06-22-2007, 01:24 AM
I debated about where to go fishing today. I wanted to fish Pineview. I took a drive up there on Tuesday just to look for a good place to launch.
I asked one of our fellow BFT'ers and one person on the DWR site for a good place to launch a pontoon. Both gave me some good ideas on where to try.
After looking around, I found a place where I could launch if I had help to carry the toon or I could just take the float tube. Or launch from the boat ramps. The boat traffic at Pineview was fairly heavy, I didn't think I wanted to fight it.
After much debate with myself, I decided to try on the west side of Utah lake again.
I have tried it a number of times this year with little or no luck.
I launched North of the Knolls at about 6:00 am, the water was 70.8 degrees and warmed to over 77 degrees before I left at 2:00 pm.
I had the first fish in the basket at 7:00 am. The catching was slow but steady throughout the day.
I ended up catching 7 channel cats, 2 mud cats and 2 white bass. The biggest cat was 9 lbs, one 7 lb, a couple between 5 and 6, two were 2 lbs and one right at a pound.
All of the fish were caught on minnows under a bobber and right up in the reeds.
I tried plastics, crank baits and the minnows. I tried the minnows on the bottom and under a bobber. The only luck I had was with the minnow under a bobber and dropped about 3 feet down.
I lost 4 fish, one broke off and three just didn't hang on. I was a little anxious at first, on one of the first bites, the bobber barely went down when I set the hook hard. The bobber and hook hit me right in the middle of the chest. I settled down after that.
Around 1:00 pm, I was trying to get a carp bite something and I didn't notice my other line getting tangled my anchor and such. I chased the line into the reeds and it felt like a fish but it also felt like it was just hung up. I thought I lost the fish, so I was trying to retrieve the hook and bobber. I used the net to try and push it off of the reeds when I saw a fin. I dropped the net down lower and found a 2 pound cat on the end of the line.
I was retrieving one of my lines a short time later, I was pulling it in pretty fast when a cat grabbed it and took off. He managed to tangle the other line with the line he was on.
I finally got him in the net and was trying to get the other line untangled and the spines cut off when the cat put a spine right through the side of one of my pontoons.
I started to panic, as there was no way I could get to shore with the heavy reeds in the area. I was in about 4' of water.
In the process of getting the cat out of the net, I turned the net wrong side out and the fish fell in the water. I thought, Great! a hole in the pontoon and I lost the fish.
I went to reel in the other line in and I felt something pulling on it. I brought it in, and the cat was still tangled up in this line. So, I ended up with it in the basket anyway.
I moved as fast as I could to get back to the truck before sinking.
Turns out, I didn't have to move as fast as I thought. Even though the pontoon was leaking, it didn't go down as fast as I thought it would.
Two hours later when I got home, it still had lots of air in it.
I patched the hole but, the problem I am having now is the pontoon won't fill up right. It doesn't fill out the cover right by the valve. I let the air out and tried to move the bladder around a number of times and it still won't fill it out correctly.
The inside of the cover had a white powder in it, I don't know if that was something like a baby powder to allow the bladder to move around or what it was.
I am going to try and mess with it again tomorrow and see if it will fit right.
If anyone has experience with messing with a Fish cat pontoon bladder and getting it to fit back in right, I would appreciate the help.
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I asked one of our fellow BFT'ers and one person on the DWR site for a good place to launch a pontoon. Both gave me some good ideas on where to try.
After looking around, I found a place where I could launch if I had help to carry the toon or I could just take the float tube. Or launch from the boat ramps. The boat traffic at Pineview was fairly heavy, I didn't think I wanted to fight it.
After much debate with myself, I decided to try on the west side of Utah lake again.
I have tried it a number of times this year with little or no luck.
I launched North of the Knolls at about 6:00 am, the water was 70.8 degrees and warmed to over 77 degrees before I left at 2:00 pm.
I had the first fish in the basket at 7:00 am. The catching was slow but steady throughout the day.
I ended up catching 7 channel cats, 2 mud cats and 2 white bass. The biggest cat was 9 lbs, one 7 lb, a couple between 5 and 6, two were 2 lbs and one right at a pound.
All of the fish were caught on minnows under a bobber and right up in the reeds.
I tried plastics, crank baits and the minnows. I tried the minnows on the bottom and under a bobber. The only luck I had was with the minnow under a bobber and dropped about 3 feet down.
I lost 4 fish, one broke off and three just didn't hang on. I was a little anxious at first, on one of the first bites, the bobber barely went down when I set the hook hard. The bobber and hook hit me right in the middle of the chest. I settled down after that.
Around 1:00 pm, I was trying to get a carp bite something and I didn't notice my other line getting tangled my anchor and such. I chased the line into the reeds and it felt like a fish but it also felt like it was just hung up. I thought I lost the fish, so I was trying to retrieve the hook and bobber. I used the net to try and push it off of the reeds when I saw a fin. I dropped the net down lower and found a 2 pound cat on the end of the line.
I was retrieving one of my lines a short time later, I was pulling it in pretty fast when a cat grabbed it and took off. He managed to tangle the other line with the line he was on.
I finally got him in the net and was trying to get the other line untangled and the spines cut off when the cat put a spine right through the side of one of my pontoons.
I started to panic, as there was no way I could get to shore with the heavy reeds in the area. I was in about 4' of water.
In the process of getting the cat out of the net, I turned the net wrong side out and the fish fell in the water. I thought, Great! a hole in the pontoon and I lost the fish.
I went to reel in the other line in and I felt something pulling on it. I brought it in, and the cat was still tangled up in this line. So, I ended up with it in the basket anyway.
I moved as fast as I could to get back to the truck before sinking.
Turns out, I didn't have to move as fast as I thought. Even though the pontoon was leaking, it didn't go down as fast as I thought it would.
Two hours later when I got home, it still had lots of air in it.
I patched the hole but, the problem I am having now is the pontoon won't fill up right. It doesn't fill out the cover right by the valve. I let the air out and tried to move the bladder around a number of times and it still won't fill it out correctly.
The inside of the cover had a white powder in it, I don't know if that was something like a baby powder to allow the bladder to move around or what it was.
I am going to try and mess with it again tomorrow and see if it will fit right.
If anyone has experience with messing with a Fish cat pontoon bladder and getting it to fit back in right, I would appreciate the help.
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