Bankin' at Pineview 11-17-08

Utah Fishing Reports & Discussion Utah Fishing General
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:sunglasses:Did some bankin’ at Pineview today. No, not “bank tanglin’”…but fishing “banker’s hours”. I usually prefer to hit it early, to avoid the wind, but had busy-ness this morning and the forecast was for calm through the day. TubeBabe couldn’t get away so I did a solo shot. Glad I did.

**Launched at the bottom of the trail down in front of the caretaker’s buildings, near the dam. Damn. That gets steeper every time I do it. Gettin’ too old for that stuff. **

On the water about 11:30 AM. Air temp a balmy 42. Water temp just over 47 and that is about where it stayed all afternoon.

Started off shallow, near where I scored some crappies a month ago…10/16/08. Got a few tiny tot smallies and largies. Did not see any crappie-like marks on sonar. Moved deeper. Glad I did.

**Finally started seeing LOTS of fishies in water 45 to 55 feet deep. But, most of them were inexperienced and did not know how to bite. Did get some bumps before finally finding a 48 foot hump surrounded by deeper water. Got a couple of crappies, a few perch and some small smallies. Got one 14 inch smallie that did not make it after being released. That deeper water sometimes gets them. I scooped up the floater and put him in my basket. **

A few minutes later I had another inquiry on my little jig and snapped my wrist to set the hook. SNAG? NOT. After a bit of smallie-like tussle the fish came slowly to the top, but with not much fight. Got heavier as I got it closer to the top. About the time I looked down into the water and identified what I was thinking I had…a tiger…it went wacko. Three or four cartwheeling leaps within a few feet of my tube and even tailwalked right up onto my apron. It woulda made funniest videos for sure as I tried to scoop the fish back in the water without donating some digits to its dental work. Finally got the fish to open wide and say “Ahhhhh”, so I could grab it with the lip gripper. Did not want to net it or take it out of the water. I used my new hemostats to reach in and remove the bitty bug glow jig WAY INSIDE the tiger’s mouth. What a testimonial for my Excalibur line. A 34 inch tiger muskie without any wire leader…after several jumps, etc.

The grateful tiger dove for the deep and his tail splash covered my glasses with water. But, he must have spread the word 'cause all the other fishy blips disappeared from my sonar.

After going bumpless for quite a while, I kicked across to the south shoreline and worked in and out over there for awhile. Got a few more perch and another couple of crappies. All the perch were dinks, with the biggest less than 9 inches. The crappies ranged from 11 to 13 inches. Not bad.

Sunset comes early in the narrows. When the sun disappeared behind the hills about 4 PM it got cold and a breeze came up. Made it hard to fish the touch approach I prefer and there was no more action so I hit the beach and boogied…before the banks closed.

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SWEET!!!:slight_smile:

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Sweet, indeed!

And Pat, I gotta remember your measuring technique.

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Nice job not gettin sawed off. I wish I could go catching and not just fishing one time. J/K good job man

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Sounds like a great trip and nice pictures…That one crappie sure has a red mouth…

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very nice, love that cute little largemouth. later
chuck

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Well done Pat. I wonder why that tiger would be interested in such a small offering?

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Quick easy meal most likely.

Tubedude, you are my idol! I want to be you if I ever grow up! Great job.

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Nice Pat

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Nothing better than Crappie for dinner. I’m with you on the Excalibur line. It’s amazingly abrasion resistant. I try different lines once in a while, but I always go back.

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How deep were you cathing the smallmouth?

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Wow those fish have sure moved deep. Looks like I’ll be fishing with the raft for tigers at this point. Your little custom jigheads, are you tipping them with perch?

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Well done Pat. I wonder why that tiger would be interested in such a small offering?

:sunglasses:I don’t presume to understand the workings of the minds of fishes…especially tiger muskies. Many anglers who have fished Pineview have stories of hooking them on small crappie jigs. It does seem strange that such a big fish, with such a big mouth…that can munch such large prey…would snarf such a bitty bite.

Two theories:

1. The tiger had just had a larger meal and wanted to pick his teeth with my small jig.

2. The small glow jig may have simulated just the eye of something bigger. Many predators key in on the eyes of their prey.

**Over the years I have caught many small fish on large lures…some almost the same size as the lure they attacked. But, that tiger takes the award as the largest fish on the smallest lure. **

That little “glow werm” was on a size six hook and was only a 1/32 oz. head. It was a dropper above a 1/4 oz. ultra minnow jig. The larger jig was what I caught most of my other fish on.

[inline “GLOW WERMZ.jpg”]

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How deep were you cathing the smallmouth?

:sunglasses:The first few small ones I caught were in 26 feet. The bigger ones were all over 45 feet.

I do not like fishing for bass when they are in water that deep. Some of them are able to power back down, decompress and survive. But others suffer too much of the “bends” and do not survive. It is not just an air bladder thing, but gas chemistry in the blood.

