Bullfrog to Striper City

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Chet Garling

Chet Garling

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We got on the water around noon on Friday, headed north saw one boil outside of Moki, found a campsite in Good Hope Bay near the submarine in Red Canyon. Made our way north to striper city, did not see any boils, looked in 4 mile and Scorup, saw somebody fishing what looked like a boil in front of Scorup. Green bass fishing was the toughest I have experienced in a long while, managed a few nothing of size.
Saturday morning we awoke to boils in front of Blue Notch managed to pull a few out of there then went green bass fishing and had breakfast, returned to Red Canyon saw a small boil in the back of Red and trolled up a couple in Good Hope, I think we saw Dan and Gloria go by if that was your nice looking shore camp there, we ended up trolling all of Good Hope and found a few here and there, at the bottom of Good Hope as you make the corner for the restroom there is a striper with a brand new out of the box Lucky Craft attached to it. Our new boat uses considerably more gas than our last one so we did not have enough gas cans to go back up to Good Hope headed back towards Bullfrog and got in with a whole three gallons left in the tank, gotta go buy some more gas cans! The dueling thunderstorms on Friday night were awesome and managed to not dump on us. Next time I will put up my antenna on our new boat and may be able to hail someone. LOL lots of new stuff to figure out on the new boat. Can't wait for the pending retirement so we can spend more time down there.
 
Hey Dan , if that was your nice camp outside of Blue Notch can you tell me what brand of privy tent did you have, looks like it stood up to the wind.
 
That was us. First, the Springbar cabaña for the porta-potty crashed with a bent pole the second night!

We launched from Hite early Friday morning from the old marina site. Launching even with a full boat of camp gear was easy. A big cruiser had launched just ahead of us without any problems.

After setting up camp (a big camp with heavy ice chests is tough on a 67 yr. old), we sat out the heat for awhile, but decided to try some fishing. Headed out from camp and started trolling. Gloria immediately caught a nice SMB. Proceeded towards the mouth of Red when the big motor cut out. Fired up the kicker but it cut out also. Common problem - fuel. Got back to camp with the trolling motor. Back at camp, cussed out the boat, had a cold sparkling water, and contemplated pulling up the floor boards to access the fuel tank. Considered feeding the kicker directly from one of our 5 gallon extra gas cans if necessary.

With evening we had some splashes close to camp and with the electric trolling motor chased a close boil to an adjacent shoreline and caught a quick 8. 5 were kinda skinny, 3 were filleted and were put on ice at camp. All were in the 18" range.

Got the big motor running Saturday morning - whew.

Saturday and Sunday were pretty much identical. A few stripers here and there from quick boils, very few if anything trolling, and only an occasional bite when pounding shorelines. Not one of our many favorite trolling areas produced anything but a couple of stripers. These were our go to areas where we have always caught a mixed bag of stripers, walleye and SMB any time of year for the last 5-6 years. Not this trip. Finally, on Sunday evening the boils in Red Canyon took on a much welcomed intensity and we shoved off and managed 20 stripers boated and filleted and put on ice within 1 1/2 hrs.

Came back a day early Monday morning. With a 2-3 fish at a time here and there and the last 20, we actually brought home more than enough striper fillets to keep us going for awhile. Pics later.
 
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I should have added that water temps were as high as 86. We also saw a lot of dying/floundering gizzard shad on the surface all the way from Hite to Red, especially in the back of Red where we saw 5-6 in a single eye setting.
 
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yes we saw them too, I thought at first they were spawning but later saw them floating, glad to see it wasn't just me having a tough time catching, like it has been said my go to areas did not produce, I thought the new moon would work in our favor.
 
Yes as mentioned before in my report, pounding the bank was as unproductive as it's ever been. Maybe there is just so much shad/along with rising water they are so spread out chasing food?
 
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Dungee Fishing said:
Yes as mentioned before in my report, pounding the bank was as unproductive as it's ever been. Maybe there is just so much shad/along with rushing water they are so spread out chasing food?
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Dang, 86 degrees and another heat wave forecast for next week. That is some warm water. Could it be the shallow areas along the bank are just too warm, and the fish are seeking cooler water in the depths?
 
Dorado said:
Dang, 86 degrees and another heat wave forecast for next week. That is some warm water. Could it be the shallow areas along the bank are just too warm, and the fish are seeking cooler water in the depths?
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Yeah that's definitely a factor as well (BTW I meant rising not rushing water), we caught a few smallies within the slurps and boils too. It's just in years past we have been far more productive than we were last week regular fishing in similar conditions.
 
A week ago, there was a sign posted at the end of the ramp: "Road Closed." We and some others looked it over and it seemed shallower than the old marina site where everyone was launching . Launching from the old marina was no problem with a fully loaded boat (full camp, 4 ice chests etc.).
 
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