09-25-2019, 03:40 PM
ES: I fished out of the Provo Harbor on Sept 23 from 5:30 A.M. until noon. The air temps ranged from 55 to 70 and the water from 63 to 66. Winds ranged from 0 to 6 MPH mostly out of the East and South. The first half hour was spent catching WB for bait resulting in 4 YOY and 1 adult. The catfish total was 11 ranging from 23 to 29 inches. All the cats came on FLAITS with WB meat dragged at 0.3 to 0.6 MPH.
FS: Because of the cold snap last Saturday, Julie and I didn’t go out that morning. She had to work on Monday so I took half a day off and went alone. I got to the harbor before 6 A.M. and started working a #6 white BH bugger and a couple of tiny bait hooks under a “float” for YOY whites. The first few hits were missed, but I finally remembered when to strike and got 4 fairly quickly. They were larger than expect ranging from 4 to 5 inches and all hit the white fly. On the 5th hook-up my ultralight bent a lot more and a 10” white came in. There must have been a school going buy eating their offspring because after the adult was landed, the little ones seemed to vanish. Fortunately, I figured I had plenty for the day.
There were a few larger cats caught in the harbor about this time last year so I strolled out dragging two larger FLAITs, one with re-thawed cut adult WB and one with a fresh-cut young one. The morning was far too relaxing as I got all the way out of the harbor and well past the buoys before the first fish hit. It wasn’t a hard hit, but it stuck and it came on the re-thawed WB. The fish felt decent weight wise, but had very little energy for a fight. When I got it in the net I thought: “This is a 10-pound fish! Maybe it will make 30.” The board gave it 29” and the scale just under 10.5 pounds. A slow start, but a promising one. I told myself I could take fewer but larger fish all day (if I only had all day, I had to teach labs at 2 P.M.)!
I headed north and west in search of bigger fish father from shore. The second fish came about 30 minutes later and went 27.5 inches. I had hits on both rods at almost the same instant, but only one stuck. Again, it took the “old” WB. The average size was still looking good.
By sun-up, I had released 3 cats, but the last one was down at 25”. Then things went dead for almost an hour. I had turned back in toward shore and there seemed to be a dead zone from 8.5 to 7.5 FOW. When I got back out above 8.5 I started getting a few more bumps and fish.
At 9:30 I had gotten 6. Two more smaller ones and one at 28.5. Interestingly, once the sun was up I got no more hits on the old WB. They only hit the fresh cut.
Next I picked up the gear and motored west about a mile and a half. Again a couple of cookies in a about an hour. Since things had slowed again, I decided to go back to the area where the first fish came and work south parallel to the dike in about 9 FOW.
I got another two more cookie cutters in about an hour a bit north of the river inflow. I worked the color transition for a half mile or so because I knew the bank guys had been getting lots of whites near the mouth lately. Inside the transition, the water quickly cooled to 58 degrees. I suspected the cats would not choose to stay long in the colder water and the results supported the theory. After the half mile I went back into the more stained water and when the temp hit 63 I picked up another cookie cutter, well not exactly a cookie, at 27”, but smaller than I was hoping for.
I toyed with the idea of picking up the gear and heading a mile or two south, but my starter had acted funny earlier in the day so I opted to stay close to home and just work gradually deeper. It turned out to be a wise move.
The fish came every half hour or so, a big change from just a few weeks ago, and all on fresh cut WB. I had changed out the old stuff after 4 consecutive fish on the fresh. Around 11:30 I got a sharp “whack” on one of the YOY whites from the morning. The rod didn’t load up, but I could tell the fish was working over the bait. After another “whack” I picked up the rod and gave the fish some slack, hoping it would inhale the bait. After 15 seconds I tightened the line and the fish was still there and seemed to be moving away. I leaned back a little and had a good fish on. After about 20 seconds the line just went slack. Darn it! When I got the bait back in, the circle hook was wrapped up in the bait with the point buried hopelessly in the middle of the 5” white. Apparently as the fish chewed, it had turned the hook over and rendered it useless. Note to self: I probably should have just tightened down on it after the initial hit.
I had planned to pull the lines at 12:15 so I could get home, shower and get in for the 4 hours of lab classes. Since I was so close to the harbor, I delayed until 12:30. Then I turned the key on the Merc and it clunked and wouldn’t turn over. I tried a few things, including shorting the switch terminals, but it wouldn’t turn over. I tilted it out of the water, put the i-pilot on 10 and screamed back to the dock at 2.2 MPH. When I got to the dock I called my TA and told him to start without me, I was going to be late.
I’m sure glad I hadn’t gone farther south or I would have missed the labs altogether!
