Lincoln Beach Midge Mash 4-12-06

[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Man, am I glad that midges ain't skeeters. I woulda died of blood loss.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Launched out off the orchards at Lincoln Beach about 7 AM. Water temp 52.5 and air temp not too much lower. Light north breeze (not the forecast south breeze...again). In short order I would be wishing for more breeze to keep the bugs away. Swarm city.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Kicked out off the long ledge to about 3 feet deep and started casting plastic. About the second cast I had a good hit, set the hook and had a nice little walleye about 19 or 20 inches right up to the net before he volunteered to release himself. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]No problem, I would cast back out and do it again, right? Nope. No more walleye action all morning. Several casts later I did have another smack and brought in my first and only white bass. It was a feisty male, dripping milt. Looks like the spawn is not far off.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]There must have been a school of white bass moving through. I had several more whacks on the larger plastic, without hooking up. I never did use smaller plastics or spinners. Probably could have caught a few more whites before they boogied.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Worked out into about six feet of water and began casting a tandem rig with heavier heads. WHAM. Hard fight, suspected either a walleye or a cat. WRONG. Buglemouth. He hit the bottom black and chartreuse plastic. Give him a complimentary gillectomy and released him unharmed. Still have plenty of carp meat for bait and did not want to mess with it.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Did not see any fish on sonar or have any more inquiries for about an hour so I decided to go try for cats on the flats. Can't drag bait very well on the rock shelves. You snag up every five feet.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]As I approached my car I was challenged with "Hey, I'm trying to fish here". Some guy in a white truck had a line out and was acting like he owned the whole lake. About the time we were getting down to "exchanging pleasantries", I recognized BFT member "fishluvr". He was "having me on."[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]He had one bite as I was coming in, but we both packed up and headed for the south jetty of the boat channel. While he soaked bait from shore, (and took a nap) I kicked over to the "kitty zone". They must have gone out of town for Easter weekend. I fished a long time before getting a tentative pickup. I finessed it and set the hook into a surprised bullhead. It was my first one landed this year. The little bugger took a whole minnow that was almost as big as he was.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]After almost another hour without any more hits, either on bait or plastic, I started kicking slowly across the deeper part of the bay on the way back to my vehicle. In about 7 feet of water, the loop of line jumped out of the bait outrigger and line spooled off the open bail. Yahoo. Set the hook in a 19 inch channel kitty. That was four species...one fish each. If I had netted the walleye I hooked earlier, it would have been a five fish Utah Lake "grand slime". [/#0000ff][#0000ff]Kept the channel cat for some "kitty scampi".[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The increasing cool north breeze kept the water temps from warming in the occasional sunshine. It was still barely 54 degrees when I got off the water at 1 PM. That will probably take a jump if Thursday's forecast is correct.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I don't think it was a stellar day for anyone on the lake, at least that I observed. There were three boats trolling and two of them admitted that they had not had a bite all morning. Not sure how fishluvr did after I left him by his ownself.[/#0000ff]
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[Carp_Punisher]

[#505000]Well I doubt fishluver will get on here but I got his report. I guess he got one more whack on the south jetty but failed to hook up. sounds like he was too busy napping. [/#505000]
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[#505000]I'm going to try and slam it tomorrow afternoon. I'll be sure to post a report.[/#505000]
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[PrinceFisher]

[cool]Even if you don't catch a lot of fish, your reports are still mighty nice to read. Thanks for all the nice pics and an informative fish tale.

I'm still trying to decide between heading to UL or Salem Pond this Friday in the a.m., since this "Good" Friday is a company-paid holiday for me.

I fished SP about a week ago and got a largemouth to bump a Senko pretty hard two or three times before leaving it alone, had a nice channel on for two or three shakes of his head under a bobber with bait until he spat out my offering, and ended up catching and releasing several hatchery pets because they were the only ones who wanted to play that day.

Hopefully one of these destinations will treat me a bit more hospitably this Friday.

Then, there's the thought I often have about donning my fly fishing garb and finessing the Provo River with miniature bits of fluff, but I'm getting to the point that I don't like getting beat up by the trout snobs anymore if I decide not to release one of the many legal fish I catch and choose to bring one home.

Decisions, decisions...
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]We will have to meet up on SP one of these days. TubeBabe has never fished it yet. Pretty little playground. Maybe I'll have to finesse a bass or two.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We've decided to go back down to Lincoln tomorrow morning. As slow as it was today, it's gotta turn on tomorrow. [/#0000ff]
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[PrinceFisher]

There's one place in particular on SP where I've always gotten at least a bite or two from the largies, and often I manage to land a few there. During the spawn, which isn't far off, you ought to drive on down, and I'll show you and TubeBabe the hotspots.

When the largies don't want to play anymore, we'll move on over to our tried-and-true catfish hole and see how willing they are.
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[Theekillerbee]

[font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1][font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1][#0000ff]Give him a complimentary gillectomy and released him unharmed.[/#0000ff][/size][/black][/font][/size][/black][/font]

You are killing me Pat! Isn't that a contradiction in terms? Of course I am a big supporter of gillectomies of the bugle mouths, so no harm, no foul.
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[road]

Question about SP. Isn't that were they train the water dogs? By that I mean retrivers, labs, chessys, you know water dogs. My wife said that to me last night (shes a dog trainer). So if they training dogs whats that do for the fishin?
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[Kraizee_Skot]

[font "Arial Black"][#ff4040][size 3]That sucks about the wally getting loose. Looks like you still had a fun day though. Four species a day, I could live with that...even though it was only 1 each. [/size][/#ff4040][/font]
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[Out4Trout]

[cool]I had a feeling you were out there this morning when your usual responses weren't on the board. Lucky dog!! I'm thinking of taking a floating holiday I have due on Friday. Was going to go out with BassAckward on Monday, but that forcrash is starting to look worse and worse. I've gotta strike while the iron is hot (and the winds are low). Good luck tomorrow. I have a feeling you guys are gonna do quite well. Looking forward to that report...
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[raymariner]

Pat, It is so nice reading another article from you. After following this forum for a while, I am wondering if there is a chance we can have a seminar. I am so eager to learn things from experienced fishermen like you. As you can see, I am a student-type fisherman, I have already had many questions in my pocket.
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Thanks for the kind comments. I am always available for any kind of get-together that members want to have. In the past we have had BFT jig making parties, float tubing floatillas, etc. I have also done sessions on fish filleting, cooking, and other topics.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We started to have a walleye seminar last fall, but it got "weathered" out. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]If anybody has a spot we can get together, we can gather to exchange information and ideas on tackle, rigging, techniques, hooks, baits, etc. If the timing is right, we can do it on the water, followed by demos on filleting and cooking. Even if it will be inside somewhere, I might be able to go out a day ahead and get a couple of fish for filleting demo.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We are all students, all our lives. And, we all learn by interacting with others. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Hey, Bassackwards, is your warehouse still available for "parties"?[/#0000ff]
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