Spring Break Escalante 4/8-4/10 Good Hope 4/11-4/12

PFD

PFD

Well-Known Member
This year spring break at Lake Powell was one of our best spring break trips ever. We were going to go to the San Juan, but decided we’d stop in Escalante and see how the fishing in the canyon looked. We found a perfect little sandy beach with some cliffs for the kids to jump off of and the fishing wasn’t too bad and ended up just staying there for a couple days. I couldn’t get my Garmin Force Kraken to work so we decided we would run back to the truck and get some tools and then go to Good Hope Bay after that. The fishing was on fire up at Good Hope Bay. We would go out and troll for about two hours and end up with 20 to 30 stripers and have to head back and clean them up or let the kids go play on the beach somewhere. We found a perfect little loop inside blue notch at the mud line and then circled around to the east and there was a little hump where the water got down to about 15 feet and then circled back to the mud line again and we are picking up fish on both ends. On Saturday late morning we had one of the strongest squalls I’ve ever experienced at Lake Powell. I was trolling into the wind when the squall hit and cranked the 15 hp trolling motor to Max, and was instantly going backwards at about 4 miles an hour. Jumped up hit the main and was able to keep any of the lines from getting tangled, but kind of had to steer into it for about 10 minutes until it died down. I got a little video footage of it, but I think I’ll have to upload it to YouTube and put a link in here. The pictures of the stringers were all filled in 1 to 2 hours before we go empty it out and start over again. It was a little windy and bumpy coming home Sunday, but the worst part was the drive being thrown all over the road with the wind gusts and passing semi trucks.
 
Video link. We found a good land bridge that has been underwater for the past history of Powell. It is at the back of one of the last canyons on the left in Escalante. Then we hiked to the old ruins that are up the Escalante River. Finally we have the footage of the wind squall on Saturday.

 
PFD said:
Video link. We found a good land bridge that has been underwater for the past history of Powell. It is at the back of one of the last canyons on the left in Escalante. Then we hiked to the old ruins that are up the Escalante River. Finally we have the footage of the wind squall on Saturday.

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Gregory arch?
 
Rivergoer said:
Yep, Gregory Natural Bridge in Fifty Mile Canyon. Inundated by newly rising lake in the 60’s, it re-emerged for the first time in 2021. It went back under for a couple of years and now re-emerged late last year. Such great memories for those kids!!

Rivergoer

Thread 'Gregory Natural Bridge Returns'

Gregory is back! August 18, 2021 about elbows length from bottom of the bridge to waterline.
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Click to expand...
Yep, don't know how I missed the memo;)
 
greyhackle said:
Great report , pictures and video Koby! Thank you for sharing, glad you had a good trip. Question: how far up the escalante are the ruins and are they partially restored? I have never been to them before. I need to put them on my bucket list.
Click to expand...
It's probably a 1+ to 2 mile hike. You have to cross the Escalante river multiple times first. The problem is that you can't safely climb the cliff to get to them. They are restored like defiance house, but you can only get there when the lake is 100' up so you can boat to the shelf where you can access them. We also went to defiance house on Sunday and those are the pictures we took. The video is the only footage of the Escalante ruins.
 
PFD said:
Video link. We found a good land bridge that has been underwater for the past history of Powell. It is at the back of one of the last canyons on the left in Escalante. Then we hiked to the old ruins that are up the Escalante River. Finally we have the footage of the wind squall on Saturday.

Click to expand...
Been there, done that!! Not catching fish like you did, but battling the waves in my old 17.5' Thunderbird Cathedral Hull I/0 with a 4 cyl Volvo Engine.
Great vids and photos and commentary!!
Thanks,
 
PFD said:
This year spring break at Lake Powell was one of our best spring break trips ever. We were going to go to the San Juan, but decided we’d stop in Escalante and see how the fishing in the canyon looked. We found a perfect little sandy beach with some cliffs for the kids to jump off of and the fishing wasn’t too bad and ended up just staying there for a couple days. I couldn’t get my Garmin Force Kraken to work so we decided we would run back to the truck and get some tools and then go to Good Hope Bay after that. The fishing was on fire up at Good Hope Bay. We would go out and troll for about two hours and end up with 20 to 30 stripers and have to head back and clean them up or let the kids go play on the beach somewhere. We found a perfect little loop inside blue notch at the mud line and then circled around to the east and there was a little hump where the water got down to about 15 feet and then circled back to the mud line again and we are picking up fish on both ends. On Saturday late morning we had one of the strongest squalls I’ve ever experienced at Lake Powell. I was trolling into the wind when the squall hit and cranked the 15 hp trolling motor to Max, and was instantly going backwards at about 4 miles an hour. Jumped up hit the main and was able to keep any of the lines from getting tangled, but kind of had to steer into it for about 10 minutes until it died down. I got a little video footage of it, but I think I’ll have to upload it to YouTube and put a link in here. The pictures of the stringers were all filled in 1 to 2 hours before we go empty it out and start over again. It was a little windy and bumpy coming home Sunday, but the worst part was the drive being thrown all over the road with the wind gusts and passing semi trucks.
Click to expand...
That squall Saturday morning was insane, we were still down at Stanton Creek when that blew through and it was brutal.
We got a later start heading up because I had a feeling my light boat was going to get tossed around in the main channel because of that wind.

We may have pulled up just as you were heading out, I saw a couple boats trolling that loop at the edge of the mudline you are talking about and didn't pay enough attention to what any of them looked like to know if it was you or not. We tried trolling from that point up lake and then back down again and then tried that mudline into Blue Notch, but only managed to pick up a couple small catfish.
 
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