04-25-2007, 08:56 PM
[cool][#0000ff]Couldn't stand it anymore. Had to go fishing. Headed for Utah Lake west side. Shoulda waited a couple of days for the water to warm a couple of degrees.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Launched near the Knolls about 7 AM. 40 degree air temp and 53 water temp. I expected cooler. No skeeters or midges. Also no carp splashing or rolling. They have gone back on hold too.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Calm at launch but a stout east breeze came up almost as soon as I was in the water (naturally). Had to kick a lot just to maintain position...up and down in the chop. Put out a minnow on one rod and casted plastics with the other. Got lots of snags but no fish on either.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]The wind and waves were too much to effectively fish bobbers around the shoreline brush. Stayed outside and kept donating minnows and carp meat to snags. Lots of rocks and flooded brush, if you are fishing in the right area.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]The bouncy water started to settle down about 9. Got my first fish, a 24" 5# channel cat a couple of minutes after 9. Only one other runner all day.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Finally got into an area with some white bass on the screen. Got a few hits and brought in one wiggly wittle whitie. Got another hit a few minutes later and was reeling in what seemed to be a larger white bass when it came to the top a few feet from the tube, rolled and thrashed, and spit the jig. Not a whitie but a wallie. Woulda been about 22' and maybe 3#. That's the third or fourth walleye I have had on and lost this year...and none landed.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]One of my main objectives was to see if the cats have moved in around the shoreline reeds and brush yet, so I rigged a slip bobber and floated a piece of carp meat around some of the visible stickups. BANG, BANG. Two mudders, but no channels. I worked quite a long stretch of shoreline and around several reed clumps. Cold murky water and repeated windstorms seem to have been keeping the kitties deeper.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]I had only brought one bag of minnows and a small amount of carp meat. The bottom snags ate the rest of what I had left and the fish ignored it. So, I hoisted my tube and my carcass out of the water about noon. [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]The good news is that the water temps are coming up fast in the warm weather. The temp rose from 53 to 57 while I was there, in spite of two hours of cool east wind. A few more warm days and the cats will be crashing the shorelines for their annual spawning thing. From early May until October those kitties will provide lots of enjoys to anglers who know how to float a bobber near shallow cover.[/#0000ff]
[signature]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Launched near the Knolls about 7 AM. 40 degree air temp and 53 water temp. I expected cooler. No skeeters or midges. Also no carp splashing or rolling. They have gone back on hold too.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Calm at launch but a stout east breeze came up almost as soon as I was in the water (naturally). Had to kick a lot just to maintain position...up and down in the chop. Put out a minnow on one rod and casted plastics with the other. Got lots of snags but no fish on either.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]The wind and waves were too much to effectively fish bobbers around the shoreline brush. Stayed outside and kept donating minnows and carp meat to snags. Lots of rocks and flooded brush, if you are fishing in the right area.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]The bouncy water started to settle down about 9. Got my first fish, a 24" 5# channel cat a couple of minutes after 9. Only one other runner all day.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Finally got into an area with some white bass on the screen. Got a few hits and brought in one wiggly wittle whitie. Got another hit a few minutes later and was reeling in what seemed to be a larger white bass when it came to the top a few feet from the tube, rolled and thrashed, and spit the jig. Not a whitie but a wallie. Woulda been about 22' and maybe 3#. That's the third or fourth walleye I have had on and lost this year...and none landed.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]One of my main objectives was to see if the cats have moved in around the shoreline reeds and brush yet, so I rigged a slip bobber and floated a piece of carp meat around some of the visible stickups. BANG, BANG. Two mudders, but no channels. I worked quite a long stretch of shoreline and around several reed clumps. Cold murky water and repeated windstorms seem to have been keeping the kitties deeper.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]I had only brought one bag of minnows and a small amount of carp meat. The bottom snags ate the rest of what I had left and the fish ignored it. So, I hoisted my tube and my carcass out of the water about noon. [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]The good news is that the water temps are coming up fast in the warm weather. The temp rose from 53 to 57 while I was there, in spite of two hours of cool east wind. A few more warm days and the cats will be crashing the shorelines for their annual spawning thing. From early May until October those kitties will provide lots of enjoys to anglers who know how to float a bobber near shallow cover.[/#0000ff]
[signature]
