Utah Lake Slow with a Big March Cat 3/22/2024

[Dirt Bag]

Great catch Jim. I had to read your post while watching big snowflakes falling outside which kinda put a damper on the fun of reading your account. I hope your early catch was an indication of a better season to come this year. We won't have to worry about low water levels. When those big cats start to wallow in shallow water it is going to be tough to work through all the submerged snags. I'm hoping for warm weather and warmer water temps by next week. Again, great catch!

Thanks Lynn! I had snow on my lawn by Sunday morning and it still doesn't look like spring out there. I won't get out again until the first weekend in April, and from the long term weather guesscast, I wouldn't be surprised if the water temps are still barely 50 degrees! I agree that the higher water is going to make getting a big cat out of the snags tough! I might have to break out the salt water gear for them

Actually, I have never landed many over 30 in the 6 weeks from late May to about July 1. Just like the early spring, I'm still trying to figure that time frame out. So much to try and so little time!

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I saw you out there just past the orchards on Friday. I was going to text you and ask how the fishing was but you were getting ready to move from where you were anchored too move. I thought because of wind but guess not. It was because you were on the hunt for a monster cat, great job that's exciting.

Thanks Justin! We thought about staying, at the spot you saw us leaving, because we did find 1 nice cat there, but Jon said we would lose too many to the snags and we wanted to chase walleye during the dusk timeframe. Don't hesitate to text or call, I'm always willing to chat. Of course that is only if I hear the phone and I hear phone calls better text alerts.

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Hey Jim, that was a great early catch, you really pushed up the 30" timeframe this year... Do you usually fish this late at night, this time of year?  It seems like the local bite seems to die off at sundown, but maybe they are just moving to a deeper spot... I'm going to have to get my cat trolling going again, I haven't done as good from the boat as I did from the toon, so I  don't try it as often, but you sure have shown it's a great way to find the big cats... Thanks for a great report.. J

Thanks Jeff, I was pretty excited when it hit the bottom of the boat! As for the late at night, the jury is still out in my mind. I don't usually fish that late at all and especially when it is still early in the spring. I stayed because I was trying to redeem myself. I had told Jon that the cats were feeding somewhere if the water was 50 degrees and I was determined to find them rather than have egg on my face. I think we would have caught cats just about as fast in that same area had we fished there in the afternoon. "You cain't ketch um where they ain't"

I do have a couple of data points that several species are more active at night in cold water. I was really surprised to find that fishing for stripers at Elephant Butte in New Mexico. We fished all day one time and saw lots of bait and stripers on the graphs, but as TubeDude says, they just raised their middle fins as we passed. Then just after sunset we got two nice ones. I then went back a week later and fished only at night and we got 4 in 2 hours. I miss Elephant Butte sometimes. The average white bass was over 2 pounds and we got sever stripers over a yard long.

I would say that I do a late trip for cats in the spring maybe once a year. We usually find some, but never before have we found one like this. So I say the jury is still out. Running the experiments is sure fun though! As you know, I have had some very good days for multiple big fish in the fall, but never at night.