Report On a Few Cat Fishing Trips

The cat fishing has been getting more consistent on the Jordan river. I've only been fishing in the evenings and into the night with all keepers being caught once the sun goes down. I'm using white bass or shrimp for bait, with the keepers coming on the white bass. Get out and catch some if you're in the area. The pump house is good (but often crowded).  try heading down the trail from the AC airport to get away from the crowd. Happy fishing!

A few of the kitties caught and released.

I smell a rat...

Matt with a keeper.

Limited out, getting ready for a fish fry.

Enjoying fishing and a fireworks show on Pioneer Day.



Some Much Needed Vitamin Sea in Cabo

For our 10 year anniversary, Chels and I headed to Cabo San Lucas. We stayed a week, and it was a great vacation. When we arrived, we were hit up everywhere to see a time share presentation. From the airport to the grocery store, everyone was pitching something. Most offered an excursion to do this of that, So we decided to negotiate to see how much we could get. If we were going to do this, we needed to get hooked up, and we were. We worked out getting a free breakfast buffet, 3 excursions (camel rides, snorkeling, and a dinner cruise), $50 gift card to the grocery store close to where we were staying, and $300 pesos cash! It cost us sitting through a two hour sales pitch, and saying no repeatedly during that time. This with the fishing trip I had booked, and we had our week planned.

 

We headed into San Jose the first day to do some sight seeing and shopping. it was during one of the Mexico World Cup games, so we had the place to ourselves. There were some old churches, and a cool town square.

 

The view from our balcony.

A monument to some of the leaders of Mexico (I think).

The mission De San Jose. Founding April, 1730.

The next day we headed out to Wild Canyon to go on a Camel ride. Camels are taller than I thought, so we were about 7 feet up when riding. We rode a few miles through the desert canyon, before we stopped under a canopy and learned some about these neat animals. They also had a bird sanctuary with lots of exotic birds and parrots.

 

At Wild canyon, they also have zip-lining, ATV trails and bungee jumping. one of the trails involved am Indiana Jones-like hanging bridge. naturally we had to cross it. It's made for ATV's, but it still swayed quite a bit.

 

A ride through Wild Canyon.

The camel wanted no part of this...

Chelsea feeding the birds.

Mexican Military Parrots.

 

This reminded me of Indiana Jones.

Walking across the hanging bridge at Wild Canyon.

Some surfers enjoying the waves by Zippers restaurant.

Wednesday we spent the day fishing. I booked our trip through RedRum Sportfishing. They came highly recommended through several friends, and they didn't disappoint. We left the harbor at 6:30 AM, and we had our first fish in short order. The Dorado fought hard, and my arms felt the burn a little before getting her to the boat. Chelsea fought the second Dorado, and did fantastic! This is the first time she has fought a good sized fish. She said she was surprised at how hard the fight was, and that she felt the burn wrangling in her catch. I was proud of her to say the least. We also had two other fish on, but only for a few seconds before they got off.

Sunrise at the arch on the way out to fish.

First catch of the day. My first Dorado.

Chelsea Battling her first Dorado.

Victory!

Some time past before our next hit, and a short fight led to a small bonito. After that, it slowed for a two-ish hour stretch. During that time, the side effects of the motion sickness patches kicked in (drowsiness) And the next thing I remember is waking up slumped in the fighting chair to the guide setting the hook. and handing me the rod. I yelled to Chels, who had also fallen asleep, to get the video camera. We hooked into what I had wanted a shot at which was a marlin. It made to awesome jumps at the first and that was it for the rest of the fight. Constantly pulling up and reeling down quickly made me realize how out of shape I am. My arms and lower back really felt this fight, but I wasn't going to give up. This fight lasted about 25 minutes before I had him leadered. He then made one last run before I got him in for good. It was a striped marlin that the guide said was in the 140 pound range. It was a great experience to see one of these great fish up close. We got a quick picture, and sent him back to the deep blue yonder.

A small Bonito.  Another new species added to the list.

Striped Marlin!!! My first bill fish. Guide said it was around 140 lbs.

String up the flags for the ride back to the harbor.

lots of fish caught by the RedRum fleet.

This pelican traded a quick picture for a few fish.

Zippers cooked up some of the Dorado we kept. The cat liked it just as much as we did.

