Well, I've posted here again after a long absence... Today Alex, Max and I made it out to Lincoln Beach @ Utah Lake for some time on the tubes!

 It's been quite some time since I've posted anything here.  Not that we have not been out fishing, but somehow I just got out of the habit of both taking enough pics from trips as well as taking the time to write things up while they were fresh in mind.  With Alex having graduated this year from High School and Max just being  a bit older, both have asked that we try to get out to do more fishing.  So July 1st isn't really a fast delivery on those requests, but hey we did finally get out. ;)

So we set our alarms for 5am (not as early as we should have as it turns out) with the intent of getting to Lincoln Beach and on the water as quick as we could.  Well it took us longer to get on the way and then getting setup took longer than it should have.  A bit of our practice for Alex and I, Max is also still in the learning things well enough that he can just get to it on his own without a lot of guidance.

So we were still setting up and almost ready to launch a bit after 7:15am.  Everyone was smiles and happy to be there though.

We were unsure how the wind was going to treat us, but as we got there it was nearly non existent (and actually didn't really ever show up until about noon where we had a light wind from the north east).

Alex got going first with Max right after and I followed the two out of the harbor.

I should note that before we launched, a fellow was fishing from the shore on the boat ramp and managed to pick up a couple young white bass.  That gave us some hope that we might get some fish action as we worked our way down the channel, but no such luck.  

Once we were out of the channel, Alex and Max opted to work the area north west of the channel, and I headed south east.  Figured we could see who made the better choice and then adjust.

As I kicked around I managed to snap a few nice pics of the overcast areas and the clouds moved through.  Maybe one will end up being a zoom virtual background for me at some point. ;)

I'm not sure when the boys picked up their first bites/fish as we had not really been that chatty on the radios up to that point, but I ended up picking up a very young white bass on a pink curly tail grub that I had added a bit of worm to and was casting and retrieving on one rod while the other was soaking something I hoped would entice a nice catfish.  The small white bass got sent back to grow up some more.  So for me the worry of a zero trip at least was past.

The carp were out today, though near me they were not schooled up as I've seen before.  Instead they were just all over moving around solo with the top of their backs just out of the water.  I should have taken a few picks of these as they came up really close to me, including one that bumped into my legs.  I ended up throwing out a bobber with a worm just a foot under it wondering if I could pick a carp up for some cutbait.  Instead a nicer sized white bass took interest and I now had my first fish in the basket.

I think the boys had each had some action by this point.  Alex I believe had at least one fish in his basket and both had had a number of inquiries on their offerings they had been trying.  My cell also got a lot of attention (notifications) so ask I took a look to see what was going on I found work was having an issue and I had a couple ideas on how to help.  So I ended up on a con call with 2 coworkers helping them get things sorted out and right in the middle of that (both rods I had out at this point were for cats so I could pay attention to the con call) one of the poles had a big hit and something started pulling line out fast.  Cell phone was set to speaker phone mode so I just kept going as I started to retrieve whatever was on my line.  It ended up being quite the fight and when I was able to weigh and measure it, it turned out to be about 26" and about 6.75lbs which might be the largest cat I've caught to date.  I didn't get a photo of this one out on the water, but I did let the boys know and Max was impressed with the size I told them.  Phone call was done and things had been sorted out for work, so I started to head toward where the boys were fishing.  A few minutes into that trek I had another big hit on a cat pole and big kitty #2 for the day ended up in my basket.  This one a touch smaller than the other about 24" and about 6.4lbs.  I do have a pic of this one. :)

The boys were excited about my news of a 2nd big cat and caught me up on their progress.  Alex had a couple white bass, and a few mud cats in his basket.  Max had a nice channel cat in the upper teens of inches in size.  So nobody was batting zero for the day.  Both had had a few on that got lost on the retrieve.  Both were having a good time and working well together (always a good thing).

It was about noon at this point so we talked things over and opted to start heading back in.  I don't think anyone had anymore action on the way back in.  Alex was in front and Max brought up the rear as we worked back into the channel heading to the ramp.

When we got home we got ready to process the fish.  We set them out though first for a couple pictures to sum up the day. :)

We fried up some of the fish for dinner that turned out quite nice.  Was really nice to have been able to get out and the weather worked out really well for us!

