04-09-2003, 09:22 PM
[cool]When you say west of the South Marina, are you referring one of those access spots around the south levee? As I recall, there is a dirt road that runs around the south levee and around to the west side. I have launched and fished all around the perimeter, but launching off the rocks can be tricky. Be sure you have a good flat area to stage and launch, and take it slow and easy.
My best early season tubing was usually right around the mouth of the channel, both north and south of the opening. Even though the current coming in from the Weber is cooler than the main lake, it attracts fish for the potential food it washes in. Catfish especially respond to the murky runoff. I used to get some of my biggest cats of the year from the end of February to about the end of May...in the channel between the marina "L" and the mouth of the channel. I would work outside the mouth, and then kick back up against the current, with a 1/8 or 1/4 oz. jig, tipped with a half nightcrawler. Add some crawdad scent for added attraction. Raise and lower your rod a foot or so, to bounce the bottom and attract fish. Some hits will be cats. Others will be walleyes.
This same technique works in the open, along the dikes too. Using your sonar, work in and out of different depths, looking for fish near the bottom. These will usually be walleye, but can be wipers or carp too. Larger fish cruising above the bottom...or from the top to middepth...will usually be wipers. They are still kinda inactive, but if you find a few in an area, try casting a white 3" twister out beyond them...let it settle to the bottom and then reel fairly quickly back up through them. If you feel an occasional bump, keep reeling until they grab it and hang on. Then set the hook and grin.
If the fish are really touchy, rig a whole crawler on a double hook harness and drag it slowly along the bottom, with no weight. Stop periodically, and do a "shivver lift" a couple of feet up off the bottom and then let it settle again.
This is a transitional stage. The weather forecast is for rapid warming. That's good. A couple of degrees raise in temperature gets the fish moving. But, until it reaches about sixty degrees, the wipers and even the walleyes will be sluggish. The catfish do not hit their prime until after 65 or 70. But, they can all be caught, all year. You just have to vary the bait, the depth and the speed to suit their requirements.
Chartreuse should be a good color now...with a hot red head if you can get them. For year 'round effectiveness, however, I have always preferred white with a hot red eye. Mike Barker, from Ogden, was down here for a week or so and I gave him some on-the-water guidance. He went back up and dropped his Caddis in Willard the first day he was back...and caught one cat and two walleyes over the 20" mark...before he froze out. He was using the little white "bait bugs" I introduced him to down here, and is trying to get me to accept his firstborn as a down payment on a lifetime supply. No dice. I still haven't been able to get rid of my own.
Email me your mailing address and I'll send you up a "sampler kit". If you tie your own flies, I can have you whipping out some dynamite jigs in no time. Let me know if I need to fill in around the edges.
Oh yeah, one last thing. The area along the west dike, over in the area they call the light pole, is probably the most productive year round, for all species. As long as you can keep out of the line of fire of the power squadron, you can get some great action casting back into the rocks or bottom bouncing baited jigs during the slow times. Then, when a school of hot wipers boils up around you...and you are the only guy there...that's when you are "living large".
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My best early season tubing was usually right around the mouth of the channel, both north and south of the opening. Even though the current coming in from the Weber is cooler than the main lake, it attracts fish for the potential food it washes in. Catfish especially respond to the murky runoff. I used to get some of my biggest cats of the year from the end of February to about the end of May...in the channel between the marina "L" and the mouth of the channel. I would work outside the mouth, and then kick back up against the current, with a 1/8 or 1/4 oz. jig, tipped with a half nightcrawler. Add some crawdad scent for added attraction. Raise and lower your rod a foot or so, to bounce the bottom and attract fish. Some hits will be cats. Others will be walleyes.
This same technique works in the open, along the dikes too. Using your sonar, work in and out of different depths, looking for fish near the bottom. These will usually be walleye, but can be wipers or carp too. Larger fish cruising above the bottom...or from the top to middepth...will usually be wipers. They are still kinda inactive, but if you find a few in an area, try casting a white 3" twister out beyond them...let it settle to the bottom and then reel fairly quickly back up through them. If you feel an occasional bump, keep reeling until they grab it and hang on. Then set the hook and grin.
If the fish are really touchy, rig a whole crawler on a double hook harness and drag it slowly along the bottom, with no weight. Stop periodically, and do a "shivver lift" a couple of feet up off the bottom and then let it settle again.
This is a transitional stage. The weather forecast is for rapid warming. That's good. A couple of degrees raise in temperature gets the fish moving. But, until it reaches about sixty degrees, the wipers and even the walleyes will be sluggish. The catfish do not hit their prime until after 65 or 70. But, they can all be caught, all year. You just have to vary the bait, the depth and the speed to suit their requirements.
Chartreuse should be a good color now...with a hot red head if you can get them. For year 'round effectiveness, however, I have always preferred white with a hot red eye. Mike Barker, from Ogden, was down here for a week or so and I gave him some on-the-water guidance. He went back up and dropped his Caddis in Willard the first day he was back...and caught one cat and two walleyes over the 20" mark...before he froze out. He was using the little white "bait bugs" I introduced him to down here, and is trying to get me to accept his firstborn as a down payment on a lifetime supply. No dice. I still haven't been able to get rid of my own.
Email me your mailing address and I'll send you up a "sampler kit". If you tie your own flies, I can have you whipping out some dynamite jigs in no time. Let me know if I need to fill in around the edges.
Oh yeah, one last thing. The area along the west dike, over in the area they call the light pole, is probably the most productive year round, for all species. As long as you can keep out of the line of fire of the power squadron, you can get some great action casting back into the rocks or bottom bouncing baited jigs during the slow times. Then, when a school of hot wipers boils up around you...and you are the only guy there...that's when you are "living large".
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