Joe Wilson
Active Member
I apologize in advance for the long winded post.
Just got back from my trip to the pond. Pulled into Bullfrog around 12:30 Wed afternoon, launched the boat and went and found a spot in Stanton Creek, went back and got the motorhome and set up camp so no fishing Wed.
Hit Hall's Thurs. morning and boated about 20 fish total, mainly smaller stripers with a 2-1/2 pound smallie and a 22" walleye mixed in for good measure. Fished the hump between the wall and small island casting across and retrieving back to the boat. Afternoon, went into Moqui, cruised around looking at my normal spots for the schools and never located them. Went back out to the mouth and trolled north east towards the amphitheater never located anything there and decided to cruise across the channel to the north side of the island as we had good luck there in April. Instantly located a school in about 150' of water about 30 yards off the breakwater tire. Spot locked on the school and I managed to boat about 30 in an hour. Mostly smaller healthy fish with a few bigger striper that were in surprisingly good shape.
Headed back to camp to fillet fish and got hit with the storm that rolled through about halfway through filleting them.
Friday decided to the same, Halls in the morning produced about another 15, including a small very short lived boil. Had friends arriving so helped them launch their boat and get situated, then headed out to give them a tour of Moqui as they were first timers. FYI the hidden beach in Moqui is still accessible for a smaller boat as my 1875 Lund fit in. Went out to the island and fished, the school was no where to be found, but still managed to boat another 5 or so before heading back to camp a little early to help the other Powell rookies get to camp. This turned into an adventure on its own, as I stayed at camp to fillet the fish knowing full well that I should have gone with them. Well after assuring me that they could find their way back, they got lost, haha.
Sat. morning, I took the new arrivals into Moqui looking for schools again never locating then so we trolled the way back out picking up 1 fish. Then we tried the Moqui island and the school was still no where to be found. We were still picking up a few here and there so we stay for a little while as the storm rolling in looked worse back at Bullfrog and looked like it was gonna stay north of us. Finally the school showed up around 12pm and we managed another 30 fish between the 2 boats in about an hour including a 19" walleye, although this time the majority of the larger fish were razorbacks. Headed back to camp to clean the fish. It looked like another storm with lightning was blowing in so we watched it for a while and after checking radar, it looked to break up before hitting us so we took a quick ride to show the newbies the amphitheater in Lost Eden. By time we got out it was a little to late to head to the island so we ditched into Halls for the evening bite and picked up about another 10 or so fish.
Sun. morning we headed to the Moqui island again and on the way up spotted a boil between the buoy and the amphitheater north of the mouth Moqui. It went down before we could get to it and we were never able to find the school. We were about to give up and notice some splashing near the amphitheater and went over to investigate. We quickly pick up about 5 and then they locked up. Tried the island and picked up a few more. The 2nd boat showed up around 9:30 and since they were all leaving that afternoon we decided to try reproducing some luck at Knowles as reported by @Stuart Hepworth with no success. We did manage to pick up 3 or 4, but they were larger razorbacks. We did catch a couple smallies off the shoreline though. Cruised over to Tapestry to show the rookies the view and stopped just under the flag so they could take pictures. While stopped I looked at the graph to show them how much water was still below us and we were sitting on a large school. We dropped down and pick up 10 or so in short order before the quit biting. Took them back to camp so my friends could get on the road and help shuffle the boat around for them so I didn't get on the water till about 6:30 and tried Moqui instead of Halls (in hind sight I should have just hit Halls instead as I only boated 2 fish.
Monday morning, went into Halls and picked up another 20 smaller stipers before having to quit due to boat traffic getting to dangerous to continue fishing. The fish were still biting, but it wasn't safe to be there anymore so I headed to camp to clean fish. Went up to the island in the afternoon, and no dice. I was only able to boat 1 fish before calling it quits at 7:15 to get back before sun down.
All in, I boated well over 100 fish for the trip and ended up with nearly 25 pounds of fillets, not including the walleye. Most fish were caught on my home made salt and pepper "walleye assasin" type plastic baits on a 3/8 VMC mooneye jig head (dropping down and reeling back through the school or topwater), a 5XD in gizzard shad or sexy shad color (trolling about 3 mph or casting and retrieving) or a hammered jigging spoon (speed reeling).
The fish were not in my usual locations with the exception being the breakwater tire north of the Moqui island. The fish in this school were spitting up small crawdads and shad. Also of note, the fish seemed to turn on later in the mornings than I am used to with the majority of them coming around 10:30am-noon, and earlier in the evenings with those starting around 4:30pm and slowing down by about 6pm.
Attached pics include the spots in Halls and Moqui where the majority of the fish were caught. A word of advice to anyone considering the spot in Halls, do so using extreme caution. The boat traffic was seriously dangerous every time I was there with more than I care to count passing within 50' of me surfing, wake boarding, tubing and skiing. Several did circles around the small island passing within that 50' every time.