January 16th, Ice Fishing with Alex @ Rockport

Well after the recent weather and some sparse info form the online forums it was an uncertain hope that Alex had to go out on the ice today as part of his Birthday. Last night we made the call to head to Rockport after seeing enough info to suggest the edges were solid enough and that others had had recent success for trout there. Strawberry and Pineview were other contendors but both we lacked enough information to go with confidence (or enough anti-slush monster drive). So we set our alarms for 5:40am and manged to get on our way just after 6:00am. When we got to Rockport temps were hovering between 0 and -1 (Fahrenheit). There was a thick fog/cloud layer right on the reservoir. Per some of the info we saw on BFT we headed to the main boat launch were we headed out on the ice and south about 1/2 mile. When we got onto the ice we were farm from the first ones there. I would expect that there were a couple dozen other camps already setup near the boat ramp or in other places we could see around the lake. We setup near a point in about 32' FOW. We did not have a target depth but tried to look for recent areas of activity that had signs of success. Between the 4 lines we had out we had offerings at the 12', 20', 25' and on the bottom. Just as we were setting up we saw signs on the bottom though by the time we got a lure down there whatever was on the flasher had left. Maybe about 20-30 minutes into things we had a first bite and pulled up a nearly 10' perch. Sized enough that we kept it. A while later we picked up a second about the same size. Then that left us in a dry spell for a while with a few missed nibbles mixed in. We moved all but one line down to the bottom since the perch had made a showing and Alex left the last line up at about 12' FOW to keep an option open for the upper water column. His line on the bottom was the next one to get some attention and he set a hook on something much larger then the perch I had pulled in. After a nice fight he pulled up a bit of a surprise for us (we just didn't expect it). A nice nearly 18" brown trout.

The next fish was a while later and I managed to bring up a foot long rainbow that looked healthy enough (not a snake), maybe a planter from last year? Then after a longer break Alex picked up a rainbow as well, though we sent it back to get bigger.

Shortly before noon we decided to call it a day. Things were still quite cold, even in the tent, and we had both been able to catch a few even though it was a bit slow. The sun by this time had burned off the fog/clouds that had been over the lake and things had slowed down a lot. We never though did get much of an idea of how others were doing. When we left the ice the number of other camps out there had nearly doubled (maybe not quite) compared to when we got on. So with others sticking out there maybe others were having a faster day to keep them going then we were, but we were happy with the trip we had. Here's a peek at what we brought home with us.

Hard to beat a nice day out with my now 14 year old son Alex. :) Happy Birthday Alex!

!Fishing, but still a worthwhile adventure...

So early July we went looking at RV trailers more with the intent of starting to formulate opinion of what we wanted so that as we look at timing, budget, and whatever options we saw that we thought were things we would want that we could start to form up a checklist of tasks we need to cover so that we could get an RV trailer...

Well, as such any good plan is just there to be messed up.  As was ours, but in the end in a good way.  We came home that day having bought our new trailer.  We found a nice deal on a model that was to be moved out quickly as the new years model was already available.  Nice enough that it kind of helped answer the question of should we buy used to save some $ or push up to a new model.  Anyway, we ended up with a StarCraft Launch 24RLS (Link goes to the 2017 model, but the units are close enough for anyone interested in looking.

Anyway we got it home and made plans to get out for our first trip which we did to Starvation over the weekend of July 9th.  Was a bit warm, and we lacked the generators sufficient to run the AC, but it was a nice weekend.  Kids were ecstatic to have a trailer and to be able to camp out more often more easily.  We too fishing gear and float tubes with us.  Shore fishing was a zero for success, but we did get out Saturday morning for a short run on the tubes.  Alex on his and I was on mine...  Max was desperate to go out too so I first tried to put him on my lap, but the tube didn't sit right in the water with the weight that far imbalanced.  So I put away my usual cooler that rides behind me and put him back behind my seat in the triangle there.  My Outcast Prowler has a fully inflated seat base that also extends into that triangle area and this worked very well for Max.  He essentially lounged with his feat over the side back there and fished off my right shoulder.  Before we headed back in as the afternoon wind started to pick up Max had pulled in a ~16" small mouth bass and a foot long walleye.  Both were first catches for him for those species.  Alex and I also managed to hook up with a small mouth each.  Alex's jumped the line at his tube and mine turned out to be a hard fighting 6" that got sent back to grow some.  Rest of that trip went nicely and set the stage for us to plan our next adventure in the new trailer.

