Palpatine55
Member
Launching is fine for a bass boat. Hit one big school of striper just across from the mooring area at Bullfrog and caught them every cast for about a half hour. Kept about a half dozen as that was all I felt like cleaning. Not big but normal healthy ones in the 16" to 22.5" inch range. Caught a few dink smallmouth in the same area. Caught a half dozen largemouth in the 1 to 2 pound range around the marina as well pitching jigs.
Went north into Forgotten and Smith Fork canyon. Caught one decent largemouth about 2.5 and a few more in the 1 to 2 pound range. Mostly jigs, crankbaits, curly tails and drop shots. Some smallmouth around rock slides but not as many as usual and most were dinks of 8" to 11". A few walleye to 18" and no striper.
Went back to bullfrog for the evening bite and did better, wandering why I ever left and wasted gas. Lots of largemouth (none big) but all decent fish, biggest probably was still under 3 pounds. Crankbaits and jigs formed a 1 - 2 punch and I caught a few more striper and a couple walleye and crappie mixed in. Pattern seemed to be main lake or the first secondary point in little cuts in Bullfrog bay. Evening topwater bite produced some more largemouth and a few dink smallmouth on a Zara spook.
Next day I went south to iceberg and it was about the same. Dink smallies and a few largemouth to 2 pounds on chunk rock banks and around shallow trees. No sign of any big striper schools.
So again I decided to go back north to bullfrog in the late afternoon. Again burning 15 gallons of gas to get iceberg and then back was a waste as the same pattern as the day before held, with lots of chunky largemouth on cranks and jigs. Bouncing the cranks off the rocks and pitching jigs onto rock ledges in 8 to 16 feet of water was key. Bonus walleye and striper showed up occasionally and I cleaned about a half dozen more fish, keeping a couple 10" to 11" smallies as they are overpopulated in that size range while releasing all largemouth.
Zara spook bite was great in the same areas at sundown. Mostly bass (largemouth were 1 to 3 pounds and smallies 8" to 12") but a couple bonus striper. Saw one school on the sonar off Stanton Creek and used a jigging spoon to pull up 4 more striper before the school vanished.
Overall not a great bite or even a fast bite for Powell. I'd say fairly slow actually. But probably ended up with around 40 fish each day for a total of at least 80, not counting the first school of striper I hit where I got about 25 in short order. Main lake areas seems to be where it's at right now. Backs of canyons will probably get better later on after the shad hatch and they start schooling and everything starts following them.
Went north into Forgotten and Smith Fork canyon. Caught one decent largemouth about 2.5 and a few more in the 1 to 2 pound range. Mostly jigs, crankbaits, curly tails and drop shots. Some smallmouth around rock slides but not as many as usual and most were dinks of 8" to 11". A few walleye to 18" and no striper.
Went back to bullfrog for the evening bite and did better, wandering why I ever left and wasted gas. Lots of largemouth (none big) but all decent fish, biggest probably was still under 3 pounds. Crankbaits and jigs formed a 1 - 2 punch and I caught a few more striper and a couple walleye and crappie mixed in. Pattern seemed to be main lake or the first secondary point in little cuts in Bullfrog bay. Evening topwater bite produced some more largemouth and a few dink smallmouth on a Zara spook.
Next day I went south to iceberg and it was about the same. Dink smallies and a few largemouth to 2 pounds on chunk rock banks and around shallow trees. No sign of any big striper schools.
So again I decided to go back north to bullfrog in the late afternoon. Again burning 15 gallons of gas to get iceberg and then back was a waste as the same pattern as the day before held, with lots of chunky largemouth on cranks and jigs. Bouncing the cranks off the rocks and pitching jigs onto rock ledges in 8 to 16 feet of water was key. Bonus walleye and striper showed up occasionally and I cleaned about a half dozen more fish, keeping a couple 10" to 11" smallies as they are overpopulated in that size range while releasing all largemouth.
Zara spook bite was great in the same areas at sundown. Mostly bass (largemouth were 1 to 3 pounds and smallies 8" to 12") but a couple bonus striper. Saw one school on the sonar off Stanton Creek and used a jigging spoon to pull up 4 more striper before the school vanished.
Overall not a great bite or even a fast bite for Powell. I'd say fairly slow actually. But probably ended up with around 40 fish each day for a total of at least 80, not counting the first school of striper I hit where I got about 25 in short order. Main lake areas seems to be where it's at right now. Backs of canyons will probably get better later on after the shad hatch and they start schooling and everything starts following them.
