Fishing Report - North July 20-22

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BarzArz

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Well, our planned weeklong vacation became much shorter due to some last minute issues that came up at work. Therefore, we did not get away until late Wednesday night and drove over night to get to the lake Thursday (July 19) morning. We did work in breakfast at the Twin Rocks Café in Bluff, one of our favorite stops along the way. First ones in the door as they opened. Jackie’s favorite is the Fry Bread French Toast, not always on the menu, you have to ask for it. The Twin Rocks take on Biscuits and Gravy is pretty spectacular as well! Well worth the time if you can work it into your stop as well as a great view and nice place.

Next up, Blanding, Utah to fill up our 60 gallon tank in the boat with some 91 octane no ethanol fuel. $3.95 a gallon and the pumps are open full-time in Blanding at Hunt’s, on the south end of Main.

On to Halls Crossing, pay for our camp space, top off our coolers with six dollar bags of ice, LOL! and set up camp. We have a slide in cab over camper with electric jacks so does not take too long to take the camper off the truck, set up an awning, hook up utilities and ready to go. It was 105° plus or minus each day we were there with evening sand storms and wind storms off and on... we do not have an air conditioner on the camper but have started giving it some thought LOL.

We still had enough time to try the boat out Thursday afternoon, the first time we’ve had it on the water since purchasing it a couple of months ago. It’s a 2005 Crestliner Tournament Series 202, 20’ 3” long and 100.5 inch beam with the 225 hp Honda four stroke and 9.9 Mercury kicker, we were crossing our fingers.

After a rough and windy run from Halls down lake to Lake Canyon with a few stops to fish along the way we determined it to be seaworthy and not too hard to load unload so back to camp with it in preparation for our first full day.

Friday morning, July 20, we started a bit later than intended but we were on the water by 7 AM and headed up lake to Good Hope Bay. The water was fairly choppy and we watched for boils the entire trip, but we never saw any sign. Very little boat traffic and very few people in Good Hope so we spent some time touring around from the floating restrooms on up past the horn and all the way to the confluence of White and Farley Canyon. The mud line was about halfway between Trachyte and 2-mile Canyon and getting shallow quickly… 83.5 degree chocolate milk. We trolled through that area with no takers and ended up fishing both sides of the main channel between 2-mile and -4 mile Canyon a good part of the day as well as much of 2-mile canyon with not a single bite. Hot, windy and disappointing.:(

Saturday morning, July 21, a bit disillusioned but on the water at daylight none the less. Still a bit windy, but we had a beautiful ride up to Lake toward Good Hope. We met or passed an occasional house boat but pretty quiet. Just north easterly of Cedar Canyon, On the big band before the floating restroom at the south end of good Hope we decide the rocks and structure look too good to pass up right then and are still in shadow. We drop the trolling motor and start fishing. Jackie throws her white Whopper Popper she had tied-on in case we found stripers… and it was on!!:D

Blue gill, sunfish, LMB and SMB are all hitting top water. We were getting 2-3 strikes per retrieve. One fish hit my Yo-zuri Pencil ghost surface lure so hard it flew about 18” out of the water. Way more strikes than hookups, by what fun! Not many big fish, we released all that managed to get into the boat, about 20 SMB in a short time and a nice LMB and some of the thickest perch I have seen. About 20 minutes and the surface action just stopped, then it was root beer with green flake double Hula grubs on 1/2 oz jig heads, yum green crawfish plastics and chartreuse single tail grubs, all seemingly equally effective. With strikes from near shore to about 10 feet deep, slow retrieves. Great morning. clear water, 82.5 temp, lots of rock with depths running 10-20 feet. All in less than a thousand feet of shore line and in 5-10 mph winds. What a fun morning. It’s was so hot we had to quit fishing and keep finding swimming holes and looking for stripers to no avail. We only fished mornings, as it was so hot and windy in the afternoon with localized storms, so we just shaded up afternoons.

Our last morning, we left Halls ramp at day light and one again started up the lake on an incredible morning, very little wind and sun just starting to light of the walls... and finally a small slurp!

