dank80
Active Member
A couple buddies and I were at the lake May 9-11th. The plan was to head south from Bullfrog and fish for whatever was biting. We set up camp in Iceberg on Thursday midday and then got to fishing. We couldn’t figure them out in Iceberg other than a few dink smallies. We headed down lake and found some nice looking structure across the channel from the Rincon. This area produced a stripers, smb, lamb, walleyes, and even a few fat bluegills.
On Friday we wanted to explore the Escalante. We started out with some sightseeing at Cathedral in the Desert. Wow, that place is awesome! Very beautiful. We explored and fished many of the side canyons of the Escalante. This was my first time in the area. It’s a special place, for sure. In addition to the sightseeing, the fishing was also pretty decent. We caught about 15 walleye slowly jigging gulp minnows in 40 feet of water around some trees.
Around Davis Gulch we came across a gentleman in a canoe who floated clear down the Escalante River. He had a small motor on his rig and was intending to motor back up to Bullfrog to be picked up. His motor quit and he couldn’t get it started for some time. We told him we’d be happy to tow him as far as Iceberg. He was happy about that so we came up with a plan to reconnect later in the day and tow him north.
We continued fishing and exploring some side canyons. We also headed down to Hole in the Rock where we found a guy on a bicycle. He was making his way across Utah on dirt roads and had come through the Hole in the Rock. His plan was to hitch a ride with a boater across the lake and pick up the trail on the other side and head to Colorado. He hadn’t planned on waiting there for over a full day without seeing anyone! Needless to say, he was happy we came along. We were happy to shuttle him, his bike, and gear across the lake. On our way across the lake, I had my eyes peeled on the sonar because I had never been in this area and was not familiar with the underwater rock structures. In the vicinity of Register Rock we found a whale and hit it pretty hard. The Lakemaster chip is good, but not every rock outcropping on the lake is mapped. This whale Popped up out of nowhere and all the water around it is 70 feet deep. We were lucky though and the hull did not sustain any major damage and the outboard which also hit the rock seemed to be fine as well. We dropped the biker off and went back to pick up the guy in the canoe back at the mouth of the Escalante.
The skies were starting to get dark and by the time we hit the Rincon it was a downpour. I wanted to pull over and wait it out but the man in the canoe signaled to us to just keep pushing through. He looked pretty miserable back there! By the time we dropped him off in iceberg in the pouring rain, he made it to shore safely and Iceberg was lit up with waterfalls everywhere. It was pretty spectacular.
We did some fishing on Saturday morning, picked up camp and were back at Bullfrog around 1. Overall it was a great trip in a new part of the lake for me. We caught tons of stripers, many walleye, a bunch of smallies of course, and a handful of largemouth. It was a great trip!
On Friday we wanted to explore the Escalante. We started out with some sightseeing at Cathedral in the Desert. Wow, that place is awesome! Very beautiful. We explored and fished many of the side canyons of the Escalante. This was my first time in the area. It’s a special place, for sure. In addition to the sightseeing, the fishing was also pretty decent. We caught about 15 walleye slowly jigging gulp minnows in 40 feet of water around some trees.
Around Davis Gulch we came across a gentleman in a canoe who floated clear down the Escalante River. He had a small motor on his rig and was intending to motor back up to Bullfrog to be picked up. His motor quit and he couldn’t get it started for some time. We told him we’d be happy to tow him as far as Iceberg. He was happy about that so we came up with a plan to reconnect later in the day and tow him north.
We continued fishing and exploring some side canyons. We also headed down to Hole in the Rock where we found a guy on a bicycle. He was making his way across Utah on dirt roads and had come through the Hole in the Rock. His plan was to hitch a ride with a boater across the lake and pick up the trail on the other side and head to Colorado. He hadn’t planned on waiting there for over a full day without seeing anyone! Needless to say, he was happy we came along. We were happy to shuttle him, his bike, and gear across the lake. On our way across the lake, I had my eyes peeled on the sonar because I had never been in this area and was not familiar with the underwater rock structures. In the vicinity of Register Rock we found a whale and hit it pretty hard. The Lakemaster chip is good, but not every rock outcropping on the lake is mapped. This whale Popped up out of nowhere and all the water around it is 70 feet deep. We were lucky though and the hull did not sustain any major damage and the outboard which also hit the rock seemed to be fine as well. We dropped the biker off and went back to pick up the guy in the canoe back at the mouth of the Escalante.
The skies were starting to get dark and by the time we hit the Rincon it was a downpour. I wanted to pull over and wait it out but the man in the canoe signaled to us to just keep pushing through. He looked pretty miserable back there! By the time we dropped him off in iceberg in the pouring rain, he made it to shore safely and Iceberg was lit up with waterfalls everywhere. It was pretty spectacular.
We did some fishing on Saturday morning, picked up camp and were back at Bullfrog around 1. Overall it was a great trip in a new part of the lake for me. We caught tons of stripers, many walleye, a bunch of smallies of course, and a handful of largemouth. It was a great trip!
