I received a really nice report today. I had a request from a wordling to help him with info on fishing at Bullfrog. Here is his request.
" My name is Roy and I've been reading Wayne's words for many years now to keep up with the Lake Powell information. Although I only get out to Powell once every 3-5 years. We are heading to Bullfrog for ThanksGiving weekend. I'd love to be able to get into some fish although my expectations are low for this time of year. I'm thinking searching the canyon mouths all the way to the backs would be a good start for stripers. I hear that people use frozen anchovies to catch them. What other baits do you recommend, since pretty much all of the stores will be closed ThanksGiving day? Maybe I can drive back out to Hanksville on Friday, unless the Marina will be open and selling anchovies. Your thoughts are greatly appreciated."
I responded with this advice:
"
Bait fishing is often good right at the Bullfrog Marina at night with anchovy bait. Drop bait down to the bottom under the covered slips where marina lights attract fish. Slowly work it back up until the holding depth is found. Chum to activate the striper school.
During the day move to the back of Bullfrog Bay and troll for stripers with deep diving lures like a Deep Thunderstick. I like the white colored lure. We had a boil down south yesterday. Look for surface feeding activity.
Trolling with downriggers would work well. Set the downriggers for 40 feet. Concentrate on those areas where fish are seen on the graph. Our sampling shows Bullfrog to have the highest numbers of threadfin shad so fishing should remain good there until after thanksgiving. When forage is plentiful, stripers feed at their convenience. Try dawn and dusk, then mid day until you find the preferred feeding time and concentrate on that time when fishing in the future.
DO NOT drive back to Hanksville to buy bait. I had the rule changed and it is now legal to cut up stripers and use that as bait. It works about as good as anchovies and is very convenient. I use the thin stripers to cut up for bait and fillet the fat fish to take home to eat.
I hope you have a great productive trip to Bullfrog.
Here is the report he sent this morning. Thanks Roy ![I love my job!]
Thank You, Thank You, Thank You. My wife, parents in their 70's and I had a great ThanksGiving weekend at Bull Frog. Thursday afternoon we only got 2, but my wife got the first one, so she had the bragging rights for a while. But later I got the bigger fish to earn the bragging rights for myself. Parents didn't get a bite in their boat. Friday we got three. But Saturday rolled around and it lit up. There were maybe 10 boats out trolling the back of Bullfrog Bay. I had my parents pick up the speed of their troll and they started catching fish. They were extremely happy to boat 6 good stripers in about a 2 hour time frame and had a blast doing it. My wife and I had 21 in the same time frame but called it quits because I was the only one who was going to fillet these fish. We then went and explored the beauty of Lake Powell.
We had a great long weekend thanks to you Wayne who didn't have to respond to my email but did. I would have never thought myself to go to the back of the Bay to fish.
Happy Holidays Wayne! Thanks again!
Roy from Denver
" My name is Roy and I've been reading Wayne's words for many years now to keep up with the Lake Powell information. Although I only get out to Powell once every 3-5 years. We are heading to Bullfrog for ThanksGiving weekend. I'd love to be able to get into some fish although my expectations are low for this time of year. I'm thinking searching the canyon mouths all the way to the backs would be a good start for stripers. I hear that people use frozen anchovies to catch them. What other baits do you recommend, since pretty much all of the stores will be closed ThanksGiving day? Maybe I can drive back out to Hanksville on Friday, unless the Marina will be open and selling anchovies. Your thoughts are greatly appreciated."
I responded with this advice:
"
Bait fishing is often good right at the Bullfrog Marina at night with anchovy bait. Drop bait down to the bottom under the covered slips where marina lights attract fish. Slowly work it back up until the holding depth is found. Chum to activate the striper school.
During the day move to the back of Bullfrog Bay and troll for stripers with deep diving lures like a Deep Thunderstick. I like the white colored lure. We had a boil down south yesterday. Look for surface feeding activity.
Trolling with downriggers would work well. Set the downriggers for 40 feet. Concentrate on those areas where fish are seen on the graph. Our sampling shows Bullfrog to have the highest numbers of threadfin shad so fishing should remain good there until after thanksgiving. When forage is plentiful, stripers feed at their convenience. Try dawn and dusk, then mid day until you find the preferred feeding time and concentrate on that time when fishing in the future.
DO NOT drive back to Hanksville to buy bait. I had the rule changed and it is now legal to cut up stripers and use that as bait. It works about as good as anchovies and is very convenient. I use the thin stripers to cut up for bait and fillet the fat fish to take home to eat.
I hope you have a great productive trip to Bullfrog.
Here is the report he sent this morning. Thanks Roy ![I love my job!]
Thank You, Thank You, Thank You. My wife, parents in their 70's and I had a great ThanksGiving weekend at Bull Frog. Thursday afternoon we only got 2, but my wife got the first one, so she had the bragging rights for a while. But later I got the bigger fish to earn the bragging rights for myself. Parents didn't get a bite in their boat. Friday we got three. But Saturday rolled around and it lit up. There were maybe 10 boats out trolling the back of Bullfrog Bay. I had my parents pick up the speed of their troll and they started catching fish. They were extremely happy to boat 6 good stripers in about a 2 hour time frame and had a blast doing it. My wife and I had 21 in the same time frame but called it quits because I was the only one who was going to fillet these fish. We then went and explored the beauty of Lake Powell.
We had a great long weekend thanks to you Wayne who didn't have to respond to my email but did. I would have never thought myself to go to the back of the Bay to fish.
Happy Holidays Wayne! Thanks again!
Roy from Denver
Pretty crowded spot for a Thanksgiving weekend!