No doubt you guys started out when it was much colder and having your lower halves in the water we figured it’d be pretty chilly. Seemed to matter which side of the boat you fished from - I’d catch the blue gills - Jeff would catch the crappie (he’d get about 8 crappie to my 1), a tiny bass and that TM - it was just his day.
Funny we brought stuff just in case we chose to troll around to see if we might catch one… never thought we’d see as many or even catch one where we were. The schools though were on the move - we had to keep moving a bit to keep on top of them - I am sure the TM are scattering them then they’d regroup again for safety in numbers.
Thanks for the response and the great history. I’ve seen a couple of lakes where the crappie collect that way as winter approaches and I assume it is driven by the behavior of their food supply.
It is also interesting that introducing a new species always seems to be the way to “fix” a fishery.
“It is also interesting that introducing a new species always seems to be the way to “fix” a fishery.”
**The history of just about all Utah fisheries includes “manipulation” of fish species. Unfortunately, theory and reality often collide to result in unforeseen problems. Kudos to DWR for at least trying…and for responding to the sometimes unlearned (stupid) requests of anglers. They try hard to use good biology and case studies from other parts of the country in putting together management programs. But there are too many uncontrollable factors that can derail even the best formulated plans.
As most of us come to understand, Utah is in the desert and all of our streams and ponds are at the mercy of weather cycles. Feast and famine. During good high water conditions all the species are able to have good spawning and recruitment. Tip the scale a bit in the wrong direction and it can set up a food chain reaction that can collapse the whole fishery.
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Forget the fish, I will take those panoramic photos, especially the one looking back at cemetery point.
Glade you two got into fish. When I was up there I didn’t venture down that far and never found a fish of any kind.
Richard
**Sorry you weren’t able to find a willing school. In truth, we had to sonar a whole lot of underwater real estate…without a blip…before we finally got down to where the crappie convention was in session.
If you like the scenery stuff, here are a couple more pics I did not include in my original post.
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My comment was not directed at the fisheries guys. I was thinking of fishermen who are always trying to get things fixed when things are cyclical, like water years, and we often just need to be a bit more patient. Not that it is easy to be patient.
**Patience is a virtue…that is best employed by younger folks. The older we get the less that patience is a satisfactory option.
I used to have a poster on my wall that showed 2 vultures sitting up in a dead tree. One has an evil look and says to the other…“Patience my @$$, I’m gonna go kill something.”
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Thank you, it was a fun trip. Sure beats going to work. Was getting nervous that the good days are starting to be fewer and fewer. So glad I could take a day off to go play. Nice that the bosses let me go. Later J
If you can’t make the otter work let me know, I have two toons that need a new home that you could talk me out of fairly cheap. One is my original kick boat that I used to have my motor on. So let me know if you’re interested and I’ll get ya more info.
Good luck and TD can put a motor on a toy duck so if anyone can get ya up and floating, he’s the man. Later J
Thanks Richard, it was a beautiful day to be out. I guess we should have put out an invite to have you join us, but my schedule has been so crazy it was hard for two of us to get there on the same day. It was a pretty long trek down the narrows for my toon and battery set up, but I made it on one battery even though I ended up running the motor most of the day. So if you were there alone you may not have wanted to make that long of a run. Are you into the whitefish run this fall? I sure had fun last year and I hope we can do that again. Later J
Do you guys have an ipilot and were you using spot lock. Seems like in the wind you were moving side to side but staying in about the same spot. My manual motor guiding wasn’t doing near as well for me. However the fish did keep moving so that helped me find them. There at the end I got down where Pat had been and found the big pile of fish. He sure can whisper the right stuff that stacks up the fish. Good thing the TM pulled him out of that spot or I’d never known. Later J
Thanks for the great report, and conversation.
I have plans this year to photograph the shore lines for future reference and your pictures help see the conditions of the reservoirs . Looks like Yuba is up some, boy who knows what to expect there.
This could be a low water year for some places. I plan to take advantage of this.