We came in too hot and put them down… and were sitting there being irritated with ourselves when we notice something on the graph.... 3/4 oz kastmasters dropped and we were both hooked up at the same time at about 30-40 feet deep in the middle of the channel. We got 6 of them in the boat ( three each ) and it’s over... but we were smiling!

Went another mile up lake to yesterday’s SMB spot, and not a bite.

So sightsee a bit, we are tired and sunburnt and need to get home. So back to Halls, clean the stripers at the station, get our boat

decontaminated, get the camper on the truck, hook up the boat and we are New Mexico bound by 6PM...and home before 6AM!

It was a short break, hot and windy, but beautiful and we caught a few fish, life is good. It may be September before we are back, but we are looking forward to it! Thanks to Wayne and all you Word lings for the inspiration and reports that are helping us to make a little progress on the “fishing” thing!
 

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I was wondering how the new to you boat handled. Did it meet all your expectations? It looks like it should do well.
 
Well, our planned weeklong vacation became much shorter due to some last minute issues that came up at work. Therefore, we did not get away until late Wednesday night and drove over night to get to the lake Thursday (July 19) morning. We did work in breakfast at the Twin Rocks Café in Bluff, one of our favorite stops along the way. First ones in the door as they opened. Jackie’s favorite is the Fry Bread French Toast, not always on the menu, you have to ask for it. The Twin Rocks take on Biscuits and Gravy is pretty spectacular as well! Well worth the time if you can work it into your stop as well as a great view and nice place.

Next up, Blanding, Utah to fill up our 60 gallon tank in the boat with some 91 octane no ethanol fuel. $3.95 a gallon and the pumps are open full-time in Blanding at Hunt’s, on the south end of Main.

On to Halls Crossing, pay for our camp space, top off our coolers with six dollar bags of ice, LOL! and set up camp. We have a slide in cab over camper with electric jacks so does not take too long to take the camper off the truck, set up an awning, hook up utilities and ready to go. It was 105° plus or minus each day we were there with evening sand storms and wind storms off and on... we do not have an air conditioner on the camper but have started giving it some thought LOL.

We still had enough time to try the boat out Thursday afternoon, the first time we’ve had it on the water since purchasing it a couple of months ago. It’s a 2005 Crestliner Tournament Series 202, 20’ 3” long and 100.5 inch beam with the 225 hp Honda four stroke and 9.9 Mercury kicker, we were crossing our fingers.

After a rough and windy run from Halls down lake to Lake Canyon with a few stops to fish along the way we determined it to be seaworthy and not too hard to load unload so back to camp with it in preparation for our first full day.

Friday morning, July 20, we started a bit later than intended but we were on the water by 7 AM and headed up lake to Good Hope Bay. The water was fairly choppy and we watched for boils the entire trip, but we never saw any sign. Very little boat traffic and very few people in Good Hope so we spent some time touring around from the floating restrooms on up past the horn and all the way to the confluence of White and Farley Canyon. The mud line was about halfway between Trachyte and 2-mile Canyon and getting shallow quickly… 83.5 degree chocolate milk. We trolled through that area with no takers and ended up fishing both sides of the main channel between 2-mile and -4 mile Canyon a good part of the day as well as much of 2-mile canyon with not a single bite. Hot, windy and disappointing.:(

Saturday morning, July 21, a bit disillusioned but on the water at daylight none the less. Still a bit windy, but we had a beautiful ride up to Lake toward Good Hope. We met or passed an occasional house boat but pretty quiet. Just north easterly of Cedar Canyon, On the big band before the floating restroom at the south end of good Hope we decide the rocks and structure look too good to pass up right then and are still in shadow. We drop the trolling motor and start fishing. Jackie throws her white Whopper Popper she had tied-on in case we found stripers… and it was on!!:D

Blue gill, sunfish, LMB and SMB are all hitting top water. We were getting 2-3 strikes per retrieve. One fish hit my Yo-zuri Pencil ghost surface lure so hard it flew about 18” out of the water. Way more strikes than hookups, by what fun! Not many big fish, we released all that managed to get into the boat, about 20 SMB in a short time and a nice LMB and some of the thickest perch I have seen. About 20 minutes and the surface action just stopped, then it was root beer with green flake double Hula grubs on 1/2 oz jig heads, yum green crawfish plastics and chartreuse single tail grubs, all seemingly equally effective. With strikes from near shore to about 10 feet deep, slow retrieves. Great morning. clear water, 82.5 temp, lots of rock with depths running 10-20 feet. All in less than a thousand feet of shore line and in 5-10 mph winds. What a fun morning. It’s was so hot we had to quit fishing and keep finding swimming holes and looking for stripers to no avail. We only fished mornings, as it was so hot and windy in the afternoon with localized storms, so we just shaded up afternoons.

