Lincoln Beach Flotilla Report 7-9-05

Float Tube Fishing Float Tubing General
1

:sunglasses:Yes, thankee kindly, we did pull it off and a good had was timed by all. At least we all caught fish. Nothin’ like the smell o’ skunk to ruin a perfectly good flotilla.

A flotilla it was. TubeBabe and myself in our Fat Cats, StickFigureFrank in his new Donut, Carp_Punisher and CATCHandreEAT in their pontoons, and Fishhound in his tin boat. Quite a group.

Frank was to be making his first floatation fishing trip. We got him launched without making a funniest videos clip and he was able to hang in there with us all day on his first kicking marathon. Nice goin’ Frank.

CATCHandreEAT accomplished his two goals…channel cats for dinner and a carp for bait.

Carp_Punisher worked on developing a backup moniker…Catfish Chastiser. He put a pretty good hurtin’ on the whiskerfish today.

TubeBabe took top rod honors. She was all business. She didn’t hang around while the boys fooled around getting launched and all. She got her stuff together and kicked up a rooster tail getting out of the harbor and out to the kitty zone. She smacked em good…ending up with 7 channels and 4 bullheads. Her biggest went 23 inches and 5.0 pounds.

Me, I kept pretty busy for awhile getting the show on the road and making sure that Frank had a good launch. By the time I eased over into the prime area, TubeBabe and Carp-Punisher had barbed wire fencing around the good spots and I had to find my own kitty hole. I did manage a couple of channels and a few bullheads. I think I may have got big fish honors for the day, with a 24.5 incher that weighed right at 6 pounds. My second channel was about 3.5 pounds.

Fishhound fished around the floatation crew for awhile and then motored a bit east, where he anchored until we came in. He scored a mix of channels, mudders and whities.

First timer Frank got lots of hits and did drag in a mudder or two, and of course lost the big one for the day. What would a fishing trip be without “the big one that got away”?

Great trip everyone. It was fun. Let’s start planning a “Gorilla Flotilla”…a nighttime trip for the full moon in August, whenever that is. Anybody know?

2

:sunglasses:Man, looks like I missed out on a great time, and a successful time too! That first picture of Frank is right where I was last Saturday a.m. when I noticed my flat starting to happen![:(] Looks like TubeBabe stomped everyone again. She’s pretty good at that. At least you got the biggest K, Pat.

My dad-in-law just informed me that I can have about 50 lbs of his old lead that he used to make bullets with, so I’M SET FOR LIFE on the jig making silver stuff! I’m excited about that and look forward to pouring a lot of jigs in a couple of months when I live there and have unlimited use of his shed (even has heater and swamp cooler)!

Anyway, let me know when you guys wanna have that “gorilla floatilla.” That sounds like a blast doing an evening float for the monster K’s!

3

:sunglasses:Hey Geoff, I think you have a challenger for most misadventures on the water club. Frank showed up without a fishing rod, only Powerbait for bait, large saltwater hooks, a small trout net and no fins for his float tube. Oh yeah, his float tube was only about half aired up too.

I used my 12 volt compressor to fill his tube, “borrowed” him a rod, fixed him up with hooks and carp meat and he was good to go. Judging by the thumbs up in his fishing picture, I think we have a new tuber amongst us. I also think he got a good idea of what he needs to start getting his tube tricked out. At least he drooled a lot when he looked at our stuff.

We will DEFINITELY do a Gorilla Flotilla. I will begin doing the research and planning and post it up when we have something doable.

4

Dang it,----------- missed it again. If I’d a know I would have been there!!![unsure] Why didn’t I know? Who knows??? I guess it’s that stage of life where I need a special notification, postems on the ice box, and the wife reminding me. I knew it was going to be a radio thing but I din’t realize we could have been there and participated without being in the way. Oh well! I’m real glad it turned out good. Good on ya and the rest of the BFTers I am pissed at myself though.
Leaky

5

[angelic]Well, guys, what can I say! The fact that I have been out three times in the past week and a half and done much less, made this an especially enjoyable trip! I do want to remind you all that it was definitely “skill” and not just “luck” that I was able to take honors!
(Plus…she has a good guide, tackle tinkerer and bait preparer)

6

:sunglasses:Hey, young man, everytime I suggest that we “hook up”, you take off in the middle of the week and stay out of town until my weekend is booked.

**We need to have your people get together with my people and hammer out the details. **

Let’s do lunch…and then go fishing someplace. It works with just two tubes too. We don’t gotta have a media event.

7

:sunglasses:Don’t worry, Leaky. When I find out this next time Gorilla Floatilla, I’ll send you a pm, and hopefully you’ll get it. About that thread on the dwr board, you are cool with me, and I’m glad you tried to step in and moderate things!

