Joatmon and I fished out of Willard North Saturday. We got there a little later than we wanted to so started fishing down toward Freeway Bay right off. I think we started too soon--should have run farther to the south before trolling. When we got down to the rocks we finally started catching cats. I got three and Brett picked up one. We really didn't want them as my goal was to catch wipers and walleyes to add to my species-caught-in-Utah list. We finally got into 10+ feet of water and turned west and eventually wandered off out into the big open. We were each running a lure and bottom bouncer with worm, trying to do what we had garnered as we have studied the lake/species. I don't have a speedometer so I was running my Minn Kota on settings 7-10 (I troll for UL cats on the 3 setting). It seemed like it was fast enough but we eventually decided that it was only 1.5-1.9 mph and then it was slowing down as well. Eventually it just quit. After some fumbling and searching I finally noticed that the foot pedal had come unplugged. By then we had decided to try using the big motor, though. We figured it was moving us at closer to 3mph now. Almost immediately a fish hit my natural-colored Flicker Shad. In came a nice 18" walleye. Yes, one goal met. Brett had caught a smallmouth earlier so we both had two species for the day. Now we needed some wipers and more walleye. As we proceeded west we picked up two more walleye, one each, then lightning struck again. By this time I had put a firetiger Flicker Shad on and was long-lining it. Brett was watching the poles while I drove the boat. He said that he thought I had a fish on that line. When I picked up the rod out of the holder I felt a strong pull and thought "that's a good fish." It took a long time to reel it in and it just kinda came along so I thought it must be a walleye. When I got it closer to the boat it really started fighting. Eventually I got it up enough to see white and realized that I had finally caught a wiper.
We continued trolling over to the west dike and then alongside it. There had been a lot of quiet time along the way. Suddenly Brett jumped up and said he had a good fish on. He had quite a fight bringing the big wiper in. We were both pretty impressed with its massiveness. In the well he went. Later we measured it at 20 inches and it weighed almost 5 pounds. Niiice fish. That put Brett at four species for the day plus the biggest so he didn't feel too bad that I got two more than he did.
We kept trolling up and down the west dike for the rest of the afternoon until we had to leave at 6:00. Getting loaded was quite a circus. At times up to 10 boats were launching, dropping off, picking up, or loitering around until their turn to load. I did a number of turns around the harbor as I waited. I wasn't antsy; the wind just wouldn't leave me alone and would shove me too far this way or that. I once got my skeg a bit grounded over by the south side. I read 2.5-3.5 fow in there though somebody had told me they thought it was deeper.
The water was 71° when we first got on the lake and stayed like that for most of the day. Later in the day it rose to around 74 and was 78 in the harbor. There was hardly any wind most of the day. There were some viscious wakes that would toss us once in a while but no one was being inappropriate with their boats as far as I could see. We had a friendly conversation with one man who had ten or eleven passengers with him, just chilling. We also had a nice conversation with a couple of State Rangers who checked the boat for compliance. They found a couple of things I needed to attend to. The big negative of that encounter is that they ran over our lines when they pulled alongside. Two of our lures got stuck in their fender ropes and it took some time and effort to extract them. Ah, well. I tried several colors of Flicker Shads and a beautiful silver/chartreuse/red Rat-L-Trap and a similar Rapala, which were both ignored. Brett tried several more things which I hope he will share. He also has a couple of pix he can put on.
There were some insects especially when we got too close the the dikes. A little breeze came up later in the afternoon which cleared them out for the most part.
A beautiful day, good company, some fish, and goals met; couldn't ask for much more.
We continued trolling over to the west dike and then alongside it. There had been a lot of quiet time along the way. Suddenly Brett jumped up and said he had a good fish on. He had quite a fight bringing the big wiper in. We were both pretty impressed with its massiveness. In the well he went. Later we measured it at 20 inches and it weighed almost 5 pounds. Niiice fish. That put Brett at four species for the day plus the biggest so he didn't feel too bad that I got two more than he did.
We kept trolling up and down the west dike for the rest of the afternoon until we had to leave at 6:00. Getting loaded was quite a circus. At times up to 10 boats were launching, dropping off, picking up, or loitering around until their turn to load. I did a number of turns around the harbor as I waited. I wasn't antsy; the wind just wouldn't leave me alone and would shove me too far this way or that. I once got my skeg a bit grounded over by the south side. I read 2.5-3.5 fow in there though somebody had told me they thought it was deeper.The water was 71° when we first got on the lake and stayed like that for most of the day. Later in the day it rose to around 74 and was 78 in the harbor. There was hardly any wind most of the day. There were some viscious wakes that would toss us once in a while but no one was being inappropriate with their boats as far as I could see. We had a friendly conversation with one man who had ten or eleven passengers with him, just chilling. We also had a nice conversation with a couple of State Rangers who checked the boat for compliance. They found a couple of things I needed to attend to. The big negative of that encounter is that they ran over our lines when they pulled alongside. Two of our lures got stuck in their fender ropes and it took some time and effort to extract them. Ah, well. I tried several colors of Flicker Shads and a beautiful silver/chartreuse/red Rat-L-Trap and a similar Rapala, which were both ignored. Brett tried several more things which I hope he will share. He also has a couple of pix he can put on.
There were some insects especially when we got too close the the dikes. A little breeze came up later in the afternoon which cleared them out for the most part.
A beautiful day, good company, some fish, and goals met; couldn't ask for much more.
The older I get the more I would rather be considered a good man than a good fisherman.
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