Final Fling on Utah Lake 10-21-20

[TubeDude]

Figured I'd hit the "warm before the storm" at Lindon to try to bump my catfish score one last time.  Launched just after 7 to calm conditions, 44 degree air temp and 57 degree water temp. 

Motored down to the bubbleup to try for some nice sized whities like I got on my last trip.  They didn't show up.  Threw plastic, spinners and small cranks all along the pipeline...with only a few mini white bass to show for it.

Gave up on ABC (Anything Besides Cats) and put out two kitty rods...one for dragging bait and the other with a big blue-backed silver flig.  Dragged whole chubs on the one rod...later switching to whole small white bass.  I sweetened the flig with a half white bass...heads or tails.  Both worked.  In fact, I had several double ups...a fish taking the second rod while I was bringing in one on the other.  But with good use of my "rod trees", properly set drags and fin power control I was able to land almost every fish that wanted to play.

Almost constant action until I quit at 11 to meet Pikeman at the ramp for a new ice rod handoff.  Most fish were "early twenties".  Several 2-footers.  Several more in the 25 to 27 inch range.  No bumpers today...or for the rest of this year.

Couldn't have asked for a nicer finale.  Beautiful weather and a plethora of active kitties.  Tugs is drugs.


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[wiperhunter2]

Glad you got out there for one last try at a catfish bump, too bad the cats did not get the memo . Hopefully with the coming cool down those Willard perch will be out and ready for action soon.

[TubeDude]

Glad you got out there for one last try at a catfish bump, too bad the cats did not get the memo . Hopefully with the coming cool down those Willard perch will be out and ready for action soon.

Yeah, I suspect that most of my trips for the rest of this tubing year will be spent on Willard.  Got a couple of new things I wanna drag by some "W & W"s too.

[jjannie]

Whisker-Lickins TD! But too bad no bumpers. Those kitties looked pretty plump were they full of whities?

[TubeDude]

Whisker-Lickins TD! But too bad no bumpers. Those kitties looked pretty plump were they full of whities?

Didn't keep any for a fillet table CSI investigation.  But the cats from Utah Lake are almost always plump and healthy.  Lots of food resources in that pond...vertebrate and invertebrate.  Right now I suspect that a lot of the YOY whitettes do find their way into the innards of the kitties.  But there are also lots of young of bluegills, crappies, perch, carp and other species.   

Over the years I have filleted a whole buncha cats...and have been demazed at the range of food items I have found inside them.  In addition to the attached pictures, I have caught cats with whole small chickens in them...and once brought in a large kitty at Willard with the complete head and neck of a merganser...a large fish-eating bird.  I've always wondered if the cat was a winner in a do-or-die confrontation.  PS...Viewer discretion advised.

[jjannie]

Your investigation shows quite the varied diet. Never knew catfish were that predatory like that. Always though with those big catfish bait doughball baits I've see used that they wouldn't even go after anything that took any effort, but we're learning that is not case. 

I remember fly fishing on the Green river, not having the best day although Jeff was having nice catch and release day (this is typical) Anyway I watched a mouse/vole try swimming across the river when the mouth of large brown tout came up from underneath and just sucked it right in with nary a splash - made my day to see that happen.

[TubeDude]

Your investigation shows quite the varied diet. Never knew catfish were that predatory like that. Always though with those big catfish bait doughball baits I've see used that they wouldn't even go after anything that took any effort, but we're learning that is not case. 

I remember fly fishing on the Green river, not having the best day although Jeff was having nice catch and release day (this is typical) Anyway I watched a mouse/vole try swimming across the river when the mouth of large brown tout came up from underneath and just sucked it right in with nary a splash - made my day to see that happen.

Rodents are on the menu for lots of larger species.  That's why there are deer hair mouse flies and a lot of topwater hardbaits that are made in mouse/vole images.  Big browns are notorious mouse munchers.  But DWR studies of the fish at Strawberry show that both cutts and bows regularly dine on furry food around the edges.

There are lots of voles around Utah Lake.  And in the spring...when young voles thoughts turn to rodent procreation...they got kinda nutsy.  They run helter-skelter all over the place...especially at night.  Some of them make a wrong turn and end up in the water...some drowning but others disappearing in big splashes.  Bass eat them but so do enterprising catfish that cruise the shallows after dark...just waiting for such an opportunity.  I once found 3 freshly munched voles inside one 2-footer sized catfish.

The pic of the cat with all the froglets inside was another unique story.  The shoreline south of Lindon had been very weedy and reedy for several years...becoming more like a marsh than most of the lake.  It was home to lotsa frogs...until the shoreline restoration project went through and cleaned up all the greenery.  That was late in the fall one year, after the frogs had buried themselves in the mud for the winter.  But...when it warmed up in the spring the little frogs came up only to find there was no protective green cover for them.  And the catfish discovered the newly exposed froggies...and took advantage of the new food resource.  Haven't seen that before or since.

There is a popular notion that catfish are strictly nocturnal...bottom feeders...with poor vision.  The reality is that cats have good vision and in clear water they become daytime sight feeders and efficient hunters.  Willard is a good example of a water in which the cats readily chase live bait...and lures.  In fact, I have caught grundles of Willard cats on flies...as have more than a few others.  And almost anybody who has dragged cranks at mach 3 for wipers has tales of bringing in the occasional "whiskery wiper" on their fast moving lures.  And, of course we both know that they love fligs.

[fishskibum]

 Tugs is drugs.


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 strong work addict
you know a junkie gonna ask if there were any brown rubber lipped  clompers or cruisers present?
i bought a lindon pass this spring but havent used it
walking the pipe and those settling ponds were my poopfish go to for a while
i doubt im anywhere near grundles but im a kittys eat flies believer and should try harder
oh and 



poundkeywoglife

[TubeDude]

 Tugs is drugs.


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[url=https://ibb.co/C0QjKw3]
 strong work addict
you know a junkie gonna ask if there were any brown rubber lipped  clompers or cruisers present?
i bought a lindon pass this spring but havent used it
walking the pipe and those settling ponds were my poopfish go to for a while
i doubt im anywhere near grundles but im a kittys eat flies believer and should try harder
oh and 


Where are my manners?  I completely neglected to provide up to date intel on the predominant species in Utah Lake.  However, I fear that whatever I witnessed will be useless after this current cold spell.

I did see quite a few splashers, but none cruising the surface as they often do on calm days.  However, right along the pipe...right next to shore...there were bunches of small carp slurping along the edge of the pipe.  And I did take a picture for posterity...or poopfish fans.