8

:sunglasses:Wow! :blush:That’s pretty crazy about Frank, but I’m glad you got him straitened out, and on the water for his first floatilla! Go get 'em, Frank! When it comes to Utah Lake, I leave the power bait and all of my trout stuff (except for some rooster tails, and a few other spinners-I’ve caught whities with them in the past in Nevada) at home. I only use the silly puddy on trout lakes when nothing else works first! Can’t wait for the Gorilla thrilla floatilla!

9

Delores, way to show the guys how it is done!

10

Hello all, Pretty embarrassed about my first trip..I had a rough time getting going (us computer nerds are late night types) as I have said before I am GREEN when it comes to this stuff, I thought I had all the right equiptment but it turns out that I bought wrong stuff. I shall have to have someone make me a shopping list LOL. Will my net be sufficiant or am I going to need something different? Again my apologies for making it a rough start, but I will keep plugging away and learn this stuff.

Frank (ie the train tangling explorer driver)

11

Hey TD,

You forgot to mention the dead carp I caught.

Oh, if I had only had a bow. I cruised with the flotilla for a while and started to feel like I was getting my tin tub in the way. And, all I had gotten up to that point was a good snag. So, I motored east a ways over to the inlet of the slough and anchored. Put out some carp on the bottom on one side and a chub just of the bottom on the other. Immedately, the chub line screamed - I grabbed the rod as it bent in half. Then it was gone. I reeled in and no chub. Looking over to the other line, a float with a piece of carp bounceing on the bottom, It was peeling off slowly. I got the first of my muds. I thought, this is going to be good. Then nothing for ten minutes.

That’s when the carp showed up. They were everywhere. So, I dropped some vanilla nutmeg dough bait to the bottom. Nothing. They were all around me. Then, I took out my cast net and started to throw it at them - I missed about a hundred times and gave up. But, It had a great effect. I must have scared them all way and the other fish showed back up - that’s when I caught the rest of my fish - except the one white bass that I caught in the ramp area as we were taking out. Thanks TD, that was your jig - and the bass took it on the surface within 3 feet of the boat - right in front of TubeBabe - I set the hook and the fish flew in the air and landed in the boat next to the live well.

Great day !

12

Man, I missed out. I had every intention on going but last night when I got home from work my middle boy kept bugging me about taking him on a camping trip (just me and him). So I secretly got all of the gear loaded and ready for a surprise camping trip. Lucky we were heading up Hobble creek as a family to check out a house and we took 2 cars. When we went to leave I told my boy that he had to ride with me and when we started up the canyon instead of going down he looked at me with this grin " Dad were going camping aren’t we". It was fun and I even got in a little fishing up above the Springville crossing but only managed 1 decsent sized brown.

I guess I missed out but I know I did the right thing. There is always next time.

13

:sunglasses:Hey Frank, we were glad you were able to make the flotilla. We enjoyed your company. You are a good sport and you proved that you can laugh at yourself. We were laughing WITH YOU, not AT you. We all have our own stories about some of our first times on the water in a floatation craft…tube or toon…and many of us had worse experiences than you did.

The good thing for you was that you fell in with a group that believes in sharing and helping others who want to learn or improve fishing skills. All of us are still learning too. It is just that we are farther ahead of you on the learning curve. And, all of us can remember many situations in which someone else was there to help us along the way.

You hang in there Frankie. Your determination will help you to work through the prerequisite mistakes and fumbles we have to get through on the way to higher skill levels. Keep an open mind and a sense of humor and the journey will be its own reward.

Most importantly, pass it on. Before long, you will have accumulated enough experience and success that you will be able to “download” to some other newbie who will look up to you as the “expert”. That is the capper on gaining new knowledge and skillsl, to be able to share with others and see the looks of appreciation on their faces. In fishing, payback is great.

14

Nice trip everyone, Frank I’m glad to hear you have removed the skunk.

15

Sounds like a good time was had by all. Hey Pat, I think the full moon in August is about 28 days after the full moon in July and 28 days before the full moon in September!:face_with_tongue:

16

Tube,
The only thing holding me back now is Sparky. I really want to have him with us so you can meet him a share putting up with him. [;)] I’m still watching him and am not sure if he’s healthy yet.[unsure] You can bet I’ll pm ya when I think he’s ok. Until he’s good to go, I’ll probably take a few short trips to Lake Z without him during the week, you and Babe are welcome to meet me there too.[:)]
Leaky

17

It is all about learning and it just comes from practice. I had already made it out on the water so I didn’t see your launch but it had to be better than the maiden voyage for me on my 'toon last year… set the Wayback Machine to June 2004…

