Sunday, March 31, 2019

Lake Powell 2019

Fishing Time: March 30 to April 3
Weather: Calm with slight breeze at times, mostly sunny, T-60s to 70s
Moon Phase: 19% Moon
Water Level: 3,569 ft amsl
Mudline: First mudline (green stained) started in Piute Bay near our camp, Second Mudline (mud stain) was not found this year.  Run off hadn’t started yet.
Water Temp: Ranged from 53 degrees in the morning up to 60 degrees in the afternoon.
Best Baits (in order): Curly tailed grubs, Texas rigged plastics, spinnerbaits, jig and trailer. 
Who Went:  Rick, Bobber John, Dunc
Spring is here and it’s time for my favorite fishing trip of the year, Lake Powell.  My buddies and I have a camping list that we revise after each Lake Powell trip, and this being our decade anniversary of going, you might say we have it dialed in. 

A quick stop by the grocery store and we were on our way.  We left this year on a Friday evening and arrived at the Ticaboo Lodge at midnight.  Lucky for me, I brought a nasty cold with me that made sleeping miserable, but luckily it got better as the trip went on. 

Saturday morning we enjoyed a hot breakfast and made our way to the boat ramp only to be surprised at how low the water was.  In fact, we couldn’t even launch at the main Bullfrog Marina.  It was bone dry.  Instead we were redirected north to a service ramp to launch.
After a two hour boat ride we arrived at our camp spot towards the end of the San Juan Arm.  This year’s spot was beautiful with classic Lake Powell boulders surrounding us, in water and on land.  We were even greeted by some wild burro’s that hung out with us during our entire trip.  
We set up camp between the sandstone boulders and the 4 day fishing bonanza began. 

Saturday:
We only had the afternoon to fish, so we stayed close and fished the waters near camp.  It was a smallmouth afternoon and the fishing wasn’t fast.  We worked areas hard and caught fish, but it wasn’t as hot as we had hoped.  
Rick was throwing texas rigged plastics, John was throwing curly tailed grubs, and I was throwing a jig and trailer and spinnerbaits.  All produced, but the grub and texas rigged plastics were the main producers.  Most fish were caught off points and rocky shorelines in 10 to 15 feet of water. 

Sunday:
A much better day with a mixed bag of smallmouth, largemouth, walleye, and crappie.  I woke up early and the weather was gorgeous.  I snapped a few photos showing our view from camp, including a panorama of the glassy water and red bluffs in the San Juan Arm.
We fished all our usual haunts in the San Juan arm and fishing was good, especially for Rick.  He was close to the Lake Powell Grand Slam, minus the catfish and bluegill.  
He also busted a pretty good largemouth.
Then just before evening we were fishing a stretch of rocky shoreline and it went nuts with smallmouth bites.  We must have landed 50 of them within a couple hours, and John added one crappie.
It was a good way to end the day.  Most fish were caught off the shoreline between 5 and 15 feet of water, however the afternoon smallmouth bite was shallow near rocky and gravel shorelines.  At times we were trying to manage two rods with fish biting each of them.
We headed back to camp a bit early and filleted a bunch of fish.  We had enough fish for dinner each night we were there.  While Rick went to work filleting fish, I threw some topwater around camp and landed a very nice Crappie.  I walked over and added it to the filet pile. Yummy!

Monday:
We started the morning drifting baits in 15 to 20 feet of water.  This produced a few smallmouth, but wasn’t fast fishing.  We moved to some different areas of the San Juan arm, and caught some smallmouth and largemouth, mainly off of points and deeper water from 15 to 25 feet.  
The wind was a bit annoying forcing us to troll and hide in the back of a few select canyons.  Trolling produced a few stripers and smallmouth, but this was by far our toughest day of fishing.  Still a good day, but we had to work for them in the shifting winds.  Almost all fish were caught off points and underwater ridges.  Casting into deeper water across a known point or ridge usually produced a few fish.

That evening we fished topwater from the shoreline near camp.  It’s a bit early in the year for topwater, but we managed a couple.  Just before dark I tried to jump to a large rock to cast from shore and ended up landing on moss that put me right on my butt and onto a slippery slide that launched me into the lake!  Crazy part was I couldn’t reach the bottom and had water up to my neck!  I quickly launched my rod onto shore and got out.  My new job had just given me a new cell phone the day before I left on this trip and it was in my pocket.  Luckily I was able to get out of the water quick enough to keep it mostly dry and the phone was fine.  Whew!

Tuesday:
Another nice day and we decided to run up lake to explore Escalante Canyon.  
It's a gorgeous canyon and I have heard good things in the past, but never fished it, so we gave it a chance.  The low water didn’t help, but we didn’t find much that looked fishy.  It may be better with higher water, but for now it wasn’t too impressive.  We did find one decent cove that had some sunken trees and rock rubble.  We caught a few smallies, and I lucked into a good largemouth on a spinnerbait.  
We also found some skinny stripers hanging out in the back of one canyon that played with us for a while as we harassed them with deep diving crankbaits.  The bite was fun while it lasted.

That evening we headed back to the San Juan arm and fished some new shoreline.  One spot in particular was on fire for largemouth and Rick put on a clinic with the spinnerbait.  
A storm was blowing in and it makes me wonder if this was a pre-storm bite.  Those are the best!  John and I also got into some largemouth and I had one break off that I think could have been the fish of the trip.  It was fun while it lasted, but soon it was getting dark.  Topwater didn’t produce, so we turned on my newly installed boat lights and began drifting jigs in 20 to 30 feet of water. Bobber John and Rick picked up a couple walleye, and rick landed one catfish.  I managed one striper before calling it a night.
With no moonlight it was a scary boat ride back to camp.  I literally followed our trail on the gps all the way back.  We passed through boulder islands and underwater hazards going 30 mph in pitch black.  Totally freaky!

Wednesday:
We slept in late and by the time we had camp loaded it was time to make the 2 hour trek back to Bullfrog.  When we arrived Rick backed the trailer down the ramp and I noticed I was missing a runner board.  I couldn’t trailer the boat without it, so Rick and John headed into Bullfrog and scored a 2x4 from some construction workers.  Price was a 12 pack of beer.  A few zip ties later and a 2x4 and we were ready to trailer the boat and head back to SLC.

Conclusion:
The trip was a bit early this year, but we were lucky to have good weather.  The bite wasn’t the best we’ve experienced, but some good moments and shorelines that produced a lot of fish.  We caught a bunch of smallmouth, a good number of largemouth, and a few crappie, walleye, and stripers.  Rick picked up one catfish while drifting, so the only fish we didn’t catch was a bluegill.  We had the entire San Juan arm to ourselves for 4 days and that was one of the bonuses of doing the trip earlier in the year.  It was one of my favorite camp sites we’ve had, and the fish dinners each night were amazing. 

We had a couple evenings where the bite was shallow, but most of the trip fish were found between 5 to 20 feet of water and off of rocky points seemed to produce the best.  We caught a handful of fish on topwater, but the cold evenings seemed to keep the fish deep.  Trolling was awful and barely produced a bite.  Typically we can’t keep fish off when we troll at Lake Powell.  The spinnerbait produced some nice largemouth, but plastics were king as usual with the curly tailed grub and texas rigged creature baits producing the most fish.  The jig and trailer also had its moments.  The only fish caught on crankbaits were stripers, and I don’t recall a fish being caught on a senko or worm, although we didn’t give them much of a chance. 

The only mishaps of the trip was me taking a swim and the 2x4 runner board replacement on the boat trailer.  It was another successful trip with good memories and many fish caught.  Can’t wait to go back!

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