So this weekend we headed up Wednesday afternoon toward the Daniels Summit area trying to camp near the Adamson area between point of pine and mudrock.  We got there without any issue, though pulling through the ditch showed that I probably need to adjust the hitch to ride an inch or 2 higher up.  We found the herder camps in full force in the usual areas including the unattended (at least while we were there looking for a camp spot) trailers with dogs chained up.  Since we had brought Diego and Hazel with us (they both lack social etiquette in how they interact with other dogs) we opted to not camp near these areas and headed up main canyon to look for a spot there.  We found a spot a bit over 1/2 way up the road and took it kind of worried that we would not find another higher up.  In hind sight we could have found a spot or two higher that might have been as nice if not nicer, but this was still a nice spot with a fantastic view.

The obvious issue with main canyon is the traffic on it from ATVs.  We were off the road enough that dust wasn't a huge issue and the noise wasn't bad either.  The trees near the trailer offered some fun places for the kids to adventure and fort build in.  Temps were nicer then the previous trip to Starvation so the AC not being usable still didn't turn out to be that big of a deal.  Where we camped did prove to have some nice options for going on some walks/hikes.  So we were able to wear the dogs out quite well taking them with us.  They got to have a meet and greet with the local cattle.  Apparently their manners were not up to the cattle's level and the cattle left... in a bit of a rush...;)  Hazel I think thought it might be her off putting body odder so she even tried rolling in a nice fresh cow pie to be less off putting...  That didn't help with the cattle and only resulted in another hike down to the stream to bath her...  Anyway we had some nice hikes, kids got to do the kid fort/imagination thing, spent time playing games together, roasted foods on the fire with roasting sticks, saw some nice stars at night and aspired to do it again in the end.

New RV (!Fishing I know...) and 2 adventures, 1 with a side of fishing...

So early July we went looking at RV trailers more with the intent of starting to formulate opinion of what we wanted so that as we look at timing, budget, and whatever options we saw that we thought were things we would want that we could start to form up a checklist of tasks we need to cover so that we could get an RV trailer...

Well, as such any good plan is just there to be messed up.  As was ours, but in the end in a good way.  We came home that day having bought our new trailer.  We found a nice deal on a model that was to be moved out quickly as the new years model was already available.  Nice enough that it kind of helped answer the question of should we buy used to save some $ or push up to a new model.  Anyway, we ended up with a StarCraft Launch 24RLS (Link goes to the 2017 model, but the units are close enough for anyone interested in looking.

Anyway we got it home and made plans to get out for our first trip which we did to Starvation over the weekend of July 9th.  Was a bit warm, and we lacked the generators sufficient to run the AC, but it was a nice weekend.  Kids were ecstatic to have a trailer and to be able to camp out more often more easily.  We too fishing gear and float tubes with us.  Shore fishing was a zero for success, but we did get out Saturday morning for a short run on the tubes.  Alex on his and I was on mine...  Max was desperate to go out too so I first tried to put him on my lap, but the tube didn't sit right in the water with the weight that far imbalanced.  So I put away my usual cooler that rides behind me and put him back behind my seat in the triangle there.  My Outcast Prowler has a fully inflated seat base that also extends into that triangle area and this worked very well for Max.  He essentially lounged with his feat over the side back there and fished off my right shoulder.  Before we headed back in as the afternoon wind started to pick up Max had pulled in a ~16" small mouth bass and a foot long walleye.  Both were first catches for him for those species.  Alex and I also managed to hook up with a small mouth each.  Alex's jumped the line at his tube and mine turned out to be a hard fighting 6" that got sent back to grow some.  Rest of that trip went nicely and set the stage for us to plan our next adventure in the new trailer.