It turned out to be a good early Fall morning, 11 cats total and one over 10. That is almost textbook from my statistics over the last few years, except the 10 pounders are coming more consistently than they used to. That night at home I put the volt meter on the starter and sure enough, it was shorted somewhere inside. The new one is supposed to be here on Thursday.
Maybe I’ll be ready to try again this weekend.
[signature]
FS: Because of the cold snap last Saturday, Julie and I didn’t go out that morning. She had to work on Monday so I took half a day off and went alone. I got to the harbor before 6 A.M. and started working a #6 white BH bugger and a couple of tiny bait hooks under a “float” for YOY whites. The first few hits were missed, but I finally remembered when to strike and got 4 fairly quickly. They were larger than expect ranging from 4 to 5 inches and all hit the white fly. On the 5th hook-up my ultralight bent a lot more and a 10” white came in. There must have been a school going buy eating their offspring because after the adult was landed, the little ones seemed to vanish. Fortunately, I figured I had plenty for the day.
There were a few larger cats caught in the harbor about this time last year so I strolled out dragging two larger FLAITs, one with re-thawed cut adult WB and one with a fresh-cut young one. The morning was far too relaxing as I got all the way out of the harbor and well past the buoys before the first fish hit. It wasn’t a hard hit, but it stuck and it came on the re-thawed WB. The fish felt decent weight wise, but had very little energy for a fight. When I got it in the net I thought: “This is a 10-pound fish! Maybe it will make 30.” The board gave it 29” and the scale just under 10.5 pounds. A slow start, but a promising one. I told myself I could take fewer but larger fish all day (if I only had all day, I had to teach labs at 2 P.M.)!
I headed north and west in search of bigger fish father from shore. The second fish came about 30 minutes later and went 27.5 inches. I had hits on both rods at almost the same instant, but only one stuck. Again, it took the “old” WB. The average size was still looking good.
By sun-up, I had released 3 cats, but the last one was down at 25”. Then things went dead for almost an hour. I had turned back in toward shore and there seemed to be a dead zone from 8.5 to 7.5 FOW. When I got back out above 8.5 I started getting a few more bumps and fish.
At 9:30 I had gotten 6. Two more smaller ones and one at 28.5. Interestingly, once the sun was up I got no more hits on the old WB. They only hit the fresh cut.
Next I picked up the gear and motored west about a mile and a half. Again a couple of cookies in a about an hour. Since things had slowed again, I decided to go back to the area where the first fish came and work south parallel to the dike in about 9 FOW.
I got another two more cookie cutters in about an hour a bit north of the river inflow. I worked the color transition for a half mile or so because I knew the bank guys had been getting lots of whites near the mouth lately. Inside the transition, the water quickly cooled to 58 degrees. I suspected the cats would not choose to stay long in the colder water and the results supported the theory. After the half mile I went back into the more stained water and when the temp hit 63 I picked up another cookie cutter, well not exactly a cookie, at 27”, but smaller than I was hoping for.
I toyed with the idea of picking up the gear and heading a mile or two south, but my starter had acted funny earlier in the day so I opted to stay close to home and just work gradually deeper. It turned out to be a wise move.
The fish came every half hour or so, a big change from just a few weeks ago, and all on fresh cut WB. I had changed out the old stuff after 4 consecutive fish on the fresh. Around 11:30 I got a sharp “whack” on one of the YOY whites from the morning. The rod didn’t load up, but I could tell the fish was working over the bait. After another “whack” I picked up the rod and gave the fish some slack, hoping it would inhale the bait. After 15 seconds I tightened the line and the fish was still there and seemed to be moving away. I leaned back a little and had a good fish on. After about 20 seconds the line just went slack. Darn it! When I got the bait back in, the circle hook was wrapped up in the bait with the point buried hopelessly in the middle of the 5” white. Apparently as the fish chewed, it had turned the hook over and rendered it useless. Note to self: I probably should have just tightened down on it after the initial hit.
I had planned to pull the lines at 12:15 so I could get home, shower and get in for the 4 hours of lab classes. Since I was so close to the harbor, I delayed until 12:30. Then I turned the key on the Merc and it clunked and wouldn’t turn over. I tried a few things, including shorting the switch terminals, but it wouldn’t turn over. I tilted it out of the water, put the i-pilot on 10 and screamed back to the dock at 2.2 MPH. When I got to the dock I called my TA and told him to start without me, I was going to be late.
I’m sure glad I hadn’t gone farther south or I would have missed the labs altogether!
It turned out to be a good early Fall morning, 11 cats total and one over 10. That is almost textbook from my statistics over the last few years, except the 10 pounders are coming more consistently than they used to. That night at home I put the volt meter on the starter and sure enough, it was shorted somewhere inside. The new one is supposed to be here on Thursday.
Maybe I’ll be ready to try again this weekend.
[signature]
