Swing Shift at Lincoln 5/30/2025

[Piscophilic]

I was supposed to do a Utah Lake trip with my cleanroom technicians on Saturday, but Thursday afternoon one of them said his wife had to work and could we move out “team building activity” to 6/7 so that she could go. Sure!

So, Jon and I made a last-minute plan. Since things were poor around the Provo harbor mid day last Monday, we decided to guess that there were more active fish from the knolls south and they were mostly feeding at night. Optimists, probably, but figuring out if we guess right is often half the fun.

We started fishing south of the knolls about 6 P.M. and worked back toward the Goshen end. Water temp was 70 and the air was mid 80’s when we started. A NW wind of 10 to 15 mph kept things interesting for boat and speed control but we tried to keep it below 0.8 mph. We did the usual thing with chunks fresh WB we had caught on a small spinner and a small grub just north of the Lincoln Jaws. They were dragging behind mostly size 0 spin n glows in blue/silver, clown, or lime tiger patterns.

After 3 nearly hours and 3 spots we had landed 3 cats and were well south of goose point. I told Jon it was looking a lot like Monday, and I sure hoped the “feeding mostly at night” guess worked out.

We started spot hopping back toward harbor and the best part was a beautiful sunset (ok, along with good company and time on the water).




As it got dark we put the little glo sticks on the rods, located our headlamps and hoped the wind would keep the bugs at bay.

30 minutes after sunset the cats started showing up. We hit a spurt with 3 cats in 15 minutes. Then it went dry again, so we decided to go back over the spot. That rarely works for me with cats in water above 50 degrees, but we tried it anyway. On the way back we hit another spurt, a little deeper than the first one, but we got 4 more. Depth was 4.5 to 5 FOW and speed was now manageable at 0.5 to 0.7.

When it got fully dark we switched a couple of the SnG patterns to glow in the dark. They caught fish, but not noticeably more often than the other patterns. The fishing slowly got better and by 11 P.M. we were getting little spurts every 10-15 minutes and they seemed to be getting bigger. Just after 11, I got the first fish over 30, it was 31 inches and easily 13 pounds.





The wind was dying down and the bugs were increasing. I put lights on the bow and floating behind the boat to try to attract them away from us. Well, it kinda worked:






The cats kept coming a little faster and a little faster and about 12:30 Jon got one 30 ½.





 A little after 1 A.M. Julie called, (because I hadn’t heard her text) and asked, “Are you coming home today?” “Yes, it is Saturday now so we will be coming home today,” I replied. “The big fish have started to show up, so we will go about another hour then we’ll start cleaning fish and another hour to home.”

Just after Julie hung up Jon got a 31 that was 13 ¼ pounds. We were catching about one 30+ for every eight or ten smaller ones for the night.  We had kept 7 under two-footers that needed to be cleaned.







At 2 A.M. I started cleaning fish, but I kept my lines in the water. Jon kept laughing at me as I would have to stop and land a fish and then start filleting again. It took an hour to clean 7 fish, but right in the middle I hooked one that felt really heavy. It wasn’t an epic battle, but it measured 32 and weighed just over 15 lbs. After the pictures I finally quit putting my baits back in and got the cleaning done.







Between the two of us we estimated over a dozen cats were released while I was cleaning fish.
On the ride back to the harbor Jon chided me about how often my last fish of the trip was the best one. “Next time it will be your turn.” I said.

We pulled into my driveway at 4:05 A.M. Our swing shift had almost turned into an all nighter. However, we had learned two things: First, on those rare times when the cats seem to be missing in action during the day, they probably are feeding mostly at night. Second, Jon and I aren’t good at calling it a night when the fish are biting well.

With a little more practice, we hope to improve our discipline on that last one!

[joshomaru]

Hot dog, those are some dandy cats! Way to stick with it and make your crew think finding slobs like that is easy!

[chubby chaser]

I have to be honest, that lake makes me nervous in the daylight! but looks like the night trip paid off on some serious chonks for you! nice job.

[Piscophilic]

Hot dog, those are some dandy cats!  Way to stick with it and make your crew think finding slobs like that is easy!

Thanks, it took some patience but it was worth it in the end.

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I have to be honest, that lake makes me nervous in the daylight! but looks like the night trip paid off on some serious chonks for you! nice job.

Thanks! Out of curiosity, what is it about the lake that makes you nervous?

[joshomaru]

I know you didn't ask me, but, Utah Lake can be a very dangerous place! I don't think people take it seriously enough because "it's shallow." It being shallow is one of the reasons it CAN be so dangerous. I've been at Bird Island when the water was glass. A breeze came up and created ripples, and within 10 minutes was full blown white caps. There are so many shallow spots with the ability to hide rocks in the low water visibility that can damage a boat. I have a healthy respect of that body of water and don't take chances when it comes to safety.
I am by no means saying that YOU are unsafe; I am only stating that Utah Lake has perils that the average person may not consider.