If you know of some extremely low places let me know. Thanks
“There at the end I got down where Pat had been and found the big pile of fish. He sure can whisper the right stuff that stacks up the fish. Good thing the TM pulled him out of that spot or I’d never known.”
**The best concentration of fish I found was where I called you down to fish…and JJ and crew fished nearby with you later. But the fish did move around.
There were some small schools of fish down where I fished, but without both a motor and fin power I would have trouble finding and staying over them. Spot lock? Only the spots on my shirt where I spill stuff when I eat.
The reason the fish moved in after I left…was because I left…and because I took Mr. Toothy with me. Believe me, it was getting sparse when I decided to hang it up…and then JAWS chomped on the last fish I hooked there. Once I had him occupied the word spread and the crappies moved in to safer waters.
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**Pineview is actually quite a bit higher than it has been at this time the last couple of years. The recent fall rains have helped.
A couple you might want to check out for underwater contours and structure could be Deer Creek and Jordanelle.
If you ask nice I have a collection of pictures from some of the lakes showing low water conditions. But I don’t have complete pictorial sequences of the entire shorelines.
More than a few astute anglers make a practice of cruising their fave waters during low water conditions and making notes on likely spots to revisit during higher water periods. With a good GPS and/or a good paper map with contour markings you can make marks and greatly reduce the time you spend looking on future trips.
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We do have ipilot but that only keeps the motor in one spot and the boat turns back and forth on that spot so there’s some variance you don’t just stay still. Always seems to over correct so its a constant swaying back on forth - kind a frustrating if you ask me but better than nothing. Not sure what ilink does though, maybe that’s a better option we’d have to look into…
They did keep moving around didn’t they, I had a good bunch by the big rock and I kept drifting off the spot and when I’d get back there they would be gone, but then I’d find them by the next biggest rock west and same thing would happen there, then I’d go back to the east and start over working my way west… I did see things really slow down the last hour or so, but once you and toothy left I picked up three or four fish all at once… Seemed like they really got tight lipped so I went into trying different colors and lures mode, but it didn’t help… I did find that I needed something heavy on my line to get the lure down to the fish so I could track depth and then the fish would bite, but I really wished I could have used my long rod instead of my ice pole, I just don’t like trying to catch fish on the shorty, but that was all they wanted to bite on for me… Guess I should have put the lures from that pole on the long rod, but that would have cost me time… Oh well it’s about time to get used to the ice poles anyway… Later J
It did look like the motor was working pretty hard to keep you close to on the spot… But you didn’t move much outside of a small zone… Wind makes things hard to do what you want… At least it wasn’t a hard wind… Well it was a fun day and I wish I was up there today, but oh well… Later J
“Wind makes things hard to do what you want… At least it wasn’t a hard wind… Well it was a fun day and I wish I was up there today, but oh well… Later J”
**But it is windy today. That forecast was what prompted us to change our planned Thursday trip one day earlier.
Fishing deep for crappies…with light tackle…is finesse fishing. Once the wind comes up enough that you can’t hold directly over the fish…and feel the often light bites…my fishing is pretty much over.
That is one of the things I have always appreciated about fishing from a float tube. As long as the breezes stay within a manageable level I can put my back to the wind and maintain a steady kick with my fins to keep my tube properly positioned. Sometimes I use a marker buoy. But when fishing close to shore for a quick visual reference that is not necessary. The only problem is that every time I catch a fish I look down and/or quit kicking long enough to get blown out of position. But a quick tap on the electric puts me back where I want to be.
As I have often replied to questions about my tricked out tube…“I can’t get it up on plane, or tow a skier, but I can fish purty good with it.”
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Yup we chose the right day, I just prefer fishing to doing other things. Hey I decided why you couldn’t get your tube up on plane. It’s that great big basket full of fish that’s causing you too much drag. Probably pick up several mph if you didn’t catch so many fish. Later J
**Naw. I think it’s the motor. Need to change the pitch on my fin blades…and maybe have an extra burrito for breakfast. Oh…were you talking about that wimpy electric motor?
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