2016 - Lake Powell

2016 - LAKE POWELL #3

Well, we missed the last 2 years.  In 2014 I believe Dad and Mom were at Martin's Cove mission but in 2015 we just let is slip by without getting one in. 

This year we had trouble getting it scheduled but the fishing has been good in Powell so we decided to go there.  But just a day trip instead of overnight. 

It had been cold and rainy all week so we tried to decide whether to postpone, change to Lake Mead or just go.  In the end we were glad we chose to go. 

We left at 6:00 am and stopped at Subway in Kanab to grab sandwiches for lunch.  There  were long stretches of fog on the drive We also snapped this nice picture in Kanab. 

Here's an early pic of the lake as we were prepping the boat to launch at Wahweap marina. 

And a couple more as I'm getting down to the dock to jump on the boat so we can take off and head out to fish.   Notice the rays from heaven shining down in the 2nd one.  Should be an omen for a great day right???

We started briefly fishing at the mouth of antelope canyon.  With no where good to tie off and with no bites for 30 minutes, we quickly decided to head to the pump house.  3 weeks ago Dad, Dustin and Trent Bundy took at trip and caught 43 fish there in just 2-3 hours.  So that seemed like the best bet.

After nearly 2 hours with nothing more than a couple of bites and no fish we decided to try our luck at the beach across from the antelope boat ramp.  This was the site we camped back in 2008 on our first powell trip.  So we have a lot of memories there.  Course we didn't catch many fish that time.  

Jay and Travis jumped to shore to fish while Dad, Dust and Josh floated around fishing from the boat.  

Finally 40 minutes later right as we were about to leave Jason caught a nice little smallmouth bass.  Our first fish.  Yahoo!!!  At least we weren't going home skunked. (Which we had begun to worry about.)  We headed back to antelope canyon and went up a ways to an old success spot. 

We fished here for another 30-45 minutes.  See pic below. 

   

It was now past the midpoint of our trip and with only the one fish we were getting nervous.  I was still feeling confident though mostly because we had caught so many 3 weeks ago.  And since the day was getting warmer I promised to buy everyone ice cream at the marina if we didn't catch at least one striper as we headed back to the pump house for another try.  This is when it all started to get good. 

I started us off with a whopper and we all soon were catching stripers right and left!!! 

The race was on for the biggest and the most fish.  Jay had a nice early lead in the quantity and soon had the biggest.   I then tied him for biggest, he passed me again and I passed him and he tied me again so we both tied with around 23 inches.  In quantity I took a late lead, but Josh snuck up even later and passed me right at the very end. 

Totals. 

1st fish  - Jason

Last Fish - Josh 

Longest tie - Dustin and Jason

Most  - Josh

Totals

Josh - 12

Dustin - 11 

Jason - 9

Travis - 8

Lamar - 5

GRAND TOTAL 45!!!

Getting off the lake after a successful day!!

Our big bucket of fish.

 

We filetted about 20 and gave some away.  We also got to meet Wayne from wayneswords.com the Lake Powell fishing guru at the cleaning station.  

On the way home we stopped in Kanab for dinner at Houston's.  We had ribs, chicken fried steak, chicken fried chicken and some good pie!!!  What a great trip!!!!!!