Our last morning, we left Halls ramp at day light and one again started up the lake on an incredible morning, very little wind and sun just starting to light of the walls... and finally a small slurp!

We came in too hot and put them down… and were sitting there being irritated with ourselves when we notice something on the graph.... 3/4 oz kastmasters dropped and we were both hooked up at the same time at about 30-40 feet deep in the middle of the channel. We got 6 of them in the boat ( three each ) and it’s over... but we were smiling!

Went another mile up lake to yesterday’s SMB spot, and not a bite.

So sightsee a bit, we are tired and sunburnt and need to get home. So back to Halls, clean the stripers at the station, get our boat

decontaminated, get the camper on the truck, hook up the boat and we are New Mexico bound by 6PM...and home before 6AM!

It was a short break, hot and windy, but beautiful and we caught a few fish, life is good. It may be September before we are back, but we are looking forward to it! Thanks to Wayne and all you Word lings for the inspiration and reports that are helping us to make a little progress on the “fishing” thing!
Sorry we missed you on the SJ this trip, but glad to hear you had a good time and the new boat worked well
 
I was wondering how the new to you boat handled. Did it meet all your expectations? It looks like it should do well.

Meatwagon!
Thanks for following up. We have a Tracker Pro Team 190 Alum Bass Boat with a 135 Optimax. We really like it and its been a really good boat for bass fishing local lakes and actually we have had it on Powell the last three years. When the water is calm, we have really enjoyed it. But rough water is a bit dicey and there is not much room for "stuff" and any of our family to join.

We shopped around and sought advice and ended up with this Crestliner. Ran up to Montana to get it. It's a 2005 Crestliner Tournament Series (TS) 202 Walk-thru windshield. 20 feet 3 inches long, 100.5 inch beam, vinyl floor. 60 Gallon tank, rod locker up to 8" rods, lots of below deck lighted, storage. Full canvas top set, dry storage, baitwell at bow, 37 gallon live well with light and oxygenator. Very low hours and in good shape other than the hull tape decals on the front third of the boat were defective and were not stuck on well so are mostly fallen off.

The first day out with it, it was so different that we were second guessing if this was what we wanted. But, I think after three days on Powell, putting over 150 miles on the water, we feel pretty good about it.

It is twice as heavy as our Bass Boat to pull, but has a really nice EZLoader tandem trailer with disc surge brakes and 4 bunks and really loads and launches easily and pulls really well. I did add a class 5 hitch to my truck since we use a Lance Truck Camper, we have an 18" receiver extension and the Crestline has more tongue weight than the Tracker.

It handles the rough water really well, we feel much more secure in it. The 225 Honda 4 stroke is really quiet, almost hard to tell it is running when idling or trolling below 3MPH and the Merc kicker is just as quiet. Having the start, steer and trim from the helm on the kicker makes it pretty painless. It is a bit stern heavy with both the Honda and Merc back there. It is a .125 thickness alum boat hull and 60 gallon gas tank, so it a fairly heavy boat.
It takes the waves well, the Hydraulic steering is really nice and I really liked the windshield... I was not sure I would. We used the tall bimini a lot for shade and I had not expected to do that, it really did not block the cooling breeze like I had anticipated. Its 100.5" beam is pretty nice with lots of room to fish and move around. It did rock left and right more than I thought it might with the wide beam, especially with not under power near a wall face. It does not have a ladder on it... yet. So getting out to swim meant finding a place to beach, that bugged Jackie, not sure we could get back in easily if one of us fell out.

