It was a very successful trip. My wife caught a fish! She said yes, I can have a boat! She caught Powell fever on her first trip! Thanks Flipper and family! Shore fishing in Blue Notch was tough. The water started off murky and went to muddy by day two with the crazy carp spawn that stirred up the entire shore line with mud. I only caught 3 smallies and one large mouth in the four days. The other camps around us had boats and were more successful by going to upper end of Red Canyon and also from Ticaboo canyon north to Scorup canyon where green murky water could still be found. From a bank fishing perspective, I had to learn a new presentation. When I had a boat, I could bounce a jig from shallow to deep. On the shore, I had to go from deep to shallow. In the end, the rig that worked the best was the buoyant Z-Man Ned Jig worms with a Texas style hook and a small split shot at the nose of the worm. The buoyancy of the worm allowed me to bounce the jig up from deep to shallow without getting caught up on every rock ledge. With standard Ned Jig, I lost at least 10 jigs. With a plain texas setup with a Senko, I couldn't get it deep enough. Another fellow camper did very well for stripers with anchovy and bobber. With the muddy water, I finally gave up and fished for catfish and caught a good bunch.
The road into Blue Notch is in good shape. We made the mistake of going in on Friday morning after three days of rain. There was some sphincter tightening with the extremely slick clay. Think tobaggan ride! Took four hours to get in with mud. Came out in 2 hours with dry road. In the Blue Canyon finger, we had two hard side truck campers and one 2 wheel drive mountain edition motor home camped at waters edge. Several other groups were able to bring in their 12-14' aluminum boats on trailers. Overall, the road is well maintained to high water mark. Once below the high water mark, the road did have one very steep rutted hill to go up and over before getting to the water, but with careful tire placement and dry conditions, even the motor home made it. Just go slow. On the Red Canyon side, there are some wonderful camp sites for truck and tent.
Thank you for everyones advice and suggestions for this trip. There is nothing comparable to Powell magic.
The road into Blue Notch is in good shape. We made the mistake of going in on Friday morning after three days of rain. There was some sphincter tightening with the extremely slick clay. Think tobaggan ride! Took four hours to get in with mud. Came out in 2 hours with dry road. In the Blue Canyon finger, we had two hard side truck campers and one 2 wheel drive mountain edition motor home camped at waters edge. Several other groups were able to bring in their 12-14' aluminum boats on trailers. Overall, the road is well maintained to high water mark. Once below the high water mark, the road did have one very steep rutted hill to go up and over before getting to the water, but with careful tire placement and dry conditions, even the motor home made it. Just go slow. On the Red Canyon side, there are some wonderful camp sites for truck and tent.
Thank you for everyones advice and suggestions for this trip. There is nothing comparable to Powell magic.
