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Provo Harbor cat report 9/3/19
#1
Fishhound volunteered to help me learn about my boat and boating in general. We met up at the Provo Harbor at 7 am. I was all ready to launch and let the learning begin but he gently put the brakes on. He asked me how much I already knew and I told him to assume zero and start from there. That started an hour and a half of basics. I brought a notebook and now have a big list of things I need to get and do. He's a great teacher, including the why along with the what. I have always been not afraid to say, "I don't know--show me." And he did.

It may be a while before I can launch and load by myself. I'll need to add three inches to each leg and regress in age until my knees bend easily, lose 20 pounds of belly fat, lift some weights, etc. Actually, I just have to figure out hand holds and such to be able to scramble over the bow. Practice will help. Meanwhile I still need others to go out with me, so contact me if you would like to go fishing and wouldn't mind spending a few minutes with a greenie.

On to the fishing. We went southwest a few hundred meters and started drifting. Chuck really knows Utah Lake and talked as if he had the names and addresses of all the fish. I'm not sure exactly what setups he used but they were tipped with white bass sections and he caught fish. Evidently he has about as much fishing stuff as TubeDude and vast experience. I ran my usual: one flig and one Santee with bass. For the last three trips I have been catching something right off the bat and it happened again. I boated a cookie cutter at least. Chuck was catching steadily and we had a double or two. One of mine was a bumper at 28.5". The rest were standard fare. I've been keeping track of the lengths of all the channel cats I've caught this year and the average settled on 23.5" early on and stayed there. I want to catch at least 100 before the season is over. The graph is already forming a ragged bell curve; or rather I decided to call it an elephant-head curve with trunk extending out to the right. Try to visualize a standard curve with the bigger fish elongating the line out through just one or two big fish when you get up into the long lengths, the kind we like for the contest. My other purpose in keeping such records was to enable me to have an accurate guess as to how many fish I will have to catch in order to catch the big ones. So far I've caught two 28" fish out of 54. As I intimated before, that's way too small a sample to establish much on, but it at least lets me make a wag. Let's hope I get enough samples to know how many I gotta catch to find a 30"er[Wink].

I ended up catching three and Chuck brought in several more than that. The Santee out-caught the flig but I probably had too big a piece of bait on the flig. I see where others about wore themselves out catching so many fish. It probably would have helped if we had gotten on the water sooner (no complaint, just observation). They stopped biting around noon but we changed locations a couple of times without any success. Altogether it was a good day and I especially enjoyed meeting Fishhound and getting to know him a bit.
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The older I get the more I would rather be considered a good man than a good fisherman.
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#2
Nice! It sounds like a useful, productive and fun outing. Way to go!
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#3
It was good. I was hoping for a catching rate more like you have been having. And the size. But September is here and I'll keep after them.
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The older I get the more I would rather be considered a good man than a good fisherman.
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#4
Lately the bite seems to taper off a lot by noon, with most of mine coming before 10:30 or so.You missed that part of the day for good reason. There are lots more days still to come. As the water cools they seem to feed more of the day.

Also, knowing your equipment and having it working for you goes a long way to allowing you to focus on finding the fish. Keep at it!
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#5
I hope you made it out to practice all those notes you took yestermorning. Have you made your pre launch and post trailering check lists ? Remember to follow your list until it is second nature - then review often and modify it as you get seasoned and find easier or more effective ways of doing things. Set up a routine and find an order that makes sense to you to do every thing on your check list. Don't be afraid to change things up for the better.

Sorry to harp or preach there. But being a teacher your self you know about repetition - Like the saying goes - Do something 3000 times and you will do it well.

Sorry also we loitered so long at the put in while I rambled on ad infinitum and quite possibly to the point of ad nauseam. However the original purpose for metting up was to go over the boat things you wanted some pointers on.

But we did finally get out to fish, although I did not have too high of expectations given time of day and temperature and location - I guess we could have traveled to several more productive places but we were already nearing what lately has been a slow down on the bite. The fish seem to be settleing down a bit or moving with the groceries around that time so going to greener pastures would probably be contra indicated and counter productive. So I settled for where we went as a compromise so we could at least get on some fish. And we did. You got you contest sized fish and we had a couple doubles and a triple and a some singulars. More importantly, we fished, we had some good conversation, beautiful weather and hardly any noise and no neighbors to annoy or bother us.

I enjoyed getting to know you and had a great time on the water - what more could I ask for. Thank you.
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#6
Didn't get out to practice, even on dry land. I've been thinking about adding something to my Tongue (trailer, not my own) that will help me climb in and out: steps, pedestal, ladder, etc. [P.S. Getting my spare mounted in the right place might help, too.] I'll be busy doing career-oriented workshops the next three days [crazy] but Mooseman is going out with me next week and I should get plenty of practice then. And by then I'll have my checklists together and that other stuff I need on board.

About that picture. Yes, I have a ruddy complexion to start with, but my face never seems to tan like my "farmer tan" arms do. But I forgot to get my hat out of the pickup so the top of my head looks like the color of the life vest. Two things to add on board: spare hat and sunscreen. Live and learn.

No apologies needed about the time we took for my lessons; that was the main thing to do anyway. The fish were a bonus. Hope your arm has recovered from cranking the boat up onto the trailer [blush]. Getting some guides is a high priority now.
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The older I get the more I would rather be considered a good man than a good fisherman.
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#7
Craig, you had a great teacher. One thing that I did, before I every launched my first boat, was to take the U.S. Coast Guard "Boating Skills and Seamanship Course". I found it extremely helpful. Not sure if they offer it as a live course any longer, but I'm sure it, or something very similar, is available as an online course.
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#8
The state park web has some good info under boating, check lists, regulations, stuff like that.

https://stateparks.utah.gov/
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#9
That's a good suggestion. I totally forgot about that. I took a similar course back about 50 years ago in California as part of learning to sail. Then never used the information. I did take the course on-line here several years ago. It was free on-line unless you wanted to get the completion certificate, then it cost.....can't remember how much. Lots of the info in that course really is only applicable in very large bodies of water (like Great Lakes) or off shore. But it is still a good set of basics.
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#10
Less is usually more on bait size for a flig. I already start out to big and ends up downsizing to catch fish.
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#11
Since you mentioned sunscreen, remember that fish do not like sunscreen.....if you have ever been with someone who catches fish after fish while you catch very few, consider your sunscreen.. did you wash your hands GGGOOODDD... or have you rubbed your face that you slathered. Sun screen can cut down your catch rate as well as your sun burn. Shampoo is a good choice to get the sc off your hands.
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#12
Thanks for the info. I hate to admit it but I practically never use the stuff. If I do put it on it will be at home and then I can wash my hands properly. I'll have it in there for noncombatants.
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The older I get the more I would rather be considered a good man than a good fisherman.
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#13
Get a bottle of Ultra Lemon Joy and keep it in your boat for washing hands, plus it smells good.
#1 tip for ramp etiquette:
When launching in the morning, please turn off headlights so next boater can back down ramp without being blinded.
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