# A great weekend ruined



## hattrick (Aug 29, 2011)

This post is a little old, but I needed some time to cool down and process my thoughts on the ending to a great weekend of fishing. It has been quite a while since I was able to spend much time with my brother fishing open water. He was in sales and warmer weather meant he was on the road. He decided it was time for a change of pace and switched to a profession that would allow him to be around more. This being said, 2 weekends ago the weather called for wet lines. Thursday afternoon we decided to take his 4 year old to Jensen Pond in Syracuse to catch a few fish. What a great place to get a kid hooked on fishing. We had plenty of bites and the little guy managed to get a couple in on his own. The smile on his face says it all.

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Friday morning we woke up at O' dark thirty and headed to Deer Creek for some early season action. I have fished DC for years and love the fight in the fish. We hit up the north end for a while with limited success so we headed to the island to see what we could find. We found some fish and were able to land some fish. In a first for me, I landed my first Brown from DC. It was a good day.

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Since by brother and I had fished 2 days in a row we decided to make it a hat trick and take our dad and by brothers little boy to the Ogden River to fish. It was nice to have the 3 generations out on the river on such a beautiful day; it was a first for our family. Ogden City has done a lot of good work along the river as it flows through central Ogden and we had a great time chasing the fish around. After a while my nephew wanted to do some fishing that more suited a 4 year old so we decided to head down to the 21st street pond, or as I now know it the "Goode Ski Lake".

We arrived and the shoreline was full of families enjoying the afternoon fishing at the community pond. Once again my nephew was having a blast catching the planters that were eating up the Powerbait like they couldn't get enough. After an hour or so of fishing we see a boat being launched at the north end of the pond. For those of you who don't know, the pond is not huge. The boat then slowly puts around the lake picking up branches and logs that had managed to find their way to the open water. They come towards where we are&#8230;and keep coming, and coming , and coming. When they stop moving forward they are 10 yards from us. The 2 guys in the boat proceed to tell us we are fishing in a no fishing zone, and that they (being the "good guys") didn't care if we fished there but that they would be waterskiing close to where we were standing. Being my first time at the pond I figured I was confused why there were no signs saying no fishing, so I walked up the bank to the trail to look for signs. And there the signs were, 30 yards further down the bank. We were just fine where we were fishing. When the guys in the boat decided they were done telling us how great they were for letting us fish they started to reverse back into the lake. My dad's pole almost jumped into the water, they had wrapped his line around the prop. We yelled at them to stop so we can get the situation under control. The guy stopped the boat and said, "Looks like you got your line wrapped around my prop". What an idiot. No DB, you drove your boat on top of our lines and wrapped your prop in our lines. I wish my dad would have had braided line on his rod and flipped that bail and let a couple hundred yards of 75lb test make its way around his prop. At this point I am steaming but with my dad and 4 year old nephew there I didn't want to make a scene. Once the boat got to the other side of the pond one of the guys hopped in the water and they started skiing. And ski they did right over the top of our lines, ruining fishing for the day. We packed up and as we were walking back to the truck I noticed that most of the families that had been fishing were now packing up and going home because 2 guys wanted to water ski.

When I got home I was thinking about it and wondering why it was ok for them to even have a boat on this community pond. After a little research I found out that only one person has the right to boat in that lake, a Mr. Dave Goode. He is the President/Founder of Goode Ski Technologies. They make carbon fiber water skis and are based in Ogden. Apparently he and prior Mayor Godfrey are buddies so it was no big deal for Godfrey to give exclusive use rights to Mr. Goode for the lake until 2058, and I am sure in a totally non related way, $5,000 was given by Mr. Goode to Godfrey's campaign fund. I hopped on the Goode website and saw they guy that wrapped our lines was none other than Mr. Goode. What a class act. I guess it goes to show that if you have money and influence your wants and recreational pursuits are more important the 30 to 40 families who were making memories utilizing a public resource. I just know that when I need ski equipment, I guarantee the name Goode will not be on anything I own. Here is a link to an article about this corruption. http://www.standard.net/topics/opinion/ ... -pond-deal


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## ajwildcat (Mar 27, 2008)

I live in the greater Ogden area, and had absolutely NO idea about this side deal between the dirtball duo of Goode/Godfrey. What a freaking joke this is, kinda makes me wish that the homeless community of Ogden would go back to using this pond as their restroom and Mr Goode end up with a turd in his mouth while skiing. :O--O:


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## muysauve (Jan 7, 2008)

That's freaking unreal... Makes you want to go out there fishing with bailing wire. 

Great job on getting the little one into some fish, sorry about Mr. Goode's pond that he paid someone off to use. 

Next time see if you can't hook into the water skiers with some 50lbs test line and a huge hook.


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## one hunting fool (Sep 17, 2007)

That is truely a bunch of crap. sorry to hear about the bad day. I think that the Ogden community needs to seek legal advice on what can be done to change this raw deal.


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## 1morecast (Dec 6, 2007)

Hmmm? i guess I know where to throw my old 20lbs test p-line


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## tye dye twins (Mar 8, 2011)

Ughh, I have heard about this thing happening at that pond before. Dam shame if ya ask me! What a, well I can't go there on this site, we'd just be seeing things like this symbol "*" for paragraphs. Can't they go to another body of water that is ice free? Willard or even Pineview? Jeeze and till 2058? I will be close to a dirt nap before that date! 