Virtually all of the perch and crappies I caught yesterday were goners once they reached the surface. I kept even the smaller perch, to replenish my bait supply.

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Wow those fish have sure moved deep. Looks like I’ll be fishing with the raft for tigers at this point. Your little custom jigheads, are you tipping them with perch?

:sunglasses:A lot has changed since my exploratory trip one month ago. For one thing, the water level has come up about 4 feet. That’s good. But, the water temp dropped 7 or 8 degrees and that has pushed the fish more into their winter patterns.

There are still some shallow crappies. One guy I talked to reported catching some slabs right off the docks last week. But, they go where their food supply is. In the narrows, that would be the baby perch…and there are large schools of them on sonar right on the bottom in the deepest water. So, that is where to look for the predators.

But, just like the last time I was there, the more active fish were somewhat shallower than the bait and many of the predators on sonar. Lots of fish in 55 feet, but the best bites were under 50 feet. On my last trip, in October, I was catching them under 30 feet, and many were only half that deep.

I am concerned about the perch in Pineview. They never did show up in numbers, during the summer, like they have in years past. And, so far this fall, nobody has made any real score on them either. Everybody I have talked to has only caught a few scattered perch and nothing of any size. Unless they have all been hiding out in some secret location it looks like there has been a big hit in the population. Same for smallmouth. Not nearly as good this past year.

I was tipping with both crawler and “prepared” perch strips…precut and flavored with salt and crawdad scent. I was using just a short bit of crawler on the small jigs and a strip of perch meat on the “ultra minnow” jigs (pic below). I caught one crappie, one perch and the tiger on small jigs with crawler. All the other crappies and perch bit on the larger ultra minnow…1/4 oz. head with size 2 hook.

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Even the pros talking about fall musky tactics say to go deep and slow down, so vertical jigging is probably an effective approach.

Hazmattr and I last week were fishing from the bank around cemetery point. He managed the raise two tigers with a topwater lure, but neither of us caught any. They do seem to scatter around. Some shallow, some suspended over deep water, some hugging the bottom.

Earlier this summer the DWR said the crappie and smallmouth populations in Pineview were looking healthy, but are concerned that there isn’t any small crappie around. See the video that includes the Pineview crappie population survey http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9Q_HGtElbE

I was in the narrows a few weeks ago and saw some little dead perchlings floating.

Alot of places go through boom and bust cycles. I wonder if this is just a slower year for pineview, or if it will be drawn out into a more serious problem.

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:sunglasses:As most dedicated anglers learn through experience and observation, fish may be found anywhere at any time…and in any stage of attitude…active, inactive or neutral. You can generalize all you want, but the fish will generally be near where their food supply is and will be feeding if they are hungry. If they are already full from a recent feeding, or if their metabolism is slowed by cold water, they plain just do not chase lures.

At this time of year the fish are also greatly affected by temperature. The water is cooling quickly, and the fish seek out little spots where the water may only be a couple of degrees warmer in some cases. During bright sunshiny days fish often move onto south facing shorelines (north shore) and go shallow to soak up direct rays from the sun. They may or may not respond to lures at that time.

I know of at least a couple of “tiger-tamers” who include some vertical jigging with spoons or tube jigs in their arsenal of late fall muskie-chasing gear. Find a school of perch and work the lure around it to prospect for cruising tigers. You can sometimes catch a couple deep, after hitting others in much shallower water. Just like women, tigers are subject to mood swings and they do not all act alike. (Sorry ladies).

At this time of year it is not uncommon to see dieoffs of the fry of all species. There are bajillions of perch so a few lost to cold, lack of food or whatever is not going to affect the total population. But, always a cause for concern. What is causing it and is it widespread? I have seen mass dieoffs of small crappies at Willard when I have arrived at daybreak, and within an hour the terns had them all cleaned up…and nobody else even knew about it. It would be comforting to know that it was from natural causes, rather than a rampant disease that was going to kill off the species.

I suspect that some of the smaller fish die in Pineview because when they follow the zooplankton deep, in colder water, the predators sometimes force them back up into colder and food-depleted zones. They either die of cold or starvation. Just my theory.

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Man, that tiger shot is a great pic! And those Crappie had some shoulders on them.
You like that 3rd dot on the front of the nose of that ultra minnow?
I fished with a dropper over the weekend and had a hard time with the top, smaller fly wrapping around the line and causing tangles. Maybe, I had too much line of the top fly.

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Great pics, nice day for banker hours… I have put my boat away but might take it out this friday after your report. I got a small john boat also, I might take that out and go up there friday and spend half or a full day depending on the wind. I will fish for the crappies and perch. Maybe toss some stuff for tigers also… thanks for the report…

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Great posts as usual. I never have tasted crappie. How do you rate them compared bass? I’ve eaten bass & bluegill and could take them or leave them. I love perch, walleye and cats.