So this weekend we headed up Wednesday afternoon toward the Daniels Summit area trying to camp near the Adamson area between point of pine and mudrock.  We got there without any issue, though pulling through the ditch showed that I probably need to adjust the hitch to ride an inch or 2 higher up.  We found the herder camps in full force in the usual areas including the unattended (at least while we were there looking for a camp spot) trailers with dogs chained up.  Since we had brought Diego and Hazel with us (they both lack social etiquette in how they interact with other dogs) we opted to not camp near these areas and headed up main canyon to look for a spot there.  We found a spot a bit over 1/2 way up the road and took it kind of worried that we would not find another higher up.  In hind sight we could have found a spot or two higher that might have been as nice if not nicer, but this was still a nice spot with a fantastic view.

The obvious issue with main canyon is the traffic on it from ATVs.  We were off the road enough that dust wasn't a huge issue and the noise wasn't bad either.  The trees near the trailer offered some fun places for the kids to adventure and fort build in.  Temps were nicer then the previous trip to Starvation so the AC not being usable still didn't turn out to be that big of a deal.  Where we camped did prove to have some nice options for going on some walks/hikes.  So we were able to wear the dogs out quite well taking them with us.  They got to have a meet and greet with the local cattle.  Apparently their manners were not up to the cattle's level and the cattle left... in a bit of a rush...;)  Hazel I think thought it might be her off putting body odder so she even tried rolling in a nice fresh cow pie to be less off putting...  That didn't help with the cattle and only resulted in another hike down to the stream to bath her...  Anyway we had some nice hikes, kids got to do the kid fort/imagination thing, spent time playing games together, roasted foods on the fire with roasting sticks, saw some nice stars at night and aspired to do it again in the end.

June 7th @ Strawberry

On this year's week at Park City, Alex and I headed up to Strawberry on our only day on the tubes.  Forecasts lead us to expect some slight wind, but for most of the time we were on the water it was quite glassy.  We launched over on the "free" area of the east portal.  Fish were breaking the surface all around us with some regularity.  Water temps were in the mid 50's.  So we both started pulling one line under a bobber with some type of jig under that.  Then casting and retrieving the other line, trying to stay near the surface.  After trying just about everything for the first hour and neither of us having had a bite I changed up a bit and put one line just off the bottom with a white jig and a bit of worm on it.  The other line I was letting run deeper as I retrieved.  We started to get some bites now.

So to give an overly short summary it was never "game on" really.  We had to work for each fish we caught.  Bottom jigging proved to be the best for us and often as my finder would chirp on a fish I could work the line I had down there and get a strike.  Most fish we picked up off the bottom were in the 25'-35' fow range.  Totals for the day were 8 fish.  2 for Alex and 6 for me.  All were Cuts in the 17"-20" range except a single Rainbow (forgot to take a pic of him as I rushed it to the basket) that I brought home for dinner.  One Cut was quite the "snake" and sure could use a few extra meals.  Here are some pics from the day:

Was a good day out even if it was a bit slow.  Still not sure I'm fishing Strawberry right from the tube, but were trying.  Wind came up a bit more near noon so we called it a day and headed in.  Was nice to be out with Alex. :)

May 20th Lincoln Beach, Utah Lake

So last weekend I picked up the start of a nice cold and that built up so that by mid day Tuesday I was about done in.  Ended up opting to stay home to get some downtime on Wednesday.  As I was getting ready to turn in though on Wednesday I saw the post that TubeDude had made the week before about the DWR looking for help at Lincoln Beach to gather up female white bass.  Hmm that sounds relaxing and a good way to "get better" and the weather checked out too.  So plans were made.

Loaded the vehicle up and set the alarm for 5am... Should have set it earlier so the obligatory 2-3 snooze presses would not have put me so far behind my planned arrival.  Ended up at the lake by 6:45am and was on the water by 7:00am.

TubeDude had posted that he might work between the boat launch and around the point to the L on the west side.  I've never worked that way, was not sure I'd make it to the L but figured I'd work what I could and see something new.  On my way out of the boat launch I picked up my first two fish.  One about mid way and the other at the mouth of the launch.  Both average sized crappie.

I heard TubeDude on the radio talking with someone that I think was Boat Load of Kids (BLK) comparing notes on their findings thus far.  It was not clear where either was, but shortly after a boat came past me and asked how things were going.  The voice matched the person Pat was talking to on the radio from what I could tell.  I gave him my report of how things had been so far and he wished me luck and moved on.  The weather system in the area made for some pretty sky art too...

