Not much of report

4LOJO

4LOJO

Well-Known Member
Not a lot to report on north end very slow. Lake was busier than thought would be. Headed to GHB Sept. 14 first time cloudy and rain most of day caught 1 catfish trying to get stripers excited with choives. If your headed that way don't worry about taking fire wood lots of drift wood on shores.

Day 2 was better no rain more people arriving headed to Annies canyon went right at the fork to the end things picked up we caught 10 fish in there kept 2 bigger stripers. Seen our first boil but before we could get to them we had our first company of the day drove right thru them so we headed to SJ less people went to where we camped last Oct. caught small mouths but nothing big enough to keep.

Day 3 headed back to GHB to visit with Littlesaltwash and his family stopped in crystal canyon on the way ended up 1 small mouth. Had good visit with Dave decided to try using downriggers on way back set them 40 to 50 ft. where we seeing fish but nothing.

Got to see Dave and Greg in the campground bs a little didn't talk to anyone in campground that was doing real good. I think maybe water is to warm still? I'm thinking OCT would be better fishing weather. Anyway I only get to write a couple of reports a year sorry this doesn't help much. Maverick I'm thinking about buying a goat next year to appease the fish gods. Off to CJ Strike this week for Sturgeon fishing hope the wife catches a 9 footer for her birthday.

PS went to Hankville to get decon but won't rant about that.
 
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Dungee said:
Man, what’s going on with Good Hope!?
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My opinion is there’s so many shad all the predators are well fed. Every fish we caught was full of 2 inch shad. I have never seen that many bait balls at every depth. I don’t think they need to boil, just swim around with their mouths open. I can’t think of any other reason for them being so hard to catch. We saw lots of fish on the finder, just had a hard time getting bit.
 
greyhackle said:
My opinion is there’s so many shad all the predators are well fed. Every fish we caught was full of 2 inch shad. I have never seen that many bait balls at every depth. I don’t think they need to boil, just swim around with their mouths open. I can’t think of any other reason for them being so hard to catch. We saw lots of fish on the finder, just had a hard time getting bit.
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Back in the spring when it started to be clear that the lake was going to come up a bunch, there were a lot of discussions around how the fishing would be this year. I remembered some of the previous years, where the fish had abundant prey, and suggested it might be tough for a while until the predator/prey ratio balances out. Seems like this might be happening? Prey density and angling success tend to be inversely proportional, especially after the low water knocked back the numbers of larger adult predators.

My really great trips have been the years following a rise in the water, but after the predator species approach equilibrium with the prey species, and need to be more aggressive to get their share!
 
Dorado said:
Back in the spring when it started to be clear that the lake was going to come up a bunch, there were a lot of discussions around how the fishing would be this year. I remembered some of the previous years, where the fish had abundant prey, and suggested it might be tough for a while until the predator/prey ratio balances out. Seems like this might be happening? Prey density and angling success tend to be inversely proportional, especially after the low water knocked back the numbers of larger adult predators.

My really great trips have been the years following a rise in the water, but after the predator species approach equilibrium with the prey species, and need to be more aggressive to get their share!
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I get what you’re saying, however, I have caught enough fish at Powell that we’re brimming with food already in their stomachs and mouths that I’ve wondered how/why they’re even eating still.

I think they’re full, and that is probably the biggest factor like you’re saying but there should be a decent amount of food everywhere right now? Has anyone been trying up in Good Hope super early in the day or late? Trying to get down there in a couple weeks and I think we’ll camp up there.
 
Dungee said:
I get what you’re saying, however, I have caught enough fish at Powell that we’re brimming with food already in their stomachs and mouths that I’ve wondered how/why they’re even eating still.

I think they’re full, and that is probably the biggest factor like you’re saying but there should be a decent amount of food everywhere right now? Has anyone been trying up in Good Hope super early in the day or late? Trying to get down there in a couple weeks and I think we’ll camp up there.
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Just curious- have you been down to Blue Notch??? any road conditions update?? Been some big Tstorms - road washed out???
 
Dungee said:
I get what you’re saying, however, I have caught enough fish at Powell that we’re brimming with food already in their stomachs and mouths that I’ve wondered how/why they’re even eating still.

I think they’re full, and that is probably the biggest factor like you’re saying but there should be a decent amount of food everywhere right now? Has anyone been trying up in Good Hope super early in the day or late? Trying to get down there in a couple weeks and I think we’ll camp up there.
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I caught a lake trout in Wyoming that had 20+ suckers up to 15" long in its belly! Greey buggers were Taking advantage of spring runoff flushing the stream dumping into the lake.

According to the fishery surveys, the upper lake has much more abundant shad compared to the south. The fish up north spend less time each day actively foraging when there is abundant food, so they are less likely to eat your bait. In theory anyways :ROFLMAO:
 
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I don't think it is a matter their full of shad so why are they eating? It is a matter of there are so many shad so why work so hard. The fish will still eat, we just have to work harder to catch them. Cover water, use shad imitating baits.
If my fridge is full of food and there is a football game on I am not going to the grocery store. But if I don't have snacks for the game I am gonna get to the store. And if I am full but a plate of nachos is in front of me I am gonna eat some.
 
Dungee said:
Man, what’s going on with Good Hope!?
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We were at GH for four days last week and the fishing was very slow. As slow as we’ve seen it in years. We were targeting LG Mouth and Small Mouth using our usual Yamamto soft baits fishing the rocky shores. We saw a lot of shad and surmised the fish we were after just weren’t hungry. We’ll be back this fall and give it another try.
 
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