[Piscophilic]

I know you didn't ask me, but, Utah Lake can be a very dangerous place!  I don't think people take it seriously enough because "it's shallow."  It being shallow is one of the reasons it CAN be so dangerous.  I've been at Bird Island when the water was glass.  A breeze came up and created ripples, and within 10 minutes was full blown white caps.  There are so many shallow spots with the ability to hide rocks in the low water visibility that can damage a boat.  I have a healthy respect of that body of water and don't take chances when it comes to safety. 
I am by no means saying that YOU are unsafe; I am only stating that Utah Lake has perils that the average person may not consider.

Thanks for sharing your insights. I'm pretty safety concious (as you can see by my life jacket in the last photo), but you can never be too safe!

[TubeDude]

And I was under the illusion that you were too old, prim and proper to be a "swinger".  Guess we can be wrong about labeling anybody.  Great report.

Your after-dark success lends support to the claims I have made for many years that once the lake warms a bit and gets more recreational boat traffic the bigger cats become more nocturnal.  A lot of what I learned about Utah Lake was through the generosity and guidance of a couple of guys who were already old geezers in the 1960s.  I became their adoptive grandson...as a student at the big blue school on the hill.  I was already a pretty fair young anglers but they taught me some new religion.

I joined them in their old wooden boat whenever I could during the day...and we always caught fish...and a few big ones.  But when we hit the water just before dark...for some moonlight madness...tackle, techniques and attitudes were different.  For night trips they always brought heavy tackle, big hooks and big baits.  And any cat we brought in under 10# was almost considered a nuisance.  Over the next couple of years my adoptive gramps subdued a few cats over 20#.  My biggest at that time was maybe 16-17#.  Although, using the same tacticss and technique in the late 1970s got some bigger ones...with my biggest going just over 24#.  

I continued to fish during day.  I actually preferred it.  Fishing was usually faster...even if the average size fish was a lot smaller.  And I preferred to feed the fish rather than the swarms of B52  mosquitoes that came out at night.  In those days most of us were still anchoring or drifting for cats...not dragging or slow trolling.  But in the last 20 years of fishing Utah Lake my biggest cats have been mid double digit poundage.  And during the past few years I have not fished at night...even though I continue to advocate night fishing for the biggest cats.

Keep up the good work, Jim.  I enjoy your reports and fondly remember the trips we shared.

[Jig-fisher]

That's an awesome trip. Great report.

[Piscophilic]

And I was under the illusion that you were too old, prim and proper to be a "swinger".  Guess we can be wrong about labeling anybody.  Great report.

Your after-dark success lends support to the claims I have made for many years that once the lake warms a bit and gets more recreational boat traffic the bigger cats become more nocturnal.  A lot of what I learned about Utah Lake was through the generosity and guidance of a couple of guys who were already old geezers in the 1960s.  I became their adoptive grandson...as a student at the big blue school on the hill.  I was already a pretty fair young anglers but they taught me some new religion.

I joined them in their old wooden boat whenever I could during the day...and we always caught fish...and a few big ones.  But when we hit the water just before dark...for some moonlight madness...tackle, techniques and attitudes were different.  For night trips they always brought heavy tackle, big hooks and big baits.  And any cat we brought in under 10# was almost considered a nuisance.  Over the next couple of years my adoptive gramps subdued a few cats over 20#.  My biggest at that time was maybe 16-17#.  Although, using the same tacticss and technique in the late 1970s got some bigger ones...with my biggest going just over 24#.  

I continued to fish during day.  I actually preferred it.  Fishing was usually faster...even if the average size fish was a lot smaller.  And I preferred to feed the fish rather than the swarms of B52  mosquitoes that came out at night.  In those days most of us were still anchoring or drifting for cats...not dragging or slow trolling.  But in the last 20 years of fishing Utah Lake my biggest cats have been mid double digit poundage.  And during the past few years I have not fished at night...even though I continue to advocate night fishing for the biggest cats.

Keep up the good work, Jim.  I enjoy your reports and fondly remember the trips we shared.

Thanks Pat! Again I enjoyed your thoughtful and thorough reply and insights. I too prefer to chase them in the day. That may be why my best ones are still mid teens fish. I have actually caught a surprising portion of those between noon and 2 P.M. on hot days. Don't know why, or if the pattern will continue, but it is there.

I almost never anchor when night fishing. I used to think I needed to slow down my dragging speed, but the more I fish at night the more the evidence says things work the same as in the daytime. I guess they can't see much better in the day at the golden pond! Strolling at night my help with the B52's as well since I still haven't been carried away by one.

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That's an awesome trip. Great report.

Thanks for the kind words. I never seem to get tired of having fun...sometimes tired from having fun though.