Anyway as I worked north and a bit west from the lauch area making my way to the tip of the point I observed a few other bank tanglers as well a DWR boat that was setting up nets (presumably to see what white bass they could gather too).  I did manage to pick up a couple white bass, and a cat fish in between, though but nothing to suggest any concentration of fish.  I was in anywhere from 3' to 7' of water.  Temps I think were in the 58'ish range???

While in the deeper water (7'-8') I did mark a lot of fish at about the 3'-4' depth.  Figured they were carp as every once in a while one would jump and make a big splash.  Did not see any clumps of carp though.

The DWR boat came near at one point to say hello and make sure I was aware of their days efforts to gather up female whites.  I reported that that is what I was there for but that I had only put 2 in the basket and neither were likely female.

I kept on working my way around the point and I did manage to get to the first big orchard and about 1/2 the way into it before I figured I'd better start back both to not over do things and I was also not seeing anyone else really out there.  I should point out that this area of the lake showed me something I've not seen from Utah Lake before.  That is a ground contour that changes a lot going from just a couple feet deep to 8 or so feet deep.  Clearly the rocky base there and maybe the springs are the reason for this but I can see now why the area has some of the appeal it does.

I did manage to pick up a couple more whites and I missed over the whole day about 5-6 others.  So nothing to really celebrate, but still I managed 3 species and enough to take home to share with the kids.  None of my whites were female...

As I headed back to the launch I heard Pat on the radio talking and he was ahead of me heading to done for the day.  I figured at that point that he must have changed plans and gone south form the launch.  I managed to get to the launch just as he was finishing up his cleanup.  After posing for a pic for him we compared the days results.  He did better for cats and also manged a white or two more.  None of his were female (at least from the report at the time, a later post noted that some had under developed eggs).  Picked up a few more tackle craft tips as I compared some of my creations with some of his recent creations.  Was a nice day to have been out. :)

1st of May at Mantua

So it has been a long time since Jason or I have been able to be out on our tubes.  So we made plans to get out this last Friday, May the 1st, and hit Mantua.  We considered Willard or Mantua as both have had good reports, though Willard is clearly the focused hot spot at the moment, and opted for the past less taken both in the sense that Mantua was not the focal point to the general public right now and also in the sense that Jason and I have yet to hit Mantua except for on the ice.

We got to the lake at about 6:30am as the sun was just rising.  We drove around the the parking lot along the south dike road where the spring inlet comes into the reservoir.  We looked around there to see how to launch our tubes and found a fisherman already fishing on the platform at the water.  The stream itself was not deep enough to launch on and the walk to the platform was longer then we thought we wanted to try so we "thought" we could just go launch at the main ramp and kick over to the east side.  I should state here that the goal was to fish the east side as the info we had gathered suggested that was the right place to target.  So we will chalk this one up for both Jason's and my "poor judgement' in that we figured the distance from the boat launch to the east side to be "reasonable" to make.

So we did just that, we launched at the main launch and started to work our way along the southern shoreline east....

While we were just launching we did notice another pair of fishermen getting setup with their toons.  As we were just kicking out one of these two fishermen started to kick out as well.  He was between me and the south western shore.  At first I didn't think much of it but as Jason and I reached the south shore line it had become clear that he was intent on "getting there first"...  Well he didn't, but then really we all got there together but we were still a bit apart from each other so while this was odd right then it was no harm no foul....  I started to cast in toward the southern shore though to work the shallows there and he started to encroach on where I was casting.  He would look my way once in a while but spent most of his time looking like he was trying hard to not see me....  Anyway it didn't take long and he kicked right between me and the shore where I had been fishing....

