"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, July 14, 2013

July 5th @ Pelican Point, Utah Lake

So Jason has been wanting to get out to try out his new prowler, Alex also has been wanting to get out for his first tube trip of the year and we wanted to also try to get Scott and Guy to join us as well.  Scott had conflicts with work but we did manage to tackle all 3 other tasks.

We met up at my place at 5:30am to try to get to Pelican Point Marina near sun up and quickly on the water.  We expected a fair chance of having to deal with the holiday crowd and PWC.  The forecast said we would start with little to no wind and that it would climb up some as we approached noon.  With the new electric assist on the tube inflation we were on the water pretty fast even having to help both Guy and Alex being that both were on tubes they were totally unfamiliar with.



Once we were all moving we headed out of the harbor and started to work south along the shore.  Guy was staying near Jason and Alex near me as both had not handled catfish before on a tube so we were going to help as needed.  Jason and Guy worked in closer to the shore line in the shallows and Alex and I kicked out to near 6 feet of water.






It didn't take long before Alex was fighting the first fish of the day.




Turned out to be about a 20" catfish that worked him over pretty well.  I netted it form him and we got it in his basket to take home for dinner.

Shortly after that I had my first on the line and pulled in a mud cat that went into my basket.  Then I had something bigger on and while working to bring it in Alex noticed his cat line pulling so he took up his rod to set the hook.  Just about then I had my fish surface for a tail flick and then Alex set his hook and snap went my line.  Not sure how we managed it but somehow get the lines caught up and his hook set either snapped my line or maybe the catfish just broke it at the same time.  The lines were tangled, but aside from that it's all a guess.

Guy had manged a fish somewhere about this time as well and Jason headed over to help him land the fish.  Turned out to be very close to the same size as Alex's cat.



Weather was still doing pretty well at this point letting us have a very pleasant time on the water...





However, as it often does, it didn't last long before the wind from the SE started up and since we were in the NW area of the lake we had some nice sized waves to ride.  We were lucky that with the direction we had headed out the wind was at our backs and if we simply stopped kicking against the wind it would take us back to the harbor, free of charge...

Well we got into the kick and simply head our place out on the water and while doing that Guy got into his second fish, the biggest of the day, and landed a cat near 24" I think.



Well sometime near 11 we had had enough and let the wind send us home.  Jason didn't basket anything but had had a fight or two with fish that got off, I had another fish or two on line but either didn't set the hook or it simply was a pop'n'drop.  So final count was Alex 1, Guy 2, Brian 1, Jason 0.  Fun day regardless of counts. :)