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Got back on the water after 3 weeks away. Last Friday 3 Oct and Sunday 5 Oct. Weather was great, was almost totally alone on Friday, and only a handfull of other fishin boats on Sunday.
Caught 3 Cats Friday, no photos. Caught 2 Cats and what I think was a Crappie ? Looked more like a large pale Bluegill, but I'm not sure it wasn't a large Gizzard Shad ? I'm sure some wise member of this forum will educate me.
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I'm with you on that red thing. Not sure what it was.[bobdumb].
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its a green sunfish
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That's a green sunfish. The colors will get washed out depending on water clarity. When you catch one of those through the ice, it will come out pink (like a bluegill) but after sitting in the sun for a few minutes, they begin to color up. They can be fun to catch on light tackle. They fight hard like a bluegill but have a bigger mouth so they can hit larger lures and baits. Occasionally they will spawn with bluegill and create a bluegill/green sunfish hybrid. Lots of fun to catch and very pretty.
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Ok makes sense. I've never seen one that color before. I have had sunfish take spinners before.
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Yeah to be honest, I've only seen them that color coming from Utah Lake through the ice. I looked it up once since I had caught a lot of pink gills through the ice. I can't remember the terminology but in essence the skin cells of the fish would react to the amount of sunlight they were exposed to. Members of the sunfish family (e.g. bluegill, crappie, largemouth bass) that are in deep water (like during the winter) or under heavy ice (where little sun can get through) will have a washed out appearance. It looks pink/pale orange to me. It is really cool to see their colors come back while they are sitting on ice in the sun.
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Well thanks guys for that bit of education. My daddy used to say, "If you didn't learn at least one thing every day, no matter how minor it was, your day was wasted." I try to live by that, have taught all my kids that. It's a hoot to hear my 19 y/o daughter say" well now, my day wasn't wasted" after hearing something from someone that she had not heard before. So, my day wasn't wasted. Seems WB teaches me something new every few weeks, and reading TD's reports teaches me loads every time. I've heard of Green Sunfish, but never caught one here in Utah.
And yep, for his size he put on quite a fight. Thought at first it was a young Wiper by the way he headed for the bottom and under the boat. Well he was released relatively unharmed. One small hole in the side just behind his jaw, and the hook barb didn't even pass thru. Glad I had my camera that trip.
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[#0000FF]Yep. Green sunfish. Used to be lots of them...along with more bluegill and crappies. That was before smallmouth, shad and wipers. Different ecology now.
I used to fish flies a lot more back in the 70s and early 80s. It was a lot of fun to work along the rocks or the edges of the inlet channel at the south marina. Got lots of nice crappies and plenty of decent bluegills. But every once in a while one of those pugnacious little green sunfish would smack whatever I was flinging on the end of my leader.
It has never been legal to use live bait in Utah. And it has never been legal to use bluegill or crappies, either whole or pieces. But back in the 70's it was legal to use green sunfish...as long as they were dead. And a greenie about 4 or 5 inches was magic for the bigger channel cats of those days. The walleyes liked them too...both on Willard and in Utah Lake.
I caught lots of greenies while living in Arizona. They grow bigger down there...with more food and a longer growing season. And down there you can use LIVE sunfish for bait...even bluegills...for big flathead cats.
When I returned to Utah about 10 years ago I was surprised to see that green sunfish now enjoy the same status as bluegills...no bait use.
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Hey Forest enjoy your reports, keep me updated on the bay. Later J
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How big of a boat can you launch at Willard? I prefer the North Marina. My boat is a 20 FT. Crestliner with tandem axle, I need to get out one more trip to make sure I get Sta-Bil ran thru both engines, since I started using non-ethanol fuel this summer I quit adding it to my fuel tank. Any info would be appreciated, thanks.
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Take it to Pineview, Packfan. No charge and the ramp is good. I think you'd drop the wheels off the ramp at the Willard North Marina.
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[#0000FF]No dropoff at the end of the main (middle) ramp at the north marina. There is on the ones on either side but they are already out of the water and clearly visible. There is about 4-5 feet of water at the end of the ramp and the same going out through the channel...if you stay in the middle. Keep going straight out through the buoys a hundred yards before going left or right.
Still some good sized boats launching but don't venture anywhere east of the ramp. Sudden shallow bermville.
Good suggestion to go to Pineview though. Lots of crappie-ettes to play with too.
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I didn't think the ramp extended that far at WNM. Ya can always larn sumpin...
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Thanks Guys, I may try to get it in the Bay on the North end some time this weekend.
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[#0000FF]Not trying to be argumentative but a week ago when Skunkman and myself were there we had to wade out to assist a boat with hooking up to the trailer (husband and wife team...barely). Still good depth a long ways out...with no dropoffs.
Seems like every time we meet up there we end up having to assist boaters. The previous time there was a rather large pontoon party boat launching. It was a dealer doing a pre-delivery checkout for a customer. The motor started up and ran well enough to get the craft off the trailer...and the vehicle pulled up into the lot. But then the motor died and it would not start again. We were the only ones there to render assistance and we had to go out and pull the big craft away from the shallow area to the east of the launch area and over to the ramp. Then, when the trailer was backed down into the water we pulled out the ratchet line and clipped it onto the boat...and cranked it up on the trailer. Tough duty and those guys would have had some real problems without us. I imagine they still had problems with the customer but that we couldn't help them with.
