Fishing Time:
April 27-30 (Friday to Monday)
Weather: April
27-28 were calm, sunny, T-80s. April
29-30 were windy, cloudy, T-70s.
Moon Phase: Full
Moon
Water Temps: 60
degrees in morning or when windy. 70 degrees in afternoon with no wind.
Water Level: 3,609 ft amsl
Mudline: South of Red Canyon and just north of Ticaboo Canyon.
Best Bait: Curly
tailed grubs (1/8 oz jighead), and topwater plugs when water was calm.
Who went: Dunc,
Rick Everson, Dylan Goar
This year’s Lake Powell trip kicked off a bit later this
year. We almost didn’t go due to my
recent return from San Diego, but the last-minute thought of missing it was
unbearable, so we quickly put something together and hit the road. The dates were a bit later this year, but
with a late winter and cold spring it looked like we may have timed it just
right. I also got to tow the boat with my new (to me) 2008 Toyota Tundra that I
purchased a month ago. I love it!
Bobber John opted out on the trip this year, so our
replacement was Ricks brother in-law Dylan Goar. We hit the road at 11 PM on April 26th
and tiredly arrived at Lake Powell by 6:30 AM on April 27th. I’m getting to old for these all-nighters and
I think it took a toll on me during our trip.
By 2 PM on Friday we had camp set-up in a wind protected cove inside Ticaboo
Canyon and were ready to fish. I’m not
sure if it was the lack of sleep, or what, but the photography on this trip was
seriously lacking, so I apologize in advance.
FRIDAY (April 27)
We started out fishing right from camp and worked our way
around the shorelines of Ticaboo Canyon.
Smallmouth bass were out in numbers and a few largemouth bass and
bluegill. Rick seemed to be the only one
that could persuade the largemouth bass to bite on this trip and Dylan and I were
left to play with the smallmouth bass and a couple bluegill. All fish were caught on a curly tailed grub,
ned rig, or jig/trailer.
Following Ticaboo Canyon we ran over to Red Canyon and tried
fishing some shorelines there. The water
was a bit more stained than we usually like, but we did find some willing
smallmouth bass, and again, Rick caught a couple largemouth bass on a
jig/trailer.
We finished the day trolling Ticaboo Canyon using deep
diving crankbaits. In the past this has
been an awesome tactic for picking up walleye and striped bass. We did catch a few walleyes, but the stripers
were nowhere to be found. Throughout the
day of fishing we filled the livewell with an assortment of different
species. That night we filleted 20+ fish
and put them on ice. It was a
smorgasbord of walleye, smallmouth bass, bluegill, and even one channel catfish
I caught from the shore at camp. It was
a fish fry feast for the next three nights.
SATURDAY (April 28)
We slept in later than usual after being up for 40+
hours. Once we were awake we left camp
and headed south to a small canyon south of Red Canyon. I don’t know the name of this canyon. On arrival we noticed there were fish on the
finder showing up in deeper water from 20-30 ft. We drifted through them and I picked up a striped
bass. A couple more drifts produced one
more striper from Rick. It wasn’t enough
action to hold our interest, so we left and made the drive up north to Scorup
Canyon. The water this far north looked like chocolate milk, but we have a
special cove in the back of Scorup that always seems to produce crappie, so we
gave it a chance anyway. The crappies
were right where we left them last year and we were able to put a few beautiful
“black mambas” in the boat. Such a cool
species of fish!
We ended the night back in Ticaboo canyon where we found the
most amazing topwater bite that I have ever experienced at Lake Powell. We probably caught 2 bass to every 3 casts
using topwater poppers. Most the bass
were small, but Rick did land one beautiful 2-3 pound largemouth that exploded
on his popper. It was awesome! We continued to fish the hot topwater bite well
into darkness and must have landed upwards of 50+ fish. The weather was beautiful, and no wind made
it perfect for topwater. Definitely a
night I will never forget.
