11-11-2013, 10:39 PM
[#0000FF]TubeBabe finally finished up her annual fall family traveling schedule and wanted to go fishing this week. Today looked good, weatherwise, so we opted for Lincoln Beach. Supposed to meet up with Utwalleye but...like his namesake...he was a no show.
Launched our tubes about 7:30 am. Air temp 29 and water temp inside the boat channel 42...warming up to about 46 by 1 pm. Utah Lake has come up almost a foot in the last few weeks...since they closed the outlet gate of the Jordan River. Water depth inside the boat channel was just under 3 feet in most spots. Slightly deeper in others and about 5 feet just outside the channel entrance.
TubeBabe headed kinda easterly...to prospect for cats or ???? I motored around to the rock shelves and gravel bars off Lincoln Point. Zig zagged from 3' to over 7' of water on the way...watching sonar. Thought my sonar was broken. No fishies on the screen.
Made some casts around first spring with assorted plastics. Got some good "rockfish" but nothing that resembled the targeted walleyes. Worked all the usual past productive hangouts with nary a sniff on the plastics. The rocks that have been covered with water since 2005 are now emerging above the surface again. Hope we get some good snow this winter.
Moved out to deeper water (6') and began to drag some bait...small whole white bass. Hoping for a walleye but willing to settle for a nice channel cat. Had to deal with a "bull-eye" instead...a nasty little mud cat that snarfed my whitette. About that time TubeBabe announced on the walkie talkie that she was also being pestered by the pesky mudders.
As I moved down the shoreline of Lincoln Point I moved in to pitch lures from time to time...moving back out to drag bait and pitch small jigs the rest of the time. Picked up a few small white bass on the little jigs but nothing larger on larger stuff.
TubeBabe worked her way over to where I was fishing and we stayed close for the slow return back to the ramp. We both dinged a few more mudders and whities. I set the hook on one bullhead and it had shoulders. Turned out to be the solo channel cat of the day...about 23 inches. Kinda slow fight in the cold water but much better than anything else we brung in.
It was a pretty late fall day with mild temps and very little breeze. Almost glass most of the time. One of the highlights was a small plane that came by very low. If I had my 3" magnum loads I coulda dumped him fer shure.
Water was warming in the channel when we got out after noon. An old gent was just getting set up for the afternoon shift...soaking worms off the ramp. He advised that the white bass had been coming in late in the afternoon on warm days and that several folks were catching the heck out of them.
Had a nice outing with my child bride and got to stop at the "Lehi temple" to pick up an order I had waiting. What a great day.
[/#0000FF]
[signature]
Launched our tubes about 7:30 am. Air temp 29 and water temp inside the boat channel 42...warming up to about 46 by 1 pm. Utah Lake has come up almost a foot in the last few weeks...since they closed the outlet gate of the Jordan River. Water depth inside the boat channel was just under 3 feet in most spots. Slightly deeper in others and about 5 feet just outside the channel entrance.
TubeBabe headed kinda easterly...to prospect for cats or ???? I motored around to the rock shelves and gravel bars off Lincoln Point. Zig zagged from 3' to over 7' of water on the way...watching sonar. Thought my sonar was broken. No fishies on the screen.
Made some casts around first spring with assorted plastics. Got some good "rockfish" but nothing that resembled the targeted walleyes. Worked all the usual past productive hangouts with nary a sniff on the plastics. The rocks that have been covered with water since 2005 are now emerging above the surface again. Hope we get some good snow this winter.
Moved out to deeper water (6') and began to drag some bait...small whole white bass. Hoping for a walleye but willing to settle for a nice channel cat. Had to deal with a "bull-eye" instead...a nasty little mud cat that snarfed my whitette. About that time TubeBabe announced on the walkie talkie that she was also being pestered by the pesky mudders.
As I moved down the shoreline of Lincoln Point I moved in to pitch lures from time to time...moving back out to drag bait and pitch small jigs the rest of the time. Picked up a few small white bass on the little jigs but nothing larger on larger stuff.
TubeBabe worked her way over to where I was fishing and we stayed close for the slow return back to the ramp. We both dinged a few more mudders and whities. I set the hook on one bullhead and it had shoulders. Turned out to be the solo channel cat of the day...about 23 inches. Kinda slow fight in the cold water but much better than anything else we brung in.
It was a pretty late fall day with mild temps and very little breeze. Almost glass most of the time. One of the highlights was a small plane that came by very low. If I had my 3" magnum loads I coulda dumped him fer shure.
Water was warming in the channel when we got out after noon. An old gent was just getting set up for the afternoon shift...soaking worms off the ramp. He advised that the white bass had been coming in late in the afternoon on warm days and that several folks were catching the heck out of them.
Had a nice outing with my child bride and got to stop at the "Lehi temple" to pick up an order I had waiting. What a great day.
[/#0000FF]
[signature]