South lake to oak canyon

[jimmybame]

We got on the lake September 13th around 10 pm. We made it to Padre under full moon at 1 am, got a few hours of sleep and headed for dangling rope. Caught a few fish on the way up bought 3 gallons of gas and ice cream and made our way to oak canyon. As soon as we pulled in to oak 200 ft south of the restroom we found a school and filled the cooler with yearling striper. They moved so motored to the north east side of oak found another school filleted and Vacuum sealed then froze that days catch. Found a spot for the night then woke the next morning around 630 and went to the same spot caught some more fish and then decided to motor to the mouth of San Juan. We didn’t see any boils so we went back to oak canyon pulled in with heavy wind trolling had a triple hook up so we just turned around and went through the school trolling 10 times or more and filled the cooler with fish with a few 5 pounders and a bunch of smaller ones. Once again filleted, vacuum sealed and froze our fish and found a spot for the night. Monday morning caught 20 more in the same spots in oak and headed for gunsight, boils all over the main channel around rock creek we had full sails up trolling and sailed right through boils picking up a few larger fish on each one. We lost 2 sets of trolling gear from people crossing behind the boat one of them took the 300 yards of 50 lb braided line into his prop I got his attention with an air horn and let him know that he had a mess of line in his prop maybe he won’t cross a boat trolling that close again. We got to gunsight and had our biggest fish processing of the trip ended up with 20 lbs of Fillets good trip with only one hook in the hand!

 

[Rivergoer]

@jimmybame that is impressive you found so many stripers at the south end...not an easy task this year...well done!

I’m pretty sure we passed you Saturday morning near Padre on our way back to Wahweap after a week up at Wetherill.

Likewise, our afternoon excursion (Thurs Sep 12) up the SJ a few miles past Cha yielded zero boils or slurps, despite glassy water/low wind conditions. Haven’t got much experience in the SJ, wondered what the name of this (picture below) rock formation is?

Lots of healthy/fatty SMB, several big cats in/around Wetherill but just a few stripers for us mainly found near Rock Creek.

Ran across a snake (gopher snake?) in a vertical crevice at the back of Anasazi, wondered how the heck it got there? (Picture below)

Also ran into @Reed ’s father in law motoring into DR Friday afternoon while the big boy fast boats roared down the main channel.

Overall a great week (but aren’t they all?)

 

[jimmybame]

I will post some time lapse video after I go through footage

 

[wayne gustaveson]

@jimmybame that is impressive you found so many stripers at the south end...not an easy task this year...well done!

I’m pretty sure we passed you Saturday morning near Padre on our way back to Wahweap after a week up at Wetherill.

Likewise, our afternoon excursion (Thurs Sep 12) up the SJ a few miles past Cha yielded zero boils or slurps, despite glassy water/low wind conditions. Haven’t got much experience in the SJ, wondered what the name of this (picture below) rock formation is?

Lots of healthy/fatty SMB, several big cats in/around Wetherill but just a few stripers for us mainly found near Rock Creek.

Ran across a snake (gopher snake?) in a vertical crevice at the back of Anasazi, wondered how the heck it got there? (Picture below)

Also ran into @Reed ’s father in law motoring into DR Friday afternoon while the big boy fast boats roared down the main channel.

Overall a great week (but aren’t they all?)

View attachment 6063View attachment 6064View attachment 6065

I named that spire Pinnacle Rock. That rock is the only thing left standing after the normal rock cliff that used to be there in the 80s fell into the water. You can see the rock fall scattered all around after the cliff broke apart and the rocks fell.

 

[John P Funk]

Ran across a snake (gopher snake?)

Very healthy bull snake. We love them on the farm as they don't share habitat with rattlesnakes, and do a great job of controlling rodent populations.

 

[Stuart Hepworth]

Very healthy bull snake. We love them on the farm as they don't share habitat with rattlesnakes, and do a great job of controlling rodent populations.

From what I understand, bull snakes are not found in either Utah or Arizona. That is a gopher snake...though very similar to a bull snake, they are not the same. I would imagine that snake swam across the water to get where it was photographed. On more than one occasion this year I came across gopher snakes in the middle of the lake while fishing at Minersville Reservoir. I have seen them several times while out on the water at other places in Utah as well.

Bullsnake or Gophersnake – What's the difference? If you're in Arizona, you may be surprised. - Rattlesnake Solutions

One of the most commonly-seen snakes in semi-urban areas in Arizona is also one of the most confusing. It’s brown, it’s big, it’s bad (if you ask its opinion, that is) and it’s … a Bullsnake? Gophersnake? Are those the same thing? Not really. If you live in Arizona telling the difference between...

rattlesnakesolutions.com

 

[John P Funk]

Looking at google images of the great basin gopher snake and the bull snake it seems you'd need to be a biologist to tell the difference(especially since a bull snake is a sub-species of gopher snake). Thanks for the link.

 

[Stuart Hepworth]

Yeah, I agree. I certainly couldn't. But, since they don't live in Utah or Arizona, I would certainly assume it must be a gopher snake.