I am glad I don't live close to that pond. I'd have a heart attack and I am pretty sure goodes would get to know my twin and I in a manner that would be highly negative. He deserves a 1 finger salute! Give him 2 for my twin and I next time you see him there.


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## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

Tie tripwires across the pond.

Okay, not really. 

That's really crummy to learn of though. Sorry it interrupted your quality time with family. Perhaps if there's enough uproar from the community, something can be done to eliminate the back scratching behind it.

Sounds like your other fishing was quite enjoyable though. I'm glad you got to get out with three generations.

It's something I may get a chance to do in the relatively near future, I hope.


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## Fishrmn (Sep 14, 2007)

You might be better off getting a hold of the Mighty Union Pacific. Find out if they intended to donate the pond and land to the Mayor of Ogden, or the people of Ogden. They are masters at manipulation of legal contracts. They may have a clause that would negate any agreements signed by Goode or Godfrey. Goodgodfries!! What have we here?


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## orvis1 (Sep 7, 2007)

That is what they make lures with three trebles for...Right?


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## Grandpa D (Sep 7, 2007)

I used to take my sons to 21st Pond, when they were young.
We would use float tubes and have a great day fishing close to home.

Sadly, I don't fish there at all these days.
Godfrey and Ogden City ruined a good place for kids to fish by their greed and selfishness.

I sure wish that KSL [hint to fstop] or something like would do an investigation of that pond.


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## izzydog (Jan 18, 2008)

:evil: Public Pond :evil: 
:twisted: Community Fishery :twisted: 
I don't think I would have been so kind!


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## Fishrmn (Sep 14, 2007)

izzydog said:


> :evil: Public Pond :evil:
> :twisted: Community Fishery :twisted:
> I don't think I would have been so kind!


It's not listed as a Community Fishery.

Fort Buenaventura is, but not 21st Street Pond.


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## Moostickles (Mar 11, 2010)

Fishrmn said:


> It's not listed as a Community Fishery.
> 
> Fort Buenaventura is, but not 21st Street Pond.


If that is the case, then why is the DWR stocking it??? I'm not arguing with you, I really am asking.


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## El Matador (Dec 21, 2007)

Nothing in that agreement would exempt them from state boating laws. They are required to stay 150 feet away from shore anglers unless they're traveling at no-wake speeds. So if you see them haulin past you any closer than that, take pictures or video and call law enforcement. A rangefinder and video camera would work nicely together.

The political end of it sucks bad, there are so many cases like this in government


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## Fishrmn (Sep 14, 2007)

They stock lots of places that aren't "Community Fisheries". Like Strawberry, Scofield, Fish Lake, Deer Creek, Bear Lake, etc.


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## Grandpa D (Sep 7, 2007)

El Matador said:


> Nothing in that agreement would exempt them from state boating laws. They are required to stay 150 feet away from shore anglers unless they're traveling at no-wake speeds. So if you see them haulin past you any closer than that, take pictures or video and call law enforcement. A rangefinder and video camera would work nicely together.
> 
> The political end of it sucks bad, there are so many cases like this in government


What exempts them is the Ogden City agreement with them.
They do have the right to keep anglers away from the area that is used by the boats.
Ogden owns the pond and they can dictate how it is used.
They can even shut it down to fishing and then the DWR would quit stocking it.
It is a lot like the pond in Mountain Green that was closed to fishing last year by the landowners.

I don't like it but Ogden City has the right to do what they have done there.
I just stay away from it.


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## El Matador (Dec 21, 2007)

Well I agree that they can restrict anglers from fishing on the shore, but they still have to abide by state boating laws. Those laws cover all waters in the state, public or private. If you're pulling a skier closer than 150 feet from shore anglers, you're breaking the law.

On a lighter note, it sounds like everyone had some great fishing before things turned south.


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## Troll (Oct 21, 2008)

State statue trumps any city or county ordinance.

UT legislature is very protective of this, they alone have the authority to make statue.

There is also the "Harrassing" laws that apply to fishers legally engaged in fishing.


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## pkred (Jul 9, 2009)

God bless America! and god bless special interest. :mrgreen: 

I think these guys are right about the spacing rule for boats to fisherman. I would like nothing more than for mister "I have a special right to crap on all you common folk" to be ticketed every time he used his special government granted privilege. Bring a video camera along on your fishing trip and ruin the day for the guy who loves to ruin so many others day! What a D-bag! :twisted:


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## sfy2004 (Jun 2, 2008)

get Gephardt involved. sounds like the kind of thing he thrives on.
[email protected] or (801) 839-1250


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## nocturnalenemy (Jun 26, 2011)

El Matador said:


> Well I agree that they can restrict anglers from fishing on the shore, but they still have to abide by state boating laws. Those laws cover all waters in the state, public or private. If you're pulling a skier closer than 150 feet from shore anglers, you're breaking the law.


I was bored so I looked at the "ski-able" portion of the lake. Not super accurate, but gives a decent idea of where the skiers would need to stay in order to follow the law. I guess this assumes they are people fishing at various points around the lake. Not much room if you ask me.


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## blackdog (Sep 11, 2007)

A classic example of corrupt BS back room politics that is so ramped in Utah. These are the kind of A-holes that want to take control of our federally owned public lands.


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