Lincoln minkin' 4-3-16

[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]Weird weather and weird schedule. Figured if I was gonna get on the water it would have to be a the church of the 7th day angler...Lincoln Beach chapel. Hoping I could find a conference of walleyes. Nope. Heathens all. Ditto for most of the other fishies.

Showed up a bit before 7 and said howdy to MS1970 as he was blasting off for Bird Island. Hope he did better than I did.

Air temp just over 30. Water temp at launch 49...and warming only a degree or so by noon.

Highlight of the day was a bit of nature/human bonding. Just after I parked on the rocks by first spring I noticed a little black critter moving along the edge of the water. Hoping it wasn't a black cat to put a jinx on my day I walked toward it. Nope. It was a purty little black mink. I tried to get a couple of pictures but it was still kinda dark.

But then it followed me back to my vehicle and got friendly. It was clearly expecting me to give it something...looking me right in the eye and almost wagging its tail like a puppy. How could I resist? I dug into my small stash of minnows and took one out. The little black minklet spooked and ran under my car when I tossed the minnow. But it only took a second until he recognized breakfast and went munch city. I was his new BFF.

He hung around and crawled up under my car as I prepped to launch. He seemed to like sitting on top of a tire and looking out at me from that position. As I slammed and locked the doors and got ready to launch the little guy looked about as unhappy as a little black mink can look. Sooooo...i donated another minnow. MUNCH. He hung around my car for a long time after I was gone. I was almost afraid to start my motor when I came back. I have heard stories about kittens getting shredded, etc. But he was gone when I returned. I did leave the remainder of my unused minnows for him...if the seagulls don't beat him to them.

I shoulda just fed him the rest of my minnows and headed for home without even launching. A long day of fruitless casting. Nary a sniff on any kind of plastic or crankbait. No walleyes or white bass were harmed in making this report.

Yay for the everlovin' kitties. At least a couple of them snarfed the minkminnows. No skunk today.

Lovely day. Water level is up about 4-6 inches from 2 weeks ago. Still a long way from full. Clear sky with only a light breeze all morning. But as the air temp approached 60 the midges came forth in their numbers. My white car was almost black with them. Wondered if maybe my little black friend was really some other color but covered with midges.
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[albinotrout]

I think the crazy weather this week has everything out of sorts.
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[MSM1970]

Good to finaly meet you TD. Done the same as you, no love, anyone I talked to did about the same, could not have asked for a nicer day,
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]Yes, after our interchanges on the board it was indeed good to get to meet up finally. Looks like you have your one-man launch routine pretty well figured out. Gotta do that when others can't get kitchen passes...or ya plain prefer to fish alone sometimes. I do.

I watched the boaters and the bankers and did not see anybody get anything besides a lot of vitamin D. Talked to a couple of incoming boats that had been down by the orchards for a while and neither of them had caught anything...or seen anything being caught.

As we agreed before parting earlier...no matter how poor the fishing might be it is still better than whatever you could be doing at home in the yard.

Chalk it up to "one of those days". Helps to keep ya humble and to make ya properly grateful for the days that treat you well.
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[fish_fear_me2]

Great report and pics as usual. Those little pieces of a mink coat like to steal my fish at AF harbor. They are fun to watch though.
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[lavaman]

Nice Timp Ripples!

Great report!
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]Yeah, my new little friend acted like he was familiar with fishermen. He was properly cautious but more motivated by the prospect of getting something to eat.

I have had similar encounters around several Utah waters. I'm attaching a series of 4 pics I took of a grey mink that popped up out of the rocks next to my car at Jordanelle. It also came over to the car, looked up and begged...and got a little perchy treat.
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]Thanks. You know who I included that pic for.

Just changed it to my desktop screen saver.
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[fish_fear_me2]

Yep looks like he was under the car too. They usually talk me out of some bait or a small white bass.
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[NVFish]

Yesterday was my first time fishing around lincoln, so i'm not sure about the name of where I was, but I think it was the 2nd access past the campground. I was hoping to catch some catfish, but no luck. I did end up with 2 nice sized white bass and one little one on a white grub jig tipped with a piece of night crawler. Beautiful day to be out.
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]Glad you caught some white bass. Sorry about the no-show on the cats. Both will be closer to shore and more active in another month.
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[NVFish]

Thanks, looking forward to the warmer water.
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