The rest of the week we snorkeled, went on a catamaran cruise, and did lots of sight seeing. Cabo and San Jose. We made some great memories, met some new friends, and found a place that we will definitely come back to.

A replica in the harbor. Enough to make any fisherman want to get back on the water.

The famous Cabo Wabo stage.

Many places around the harbor willing to cook what you catch.

Some of the great food we had on the trip.

The last view we had of the arch from the catamaran cruise.

 

Summary of the Past Few Weeks

I'll admit it, I've been a major slacker this past month on posting. It's been a great month, with lots of fish, but my efforts on the blog have been lacking. This post will sum up the past several trip, all of which have been targeting white bass at Utah Lake. During the spawn, once you find a school of whities, it blazing-hot fishing! I would hit it for an hour here and there before work, and and have 50+ fish every time. I used silver or chartreuse spinners and jigs while spin fishing, and woolly buggers and clouser minnows when hitting them on the fly. Catching these guys on a fly is a blast! This year I started to double and triple rig woolly buggers. I had lots of double on, and even had a few triples landed. It made for an interesting fight having several fish on at once.

 

Rob and Matt joined me the last time I went out. Unfortunately, the spawn was all but over, so the fish had slowed big time. He brought his canoe, and I had my float tube. On the way to one of our spots, we past through school after school of carp on the surface. I hooked into a few on my fly rod, but they broke me off each time. we moved on, and soon started getting a white bass here and there. All three of us landed white bass, with Matt catching his first ever. When Matt was little, We would tell us "I want to catch a wipe ass". It was great seeing him land his first "wipe ass" as well as landing several small sunfish he hooked that were hiding under boulders.

 

The surprise of the day came a few hours into fishing the same hole we hit for white bass. each of us had made tons of casts through this hole with spinners, jigs and flies. I cast to a spot I had cast to several times all ready and had just started the drip when Whack! my pole bent over and I though I had a carp at first. Then I felt a few good head shakes and I knew it wasn't a carp, but what? The fish stayed deep, fighting and running where ever it wanted to go. On one pass, I got him break the surface where we saw it was a good sized large mouth bass. I was surprised, and landing this fish now became so important. This would be a new personal best on this lake if I landed it. It made one more hard run, and then gave up, literally. I eased it in, and lipped the biggest Utah lake bass I had ever caught! I was pumped! I got a few pictures before releasing him back to grow bigger.

 

On the way back to the harbor, Rob landed a bullhead catfish. We also hooked into some more carp, but again didn't land any. The fishing wasn't as fast as I was hoping. I really wanted to get Rob and Matt into a nice school of fish, but it didn't happen. We all caught fish, and that is a win in my book.

 

 

 

Action on a Clouser Minnow.

Doubled up on Woolly Buggers.

Matt with his first ever White Bass!

16 inch Large Mouth! My best on Utah Lake so far...

Close up shot before he swims away.

Rob wrangled a Bullhead Cat on the way back.

Big Browns and Big Smiles

This past week for Boy Scouts, we took our troop to a private pond that the Scout Master had access to. He said there were big rainbows, and that a few brown trout had made there way in somehow.  We had a few of the boys that that never caught a fish before, so the excitement level was pretty high. We rigged up with gold Jake's spinners and Rapalas.

 

As we started making casts, it didn't take long until we had fish following our lures. Soon after, I saw a big brown engulf my Rapala 15 feet from where I was standing. It gave me some monster head shakes, but one of the boys was johnny-on-the-spot and netted the fish for me. The brown measured 20 inches. Shortly after, one of the boys hooked into another solid fish, and got it into the net. from then on, the catching was consistent for a lot of the boys, and we also missed several fish.

 

In all we landed eight browns. We had a few Rainbows hit, but we didn't land any. I had one that made three big jumps out of the water, spitting the Rapala back at me on the third. It's so neat to see how acrobatic the Rainbows are, and then how a Brown will just bulldog you. It was a great two hour trip, and It seemed the boys had a blast. We filleted the trout, and I'm smoking them up tomorrow so all the boys can try out some smoked trout. Hopefully, we will get another shot to go up and try this pond again. It was a blast.

Gearing up.

Staking their claim on the fishing spots.

First fish of the night; a 20 inch Brown!

Teamwork! Landing another big Brown Trout.

Beautiful surroundings to catch fish.

Big fish and big smiles!