Buoy Marker 25 South Wall, May 30 to June 5, 2019

[Fursniper]

Arrived at the MM 25 wall at noon and here is what my sonar looked like for a solid 2 hours. Sonar adjusted to only show the upper 100 feet of the water column, actual depth was 400 feet.




Downscan with the same settings.


The stripers were 25-50 feet deep and averaged about 2-3 pounds. The majority were in good condition. Had to stop fishing because of running out of space to put fish. Filleted some to make room for more then resumed catching stripers again. Overall, caught about 100 pounds of fish in 2.5 hours. No need for a deer tag.....LOL!

Thought I would post this idea to filet fish on your boat for those that have a similar live well setup. I got a 18" x 24" cutting board on e-bay. The end of the board was cut to fit between the 2 hatch doors on the live well. This prevents the board from sliding around and the board overhangs the splash pan on the transom so blood and fish scales can be wiped off the back of the board or into the live wells. A wet rag takes care of blood that might get on the carpet.

 

[Dorado]

That's a lot of striper meat!

So are you bent over fileting? I set my 120 quart Yeti, and then a Rubbermaid storage tub sitting on top of the back deck which puts the filet board up where I dont have to bend over to filet. Makes the marathon sessions bearable!!

 

[Fursniper]

That's a lot of striper meat! So are you bent over fileting?

Yes, I bend over to filet the fish so my back gets tired. I have always used the Wahweap fish cleaning station, but had to find an alternative this year.

 

[26Biesemeyer]

might be taking the boys there tomorrow morning! I'm going 60mph sitting still thinking about the first boat trip in new boat.

 

[26Biesemeyer]

the Shad flag will be on the antennae!

sizing the boys some bigger life jackets. It's on.

[

ok, just kidding. its a 25' Regal.

 

[Fursniper]

Good luck! The MM 25 wall has been productive for a few weeks now. It was ironic that nobody else was there. I had the whole place to myself while catching stripers like a maniac. I will likely be out there again next week taking my daughter fishing for her 31st birthday. She grew up striper fishing on Lake Powell and still loves it.

 

[Sasquatch]

My wife filled the live wells there yesterday, thank you again to the family that gave us the anchovies to get us started.

 

[carvercalls]

That sounds like a fantastic day on the water.. Thanks for the report.. I hope to make it back down soon.

 

[26Biesemeyer]

We were there from 3-4pm. Graphed the entire wall except where the fish were, then finally moseyed on up to the northern portion of the wall where the other three boats were.

Then it was fishOn!! filled the coolers and the boys had the time!

 

[26Biesemeyer]

I'll post pics here for fun.

heheh,,, yours truly and company at the macdonalds in town for breakfast

 

[Fursniper]

I returned to the MM 25 wall on June 5 with my daughter. Arrived at 10am and trolled along the wall and eastward toward the coves at he end of the wall. Nobody home. Decided to wait along the MM 25 wall in a shady spot for the stripers to arrive. At 11am here they came. My daughter and I caught fish at a rate of about 12 per hour (24 fish/hour together). We filled the ice chest and both live wells. At about 2:30pm the school left, but a few hung around and my daughter continued catching stripers as I filleted to make room for more. Overall, we caught about 75 stripers, had 7 that were malnourished, and filled 4 of the 1 gallon size ziploc bags with boneless fillets. At about 4 pm the striper school returned again. We were so tired of catching and filleting fish that we decided to stop fishing and head back to Wahweap. I think we could have repeated what we did after 4pm if we stayed.

 

[26Biesemeyer]

nice! we iced ours almost all individually....took them to Flagstaff and cleaned them 22 hours after catching. into the egg/bread crumbs and skillet for dinner that evening.

You just can't beat fresh. Even my picky eater wants moaR!

Happy 6, June! D-Day -0 !!

 

[Fursniper]

Fantastic! Got to keep the fish on ice with the 70 degree water and 90 degree air temps. We used the live well for a temporary overflow and had 2 ice chests going, one to hold stripers and another ice chest for the filets. Today is vacuum packing and freezing. Going to hold some back for a fish fry this evening.

 

[T-Rex]

Hi Fursniper. T-Rex here. My son Stephen and I visited you a couple of times on 6/5 along the south wall at Buoy 25 (we were in the fishing rigged Malibu ski boat). Glad you did well and thanks for sharing the area and info, even though we missed the windows while we were being impatient and targeting small mouth bass that day.

Today we started early and focused on stripers. We did the west wall down by the dam and took in a couple of dozen. By and large they were not very healthy fish and a couple of massive catfish even beat them to the bait. The fish turned on at 7AM and turned off before 10AM at that location. In retrospect another turn at Buoy 25 would have been a better choice today, but any choice is better than not fishing so no complaints.

We talked to some gentlemen at the Wahweap "fish cleaning" station yesterday. They had been up in Navaho for hours. Said the stripers were all over the place, but down 100 feet and had (in their words) "lock jaw".