Saturday at Da Knolls 9/6/08

Utah Fishing Reports & Discussion Utah Fishing General
1

:sunglasses:TubeBabe and I seldom fish on Saturdays. We reserve weekends for family and leave the water to the amateurs and the masochists. But, this week I had eye surgery on Tuesday (fine, thanks) and had to stay out of the beautiful sunshine for three days. I was more than ready to fish almost anywhere this morning, but TubeBabe said she would prefer to hit the Knolls rather than have me gross out the neighbors by fishing in the gutter.

Cool 52 air temp when we launched just before 7. Water temp 65 and murky. Water level has dropped a foot in the past couple of weeks. TubeBabe was first off the bank with me following shortly after.

I told TubeBabe on the way down that we were not going to keep any cats. I planned to prospect for walleyes and maybe score a few white bass for bait. If she caught any cats we would release them.

Wouldn’t ya know it. I started it off by hanging a 25 inch channel cat on a dropshot rig I was fishing for walleye. Released. Threw all kinds of plastics and hardware. A few bumps. No hookups.

**Worked in and out from 5 feet to over 8 feet. Saw a few scattered fish on sonar, but everything seemed to be suspended at middepth in the murky water. No active fish. Even when I put on a minnow to drag on the bottom, it went a long time without being molested. **

As with a couple of previous trips to the Knolls, somebody rang the fishies’ dinner bell about 10 AM. Two rods at once. Lost one fish and brought in the other. A chunky spunky 16 incher. Lotsa dots on the side. Fun fun.

Caught a couple more of the “next generation” on a “bobber jig” rig…a minnow on a jig head under a bobber. Then my big minnow rig went POW, ZING. Mega kitty. Kicked my old behind. Turned out to be a 27" daddy cat…with some old fireline still hanging out of its mouth. I cleaned it off, along with mine and sent him back to play with the girl kitties.

TubeBabe was smelling skunk until the “main event”. Then she scored a few nice kitties too, with her biggest about 24". Skunk repellent done right.

During the catch and release mayhem, we also each caught one bullhead cat. Used to be a lot more common than they are now. No white bass or walleyes today. Had a couple of small whities on but they didn’ t know how to hang on. I did get one super-speckled small kitty on a tube jig I was fishing for whities. Looks like a leopard kitty.

It was kinda quiet down there for a Saturday…boatwise. Only a couple of fishing boats. One of them was a small boat that somebody trailered down and launched off the beach right after we had gone out in our tubes. He anchored up in several spots but we didn’t see him bring anything in. He was too busy talking on his cell phone. As we were coming in we could hear him yelling and laughing long before we finally passed him on the way in. His net was as big as his boat. I would have liked to see him hook something big enough to need that net.

When we got back in, the GIANT SPIDERS OF DA KNOLLS were there to welcome us. Man, those big suckers are all over the trees and bushes down there. They look like they could whup you in a fair fight…but they probably wouldn’t fight fair. In the pics below I included a shot of one of the spiders next to one of the purty purple wlldflowers (weeds) blooming down there right now.

I did say quiet, right? I neglected to mention that it sounded like WWIII down there from mid morning on. The shooting nuts burned off a few thousand rounds of ammunition…of all calibers. We even heard a few fully automatic bursts. At least we didn’t hear the sound of bullets whizzing by closely overhead like we have on some trips.

Water temp was up to 70 when we got off the water about 1. Until it drops about 10 degrees I don’t have a lot of hope to find many walleyes. But, I will hit that spot again a few times before it caps this winter…and maybe a few times afterward.

2

One word, Pat:

Awesome.

3

I sure enjoyed that report, TD, as I do all your posts. The Knolls is a favorite spot of mine, and you make the trip more regularly than I do even though it’s a short trip for me. I really need to just bop over there with my tube after work once a week or something. Sure beats armchair fishin’. That launch site is where I usually go too, looks real familiar. I have seen a couple of your pictures that show a sort of small rock “cliff” at the shoreline and I’m curious if that is “south”, toward Goshen, or “north” back toward Saratoga Springs. I guess I haven’t ventured far enough from the launch up or down lake to see it. Know what you mean about the crouds on weekends, as well as the shooting. One day when I was there in the tube there were some yayhoos driving around down by the lake shooting out of their car windows all over the place. And me without my bino’s to get their license plate number… I’ve got to find me some better looking jigheads. I hate everything they have at Sportsmans and Cabelas. Do you sell the ones you make???

