I generally like to make a couple of trips on Echo about mid August. By then the perch fry are large enough that the predators are herding them into shore and are willing targets. But since Echo is only 30% full in July…and because the park is planning to close soon…for remodeling…I figured I’d better give it a shot.
Arrived just ahead of the 6 am “opening”. No gate and nobody at the station. Drove down the long ramp to find a closed sign and red cones. Saw that the end of the ramp was coming out of the water. Makes sense. Drove over to the “float tube launch ramp” on the gravel and prepped for launch. Got to watch several would-be boaters drive down, check out the sign and the situation and then drive off. One yakker launched from the gravel too. And one of the boats drove over to the next point of gravel and was able to successfully launch. But those were the only two other craft on the lake all morning. Sometimes a bit of alone time is just great.
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Started out with the usual routine. Several dink perch in a row. I was trying my new “mini whirly fligs” on one rod and a couple of small perch jigs on the other. I baited up the weighted whirly flig with worm…as I did with the perch jigs. The whirly was dragged slowly behind my tube as I made casts and vertical jigged with the other rod. After spanking and releasing about the tenth perchlet my mini whirly rod suddenly bowed toward the water and line sang off the drag. Whoa…what’s dat? A cat! The first one I have ever caught from Echo. About 19" of catitude. Kissed and released.
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**A few perch later I dropped my perch jigs down to an “interesting anomaly” just off the bottom in 12’ feet of water. Got a good munch and set the hook into what felt like a good footlong perch. Nope. A “seegar” walleye. Like the cat, my first from Echo. That made 3 species in the first hour. Now all I needed was a smallie or two for a 4 species “slam”. **
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Started pitching a larger “pale perch” plastic for smallies. Actually got a few dink smallies on the little whirly fligs. But I wanted something larger. I did get a couple of “underfooters” but nothing keepable or brag worthy. At least I got my fourth species.
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Fed a lot of worms to a lot of dink perch and other unknown “assailants” as I worked my way back to my vehicle. Then, on one cast with the light rod and small jigs I had another MUNCH. I set the hook and whatever was on the other end of the line wanted to be somewhere else. Zinged my string, he did. After a couple of minutes of give and take tussle I was discarding the idea of another cat and thinking maybe a carp. Yep. 'Twere a big old toothless golden walleye. He was the only fish I invited home. Wanna introduce (some pieces of) him to some whiskery friends in Utah Lake next week.
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**It was fairly calm when I launched but a semi stiff breeze came up for a couple of hours. However, by the time I crawled out of the water a little after 11 the lake was glass…with nary a jet ski, wakeboard or water skier on the whole lake. Works for me. **
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