"The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of what is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope." John Buchan

Sunday, March 11, 2012

First Tube Trip of the year, March 10th @ Lincoln Beach, Utah Lake

Well Scott, Jason and I have been itching to get out and do some fishing.  I think the wait has even been harder on Scott who got a new tube for Christmas but has yet to have been able to take it on a first run.  This was a big upgrade over his older style round tube that his wife was nice enough to talk Santa into hiding under his tree.  Anyway between work, school (for some), weather and household chores we didn't get a chance to get out until yesterday.  We had the plans in the work earlier into the week watching weather reports and making sure we had the green lights to go from the home fronts.  Everything came into place well enough and we gathered at my place at 6am so that we could reach Lincoln Beach by near sunrise.

Only two other vehicles were at the launch spot when we got there and they were already out on the water and out of sight.  As we setup or tubes 2 more boats launched as well.  We planned, hoped, that our plan to work south of the launch channel would keep us away from most of the other boats.  That plan worked out well.

Scott was also sporting his brand new waders so it took a bit longer to get setup both with his waders and tube being on their first runs.  I think I came to understand where the "Force" comes from in the name Force Fins as Scott borrowed my pair to wear over the wader boots he was using this run.  The sheer amount of force requires to adjust those straps alone justifies the name... ;)  They are fine fins, but I still hand my head a bit and have a moment of silence when I think of the $ I sunk into them.  I managed to be pretty good today on taking pics so I've got a few of the setup.





So Jason lead the train of the 3 of us down the channel and out into the main lake.  Very few blips on the sonar until we got to the mouth of the channel.  Though with all the aggressive rocks just under the water our lures never made it near the fish...  Few snags later we moved  out further and started to work the 7-9' water and headed south.




Instead of dragging a minnow on the second pole and casting plastics on the main pole I put a pair of jigs under a bobber and let them drag 3' under the water on the second pole.  That proved to be a good choice.  A while later as I was alternating between plastics and spinners on the main pole my second pole did a fair dip and I noticed the bobber was down out of sight.  First fish of the day came in on an orange/green grub that I had tipped with worm.


As we worked south we started to head to slightly different spots.  I started to turn west to head over to the little bay south of the beach to see if the springs were flowing enough to warm that area and maybe bring in a fish or two.  Jason headed toward the Benjamin Slough and Scott kind of took the middle point between us along the shallow weed line.  Well if the springs were flowing they were flowing cold as the temps dropped a degree as I neared my target.  Both Jason and Scott were in pretty shallow water and dealing with some snags.  So we all started to head back together kind of in the deeper water just out from the slough near Jason.  Along the way I managed my second fish.  This one came on on a red chartreuse grub again with a bit of worm.



After getting everyone back out in deeper water we started a slow crawl north staying in 7-9' of water mostly along the way.  I was trying out some other setups I've not used much.  I tied up a drop shot like setup with the goal of dragging the weight along the bottom to hold my lure up a bit off the floor.  Just as I was about out of patience with this setup I picked up the pole to bring it in and right them something took it. It was a bit more then the other two had been so I was overly optimistic that it might be something new... Well while it wasn't it didn't disappoint as it was the largest one for me for the day.


Then as we continued on our way back to the channel I managed my 4th and last fish of the day.  This one on a spinner, one of my no-name knockoffs I've made similar to what TubeDude has shown in a few posts.


I'm not sure what time Jason got his at, but he brought in a single white.  Scott didn't avoid the skunk today but I think he had a fun trip and enjoyed the new ride.  We all headed in about the same time, though Scott was a bit faster then us with some scheduled obligations to meet.  I think we got off the water at about 1pm. Water temps in the main lake had been about 40-41.  Though at launch the shallow water in the channel was a bit higher then that.  Wind was either non existent or only a very slight breeze (cold though).  Turned out to be a very fine day to be on the water and to finally scratch the itch.




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