Max and the Catfish!

This past Saturday we took my grandson out for catfish and some pan fish. We went to Utah Lake. Utah lake holds the greatest variety of fish in the state with Bluegill, Crappie, White Bass, Large Mouth Bass, Walleye, Blue cats, Mud cats, and Channel cats, it also now has Northern Pike that someone dumped illegally so if want to catch and keep all the Pike you want they want them out so they don't kill off the June Sucker which is endangered.

We loaded up at 7 am and went to the dock thinking we might get blown off the lake. Utah Lake is not a lake to trifle with, if the winds come up and they do often you get off the water. Many fisher and recreaters have lost their boats and lives on this lake. We launched with a little skepticism and an eye on the sky. The weather this spring has been crazy. We made a run for the willows. Pulling into the willows, we had to shut down the big motor about a quarter mile short of our destination because the lake is low and we were in 2 ft. of water quickly. Utah Lake at its deepest point in high water is 12-15 deep in some small holes, generally only 6 ft. deep and the shallows are just that. Carefully we worked our way back into the willows with our electric and set up for some pan fish and cats. We fished there for about hour and got nothing. Not even seeing movement we decided to abandon the willows and go for rock piles down on the south end.

Making the run south Max enjoyed the trip with the motor running full out. We skipped along and pulled in about 10 minutes later in an area I knew the rock piles are and set the anchor. We put the poles out for cats on this hole and within 10 minutes we were getting action. Finally getting one to take the bait. Max reeled in his first ever catfish a beautiful 3.5 lb. channel. Max was thrilled his biggest fish he had ever caught. He wasn't too keen on touching the ugly mug but he was excited to have caught it. We explained to him the importance of not getting stuck with its fins and I think that may have contributed to him not wanting to touch it. He is excited to go out again and soon. That is what is all about getting the young ones excited and wanting to go again.