SUNDAY (April 29)
We woke up to a stiff breeze from the south. We headed into the back of Red Canyon to hide
from the wind as much as possible, but it made fishing very difficult. We found one little nook that seemed to be
well protected from the wind and found a few largemouth bass on beds. We had a couple pick up our baits and move
them off their bed but were unable to pin a hook to any of them. The wind was howling now, so we made our way
into the main channel and used the wind to our advantage and drifted jigs at
one of our well-known striper and walleye spots. It’s a ridge that is elevated above the deep
main channel bottom at the mouth of Red Canyon.
Rick landed one striper, but that was it. The stripers were tough to find on this trip.
The wind had us worn out, so we headed back to our wind
protected camp and waited for evening.
Shore fishing from camp produced a couple small channel cats and one
bluegill.
That evening the wind died down a bit, but never did go away
completely. It was one of those annoying
winds that circled around and would be calm for one minute and then miserable
the next. We fished Ticaboo Canyon and
tried a few different methods. Rick was
drifting a jighead pinned with a worm off the side of the boat in approximately
15-20 ft of water. I was pounding the
shoreline with a jig/trailer and a marabou jig under a bobber. Dylan was going back and forth using both
methods. Each method produced fish. We caught walleye, smallmouth, largemouth,
and bluegill. The fishing was decent,
but the unforgiving wind took a toll on us by the end of the night.
MONDAY (April 30th)
None of us had anything urgent to get home for, so our plan
was to fish hard and go home late.
Mother nature decided to change our plans. The wind was terrible and not letting
up. We decided to break camp and make
the journey back to Bullfrog. From there
we hoped the wind would let up and we could fish around Bullfrog bay in the
afternoon.
Our 26-mile boat ride from camp back to Bullfrog was an
adventure to say the least.
By the time
we made it to the boat ramp we were exhausted.
We trailered the boat then sat in the parking lot and ate lunch. When we were done we examined the weather all
around us. We all got the feeling that
this wind was not going anywhere anytime soon.
We hit the road and ended up driving through a blizzard in Spanish Fork
Canyon. It was just one of those days.
CONCLUSION:
We cut this trip short by one day and adding in the lost day
on Monday due to wind wasn’t enough time on the water. Dylan was a fun addition to the team. Some of the fishing techniques and species of
fish were new to him, and it was fun to see him catch new species using new
techniques like topwater baits and jigs.
The bass bite on this trip was flat out weird. The first two days the water temps and air
temps seemed like it should be the best fishing of our lives, but the fish didn’t
seem to hold any consistent patterns. They seemed to come shallow in the
evening and that’s when we did our best, but during the day we had a hard time
finding them shallow or deep.
Typically, by the end of our Lake Powell trips we have most
species dialed in. If we want to catch
walleye we know where to go, if we want to catch stripers we have a spot. Bass, fish that cove. Crappie, over there.
This trip was different, and our only consistent producer was Ticaboo Canyon
for bass, and Scorup Canyon for crappie.
Stripers were hard to find in numbers, and we caught a lot of walleye, but
they were random. The smallmouth bass
were everywhere, but outside of Ticaboo Canyon we never did find them in good
numbers. Largemouth bass were
non-existent to everyone except Rick. He
probably caught 10-12, mostly in Ticaboo Canyon. Shore fishing from camp was slow, and the
wind was unacceptable! All said its Lake
Powell and we had a blast, caught and ate a ton of fish, and had an epic topwater
bite that will go down in history.
The big mama largemouth escaped us again this Spring. Rick had her on for a second. She was hidden in deep water next to a big rock in Ticaboo Canyon. Rick made a good cast near the rock and she took his bait and headed straight to the surface, jumped out of the water a couple feet so we could get a good look at her, and then spit the hook back in our face. It was probably a 5 pound bass.
We did get a good scorpion hunt in one night as well, and
Rick brought one home as a pet. It’s
seriously creepy how many scorpions are out at night down there and even more
creepy how well they glow when shining a black light on them. Luckily this year they seemed to stay back
behind our camp a little bit, unlike last year where they tried to sleep in our
tent with us every night!