Can't count how many times I have suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous derision as I came in while big expensive motorized vessels were launching...and how many times I have had to pull them back into the dock when they stalled out and couldn't get the motor started. Most times they are properly grateful, but other times they utter not a single word of acknowledgment or appreciation after the object of their nasty comments helps them back to safety. But I maintain my ascendency.
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The center section on the ramp was the original ramp poured when the lake was formed in the 60's, it extends all the way past the lowest point of the channel and has been covered with a foot or more of mud since 2002 to 2004 . That was our last drought years and during that time they cleaned up the channel and removed 4 ft of silt and rocks. I remember they never got to the bottom of that ramp, they told me it was likely a foot or more below where they stopped but the funds that paid for cleaning up the channel would not allow them to go any deeper. There were no funds to clean up any of the marina to the East of the ramp, that is why it is so shallow, also why there is that little hump at the end of the channel as you come out into WB. No one paid for them to remove it, so we had to wait for the water to raise before we could use the channel again. That winter was a heavy snow winter and the lake filled, it hasn't been that shallow since. I talked to the Willard Bay Park manager a month ago and he told me he had ask for funds to dredge the whole North and South marina, I guess we will wait and see if that happens.[:/]
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Pat, I have had that same issue. And I'm in a slightly bigger craft than you are. But except for a shake of my head, I don't say anything. Someday I may need a tow off the water somewhere. Pay it forward and what goes around, comes around.
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[#0000FF]I suspect that you are quick to render assistance where needed not because of any hope of karma helping you out in the future...but because it is the thing to do...regardless of the potential for payback.
Thou and I were brung up in times where everybody learned to help everybody else...just because it was the right thing to do.
Don't know about you but the "feelgoods" I get from bailing someone out of a tight spot is worth far more than any monetary reward...even when the other party is not grateful enough to say thanks.
In the attached picture I am towing a boat back in that had come untied from the dock...against the wind...without a motor...fin power alone. That was on Magic Reservoir in Idaho. When I got to the dock and handed the owner the rope to his boat he just took the rope and said ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. I took that as meaning that I forgot to read the rules about fishing in Idaho where it said that float tubers are responsible for rescuing boats lost by stupid guys who can't tie good knots.
Would I do it again? Have done, several times since. That's the way I roll...errr splash.
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You are a true Gentleman and a Scholar.[fishin]
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Pat, You are correct all the way. I never ask for or expect any kind of reward at the time. A honest "Thank you" is nice, and most of the time, that is what I get, and it is enough. But then there are the times............like 10 years ago, my first boat, and my second trip to Rockport with my 3 kids and wife. I had studied the "rules of the water" and was surprised to learn, very few others had. We were slow trolling 2 lines behind the boat with lead core line. A large ski boat came across my bow, moving fast, and less that 100 feet in front of me. I slowed, in fact, slowed and turned. Of course that almost pulled one of the lines into my prop. Not 5 minutes later, that same boat shot across my stern, at less than 20 yards behind me, the wake it caused washed one of my lines up into my prop, and wound about 10 feet of lead core around the prop and in behind on the shaft. I spend 30 minutes in choppy water, motor trimmed as far up as I could get it, leaning over the transom with my wife and oldest son (age 15) hanging on to my life jacket and my belt while I took the prop nut off (and was lucky not to drop it), took the prop off, unwound the lead core, checked the oil seal (again, lucky no damage or leak) put everything back together, brought in our lines, and decided to call it a day. Was down at the far south west corner of the lake, so just throttled up that 115 HP Merc, got up on plane and headed straight for the ramp. Had only been up on plane for about 2 minutes, and my wife says, " honey, there is someone in a boat over here (to our left) waving at us. Looks like they need some help or something". Turns out to be the same 23 footer that had caused all my grief. I was real tempted to keep going, but noticed that they had the big sundeck over their inboard opened up and looked like someone was spraying a fire ext. on the motor. I had 1 son get our ext. out of the rack, and the other son get out our extra life jackets and flotation cushions, and my 9 year old daughter dug out the extra 100 foot hank of rope to add to my 50 foot bow line. By the time we got close enough in to them to yell back and forth, they had their fire put out, but had a busted gas line and couldn't risk restarting the motor. Turned out to be 8 people on that boat, only 2 life jackets to go around, the oldest person on the boat was the 19 year old girl that had been driving it, and it was a borrowed boat, and the first one she had ever piloted. I tied off my 100 foot extra rope to one of the stern cleats, tossed them the other end, had to yell them instructions where and how to secure it, then very slowly (on purpose) towed them to the dock. They got several embarrassing cat calls from other members of the power squadron they had been burning up the water with, and my wife kept asking me, what are you smiling about? They tied up, I got my rope back, tied up to the opposite dock cleat, got my trailer, and was out of the water and ship-shape for the ride home before they even got their trailer backed down. I wish I had thought to take a photo, or at least write down their hull number and turn it in to the DNR at Rockport. They were a major disaster just waiting to happen to themselves or someone else.
Have not had any incidents quite that bad since, but have towed in probably 2 or 3 boats a year for various reasons. Pulled 2 off the sand bar in the Willard north marina last year on Labor Day.
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