BarzArz
Well-Known Member
To expand on my brief report last Thursday evening...I actually did write one on my phone Friday night and lost it some how when I tried to post, so went to bed.
As I had already posted, we fished Thursday 10/17, Caught a nice SM on a whopper popper early, that got away from me when holding it up for a picture...he made it over the gunnel so he deserved it. But, started my day off on a bad note. Then I finally spoon up a good sized Striper (only one of the trip) and get him to the surface, he sees my wife coming with a net...and bye bye...geez!! We did finally get one smally in the boat before the winds started roaring at 2PM. These were all from Hall's Ramp down to Lake canyon. No one else had much luck in that area that we talked to. The next morning, Friday 10/18, the wind was still blowing so we stayed at camp at Hall's Crossing RV area till noon. Then wind stopped, the sun came out, and it was a beautiful day so we head down lake, thinking with only half a day we may not be able to fish in the Escalante as planned. We thought we would just stay low and run hard with smooth water down to the Escalante, but we keep seeing fish, both bait and bait eaters on the Humminbird at 60 to 85 feet. We keep stopping every few miles thinking it looks to good, we surely can spoon some up...but, nope, not a bite on spoons and not a sign of surface activity and we covered 65 miles Friday...next year, we hope!...or maybe next month...lol!
So 4 miles south of the Rincon, about MM 75/76 we decide to drop the trolling motor and throw some plastics at some nice looking structure along the NWly shore, It was a shelf, varied from about 6 to 25 feet for a ways with lots of big automobile size rocks scattered around about 4-8 feet under the surface and brush near shore. Mostly clear except the mud line coming off a couple of areas of exposed blue clay, its is a picture. Anyway, we started catching fish, finally...not big, but good fillet size and fat beautiful smallmouth. For the next two hours we got lots of bites, maybe 20 fish to the boat including a decent LM, but only maybe dozen into the boat, of which we kept 6 for dinner and a big ole fat beautiful Bluegill, see picture. They were biting the plastic bait, but not the hook and would let go when you start to lift them out of the water.
Water 67-69 degrees, visibility about 8-10 feet except the milky mudline below the clay bank, which seemed to be something they liked. Once I started getting bites on a gray with metal flake over white belly BPS Stic-O (kind of a long Ned rig with a forked tail, looks like a small minnow or shad). Jackie ties on a white and black broken Rapala diver and started catching fish too. We tried other colors when things slowed, but it had to be mostly white, the baits we used are in a picture.
Not a great number and certainly not big, but finally... no wind and some fish biting and enough in the live well for dinner in camp and a few fillets to take home. To celebrate catching a few, we stowed the fishing equipment and with the sun getting lower, ran hard down past the Escalante to marvel for a few minutes at the Hole in the Rock... before turning it back up lake and cruising over smooth water to get back to the Hall's ramp with enough light left to load the boat.
Only saw two boats in the 30 miles back, cruising at about 40mph as the shadows started getting longer and sun had that golden sunset light...listening to John Denver...as we came off plane and it got quiet...Jackie, summed it up, she said..."this was a good day"
As I had already posted, we fished Thursday 10/17, Caught a nice SM on a whopper popper early, that got away from me when holding it up for a picture...he made it over the gunnel so he deserved it. But, started my day off on a bad note. Then I finally spoon up a good sized Striper (only one of the trip) and get him to the surface, he sees my wife coming with a net...and bye bye...geez!! We did finally get one smally in the boat before the winds started roaring at 2PM. These were all from Hall's Ramp down to Lake canyon. No one else had much luck in that area that we talked to. The next morning, Friday 10/18, the wind was still blowing so we stayed at camp at Hall's Crossing RV area till noon. Then wind stopped, the sun came out, and it was a beautiful day so we head down lake, thinking with only half a day we may not be able to fish in the Escalante as planned. We thought we would just stay low and run hard with smooth water down to the Escalante, but we keep seeing fish, both bait and bait eaters on the Humminbird at 60 to 85 feet. We keep stopping every few miles thinking it looks to good, we surely can spoon some up...but, nope, not a bite on spoons and not a sign of surface activity and we covered 65 miles Friday...next year, we hope!...or maybe next month...lol!
So 4 miles south of the Rincon, about MM 75/76 we decide to drop the trolling motor and throw some plastics at some nice looking structure along the NWly shore, It was a shelf, varied from about 6 to 25 feet for a ways with lots of big automobile size rocks scattered around about 4-8 feet under the surface and brush near shore. Mostly clear except the mud line coming off a couple of areas of exposed blue clay, its is a picture. Anyway, we started catching fish, finally...not big, but good fillet size and fat beautiful smallmouth. For the next two hours we got lots of bites, maybe 20 fish to the boat including a decent LM, but only maybe dozen into the boat, of which we kept 6 for dinner and a big ole fat beautiful Bluegill, see picture. They were biting the plastic bait, but not the hook and would let go when you start to lift them out of the water.
Water 67-69 degrees, visibility about 8-10 feet except the milky mudline below the clay bank, which seemed to be something they liked. Once I started getting bites on a gray with metal flake over white belly BPS Stic-O (kind of a long Ned rig with a forked tail, looks like a small minnow or shad). Jackie ties on a white and black broken Rapala diver and started catching fish too. We tried other colors when things slowed, but it had to be mostly white, the baits we used are in a picture.
Not a great number and certainly not big, but finally... no wind and some fish biting and enough in the live well for dinner in camp and a few fillets to take home. To celebrate catching a few, we stowed the fishing equipment and with the sun getting lower, ran hard down past the Escalante to marvel for a few minutes at the Hole in the Rock... before turning it back up lake and cruising over smooth water to get back to the Hall's ramp with enough light left to load the boat.
Only saw two boats in the 30 miles back, cruising at about 40mph as the shadows started getting longer and sun had that golden sunset light...listening to John Denver...as we came off plane and it got quiet...Jackie, summed it up, she said..."this was a good day"
