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[#0000FF]Glad you were able to get out and bend your stick. Nice pics. I liked the one of the grebe. There were quite a few in that area on Friday too. We talked about how pretty their feathers are up close...unless they go for your eyes. Had them do that a couple of times when they got wrapped up in a jig rig. Nasty.
Looks like a nice healthy cat.
Might head down there this next week with TubeBabe. Will be her first trip out this year. She got a 10 pounder on her first trip there last year.
Yeah, a few more degrees of warm and some water coming out of the pipe should get more fish active in that area.
Next time down you might try the flats between the ends of the channel openings and the wastewater inflow. There seemed to be a few fish in there last Friday...but all inexperienced and didn't know how to hang on. But we have caught a lot of good fish there in the past...cats, walleyes and white bass.
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This one "took" a castmaster. But, if a carp wont take bread, it won't take anything.
I've noticed that catching a carp on purpose is only done when you can actually see them. I haven't met a carp that I could see in the water, that wouldn't take bread. Though I have caught random carp on worms, shrimp, and even a couple on a white curly tail.
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Thanks for identifying the bird, I was going to call it a duck. ![[Image: happy.gif]](http://www.bigfishtackle.com/images/gforum/happy.gif) Real pretty feather pattern. It's funny how slowly they move on top of the water, but they take a dunk and show up 30 yards away in seconds. I'd like to see a gopro attached to one of those things.
I actually think there was a little water coming out of the pipe at the last couple buoys, but it was hard to tell with a little chop on the water. Certainly not at full flow. It was nice to see the entire pipe submerged, I don't recall seeing that last year.
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Hey! What do you mean our northern cats are uglier? You're probably right though, SMALLER fish are definitely cuter ]
Nice cat and you were definitely right to go fishing despite the weather forecast. I did the same yesterday and it was a great time.
Now, we're almost ready to start measuring our cats up here and puttin the hurt on you southern folk! Just a couple more weeks[  ]
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[#0000FF]The pipe was out of the water early in the year last year but once they opened the gates at the pump house it came out near the shoreline pretty fast. And by the end of the year it was out of the water about 2/3 of the way to the end. Hopefully we get some more water in the lake and it stays up higher through the year.
There are several species of grebes. Those western grebes are fish eaters. They can stretch out their long necks and streamline themselves under water...propelling themselves forward with their webbed feet. The move fast and can turn on a dime and hand you change when chasing down prey. After the carp and white bass spawn are large enough to see and eat they go nuts down there.
They are fun to watch in the spring when mating. Male and female will swim side by side for a ways and then suddenly both get up on top of the water with just their feet in the water...churning like crazy as they "run" across the top of the water with their necks arched...as in the pic below. We should be seeing that pretty soon around the lake.
[inline "mating grebes.jpg"]
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[quote gmwahl]Hey! What do you mean our northern cats are uglier? You're probably right though, SMALLER fish are definitely cuter![:p] [/quote]
Spots and all. Well put. [blush]
[inline Frogfish.jpg]
Agro runoff vs toxic metals and PCBs, hmm - not sure which mutates faster. I've noticed the UL cats seem much darker, while our Cutler kitties have a nice bronze tan. Not to mention the compare of their Black Bullheads vs our Glow in the dark iridescent mudders. You can understand why we call them YELLOW bellies.
[inline "YELLOW belly.jpg"]
I often find myself hooking into Carp when I'm fishing for something else. Light rod, light tackle - even a moderate carp can be a beastly surprise!
[inline "11.MostDiverseBR Bag_8_12.JPG"]
Sometimes a small offering is all it takes:
[inline "One jig ro rule them all.JPG"]
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Nice dance pic there TD. Dancing with the Grebes..
Was gonner say, "if it walks like a duck, and talks like a duck".
Dragged a perch around Hyrum once, bouncing along the surface - had a group of seagulls dive bombing it. I REALLY did not want to play "James and the Giant Peach" and string up one of those.
Carp can have some serious guts to em. Guts is good bait so I'm told.
[inline "44lb Mirror Carp.png"]
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[#0000FF]I've had grebes hit lures and even snarf minnows I was dragging for bait. Like a lot of people they sometimes open their mouths before they think things through.
Used to hook lots of gulls and other flying fish eaters while "fly-lining" live chovies and sardines off the coast of California. Illegal to "permanently cure" them but we would bring one in...avoiding the snapping beak...and tie a partially inflated pink balloon to one leg before releasing it. As it flew off trailing the flapping pink "morsel" it was usually followed by the rest of the gulls who tried to steal whatever it was that gull had. The peace and quiet only lasted a short while but often enough to get a real bite from a real fish.
I'll see your "big" carp and raise you this one:
[inline 1fatty.jpg]
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Haha, that sounds terrible. I'm glad they weren't hungry for shrimp or carp meat yesterday.
I did once accidently catch a duck on a community pond using bread. I was only 12 or so at the time, and I was terrified.
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He, well played ol' man!
[inline Corbomite.jpg]
They sure do love their carp over in Europe. Seen some bowfishing youtube posts with some VILE responses from them that treasure the behemoth gamefish. They can have em back. But I'd trade for some of these!
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FMF-- Nice cat. You probably should have entered it in the contest. It's had to have any throw-back at those northern guys when we have only big ZEROS on the contest page. Painful.
Hey, with 70+ degree weather promised next week it will surely bring the water temps up a few degrees so the real action can begin. We'll show 'em! [mad]
BLK
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Nice! I hadn't looked at the weather, that should wake the kitties up.
Yeah, I should have probably put it in the contest, but I had left my BFT logo in the car and didn't feel like keeping the cat. Besides, that one is just a minnow compared to the ones we'll be hauling in here before too long.
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[quote Boatloadakids]... when we have only big ZEROS on the contest page. Painful. . . [/quote]
"Southern entries, big, and zero" - about the only way to put those three together in one sentence alrighty! [:p]
I threw my first three on the board, so at least someone looked like the contest had started. Wasn't going to bump for an inch better. They're all horse-douvres so far anyway. Couple other N-mates have some starters too. Best is yet to come.
Hard to predict the weather the way this spring has been so far. [mad]
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