I had just bought my 'toon to get ready for a family trip to Flaming Gorge. We stayed at the Lucerne Marina Campground. I was the only one with a pontoon and the rest of the family went out on a power boat for some fishing. Being a pontoon virgin that day I had no idea how to control it and the 15 - 20 mph breeze didn’t help. I launched at the boat ramp and attempted to go somewhere with the oars. Mostly what I did for the first 10 minutes was spin around in circles in the harbor. I finally was able to go in a relatively straight line but the wind had other ideas. I ended up visiting every empty slip on the north side of the harbor and I got stuck in all of them. Two 7 foot oars are very difficult to manuveur in a 10 foot space of a slip. All while this was happening I was being laughed at by a couple of salts fishing from the docks were laughing at me (of course I can’t blame them… it was kind of entertaining), they kept telling me the way to exit the marina. After about an hour I finally made it out into open water white caps and all. After bobbing around out there and attempting to fish with a new baitcaster reel (again in 20 mph wind) and fixing about 15 birdsnests caused bythe fact I was just barely learning to use a baitcaster and navigate a pontoon (bad combination) I made my way back into the harbor. By that time I was a little more confident and could actually go in the general direction that I wanted to go. I beached the 'toon and casted my baitcaster a few times and caught a SMB… so it all worked out and I didn’t die. Needless to say that knowing what I know now I never will venture out in a 'toon in condiditons like that again.

The guys yesterday were definitely laughing WITH you… the guys at the the Lucerne Marina were laughing AT me … there is a difference. Glad you had a good time.

18

**[unsure] I first want to apologize to everyone who made it yesterday. I promised a bearded woman, and/or a dog faced boy. Strangley this was my first weekend trip to Lincoln Beach where I was unable to see either. I’m guessing the circus crowd rolls in a little later. **

**On the other hand it was a great day of fishing. Besides the four channels caught on my beloved 4/0 circle hooks, and the single mudder which was caught on a Tubicus Dudimous Brand special jig I had NUMEROUS good hits I was unable to bring into the toon. **

**Being that my momma drown all the fools in our family at birth, I knew when I saw Tubebabe powering out of the harbor toward the reeds it would be wise to follow at a descrete distance then set up camp in the nearby vacinity. **

For the first 30 minutes or so the only fish catching I heard going on was Tube Babe telling us about every 5-6 minutes that she had a fish on. I nearly rowed over to where she was to see if she was either…

1. Reeling in the first fish to the tube, then opeing the bail letting it run for 5 minutes then reeling it back in over and over. OR

**2. Brought a box of frozen VanDee Camps Fish Sticks from the freezer at home and kept reeling it in and casting it our to make us all look bad and telling us she was catching fish. **

**After 20-30 minutes I found I was doing a lot of the same type of catching so I shut up and changed my mind about rowing over to see what shananagans Tube Babe may be up to. **

One strange phenomenon I noticed while I was out in the middle of Utah Lake is that apparently Deep Woods Off doesn’t repel spiders. While minding my own business I was feeling a bug on my neck so I squooshed and grabbed it to find it was actually a spider. I noticed and was brutalized by several more during the trip. Who knew spiders could fly??

**I need to add a few more bells and whistles to my toon. I have noticed the most pressing item I need to add is a rifle rack for my FA91 and some ammo pouches for additional magazines. No offense to those of you out there who use personal water craft I’m sure you’re all the exception, but I’m starting to think about 30 IQ points are shed the minute someone climbs on. With a lake as large as Utah Lake why is it so pressing to fart around on your PWC around fishermen and their prime fishn’ holes? **

**All in all I one fun trip. I think everyone did. Don’t wory yourself too much Frank, in a few more weeks, months or years you’ll likely be showing us a thing or two about fishing. You already did better (and kicked further) than I did on my first tubing trip when all I caught was a set of leg cramps, sore muscles, and Tubedude syndrome (symptoms include an overwhelming desire to fish a lot from a floation device). **

**Also thanks Pat for the info on skinning a cat. There is more than one way to skin a cat, and the electric fillet knife seems to be the best!! I’ve used it to slab the fish, open mail, change the oil in my car, weed the garden, and change diapers but I’ve never tried to skin a fish with it and I wish I had tried a lot sooner. It made the job quick easy and painless (except when I nearly lopped off my right pinky finger with it). **

Well I am taking a vacation from work starting from July 23 to August 7th and I plan on doing a lot of what to some strongly resembles fishing. If anyone reading has a desire to float, give me a hollar I’m in!! :sunglasses:

19

:sunglasses:Hey BeeMan, you still planning on Monday? Saved a couple of bigguns fer ya. Lots of carp too.

Full moon in August is on the 20th. That is a Saturday. I am thinking that an ideal time for a GORILLA FLOTILLA would be on Friday night, the 19th. The almost full moon will be up early and the general influences of the full moon will be pretty much in full effect (whatever the heck that is).

I’m thinking that LB is the best venue…for both bank tanglers and floatin’ fools. Maybe we can get some grub and kid friendly things going…and some prizes for the different winner categories.

I will post up an official announcement about the first of August, but anyone concerned can pretty much count on August 19th.

20

Hey i might take ya up on that! One of my freinds has one of those donut looking tubes.I bet i can borrow it from him.But i can only make it after work.And i never fished from a tube before so its a new thing for me.GONNA NEED A LOT OF HELP. :face_with_tongue: