Koke-less at Lindon 7-7-21

[TubeDude]

Thanks for another great report and pictures. It sounds like you you have been having lots of fun with the whites and the kitties lately. Good for your and keep it up!

I have been out there this year, but not as much as last year and Julie has yet to go with me. First it was too cold in the morning and then one day later it was too hot!

I saw your reply to Cowboypirate about the apparent shortage of larger fish from the golden pond this year and I thought I'd chime in. It has affected me this year, but I'm going to say "so far." 

I have fished with both big and small baits and big and small floats/attractors on most of my trips and so far the best fish of the year have come on smaller WB chunks. I have also done some very early morning and very late evening outings and got more sleep deprivation headaches than larger fish.

I have spent more time "exploring" this year and that has kept me in shallower water, but there should have been some big fish in there as well. I can say that most of our 30+ fish the last few years came in September and October so I'm not worried yet.

If I were to guess, for me the lack of big fish comes from not having Julie in the boat

BTW, I have yet to catch a Koke down there either.

Thanks for sharing all your experience and wit!

Keep it comming

Thanks fer the kindly comments.  Glad to help keep you entertained.  I gotta say I have missed the "Julie Chronicles" of last year...with all the reports of more fish and bigger fish on the distaff side of the boat.

Interesting comment on catching some of your bigger fish on smaller baits.  Over the years some of my larger fish also succumbed to smaller or at least "average" sized baits.  And I especially recall one trip at the Knolls when I was using fresh carp meat as the "bait du jour".  In an effort to attract bigger fish I was using some hefty slabs of carp tenderloin.  I was getting a few pickups and pack offs, but was not getting any good hooksets.   I reasoned that whatever was playing with me was just holding on to the end of a strip, swimming around and not gulping down the goodies. 

SOOOOOOO....I tried downsizing the bait.  I cut down a larger strip to barely extend beyond the end of my large hook and pinned it on.   I lobbed it out...expecting to hook up with a bullhead or small channel.  But, wonder of wonders, a porky sized kitty slurped it up and headed south with the evidence.  The rest of the story?  I probably caught a dozen or so cats on the downsized baits and I don't think any of them was less than about 25 or 26 inches.  And all of them munched with gusto...getting the hook well inside their mouths for a good hookset.

Howsomever, I have knowed a few big cat specialists over the years who never use small baits.  To them, any whole white bass under 10 inches is too small.  And one guy even likes to use footlong whole carp.  Still another uses large slabs of chicken flesh...and has even been known to use accidentally aged cuts of beef, pork, deer or elk.  And I also know a west coast transplant who hits the Asian seafood markets to get whole small mackerel or whole sardines.

Looking forward to seeing some combined reports from you guys.  Also looking forward to some cooler fall fishing...if there is still any water left for the fish to swim in.