Last One On The Lake:) 4/2-4/8

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PFD

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I was scared the lake would get shut down before we left. We were very fortunate to leave before the closure. We set up camp in Good Hope. Caught 3 stripers trolling in the first hour. Just enough for fish tacos for the entire family(7). The next morning couldn’t catch any stripers so we ran to the mud line between 2Mile and White Canyons. Trolled for several hours with no luck again. Ran to White and Farleys and caught several Crappie, a couple smallmouth and one largemouth. On Saturday we couldn’t troll up any stripers agin and spent the rest of the day fishing the shoreline of GHB. The fishing was slower than normal, but the fish were double the size of years past. What a wonderful trade off. Just after noon I caught what I thought was a large striper flipping a drop shot down about 20’. The fish would not come up. Finally my boy yells, “Dad, it’s huge!” Of course it dives to the bottom again spinning off line like when sockeye fishing the Kenai river. At this point I’m convinced I’ve got a 10# striper. When I finally bring it up I see it’s the biggest largemouth I’ve ever seen in my 20+ years fishing Powell. It finally decides to break the surface after over 10 minutes of hanging out on the bottom. Water was flying everywhere. The waves that came off of the splash were incredible. My heart was racing. Then he just swam to the boat and into the waiting net. I about fell out of the boat with excitement. I’m not sure what the record is but I’m sure he wasn’t too far off. I took a quick couple pictures and put him back for some lucky future angler. I told my kids that’s the fish I’ve been dreaming about for the last 20 years.
The full moon really shut down the striper fishing. I didn’t catch another striper until Tuesday night when I trolled up 3 just before dark. We caught a half dozen again on Wednesday morning before leaving. The smallmouth/largemouth fishing remained steady the entire trip. We caught several smallies in the 2-3 pound range every day.
I told my kids something strange was happening when I didn’t see another boat after Sunday. I wasn’t sure if the lake was closed, or North Korea had invaded the US, but figured we might as well enjoy the greatest place on earth until someone told us we had to leave or we ran out of food. When we finally packed up camp and headed back to Bullfrog it was amazing and kind of strange to not see another boat the entire time. When we rounded the bend and saw bullfrog bay smooth as glass during the middle of spring break we all just stared and soaked in the scenery. About that same time my phone blew up with a weeks worth of texts including my dad asking how we were since he saw the lake was closed. I was just hoping we could get out and weren’t locked in. There were a few cones at the top of the boat ramp that I moved out of the way. When I was headed up the ramp the NPS ranger was coming down. I asked himif he wanted me to replace the cones on my way out, and he replied that he would get then on his way up. The decon station was closed, but there was a sign stating that I couldn’t launch my boat in any water for 30 days. No problem as I expect my next launch to be at Powell when it opens again. Hope this helps pass the time dreaming of how big the fish are getting while no one is after them.
 

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sounds like a great trip, congrats on the bucketmouth! Way to practice sustainable LMB fishing.
 
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Makes me want to sing " It should of been me" by Commander Cody. Great fish. I'm glad some people got to go fishing before they closed the lake. It seems the really big fish get caught early in the spawning cycle.
 
Makes me want to sing " It should of been me" by Commander Cody. Great fish. I'm glad some people got to go fishing before they closed the lake. It seems the really big fish get caught early in the spawning cycle.
While you're singin "It should of been me" would you throw in a couple verses of "Hot rod Lincoln". Beautiful LMB
 
Great fish!! I had a bad dream that the lake was shut down all year, but the upside of it was the fish grew a lot in the year of closure, and there were a lot more of them to catch. I woke the next morning in a better humor than the night they announced the closure.
 
You have heard that bad things happen in threes, well for me big fish came in threes also. My first and biggest lmb was right at 8lbs and that same year I picked up another that weighted 7.25 and one just over 6lb. I hope the same for you. That fish looks every bit as big as my 8lber. Are you going to start carrying a scale and tape measure in your boat now?
 
You have heard that bad things happen in threes, well for me big fish came in threes also. My first and biggest lmb was right at 8lbs and that same year I picked up another that weighted 7.25 and one just over 6lb. I hope the same for you. That fish looks every bit as big as my 8lber. Are you going to start carrying a scale and tape measure in your boat now?
I had one, but failed to check the batteries. Dead. I have a tape measure, but while trying to get the scale to turn on I forgot about the tape.🤪
 
Haha yeah I didn't get my big fish weighed until it was frozen and I took it to a store and put it on a produce scale. Yes I still admire it to this Day. I think if I ever get one 10 + I might have a reproduction made and turn it loose. When you fish for years and decades to finally stick a trophy the excitement definitely is overwhelming.
 
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