Last Hurrah in the Cat Contest at Utah Lake - Printable Version +- Fishing Forum (https://bigfishtackle.com/forum) +-- Forum: Utah Fishing Forum (https://bigfishtackle.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=386) +--- Forum: Utah Fishing General (https://bigfishtackle.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=58) +--- Thread: Last Hurrah in the Cat Contest at Utah Lake (/showthread.php?tid=1102366)

Last Hurrah in the Cat Contest at Utah Lake - joatmon - 10-30-2022 I made it our Friday and Saturday for about 4 hours each day (afternoon into evening), trying to get a 30" or longer catfish to help my score in the contest.  With catchinon out of town, I had shore or canoe options available to me.  So canoe it was.   I launched my canoe off the rocks near the big spring off Lincoln Point.  It doesn't take long going north to get into deeper water (deeper meaning 5-6 feet).  I also assumed that that area of lake may have seen less pressure the last couple of months due to low water at Lincoln Beach harbor (see pic). Friday I paddled towards Bird Island and made it a little more than half way (see pic).  I dragged a santee rig off one side and a spin-n-glo off the other side, both tipped with white bass chunks.  Had one bite on the way out, no hook up.  I was able to drift most of the way back and that constant slow motion seemed to do the trick as I caught a couple in the 22-23" range, then hooked a bigger fish.  In the canoe with me it seemed like a monster, and really hoped it would meet or exceed 30".  Not to be, as it ended up at 28.5".  I had to start paddling soon after that to get off the lake for an evening activity, so no more bites.  I caught two cats on my white with red spots spin-n-glo rig with noisemaker (small plastic bubble with split shot in it, see pic) and the other cat on a chartreuse spin-n-glo rig. Saturday I launched about an hour later, but stayed until after sundown.  This time I circled back to the northwest around the point and in the general direction of the Knolls, but not nearly that far.  I caught my first fish about an hour in, a feisty 26" cat.  I missed several bites before catching a 25-incher.  I turned east and tried to drift but it was almost dead calm.  I even tried jigging for a few I could see on my finder, had one bite, but didn't really have appropriate gear for jigging.  So put both rods out with fresh white bass chunks.  At a very slow drift, and with low expectations, my right side rod tried to exit the boat.  Luckily I had it tethered.  Surely, I thought, this is the target 30-incher!  Meh, another 28.5" cat.  All three cats came on the white spin-n-glo rig with noisemaker. So I ended up with three cats each day, no bumpers for the contest, but it gave me a chance to troll with the canoe (and get a bit of a workout).  Generally, I caught fish in deeper water (5-6 feet) and further from shore.  The rocks on the bottom seem to extend some ways out, and I believe all fish I caught were beyond the rocks or at least where it was more sediment than rock.  I did get hung up one time closer to shore and had to circle back to free my rig. I tried really hard to be consistently slow while paddling, but it was hard to maintain a smooth slow speed and direction.  All fish were caught going 0.7 mph or slower (according to my speedometer app) and most came while drifting. It was a great cat contest for me, as I was able to earlier get a 31.5" cat at Utah Lake off catchinon's boat and another 31.5" cat from shore up north.  Most of my trips were with catchinon and I'm grateful he has a boat and invites me along.  It's sure a lot easier than canoeing! RE: Last Hurrah in the Cat Contest at Utah Lake - Piscophilic - 11-01-2022 Nice report, thanks for sharing. I'm glad you had a good contest season this year! Dirt Bag and I were also out for a last attempt on Saturday. We fished out of ULSP and started about 11:30 A.M. As I was bringing the boat to the dock to pick up Jon I noticed the water flow indicator was spitting and then it stopped completely. We weren't in a canoe, but stayed really close to home and just used the electric. The first 2-3 hours produced only a couple of weak inquires from the cats, but we got 4 or 5 WB. Then a little before 3 they woke up or we found the right combination of speed and location. We got 11 before the wind came up about 6 and shut them down and froze us out1 First time this year I could say we did better at speeds below 0.5 mph. Best cat of the day was 29.5. and nothing under 25". I sure hope the winter is kinder to us that the last couple. We barely found water 4 feet deep. Good luck in the ice season. RE: Last Hurrah in the Cat Contest at Utah Lake - SkunkedAgain - 11-01-2022 Congrats both of you guys, glad you made it out for one last contest trip... I was wanting to make it out, but never did... But next year I'll have the GH done so I hope to at least break a 27"er next year... Hope our cats up here get doing better, they were really sort of disappointing this year... Or maybe I need to go back to bank fishing.... Didn't do so well from the boat this year... Later J