Fishing Report from Good hope Bay and the San Juan

[Dano]

We fished out of Halls Crossing March 29th, 30th, 31st. Had a good time visiting with Barz Arz and Catchingabuzz comparing notes. Great to meet you two. Arrived Thursday at noon so went up to Good Hope to fish the afternoon. The water temp was only 55-56. Fishing was pretty slow. I fished all my usual places I like and finished with only 6 fish. All the fish seemed to be on the main lake points in 10 to 20'. I caught all on a 3" Ned Rig with 1/10 oz head in Molting Craw color. We tried single tail grubs, senkos, and tubes with no luck.

We were fishing with a group of 3 other boats and decided to run down to the San Juan on Friday to see if the water was any warmer and the fish more cooperative. Started fishing about 11:00. the fish didn't get going till after noon. Water was 56 when we arrived. The warmest for the day was above 58. Two of us in my boat ended up catching 26 SMB and 4 LMB. The fish were nice and fat, most were in the 2 LB range with the biggest we caught approaching 3 LB. The other boats had similar success with 3-1/2 lb being the biggest. I caught all my fish on the same Ned Rig as the day before. Just couldn't get them to bite anything else.

Because we all did good on Friday we deiced to go the San Juan again on Saturday. We went a little earlier but still the fish didn't get going till after noon. The water was maybe a little warmer to start. At 5:00 when we left I had 61.6 in the back of a little cove and the fish were on fire. Most of the fish were still on main lake points but at the end of the day they had moved up shallow in the back of the little cuts and coves. We ended up catching 35 SMB, 6 LMB, and 1 skinny striper. The other boats had even better success. Big bass for the weekend was 4 LB. One of the other boats also ended up with 4 crappie. A great trip with great temps and only a little breezy starting at 3:00 each afternoon. Here's a few pics to make you wish you were there!

 

[wayne gustaveson]

This is Bob Lemons. I just signed up as a member on your website and will be posting in the future under the screen name of, "Fursniper." I will be fishing very frequently between now and the end of May and will provide results of my trips on the message board. Here is the info from my most recent fishing trip.

I fished 2 days near the back of Last Chance on March 28-29 with Ron Chapman from Page.

First day we landed 2 crappie, 1 largemouth, 1 smallmouth, and 1 striper. We fished hard from 1030am to 5:30pm.

Second day we fished the same places and landed 3 crappie and 3 smallmouth. We left Last Chance around 5pm and stopped along the east wall of Padre Bay and caught 2 more smallmouth there. We fished hard from 10am to 6pm.

Water surface temp stayed consistent at 58*F both days. Our targeted species were LMB, SMB, and BC. We were fishing less than 30 feet deep using 1/8 to 1/4 ounce jigs that were either chartreuse, smoke with silver flake, or pumpkin colored. We had to work a lot of shoreline to catch these. Overall, we landed 13 fish consisting of 4 different species in 2 days.

Here are the photos.

This is Ron Chapman. He has lived in Page since 1974 and these are the first crappie he has ever caught in his life. He actually caught 3 in one day in the back of Last Chance and created a once in a lifetime memory....LOL!

 

[wayne gustaveson]

Wayne, hope all is well. With the worst case of spring fever either of us have ever experienced, my 11 year old son and I made the the 2 hour drive from flagstaff for a day of fishing. We were well aware that current water temps were a bit on the low side, but with the current forecast, we were hoping to find some warmer afternoon water. We started the morning in Wahweap, as expected, fishing was slow, landing only a handful of smallmouth and one super skinny striper. On the bright side, all the smallmouth ranged between 2-3 lbs. Water temps in Wahweap ranged from 53° to 56°.After making the rounds in Wahweap, we made our way into Warm Creek. To our surprise, the water temps were much warmer, by late afternoon we were fishing water 59°- 62°. Fishing markedly improved. With our trusty tube jigs and single tail hula grubs, we managed to boat 12 healthy smallmouth and a single 2 lb large mouth in the final hour before our departure for the high country. As we trailered the boat, we felt only slight disappointment that our brief day trip had come to an end, instead our conversation and thoughts were consumed with hard fighting smallmouth and planning our next trip.

Thank you for all your work. With information provided by you and the Lake Powell fishing community, my son has developed a passion for angling, boating and Lake Powell that will last a lifetime. Priceless.