Fishing Time:
Wednesday through Saturday (14-18)
Weather: Mostly sunny, constant breeze or high winds,
T- high 60s
Moon Phase: New Moon
Water Level: 3564 ft amsl
Water Temp: morning – mid 50s, afternoon – high 50s
Mudline: first mudline (mud to green stain) – midway
between Scorup and Red canyon, second mudline (green stain to clear) – Good
Hope Bay. Scorup remained green stain
even though muddy at entrance
Best Baits: 1. Mid diving crankbait (3-5 ft) 2. Spinnerbait
3. Curly tail grub on 1/8 oz jighead 4. Jig/Trailer
Camp Site:
Ticaboo Canyon
Who Went: Rick Everson, Josh Newton, John Schuler, Joe
Schuler, Toni Martinez, Dunc
Wednesday (Day 1):
Arrived at Bullfrog main ramp only to find it closed due to low water. Moved over to the houseboat ramp and launched from there.
Arrived at Ticaboo Canyon around 11:00 am and set up camp
for the next 4 days. The wind was
blowing, but this was our warmest day of the trip.
Ticaboo Canyon was more stained than we
usually like, but we tried it anyway since it was close to camp. We quickly started catching fish in 1-2 ft of
water on spinnerbaits and assorted plastics.
The size of fish was amazing and within a couple hours we had 5 fish in
the live well that would contend in most Lake Powell Bass Tournaments. The spinnerbait in the windy conditions with
bass tight to the boulder shoreline was by far the best bait of the day.
We kept a bunch of fish for the fryer and called it quits
before dark to give us time to fillet and prep for dinner. Bobber John and his crew found success as
well and added their fish to the mix for filleting. The wind never let up the entire day or night.
Thursday (Day 2):
We woke up to more wind and it dampened the spirits, but we
pressed on and continued to slay nice bass and walleye from Ticaboo
Canyon. We made the run over to Red
Canyon, but the wind was too much with no cover, so we retreated back to
Ticaboo Canyon. We tried casting and
trolling the back of the canyon and found a few walleye and crappie to give
some variety, but it was mostly more largemouth and smallmouth along the
shorelines. The difference from the day before
is we found the fish a little deeper from 3-5 feet. A mid diving crankbait was the secret to
putting the bait in the right zone and we had another banner day.
Bobber John and his crew ventured toward the main channel
and found more walleye than bass. This
made for more table fare and the bags of fillets were starting to fill the
cooler. The wind continued all day and night.
On arrival back to camp we noticed one tent that didn't make it through the strong winds. One guess who's tent didn't survive...
But hey, it's nothing a few randomly found steel poles and duct tape can't fix!
Friday (Day 3):
Woke up again to windy conditions, but this time the wind
was cold. We decided to make this day
into a bass tournament… Bobbers boat vs mine.
The fishing was a bit tough for my boat and especially for me. I caught one smallmouth the entire day. Newt notified Bobber over the radio that I
caught one fish and for the next 3 hours we kept hearing Bobber on the radio… I
can’t believe it. Your lying. Not possible.
It was funny over the radio, but the fact I really only caught one fish
wasn’t funny at all! Rick and Newt still
caught a bunch of smallmouth and crappie on the curly tail grub, but we couldn’t find a
rhythm.
On Bobbers boat they went across
the channel to a new unknown canyon and got into them. They caught some bass, tons of walleye, and
then trolled and caught stripers. They
easily took the tourney beating our 4 best smallmouth and random channel catfish
that Rick caught on a curly tail grub. Wind
continued to blow through the night.
Saturday (Day 4):
Wind was still there and swirling like crazy. It would calm down for a few seconds before
the wind wall would hit from a different direction. By afternoon the main channel was white caps
and the winds were strong. We toughed
through it and were still able to find the bass, walleye, and crappie in good numbers.
There were a couple small coves right off the
main channel near Red Canyon and we dove in them for reprieve from the
wind. They ended up producing some nice
largemouth bass including the bass of the trip with this one just under 5
pounds.
We made a run through the white caps uplake to Scorup and
surprisingly, the high walls gave us a break from the wind. Bobber beat us there and they were already
having success for smallmouth, largemouth, and crappie. We joined in on the fun and landed a bunch of
our own.
After beating up Scorup, we trolled the horn for
Stripers. Bobbers boat caught a few and
we added a couple walleyes before the wind became to much and we all headed
back to camp.
That night the wind finally started calming down. Rick and I took advantage and threw some
topwater from shore. We had a few missed
hits and then I finally connected. My
drag immediately started ripping and I thought I caught a monster largemouth,
only to be disappointed by a fat healthy striper.
Sunday (Day 5):
Woke up to calm weather.
Of course, the day we leave. We
also had a fun surprise. The S.S. Bobber
had sunk!
Bobber has a known leak in his
boat and uses his bilge constantly to keep the water out. The night before he beached it at a bad angle
allowing more water to come in and the entire back end of the boat was under
water. It took us all morning to
bail/pump the water out and get it floating again. By the time we finished, and camp was packed,
we were beat. Once on the road we
encountered another fun surprise. My
truck overheated. Turns out there was no
coolant in my radiator. Long story short
I had a leak in my upper radiator hose, we filled the radiator with water, and
limped home. It was a long day.
Conclusion:
The lake level was lower than we have ever seen it. There were underwater hazards everywhere. The finger canyons off the main channel were extremely
short due to lack of water. Red Canyon
was pitifully shallow and the many good bass coves we usually fish looked awful. Ticaboo Canyon was also shallow. We looked at areas 30 to 40 feet above us
recalling boulders where we used to pull bass from. We lost half of Ticaboo Canyon to what is now
dry beach. It was very sad to see.
The wind was an issue.
This spring has been nothing but dry weather and lots of wind. We toughed it out, but man it wore on us by
the end. It also kept the water temps
down in the 50’s and the bass were not in the shallows or spawning. Luckily, they didn’t go to deep, and the 3-5
ft range was the ticket most of the trip.
With the extremely low water levels, wind, and cold-water
temps you would think it was the worst trip ever, but it was actually just the
opposite. The fishing was amazing! We caught a ton of fish and it was hard to
catch a small one. Every species had good
size. Dialing in the crankbait in the
3-10 ft zone was the key to most the success.
The grub worked through the same zones, but the crankbait was by far the
best producer. The variety was the best
we have ever had with exception of the crappie.
We found quite a few random crappies, but never did find an area that
consistently produced. The walleye
fishing was the best it’s ever been, and we seemed to catch them
everywhere. We found the striper schools
in the main channel, and a couple random stripers in the back of Ticaboo
Canyon. The Largemouth and Smallmouth bass
were in every canyon and the main channel.
Some years we have a hard time finding the largemouth in numbers, but
this year was a perfect mix between smallmouth and largemouth.
The biggest and best surprise was the quality of the
fish. Every largemouth seemed to break
the 2-pound mark with many over 3. The
size and quantity of walleye was incredible and made for some amazing fillets
and camp fire dinners. We ended up
taking home 3 zip lock bags full of walleye fillets. Sad to see the lake dropping as low as it is,
but for now, the fishing continues to stay great.
