Edward Gerdemann
Well-Known Member
I couldn't have had a more auspicious beginning to a fishing trip this week when I caught a smallmouth on my very first cast. The problem was the catching after that was not as fast. To say we struggled would be acccurate, and to say we didn't catch anything big would also be true. Still, we did catch quite a few fish - not just as many nor as big as I would expect in late October.
Joining me for the first time was Steve Dryoff, a regular on this board. I will say I couldn't have had a better partner for the trip and hope we can fish again sometime soon, hopefully with better results.
Tuesday, after hearing there might be a lot of floating debris in the channel, we decided to concentrate our efforts around the mouth of Warm Creek. Those ledges and reefs are sometimes very good, however the area is inconsistent. We simply struggled to get consistent action. We might have a flurry of two or three fish and then we'd go quite a distance without a bite. Our total for Tuesday was 29 fish, all smallmouth.
Wednesday we ran up to the mouth of Gunsight. Just like Tuesday I hooked a fish on my first cast. In fact, Steve and I both hooked fish on our first casts. Steve landed his while mine came off. Over the next couple hours we struggled to get bites, however around 10 a.m. the action picked up. It was not fast, but it was consistent. Our Wednesday total was 41, again all smallmouths.
Despite water temperatures hovering around 67 degrees, we found very few fish up working on the tops of the shelves. Most of our fish came from between 20-30 feet down, and they wanted the slowest possible presentation. I caught all my fish drop shotting a 3.75-inch Yamamoto Shad Shaped Worm in Smallmouth Magic. Steve caught most of his doing the same thing, however he did catch a few on a new Yamamoto bait called a Uni. It looks sort of like a spider or urchin, and the fish would hit it. The key was to get the bait in front of the fish's nose and keep it there. The bite was very light, either a light tap or just a bit of extra weight on the end of the line. I can't recall getting any really hard hits.
As mentioned earlier, the size was not great. Our largest fish probably weight around a pound and a quarter, and we caught a lot of fish in the 11-13 inch range. While fish this size are great for eating, we would have loved to have caught a few bigger ones. This has sort of been the theme for Lake Powell smallmouth for me this year - fair numbers of fish but not very many of significant size. I simply could not get on to the bigger ones this year. Hopefully this is just an anomaly, and the bigger ones will start showing up again next spring.
I believe our problems may have been compounded by a very full moon and the very sudden lake rise. The rise might have had a disorienting effect on the fish. Tuesday was a bright, sunny day with virtually no cloud cover and very smooth conditions. Wednesday had some overcast and a bit of a wind, and I believe that might have helped the fishing.
This will be my last trip this year. I have a busy November-February coming up and simply won't have a chance to get back up. I started this trip with a bang, catching a fish on my first cast, and I ended it with a bang, too, catching one on my very last cast. At least the beginning and ending was great.!
Joining me for the first time was Steve Dryoff, a regular on this board. I will say I couldn't have had a better partner for the trip and hope we can fish again sometime soon, hopefully with better results.
Tuesday, after hearing there might be a lot of floating debris in the channel, we decided to concentrate our efforts around the mouth of Warm Creek. Those ledges and reefs are sometimes very good, however the area is inconsistent. We simply struggled to get consistent action. We might have a flurry of two or three fish and then we'd go quite a distance without a bite. Our total for Tuesday was 29 fish, all smallmouth.
Wednesday we ran up to the mouth of Gunsight. Just like Tuesday I hooked a fish on my first cast. In fact, Steve and I both hooked fish on our first casts. Steve landed his while mine came off. Over the next couple hours we struggled to get bites, however around 10 a.m. the action picked up. It was not fast, but it was consistent. Our Wednesday total was 41, again all smallmouths.
Despite water temperatures hovering around 67 degrees, we found very few fish up working on the tops of the shelves. Most of our fish came from between 20-30 feet down, and they wanted the slowest possible presentation. I caught all my fish drop shotting a 3.75-inch Yamamoto Shad Shaped Worm in Smallmouth Magic. Steve caught most of his doing the same thing, however he did catch a few on a new Yamamoto bait called a Uni. It looks sort of like a spider or urchin, and the fish would hit it. The key was to get the bait in front of the fish's nose and keep it there. The bite was very light, either a light tap or just a bit of extra weight on the end of the line. I can't recall getting any really hard hits.
As mentioned earlier, the size was not great. Our largest fish probably weight around a pound and a quarter, and we caught a lot of fish in the 11-13 inch range. While fish this size are great for eating, we would have loved to have caught a few bigger ones. This has sort of been the theme for Lake Powell smallmouth for me this year - fair numbers of fish but not very many of significant size. I simply could not get on to the bigger ones this year. Hopefully this is just an anomaly, and the bigger ones will start showing up again next spring.
I believe our problems may have been compounded by a very full moon and the very sudden lake rise. The rise might have had a disorienting effect on the fish. Tuesday was a bright, sunny day with virtually no cloud cover and very smooth conditions. Wednesday had some overcast and a bit of a wind, and I believe that might have helped the fishing.
This will be my last trip this year. I have a busy November-February coming up and simply won't have a chance to get back up. I started this trip with a bang, catching a fish on my first cast, and I ended it with a bang, too, catching one on my very last cast. At least the beginning and ending was great.!
