Camping and Fishing in Escalante

Fishing Time: Thursday to Sunday (June 25-28)

Weather:  Hot, windy, T-90s

Moon Phase:  43% Moon

Location:  Wide Hollow Reservoir

Best Bait:  Spinnerbait, Texas rigged senko, and topwater plugs

Who Went: Chris, Cari, Devin, Addison, and Dayton Duncan

We rented a 26-foot camp trailer and headed south to Escalante and spent 4 days camping, fishing, and hiking slot canyons.  We stayed at the Escalante Petrified State Park, which is right next to Wide Hollow Reservoir.  I’ve always wanted to try fishing there and the boys were excited to try their luck at some largemouth bass.

After a fun day hiking Peekaboo and Spooky slot canyons it was time to fish.  The kids were doing great on there own and caught a bunch of largemouth bass.  Dayton is more of a cast and reel kid, so he mainly used a spinnerbait and tore it up.  Devin was refining his skills on the plastics using a Texas rigged senko and put on a clinic.  

It was fun to have camp so close so the boys could run down and fish anytime they wanted.  Addi fished a little and caught a couple, but she enjoyed riding scooters and playing on the docks a bit more.

Most of the trip was windy and we had to pick our spots for calm fishing.  One night it was calm and beautiful, so all of us walked down to the docks to fish.  There were some other family’s fishing and it was fun to watch Devin and Dayton show up and immediately start reeling in fish.  The other families were pumping them for information.  Unfortunately, the fun didn’t last long as a wind wall come across the lake to ruin the night.  To make matters worse.  I was helping Devin with a tangle and the microburst blew my camp chair off the dock and into the lake.  I wasn’t worried about the chair, but my phone was sitting in the cup holder.  I pulled the chair out of the lake just in time to see my phone sinking to the bottom of the lake.  I jumped in fully clothed and the water was above my head.  I took a deep breath and swam down and retrieved it.  I took it to an Apple repair store when we got home but the phone was too soaked to be saved.  It had all my photos and videos from the hiking and fishing from the trip.  I was super bummed and that’s why I don’t many photos for the blog. 

Dayton turned 9 on our trip and all he wanted was to catch a bass on his birthday.  The wind had other plans and we didn’t get to fish during the day, but by late evening it finally calmed down and we walked down to the lake after dinner.  The boys tried their luck with topwater, and Dayton caught a topwater bass for the icing on the cake of a great birthday.

Wide Hollow is a super fun little reservoir, and I would love to go back and camp and fish it again.  It holds a lot of bass willing to bite a variety of baits which makes it fun for kids.  We didn’t catch any monsters, but they were healthy little footballs that put up a good fight.