Dworwood
Keeper of San Juan Secrets
We arrived at bullfrog around 10 on Monday and loaded the boat in the parking lot near the old cafe. Launching was quick and we headed south. I was surprised to see a few house boats still at bullfrog but no walkways to get to them, it was a bit depressing to see the marina basically gone. I decided to camp near the mouth of the SJ but not commit to the SJ for 4 days with the water so low. I wish we would have stayed there, next time we will for sure. We found a really nice spot and set up camp and went fishing. We saw what looked like boils all the way down the main channel so we tried them first when we started fishing. The fish were small and when we would get close they would go down to 30 feet immediately. They were jumping and splashing but it was hard to catch anything. They didn’t look like slurps but the fishing acted more like slurps than boils. My take is that the fish are small and not organized like older fish slurping? We caught several fish that afternoon but not great fishing.
Second day we headed to the Escalante and spent most of the day there again seeing the fish on the surface but not catching many. The fishing was slow again for us so we went out and hit the main channel points, trolling was most productive with XD’s and rapala, color didn’t make a big difference but red crawdad was consistent.
Thursday we headed into the SJ expecting to catch @Ryan making waves and say hi but we did not find them, we may have seen them as we were leaving but again missed having a BS session! The fishing was the best of the trip but fish were small, even the stripers were all small but in good shape. We saw a family of otters but could not get pictures this time, and a group of burrows with young colts. We caught all of the game fish in powell, I think, and my youngest GS almost did it all in one day by himself. We caught sunfish, bluegill, crappie, sm, lm, striper, walleye, and catfish. Ned rigs ruled for bank fishing and XD crank baits for trolling. I had that unexpected electric trolling motor failure on the second morning which really makes bank fishing hard with the wind we had so most of our trip was spent trolling. The SM in the SJ need to be culled some more, we caught a lot of small fish and very few good SM this trip. As posted by @PowellBride the LM numbers were down for us and smaller than usual too.
We went under Gregory arch and saw some sunken boats I had not seen before. I need to tell the story about almost burning our tent down! Where we set up camp someone had a fire on the only flat spot near the beach, I carried the rocks used for a fire ring away so we could set up the tent and they were not hot, we set it up and put our gear inside and headed out fishing. I put my sleeping bag and pillow in a large DOT orange garbage bag to keep them dry, when we got back my SIL went in the tent and smelled something hot, he grabbed my bag which was sitting over where their fire had been and the garbage bag had melted into my sleeping bag and I mean into the material. We had shoveled the ashes away and covered the area with sand but the fire pit must have had some hot coals still smoldering. It did not melt or damage the tent tarp or floor but did a number on my bag! The next morning he commented about how the added heat from the fire pit had made sleeping or (lack of sleep) above it and the hot weather very difficult.
All in all it was a great trip with my grandkids and SIL. The fishing for it being a full moon and a cold front with some wind was pretty darn good, the weather was not too bad and the lack of boats mid lake is always nice. We saw them working on access to the boat slips in Halls marina but what a circus it will be for a while. People are congregated in the main channel which makes traveling a bit rough but it is Lake Powell and still hard to beat. I waited so long to post that I’m sure I have left a few things out. It still is a “one of a kind” place in the world and I hope they can figure out boat access for the North end so we can enjoy it.
On Friday the ramp was a different story, lots of people who do not know how to back up a trailer or that they should load the boat before getting to the ramp. It took about 45 minutes to get loaded and headed home. We were the only boat at inspection, everyone was coming for the 4th and we were leaving just in time!
NOTE! There is a hole in the ramp near the dock on the north side of the ramp and I mean a hole! We dropped the trailer tires in it and had to use 4wd to get out, the trailer was leaning so bad after two attempts we had to move to get the boat loaded. Keep to the left side going down and not close to the dock, I bet some tires got damaged that weekend!
Second day we headed to the Escalante and spent most of the day there again seeing the fish on the surface but not catching many. The fishing was slow again for us so we went out and hit the main channel points, trolling was most productive with XD’s and rapala, color didn’t make a big difference but red crawdad was consistent.
Thursday we headed into the SJ expecting to catch @Ryan making waves and say hi but we did not find them, we may have seen them as we were leaving but again missed having a BS session! The fishing was the best of the trip but fish were small, even the stripers were all small but in good shape. We saw a family of otters but could not get pictures this time, and a group of burrows with young colts. We caught all of the game fish in powell, I think, and my youngest GS almost did it all in one day by himself. We caught sunfish, bluegill, crappie, sm, lm, striper, walleye, and catfish. Ned rigs ruled for bank fishing and XD crank baits for trolling. I had that unexpected electric trolling motor failure on the second morning which really makes bank fishing hard with the wind we had so most of our trip was spent trolling. The SM in the SJ need to be culled some more, we caught a lot of small fish and very few good SM this trip. As posted by @PowellBride the LM numbers were down for us and smaller than usual too.
We went under Gregory arch and saw some sunken boats I had not seen before. I need to tell the story about almost burning our tent down! Where we set up camp someone had a fire on the only flat spot near the beach, I carried the rocks used for a fire ring away so we could set up the tent and they were not hot, we set it up and put our gear inside and headed out fishing. I put my sleeping bag and pillow in a large DOT orange garbage bag to keep them dry, when we got back my SIL went in the tent and smelled something hot, he grabbed my bag which was sitting over where their fire had been and the garbage bag had melted into my sleeping bag and I mean into the material. We had shoveled the ashes away and covered the area with sand but the fire pit must have had some hot coals still smoldering. It did not melt or damage the tent tarp or floor but did a number on my bag! The next morning he commented about how the added heat from the fire pit had made sleeping or (lack of sleep) above it and the hot weather very difficult.
All in all it was a great trip with my grandkids and SIL. The fishing for it being a full moon and a cold front with some wind was pretty darn good, the weather was not too bad and the lack of boats mid lake is always nice. We saw them working on access to the boat slips in Halls marina but what a circus it will be for a while. People are congregated in the main channel which makes traveling a bit rough but it is Lake Powell and still hard to beat. I waited so long to post that I’m sure I have left a few things out. It still is a “one of a kind” place in the world and I hope they can figure out boat access for the North end so we can enjoy it.
On Friday the ramp was a different story, lots of people who do not know how to back up a trailer or that they should load the boat before getting to the ramp. It took about 45 minutes to get loaded and headed home. We were the only boat at inspection, everyone was coming for the 4th and we were leaving just in time!
NOTE! There is a hole in the ramp near the dock on the north side of the ramp and I mean a hole! We dropped the trailer tires in it and had to use 4wd to get out, the trailer was leaning so bad after two attempts we had to move to get the boat loaded. Keep to the left side going down and not close to the dock, I bet some tires got damaged that weekend!
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