Just got back from my trip to the pond. Pulled into Bullfrog around 12:30 Wed afternoon, launched the boat and went and found a spot in Stanton Creek, went back and got the motorhome and set up camp so no fishing Wed.
Hit Hall's Thurs. morning and boated about 20 fish total, mainly smaller stripers with a 2-1/2 pound smallie and a 22" walleye mixed in for good measure. Fished the hump between the wall and small island casting across and retrieving back to the boat. Afternoon, went into Moqui, cruised around looking at my normal spots for the schools and never located them. Went back out to the mouth and trolled north east towards the amphitheater never located anything there and decided to cruise across the channel to the north side of the island as we had good luck there in April. Instantly located a school in about 150' of water about 30 yards off the breakwater tire. Spot locked on the school and I managed to boat about 30 in an hour. Mostly smaller healthy fish with a few bigger striper that were in surprisingly good shape.
Headed back to camp to fillet fish and got hit with the storm that rolled through about halfway through filleting them.
Friday decided to the same, Halls in the morning produced about another 15, including a small very short lived boil. Had friends arriving so helped them launch their boat and get situated, then headed out to give them a tour of Moqui as they were first timers. FYI the hidden beach in Moqui is still accessible for a smaller boat as my 1875 Lund fit in. Went out to the island and fished, the school was no where to be found, but still managed to boat another 5 or so before heading back to camp a little early to help the other Powell rookies get to camp. This turned into an adventure on its own, as I stayed at camp to fillet the fish knowing full well that I should have gone with them. Well after assuring me that they could find their way back, they got lost, haha.
Sat. morning, I took the new arrivals into Moqui looking for schools again never locating then so we trolled the way back out picking up 1 fish. Then we tried the Moqui island and the school was still no where to be found. We were still picking up a few here and there so we stay for a little while as the storm rolling in looked worse back at Bullfrog and looked like it was gonna stay north of us. Finally the school showed up around 12pm and we managed another 30 fish between the 2 boats in about an hour including a 19" walleye, although this time the majority of the larger fish were razorbacks. Headed back to camp to clean the fish. It looked like another storm with lightning was blowing in so we watched it for a while and after checking radar, it looked to break up before hitting us so we took a quick ride to show the newbies the amphitheater in Lost Eden. By time we got out it was a little to late to head to the island so we ditched into Halls for the evening bite and picked up about another 10 or so fish.
Sun. morning we headed to the Moqui island again and on the way up spotted a boil between the buoy and the amphitheater north of the mouth Moqui. It went down before we could get to it and we were never able to find the school. We were about to give up and notice some splashing near the amphitheater and went over to investigate. We quickly pick up about 5 and then they locked up. Tried the island and picked up a few more. The 2nd boat showed up around 9:30 and since they were all leaving that afternoon we decided to try reproducing some luck at Knowles as reported by @Stuart Hepworth with no success. We did manage to pick up 3 or 4, but they were larger razorbacks. We did catch a couple smallies off the shoreline though. Cruised over to Tapestry to show the rookies the view and stopped just under the flag so they could take pictures. While stopped I looked at the graph to show them how much water was still below us and we were sitting on a large school. We dropped down and pick up 10 or so in short order before the quit biting. Took them back to camp so my friends could get on the road and help shuffle the boat around for them so I didn't get on the water till about 6:30 and tried Moqui instead of Halls (in hind sight I should have just hit Halls instead as I only boated 2 fish.
Monday morning, went into Halls and picked up another 20 smaller stipers before having to quit due to boat traffic getting to dangerous to continue fishing. The fish were still biting, but it wasn't safe to be there anymore so I headed to camp to clean fish. Went up to the island in the afternoon, and no dice. I was only able to boat 1 fish before calling it quits at 7:15 to get back before sun down.
All in, I boated well over 100 fish for the trip and ended up with nearly 25 pounds of fillets, not including the walleye. Most fish were caught on my home made salt and pepper "walleye assasin" type plastic baits on a 3/8 VMC mooneye jig head (dropping down and reeling back through the school or topwater), a 5XD in gizzard shad or sexy shad color (trolling about 3 mph or casting and retrieving) or a hammered jigging spoon (speed reeling).
The fish were not in my usual locations with the exception being the breakwater tire north of the Moqui island. The fish in this school were spitting up small crawdads and shad. Also of note, the fish seemed to turn on later in the mornings than I am used to with the majority of them coming around 10:30am-noon, and earlier in the evenings with those starting around 4:30pm and slowing down by about 6pm.
Attached pics include the spots in Halls and Moqui where the majority of the fish were caught. A word of advice to anyone considering the spot in Halls, do so using extreme caution. The boat traffic was seriously dangerous every time I was there with more than I care to count passing within 50' of me surfing, wake boarding, tubing and skiing. Several did circles around the small island passing within that 50' every time.