We really liked the vinyl floor, big 37 gallon livewell (not that we can fill it! lol) and lots of storage options. The 60 Gallon tank is something we really like. We went south to Lake Canyon, about 10 mile round trip one day and up to Farley Canyon, near Hite the next day. We fished and drove around most of the day, likely about a 100 mile round trip, so well over 100 miles and only used 1/2 tank on the gage, which we verified by filling up and added less than 30 gallons (half tank). So we should be good for over 200 miles a tank, if we are careful. That was with wind and waves and running at 30 MPH average at about 3800 RPM. I think I need to look at a different prop.

The boat runs and rides well straight, but does not turn as securely as the bass boat.

By the third day, my wife said...I was not sure initially, but yes, we are keeping it...so I guess that decision is made! lol

It has a Minn Kota Terrova 101 thrust 36 volt IPilot trolling motor with two remotes, that really moves the boat around. I added new larger cabling between the three batteries, with 4 AWG going to the front, with a blue seas system batter switch to isolate before the breaker. I added a Battery Tender trolling motor plug and receptacle, great product, and added a NOCO three bank on board charger and ran the waterproof plug in at the bow for shorepower or home plug in.
Installed a new GX1700 marine VHF with antenna.
I have a separate starting and house battery in the rear and I added a Blue Sea Systems battery isolator switch and automatic charge relay in the stern battery compartment to ensure we don't do anything stupid and have no starting power. Also added a new distribution terminal setup and hour meter.
I upgraded all lights on the boat and trailer to LED.
I added switchable LED lights for the front deck and will be adding similar floor lighting and USB charging in the seating area and added quick connect restraints for the Yeti 35 at the bow...which also increased the bow casting area as the Yeti is the same height as the bow section. Being a ham radio geek there will be addition electrical stuff coming, lol.

Bottom line... we came away from it feeling pretty good about most things and feel its going to be a good Lake Powell boat for us...with much of the thanks for that going to all that took the time to share ideas and suggestions with us regarding features and things to look for in a boat for this application.

Where else could we get a collective century++ of experience to draw on from folks that have... been there and done that!
We feel really fortunate.
 

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Sorry we missed you on the SJ this trip, but glad to hear you had a good time and the new boat worked well

PowellBride,

We got such a late start on the vacation, losing the first few days that we had to limit the things we had time to do. Once we got comfortable enough with the boat that we felt good to head your way, we were out of time. We too are sorry to have missed the opportunity to meet you both, see the San Juan and that REALLY nice new boat!
Glad you all had a nice trip, great pictures! We will catch you two there one day!
Thanks again,
 
NIce boat, and report. And I'm sure you were talking about thick Bluegill or sunfish. A lot of people call them perch back home.
 
"some of the thickest perch I have seen"

Great report. Thanks for the info.
Not sure what you mean by the statement above?

You Bet, I meant wide, chunky and fat. We caught several and they were practically as wide as they were long or tall. I grew up in Missouri and we fished for bluegill and other perch a lot, but don't recall them being this chunky. I had not fished for them for decades, but may start now, these really had some meat on them.

On the graph they were also "thick" in suspending over rocky rises, but I was really referring to just how wide and chunky they were. Sorry for the confusion.
 
NIce boat, and report. And I'm sure you were talking about thick Bluegill or sunfish. A lot of people call them perch back home.

Thanks KYKevin,

I had not thought about that, I'm sure you are right, now that you bring that up.
In Missouri growing up, Perch were any Bluegill, Redear Perch, Sunfish etc. We always though our relatives in Louisiana were "challenged" because they called all of those things "Bream"! lol
 
I've got a bunch of mealworm's, that are wanting to catch some of those Bluegill. Were you in Goodhope, when you caught them?
Thanks
 
I've got a bunch of mealworm's, that are wanting to catch some of those Bluegill. Were you in Goodhope, when you caught them?
Thanks

KYK,
Yes, the Good Hope area.

Where we caught and saw the most was about a mile down lake from the Good Hope floating restroom.

Anywhere in about 10 to 20 foot of water, where there was a big rock or mound of some kind that projected up half way to the surface they seemed to be suspended above it. They were hitting our surface lures and grubs too.

Good luck!
 
Thank's BarzArz, I'm going to be headed down soon, and Striper boil's, and Blue gill are on my list.
Have a good one, hope to meet you at the lake sometime.
KyKevin
 
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