South end winter trip.

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Were you marking small schools of stripers and did you try down riggers? I should be heading down on the week of the 24th.
 
We never saw a “school” of fish, we found small 10 fish schools and finally parked over one today and caught some on a spoon and one on a covey in 30 feet of water. Don’t believe I have looked at so much water while marking so few of fish. I never found a wolf pack school or a school sitting on the bottom either, we picked a few fish out of the few this morning and then they disappeared. We moved around for an hour looking and single marks were all we found. We trolled, jigged, and even used chovies with no luck, drowned bait for several hours and caught one fish on bait. Probably the slowest fishing trip I have ever had on powell. I will blame the moon and lack of knowledge and just plain bad fishing on my part! Got our butts kicked good on the south end! Chris Crosby had some luck but everyone else we talked to struggled as well. As far as down rigger’s there were way to many surprises to use them where we were, I ran the motor aground once where it was supposed to be over 10 feet deep, luckily it wasn’t running we were on the electric tm, whales poking up all around in gun sight and everywhere we went. The lake is way different than my memory from MM 25 down to the dam. The only place I saw fish I would have used down riggers for was right in front of antelope marina and then you have all the cables that would hang you up. There were fish all through the channel at 60 feet going by the house boats! Warm creek is nothing like I have seen before, I guess if you haven’t seen the North for a year it would surprise you too, the lake has not been seen like this for over 50 years.
I had a great trip with @greyhackle and laughed until I hurt several times, great company and darn good weather makes for a good trip any day! Good thing my freezer still has fish cause I didn’t add much this trip. Thanks to those of you who tried to help us bumpkins but we’re past help I guess. 😁. We did not fish for green and brown fish and we probably should have tried that for a couple of hours, I did talk to a gentleman at the dock when leaving today and he told me a friend had caught some good SM last week, and it surprised them how good sized they were. A picture for proof, one of the wash tub straights, and two of the scenery.
Stay safe out there and let’s get to work on a ramp in the North!2E01A6A5-7CE9-45C1-99F0-30C8B641DB95.jpeg99D58784-4B00-4EC6-BE24-444B767A6A01.jpegA7BAF6E1-EE7F-4D48-BEE7-4B917432083E.jpegBA55DBD8-F00C-439C-9511-399988F0C267.jpeg
 
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Dworwood said:
Thank you.
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Dworwood, in case no one has fessed up yet about the BEST spot in Navajo. It is the 2nd point on the left past the double islands near the beginning as you are going upstream....if you don't mind using chovies!

And Rat L Traps and deep thundersticks or similar trolled, all the way in until you get to the stained water.

And any rock slide for smallies, and the very odd crappie.

John
 
Dworwood said:
Sure miss our home waters, bought chovies this morning, went back where fursniper was successful and tried bait and jigging spoons and still caught a big fat zero! Talk about humbled, we are! Chris Crosby caught a few fish today and the gal we gave a ride up the ramp caught a few so they are here somewhere! This will be the first skunk job I believe has ever happened to me on LP if we don’t find fish in the morning. Weather is beautiful and no traffic on the lake but for us the fish catching is non existent. Good luck to everyone! IT SURE IS NICE DOWN HERE!
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I fished in Fursnipers spot as well during the full moon. We graphed the back of the canyon until we found a few marks on the graph. We dropped spoons with no takers so we switched to bait. I put an anchovy tail on a small jig head and tried various depths and retrieves. I finally dropped the bait all the way to the bottom and let it rest. Then I gently picked it up about 6 inches off the bottom and held it for a moment and then let it slowly sink and touch bottom again. This time I felt the nibble and set the hook - game on! Fish were in great shape but were very particular about looking along the bottom for food. We all started putting the bait on the bottom and gently lifting it a few inches. An hour later we had 25 fish in the cooler.

Take away ideas from this trip. The fish did not bite in the morning during the full moon. In the afternoon they began feeding gently but only on the lake bottom. They did not chase baits up in the mid level. A small 1/8th ounce jig head with a little silver flashy thread sticking out the back (Shinee Hinee) worked the best to get the anchovy to the hungry stripers. Fish were fussy but once we found the secret, fishing (catching) really picked up.


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Darn good advice, we did not figure them out like you did but again you are the master! I could see several fish follow my jig and not take it, I did watch one take it and got that one to the boat. It was very different fishing this trip. It has been almost 30 years since I fished the South and it was very easy to catch stripers those trips, find them and drop bait. reel fish in. It has been almost that long since I have used anchovies as well but we were desperate not to get skunked! It was still a great trip!
Thank You for the insight and advice.
 
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