Figured it was worth letting him get his picture taken for the "special" way he treated others.  Aside from taking the pictures I just held off casting and waited for him to pass and go along his way.  I then moved out a bit deeper where Jason had been watching it all.  About this time the fishing partner of this guy showed up on his toon (with trolling motor) just down the south shore east of us a bit.  They looked like they were going to setup to fish there so we moved out further to get ready to just kick to the east shore, though we guessed wrong and they were setting up a rope from the toon with the trolling motor to the guy that had raced us to the south shore line...  We got a good laugh watching these two.  I'm not sure if this was their first time pulling someone around or not but it looks like they just tied the line to the frame on the second tube and it ended up pulling him at a 90 degree angle to the direction they were going.  Well they then headed out but instead of working the southern shore they cut across the lake to go to the point.  So that kind of kicked me in the ribs a second time that for that whole race to the south shore to beat us, then cut across me as I fished and then they didn't even really fish the southern shore line...  Well not to look a gift horse in the mouth we noted that well that story is done and they are gone now somewhere we were not heading to.  Happily that was the end of that part of the story.

Well it was not fast moving but we crawled our way to the east shore (btw looked it up later that's a solid mile and some change from the boat launch to the east shore) having stayed in about 7-9' of water most of the way.  We both marked some fish but neither of us had had any bites at all.  We had both changed up our offerings and depths we offered at.  None of the marked fish suggested perch or a reason to work a specific area either.  Though to be fair we are both soft water Mantua newbs running off some nice maps others (TubeDude) had shared before and some recent reports suggesting Bluegill an LMB on the east shore line.

Anyway, we finally made it to the east shore line in the south east corner.  That was when we took inventory of how many other boats or craft were near us.  There were 2-3 other boats working the east shore line south of the point.  None though were right in the corner where we were.  Then we noticed how shallow the water looked as we saw the weeds only a foot or two down.  Well it wasn't as shallow as we thought as the depth was 5 feet deep but the weeds were 3-4' tall.  Plus there were the nice globs of the bright green stringy and slimy moss growths mixed in with some of the other weeds.  So this made casting anything that would not run just at the surface really hard.  Made kicking through some areas hard too.  Figured this might be why the other boats were not in this area.  Well we got past this big garden of green just as we got into casting range of the tree lined shore.  I figured we would have to turn north and work up toward where some of the other boats where when we had a first fish hit.

After this first one hit we worked this area and did well for us for the next 30-45 minutes.  I ended up landing 6 (one released itself at the tube) and I think Jason landed  2 or 3 (he was slower to get over to my spot after I reported fish were hitting... :) ).

Just as things were looking bright the wind decided to change from the ever so slight and gentle breeze from the east that we kicked against to get across the lake to a more then you want to deal with lets go fly a kite type wind coming now from the west.... We tried to sit it out a bit over there hoping to keep the fishing going but the fish were done as least where we were and we knew we needed to start back with the time it would take to get back...  As we were starting to head back I did get a bonus of seeing in the tree line a larger bird perch on a branch.  It was a fairly large bird but it did not look like any of the other birds we had seen out on the water.  It had it's back to me at first and I could not see anything other then the blue grey color to it's back and wings.  It did turn and look my way a bit and gave me a better profile view that I snapped these pics (sorry it's a cell phone grade pic but I used what I had...)

Still not sure what kind of bird this was but it was cool to see.  Anyway lets save the drama for the rest of the trip.  Lets say Jason and I got the biggest workout we have had on tubes (and that includes multiple stops to rest letting our anchor's hold us while we rested a bit) and in the nest 2.5 hours we only made it about 2/3 of the way back to the boat launch with the wind fighting against us.  We finally cried uncle and cut to the south shore line where we could see a spot that would let us get to the road fairly easily.  Then I walked around the lake to get the vehicle from the parking lot at the boat launch.

Was a fun day even considering the extra workout we got from the bad distance judgement call as well as the wind from the west.  It was nice to be able to be relaxed and out on the water and taking the time to make fun or yourself for the silly choices made and still smile for the fish caught and the time spent having fun.   BTW all fish caught were returned except one fish a person.  Though we can't take credit for being total conservationists... Chalk this one up for poor cell phone data coverage when we went to look up if Mantua had any specific regs for LMB.  Though just about when Jason had finally downloaded the guide I had managed to call my Dad and get him to relay info from his proclamation.  Now we both have the guide saved to our phones for next time.... :)

We both agree'd that this was about the most physically taxing day yet we have had on tubes (not nearly as bad as our slush adventure at Strawberry 2 winters ago) and the sore muscles and aches will linger for a couple days.  But the smiles for the fun seem to made the soar and the ache seem well worth it.