Today I pulled a LOAH and woke up two hours past my alarm time. I think I set it for PM instead of five AM. Anyway, threw together my tubin gear and headed to Utah Lake. I got to my chosen destination after a trip to Walmart for Powerade and bobbers. I got rigged up, gave myself a head rush (amazed I didn’t fall over after blowing up a Fishcat using mouth power) and got on the water. It was a warm morning, but the water was pretty cool to the touch. I expected to get bit right away… but wondered if a couple full moon nights might not slow down the bite. I don’t know how much weight to put in solunar tables and that. Anyway, the first hour was an exercise in patience… no bites. I had told the wife I’d be home around eleven and got on the water at around 8 so I was planning on a couple hours to fish. Time was short so I started “running and gunning” if there is such a thing in catfishing. I’d flip the bait… wait about five minutes, no bite, move on to the next spot. Anyway, I finally found the magic set of cattails and within about ten minutes, I had hooked two fish. The first one really had some shoulders and actually gave me a bit of a ride around in circles for a few minutes. Good times… I’m almost thinking I caught the same catfish a couple times because I’d let the fish go, get re-rigged and cast back to the same point, just to go for another ride. Anyway in the second hour, I caught four fish. All the cats were big healthy fish and it was fun getting to exercise my back muscles on em. Anyway, I fished around a couple more points and got buzzed by some PWC idiots. I also had some powerboats come and sit on top of me. Nothing like listening to Sir Mixalot and “I like Big Rumps (family friendly edit)” while waiting for the fish to bite. I finally decided I better head home or risk giving up future kitchen passes so I kicked back to the truck, picking up a couple more cats on the way in. The final bite of the day was a fish that took the bobber down, the drag screamed and my line busted… I never saw that fish but I like to think it was a monster. :lol: My first bunch of fish were the best… easily over five pounds. I was lifting them with my gloved hands and holy crud… those dang fish are strong. Several of the fish simply twisted themselves free… they were so strong I couldn’t hold them, even with a pretty firm grip on their face. Anyway, it was a great day to get out and catch some fish, even if it was a shorter trip than I like to take. I got home and my wife wanted to go for a drive… pretty cool. Mirror Lake Hwy is open up past the turnoff for Murdock Basin although there are lots of “road closed” signs along the way. We didn’t go all the way to the end this week. I did get a couple good pictures of a Sandhill out in a meadow… didn’t seem to mind the onlookers. Here’s some pics.
Great report, it sounds like the catfish spawn has started. Those are some nice hogs you caught there, sure would have been interesting to see the one that got away[;)]. The sleeping in at the start of your day sure didn’t hurt you catching from the sounds of it. Too bad the power squad came out and messed with your fun but now that the water has warmed up I’m sure this is just the start of their harassment 
. WH2
Nice job on those kitties, RiverRat77! It looks like it’s on now. One question for you. Were you on the East or West side of the lake? Usually the power squadron isn’t on the West side, so I assume you were on the East side. Is that correct?
No, oddly enough, I was on the west side. I haven’t hit the airport side yet. Lots of “bass boat” looking folks zooming back and forth but the two big powerboats came within probably 150 yards of me and just sat there. I had three different PWC come even closer than that and two of those came by multiple times. I was kinda secretly hoping they’d clown around and run into each other… but would have felt kinda bad if it had happened. They came close a couple times. Oh well… yeah, fishing was good. When I went with the Dude a year ago… I caught most of my cats from 1-4 in the afternoon in this same spot… kinda weird. Dude and Tubebabe had left at about noon and then the cats turned on for some reason. I’d guess with the full moon, night fishing might be productive, but I don’t know for sure.
hey i fish utah lake quite often and so for this year have had alot of white bass catches and crappie. what type of catfish bait are you using out there? Nice pictures
In case Riverrat77 doesn’t see this response of yours, I’ll kind of speak for him per se. I believe that he uses the same baits as TubeDude and many others at Utah Lake, and that being chub minnows, red side shiners, or carp meat either a couple feet below a bobber (if in the weeds, willows, etc.) or dragged with no weight or bobbers at all while kicking backwards in the tube. These are the best baits for the kitties in Utah Lake, but you can also try a raw shrimp with a nightcrawler dangling off the bottom of it. This is best fished below a bobber. I caught a 12 pounder on this setup 5 years ago, but the above methods are my favorite.
You also might want to p.m. Tubedude and ask him for his Utah Lake Catfishing writeup doc. It will keep you busy for a while, and amaze you with all of the useful info. I think this might also be available on the “Float Tube Fishing” board of this website, of which he moderates. Click on “Best of the best” and you’ll find it there…
Hope that helps. Good luck next time out…
Since my name popped up, I will pop in on this question.
I suspect that carp was the bait of choice, under the bobbers. It usually works best around the reeds and is both easy to get and easy to use.
Since you are a newbie, you may have missed past posts where I attached files for a couple of the Utah Lake catfish writeups. Here ya go.
Dang Riley! You know how to write a report, almost felt like I was there! Thanks for the pics I can see green vegetation in the background…time to go to “my spot”…
I was down there yesterday. The lake has come up at least a foot…maybe more…in the last week or two. Flooding a lot more of the structure and cover along that shoreline. I did not fish it at all, but made some mental notes of some spots that looked bassy. There are some reed “islands” out away from shore, and some shoreline reed beds with nice indentations and pockets.
The problem is not that there is no cover for bass anymore. There is too much cover and the bass get spread out all over the place. Makes it tougher to find them but they are feeding well and growing bigger.