4

Looks like fun.. I am anxious for some toothy fish to show up in there soon! Couple of the pics look like you are quite a bit further out than usual…

Now, those spiders .. I have become way to familiar with them lately. I went out there and stayed over night and that was all it took to get my truck infested with them. I was killing spiders just like that one on the 4 days later INSIDE my truck. One day they made a string from the drivers headrest to the steering wheel.. I open the door to go to work and that guy was spread out right in the middle of this big web he had built.. This called for something special.. went and got my BIG sandal.. smashed that spider into the seat about 75-80 mph.. Dumb spider.. should have known if he makes a web there the only thing he was going to catch was his death..

I hope the eye keeps doing just fine… Thanks for all your contributions, as always!

5

Dang that Phone Call pic is funny. I guess he is using the net as a sail while calling the cats in. :laughing: :laughing: It doesn’t even look like he is even fishing. I don’t see a pole or anything. He might be using the net to collect them up. I could personally never think about talking on a cell phone and fishing. But I can understand him with the net. Sometimes it is much easier and quicker to land fish with one hand and alone that way.

6

Hey waljustia, why didn’t you roll around like you did at Strawberry this past winter? :laughing: The weight of a walrus is more than enough to crush many spiders at once. [;)] Good laughs I tell you what.

7

I had occasion to go by close enough to see there was another fellow in the boat with him … laying across a seat. I did see that they had one pole laying against the side of the boat with the line going out the end.

8

:sunglasses:Thanks fer the kindly comments.

In the pic titled “Knoll Point”, that is where the cliffs are. It is a fair kick (toward Goshen) from the launch spot, and you can only reach it by water. There are new “Posted” signs up all over the place, along the fence at the end of the road. But, that does not deter those who can’t read English…like the “Bank Tanglers” in the attached picture.

I do not sell my jigs, but I am happy to show anyone how to make them…or to do some old fashioned horse trading if you have or make something I can use in return. If you would like to come visit my “tackletorium” for a looksee, shoot me a PM and I will give you my address and you can come by sometime.

I have been making and using my own stuff for over 30 years. I have a fortune invested in jig molds, hooks, paints, glitters and other jig making items. I don’t make my own to save money but to get what I want and need and to not have to use what Sportsmans or Cabelas thinks I should buy.

**When you make your own jigheads, you can pour a light head on a large hook or a heavier head on a smaller hook…to fit the type of fishing you will be doing. You can also custom paint the heads to produce just about anything you want. After that, you also custom color your plastics to produce a lot of colors and patterns that you just can’t find for sale…anywhere. **

As TubeBabe says, it keeps me off the streets and out of trouble…most of the time.

9

I forgot about that! :sunglasses: Took me a minute to remember..
with as many spiders that there are there.. I wouldn’t want to become their dinner! I parked my tube on the shore overnight when I was there.. Checked well for spiders in the morning before I headed out.. by time I came in.. I killed 15 spiders that crawled out onto me.. some on the arm.. others on the face.. some on the bill of my hat.. THEY ARE EVERYWHERE out there right now

10

Man, I thought I saw some fencing out into the water on one of those earlier pics… But to see him putting the fence all the way out into the water like that.. we all know that is NOT private land up to the high water mark.. Wonder how far out into the lake that guy thinks he owns!

11

:sunglasses:I think part of the reason for the fencing is to keep the cattle in. He is grazing (poorly) a few cows and with the lowered water they can easily walk through the water around the end of the previous fence.

12

That makes sense. When I was on my way to Goshen, they came down to the water to admire El Diablo Rojo. I could tell they were jealous cows aren’t very good at hiding their emotions :slight_smile:.

13

As always–a great report with pictures that help fishermen infer some of the fishing details! I was surprised that a channel cat would take the finesse red/chartreuse jig that perch and walleye love so much. I was also interested to see that you used a bobber and bobber jig on this trip.

It also looks the wind was out Saturday. I think I will be able to fish in the wind better now with my new Fat Cat and Mares Avanti fins. At least I hope so! I was really disappointed to see that the newer Fat Cats don’t have ring clips in the front and seat sides any longer because of their new apron setup. They now use four slots for the apron’s plastic legs in place of the rings–big mistake! That is going to present some challenges when I trying to replace the wimpy apron with a “hard” one. Oh well, that’s life–always some new challenges.

I wanted to get up to Willard today so I could fish with you and Delores, but I had to stay in Provo so I could grade the Independent Study lessons that piled up while I was at Lake Tahoe last week. I hope you get into some wipers and walleye.