Ditchpickle
Member
The details everyone cares about:
Water temps: 73-77F. Averaging around 75F for most of the day. Not much difference from main channel to backs of canyons
Clarity: 6ft visibility in the mornings, decreases as boat traffic stirs up the lake. Not super clear, not super muddy. Backs of canyons get stained, main channel is semi-stained to clear, depending on local traffic.
Water level/Bullfrog ramp: The ramp is 1.5 lanes, dirt/gravel, and very steep from what I'm used to. I did not see a single person struggle to get their boat into or out of the water though. Triple axle trailers with 22ft Wakeboats on them went in and out with no trouble. I launched a 19ft bass boat/fish n ski with a mid-sized SUV, and I didn't have any problems (besides needing to back the trailer way deeper than I thought I did, since when the fenders were buried the bow was still dry!). Parking was starting to get packed on Saturday when I left, but still plenty of space super close to the water. Easiest hike to the truck I've ever had at Powell.
Stripers: I did not see a single boil. They were very eager to eat anything shad shaped and trolled around 15ft deep or deeper, with preference towards smaller stuff. My most productive lure was a Rapala Shad Dancer 05 in Helsinki Shad, but I think anything in the 2.5" body range would be perfect.
Now onto my blog post:
October is the best time to go to Powell. The last few years my engineering program has kept me from going in the fall so I've been supplementing with March and May trips during Spring and Summer break, but man it just does not compare. October has perfect weather, perfect fishing, and less traffic (but still enough to where I'm not scared I'll be lost at sea if something goes wrong!). Best place on earth. Never going in March again.
Got to Bullfrog late Tuesday night, slept in the parking lot (got rained on), then launched Wed morning after the sun came up. While it was raining I could do no wrong on smallmouth in the mouth of Hall's. I caught the biggest SMB of the trip on my second cast:
I took a peak in Lost Eden just for fun, and discovered the water is only 1ft deep between the mouth of Hall's and Lost Eden along that wall, so be careful! I hid from the rain to let my tackle dry out a bit, and then shot up to Crystal, fishing my way back from the mouth and picked up quite a few SMB and LMB along the way, on basically anything I tried. Jigging spoons, senkos, curly tails, you name it.
I spent that night in Moki, where I got some crazy sunset pictures, and some of the ugliest little slime balls I've ever seen. Like if a banana slug grew jaws and had a hunger for fingers (yellow bullhead... I hate these things).
Next morning I went in search of boils in the main channel and in the large amphitheater in Crystal. Absolutely no dice. No surface activity at all besides some carp. In fact, I did not see a single boil all trip. Had quite a few stripers chase lures back to the boat, but nothing ever broke the surface.
Found a little unnamed cove off the main channel to eat lunch and fillet a striper I picked up trolling that morning, and messed around with the UL set up on some panfish:
I also picked up some SMB on the same set up; a micro Carolina/Splitshot rig with a 3.5" Kut tail worm.
After lunch I shot back down to Hall's, but didn't like the pleasure boat traffic so headed down to Lake Canyon. It was nearing dinner time by this point so I set up camp and cooked up some fresh fish and burgers:
I forgot my fish cooking stuff, so I decided to throw some montreal steak seasoning on some skin-on (but scaled) striper filets, and by golly that was a great decision. Amazing how the simple stuff tastes so good at Powell!
The next morning I spent some time on main channel rip-rap and Lake Canyon, and after some topwater action bass the bite shut down again. I think the high pressure system after the storm really messed with the fish (according to my watch, it was over 1000 millibars all weekend). Still was picking up a decent amount, but not the crazy early Fall numbers I was expecting, that is until I tried the micro rig again, and oooh boi, that fired them up. Every single cast I was getting bit, and not just tiny panfish either, some decent 1-2lb SMBs and LMBs!
The ultralight set up evolved into a 2.5" curly tail, where I picked up a nice LMB that followed it all the way to the boat and slurped it inches from the surface. Super cool eat. There's nothing quite like fighting a 1lb+ smallie on 4lb test and an Ultra Light trout rod. Great fun.
Caught some decent channel cats in camp on the main channel outside of Lake Canyon, and decided to head home a day early since my thumb was getting chewed up and I was worried about my ice (I was fine in the end, I could have stayed another day but I appreciated the lazy Sunday at home so it wasn't a mad rush to put everything away all at once...).
Overall it was a great birthday trip for me. Can't wait for next year.
