Two of us from Colorado fished out of Bullfrog on Friday, Saturday and Sunday (May 8,9,10). I decided we didn’t need to burn much gas, since the fish avoided being caught last year and pretty much hadn’t been fished much since October. We went just a little south of Bullfrog to the end of a Canyon with 72 degree water (Main channel was 68 degrees) and caught SMB like I’ve never before experienced. We just lost count. If 3 casts in a row didn’t yield a SMB, we figured something was wrong with our bait. Ned rigs TRD (brown and grey) were our ticket, didn’t really need to try anything else. Rock piles and ledges. 0-20 feet, larger ones were deeper. Kept 20 in 9-12 inch range with a few 14 inchers . All females with eggs, which we discovered at the fish cleaning station. Nothing in their stomachs as far as we could tell. Tried briefly for crappie at the back of Halls Creek Bay, but quickly lost interest. Moved to a favorite walleye spot just off the main channel in 20-30 feet and caught 3 walleye on bottom bouncer plus more SMB plus lots of little bream? Talked to one guy who only caught a few SMB in Moki Canyon. Another guy said he had a great day up North.
Saturday, we decided to go North. Ran into wind, ducked into Smith Fork Canyon where we caught 2 crappie in the trees on Ned Rig and no SMB and saw our first other boat. Went across to Forgotten Canyon, only caught a few SMB there but hung out and had lunch in a beautiful spot at the end of a side branch. Back to main channel and the wind was gone, so cruised to near Castle Butte. Caught a nice striper trolling a rattle trap. Fish were jumping or hitting the surface but we couldn’t figure them out. Couple more SMB, brown/chartreuse Ned rig seemed to be preferable.
North wasn’t great (water became colored at the floating bathroom) so we went South on Sunday. Everyone seemed to have gone home, saw 3 boats all day. No wind. No wakes. Glassy water. Perfect. Found a walleye honey hole and spent the afternoon catching 14 walleye, a catfish, some of the chunkiest bream I’ve ever seen and a small
striper (!) all on bottom bouncer. We actually were hoping for a breeze to cool off the still air and went for a swim. Then we got our wish. Wind and whitecaps and bumpy ride home, so we ducked into another canyon, went to the end, and caught SMB till we didn’t care anymore. There were only 4 boats taking out Sunday at 7PM. Friday there were 15 at that time, Saturday only 7.
Long story short: best days were south of Bullfrog, most fish were female SMB in 72-73 degrees water at the head of canyons. Caught some of all 5 species.
Saturday, we decided to go North. Ran into wind, ducked into Smith Fork Canyon where we caught 2 crappie in the trees on Ned Rig and no SMB and saw our first other boat. Went across to Forgotten Canyon, only caught a few SMB there but hung out and had lunch in a beautiful spot at the end of a side branch. Back to main channel and the wind was gone, so cruised to near Castle Butte. Caught a nice striper trolling a rattle trap. Fish were jumping or hitting the surface but we couldn’t figure them out. Couple more SMB, brown/chartreuse Ned rig seemed to be preferable.
North wasn’t great (water became colored at the floating bathroom) so we went South on Sunday. Everyone seemed to have gone home, saw 3 boats all day. No wind. No wakes. Glassy water. Perfect. Found a walleye honey hole and spent the afternoon catching 14 walleye, a catfish, some of the chunkiest bream I’ve ever seen and a small
striper (!) all on bottom bouncer. We actually were hoping for a breeze to cool off the still air and went for a swim. Then we got our wish. Wind and whitecaps and bumpy ride home, so we ducked into another canyon, went to the end, and caught SMB till we didn’t care anymore. There were only 4 boats taking out Sunday at 7PM. Friday there were 15 at that time, Saturday only 7.
Long story short: best days were south of Bullfrog, most fish were female SMB in 72-73 degrees water at the head of canyons. Caught some of all 5 species.
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