Lincoln Beach 4/7/06

[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Crazy weather. I had planned to hit Lindon Friday morning, until Thursday afternoon. Changed my mind during the snowstorm. I usually like to give it at least a day after a big blow.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Woke up early this morning, checked current and forecast weather conditions and changed my other mind. Decided to hit Lincoln Beach for a short shot. Hadda be back early.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Calm and 35 degrees air temp at launch. Water temp 46 off the south jetty. I knew it would have cooled down from the 52 it had been a few days ago, and was glad it wasn't any worse. Water was muddy too. Bummer.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Started by working plastics around the points. No fish on sonar and no hits. Moved across to the brush line and resumed plasticing (is that a word?) There were clumps of carp on the surface and some were on top in the brush...but moving slow. No spawning activity yet. Those carp still had on their winter coats.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I had a couple of taps and finally hooked a fiesty 14" white bass on a small chartreuse jig. Then, I started snagging carp about every other cast. They really moved in thick. Good place to get bait. I kept one dorsal diner for that purpose.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Couldn't find any willing wallies, so I finally rigged some bait and went kitty huntin'. Had several very tentative pickups and drops. The colder water had slowed them down. After several "swing and a miss" hooksets, I finally stuck a couple. The first was a 24" 6.5 pounder and the second a 21" 3.5 pounder. I really had to "finesse" both of them to get hooked up, and they did not fight as hard as the fish from last week. Both of them took whole chub minnows. I could not get a sniff on carp meat today. Last week it was the other way around.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]A north breeze started up and brought in some clearer water, but that did not help the fishing. It was forecast to be a south breeze. Gee, that's never happened before.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I saw another guy come out in a red toon. It must have been Q-Man. Why didn't ya come on down and do the howdy thing?[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]There were several vehicles that came and fished for a short time and left. I'm guessing there wasn't much action off shore. I had to cover a lot of water to find the few fish I got to play with.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]There was a group of folks with wheelers starting to play as I left, and there were several boats and RVs headed for Lincoln Beach as I drove away. I guess there will be a lot of people wanting to play Saturday if the sun comes out.[/#0000ff]
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[Out4Trout]

[cool]Nice report, Pat. That's cool that you got into a couple cats and a whitie too. That's pretty dang good considering the recent nastiness of the weather.

I'd bet by Sunday the fish will be more active. I'm gonna have to take a floating holiday soon to get out there before my son gets here, cause then I'm outta commission till my birthday next month...
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[catman79]

Nice fish what is the best boat ramp to use to get me close to bird island And how would i get to that boat
ramp from willard
THanks [cool]
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[ocean]

TD you are killing me!![] Man i need to catch a fish in the worst way!![pirate] This selling and buying a home business is stressful.I needs to catch me some fishies.
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]I'm just "Scouten" them out for you. It is still early. Take care of business. There will be plenty of time to play with the kitties. I'm sure that doesn't help, but deal with it.[/#0000ff]
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Bird Island will probably not "turn on" for another month or so...for cats. But, there is almost always some kind of fishing going on there. It is about a mile and a half straight north from Lincoln Beach. That is the closest ramp. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]You need to go south of Provo to Spanish Fork turnoff. For directions on how to get to Lincoln Beach, from Spanish Fork, [url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=114484;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread"]CLICK THIS LINK[/url][/#0000ff]
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[Kraizee_Skot]

[font "Comic Sans MS"][#ff4040]Nice fishies TD. Glad you got out and tracked down a few kitties for dinner. [/#ff4040][/font]
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[Theekillerbee]

Not bad this close to a storm front rolling through. Any signs that the whitie had either spawned, or was getting close?
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]I did not keep it and do a postmortem. I took its picture, gave it a gentle nudge and sent it on its way to TRY to make more babies.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]If I were to guess, I would say it was a male, still a ways from spawning readiness. The females start getting swollen tummies about now. Mid may is kind of a benchmark I have always used for the white bass spawn. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Like most species, it is a combination of water temps and moon phase. The fish seem to gather and get nervous over a period of a couple of weeks. Every fish you catch is swollen with eggs or dripping milt. Then, BOOM, in a couple of nights it is over and all the fish are empty.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I went over several small schools of fish today that I suspect were white bass. But, I did not put away the bait and start flinging plastic again. [/#0000ff]
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[cat_man]

The white bass typically spawn (at least the ones that do it in the Provo River) anywhere from the end of May through the middle of June. They NEVER spawn this early. It's still much too cold. That being said, you can still catch them in the pre-spawn up until then.
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