Water temps: 73-77F. Averaging around 75F for most of the day. Not much difference from main channel to backs of canyons
Clarity: 6ft visibility in the mornings, decreases as boat traffic stirs up the lake. Not super clear, not super muddy. Backs of canyons get stained, main channel is semi-stained to clear, depending on local traffic.
Water level/Bullfrog ramp: The ramp is 1.5 lanes, dirt/gravel, and very steep from what I'm used to. I did not see a single person struggle to get their boat into or out of the water though. Triple axle trailers with 22ft Wakeboats on them went in and out with no trouble. I launched a 19ft bass boat/fish n ski with a mid-sized SUV, and I didn't have any problems (besides needing to back the trailer way deeper than I thought I did, since when the fenders were buried the bow was still dry!). Parking was starting to get packed on Saturday when I left, but still plenty of space super close to the water. Easiest hike to the truck I've ever had at Powell.
Stripers: I did not see a single boil. They were very eager to eat anything shad shaped and trolled around 15ft deep or deeper, with preference towards smaller stuff. My most productive lure was a Rapala Shad Dancer 05 in Helsinki Shad, but I think anything in the 2.5" body range would be perfect.
Now onto my blog post:
October is the best time to go to Powell. The last few years my engineering program has kept me from going in the fall so I've been supplementing with March and May trips during Spring and Summer break, but man it just does not compare. October has perfect weather, perfect fishing, and less traffic (but still enough to where I'm not scared I'll be lost at sea if something goes wrong!). Best place on earth. Never going in March again.
Got to Bullfrog late Tuesday night, slept in the parking lot (got rained on), then launched Wed morning after the sun came up. While it was raining I could do no wrong on smallmouth in the mouth of Hall's. I caught the biggest SMB of the trip on my second cast:
I took a peak in Lost Eden just for fun, and discovered the water is only 1ft deep between the mouth of Hall's and Lost Eden along that wall, so be careful! I hid from the rain to let my tackle dry out a bit, and then shot up to Crystal, fishing my way back from the mouth and picked up quite a few SMB and LMB along the way, on basically anything I tried. Jigging spoons, senkos, curly tails, you name it.
I spent that night in Moki, where I got some crazy sunset pictures, and some of the ugliest little slime balls I've ever seen. Like if a banana slug grew jaws and had a hunger for fingers (yellow bullhead... I hate these things).
Next morning I went in search of boils in the main channel and in the large amphitheater in Crystal. Absolutely no dice. No surface activity at all besides some carp. In fact, I did not see a single boil all trip. Had quite a few stripers chase lures back to the boat, but nothing ever broke the surface.
Found a little unnamed cove off the main channel to eat lunch and fillet a striper I picked up trolling that morning, and messed around with the UL set up on some panfish:
I also picked up some SMB on the same set up; a micro Carolina/Splitshot rig with a 3.5" Kut tail worm.
After lunch I shot back down to Hall's, but didn't like the pleasure boat traffic so headed down to Lake Canyon. It was nearing dinner time by this point so I set up camp and cooked up some fresh fish and burgers:
I forgot my fish cooking stuff, so I decided to throw some montreal steak seasoning on some skin-on (but scaled) striper filets, and by golly that was a great decision. Amazing how the simple stuff tastes so good at Powell!
The next morning I spent some time on main channel rip-rap and Lake Canyon, and after some topwater action bass the bite shut down again. I think the high pressure system after the storm really messed with the fish (according to my watch, it was over 1000 millibars all weekend). Still was picking up a decent amount, but not the crazy early Fall numbers I was expecting, that is until I tried the micro rig again, and oooh boi, that fired them up. Every single cast I was getting bit, and not just tiny panfish either, some decent 1-2lb SMBs and LMBs!
The ultralight set up evolved into a 2.5" curly tail, where I picked up a nice LMB that followed it all the way to the boat and slurped it inches from the surface. Super cool eat. There's nothing quite like fighting a 1lb+ smallie on 4lb test and an Ultra Light trout rod. Great fun.
Caught some decent channel cats in camp on the main channel outside of Lake Canyon, and decided to head home a day early since my thumb was getting chewed up and I was worried about my ice (I was fine in the end, I could have stayed another day but I appreciated the lazy Sunday at home so it wasn't a mad rush to put everything away all at once...).
Overall it was a great birthday trip for me. Can't wait for next year.
