Gonna try to post the crew 's daily fish catch. Internet connection a bit slow but.....
For today, Team Sparkchaser spent about 2 or so hours checking out two different spots casting jigs at rock piles. Billy Ho boated 1 small eater size Smallie while LLL boated 2 Walleye. Biggest measured 19" to take the day one lead in the big fish competition. Of course we were the only boat to venture out......... :greengrin:
either they are still fileting fish or the internet is down up there :dontknow:
Sundays catch - very nice day on the lake today! A bit breezy at times but.......
Tom & Matt - 6 Walleye, 2 Stripers, 2 Bluegills & 1 SM
Freshwater & Merlot Kid - 3 Walleye, 3 Stripers & 2 Catfish
Brian, Tommy & crew - 20 Stripers, 6 Walleye, 3 Catfish, 2 SM & 1 LM
Mike & Debbie - 6 Walleye & a couple Stripers
Billy Ho, Dave & Me - 9 Walleye, 4 Stripers. (All caught by the Striper King himself Billy Ho!) & 2 Bluegills
A very outstanding meal of burgers & fettuccine provided by Tom & Matt - Thanks guys!!!
Mondays catch - another breezy day but again manageable as many places to hide from the breeze.
Tom & Matt - 3 walleye, 3 Smallies, 1 Striper & 1 catfish
Brian, Tommy & crew - 8 Walleyes, 16 Smallies, 12 Stripers & 1 LM
Dick & Tom - 2 Walleyes
Mike & Debbie - 9 Walleyes & 1 bluegill
Dave, Bill & LLL - 15 Walleyes, 6 Stripers, 5 SM & 5 bluegills
As for the big fish contest, Mike continues as big Walleye leader at 20 3/4" but LLL did have a 21" fish but failed to take a pic of it thinking it wasn't a big enough fish - Oy Vey. Goon fish leader is still Debbie with her 24" Striper.
Killer supper put on by Freshwater & Merlot Kid with ham, scalloped potatoes, Mac & cheese and two outstanding deserts. Thanks guys!!!
sounds like good time, we are under wind advisories here in the valley for today and Wednesday so thinking it will be a little windy up your way also, stay safe
Thanks for the updates Larry. Always nice to read powell reports. Good luck with the wind.
Guess what - another breezy day today! Seemed like no matter where you went or what side canyon you went into the breeze seemed to follow. But fish were caught by all:
Freshwater with SteveJ & his lady friend - 3 Walleye & 4 Stripers
Tom & Matt - 9 walleye, 2 Stripers, 2 SM, 2 Bluegills & 1 suddenly missing BPS rod & Zebco reel w/ a freshly tied worm harness. Went missing while netting one of Matt's fish. If found, please return to Tommy Rats.......
Brian, Tommy & Alan - 18 Walleye, 12 Stripers & 2 SM
Dick & Tom - 3 Walleye, 2 Stripers & 2 SM of which a few escaped the fish basket while on plane enroute home....
Dave, Bill & LLL - 4 Walleye, 1 SM, 1 Catfish & 1 Bluegill
Mike & Debbie - 13 walleye, 6 SM, 2 LM & 2 Stripers
Big fish contest leaders remain unchanged.
Outstanding supper provided by Brian, Tommy & Alan of pulled pork sandwiches, rice & beans - Thanks Guys!
Jeez........that's some great action there.
No kidding. Wish we were there.
I am living my fishing through you guys :( so windy down here a person can't get out and fish, now they are saying high winds today and tomorrow, this keeps up and I will have to do lawn work :o
sounds like a good time
A bit more wind today forcing only the hardy & strong willed to venture out. Those that did fish today were rewarded for their efforts:
Matt & Tom - made the longest journey & boated 22 Walleye
Brian, Tommy & Alan - 2 walleye, 2 SM & too many Stripers to count so probably 20 or so
Bill, Dave & LLL - 8 Wallleye, 3 bluegills, 2 Stripers & 2 SM
Dick & Tom - stayed home
Freshwater & the Merlot Kid - stayed in Camp
SteveJ & Peggy - stayed home
Mike & Debbie - also stayed home
No leader change in the big fish contest. Numerous people are coming close with their walleye & Stripers but are coming up just short!
Bill, Dave & LLL hosted supper tonight serving my Cavatini pasta dish with garlic bread & side salad.
Nice job all. Glad to see everyone did ok in the wind today.
surprised no crappie yet they gots some big ones in that lake they should be on the move :dontknow:
I'm surprised no crappie too, wish I was up there with yall.
Quote from: Fishless on May 01, 2014, 05:01 AM
surprised no crappie yet they gots some big ones in that lake they should be on the move :dontknow:
I found one today in knolls canyon right next to a tree. Yeah!
Nice fish! First one on the board.
What a difference a day makes - a really nice day on the lake as the winds subsided allowing all to see the sites that only Lake Powell has to offer......
Today's catch:
SteveJ & Peggy - enjoyed the great day together on the lake but unfortunately boated no fish
Dick & TimS - 4 Walleye, 1 Striper, 1 bluegill & 1 SM
Tom & Matt - 7 Walleye, 3 Stripers, 3 Catfish & you all saw the pic of the Crappie
Freshwater & the Merlot Kid - 7 Walleye & 5 Stripers
Brian, Tommy & Alan - 3 Walleye, 5 SM, 6 or so Stripers, 2 LM and 1 Crappie
Mike & Debbie - 10 Walleye, 2 Stripers & 1 LM
Bill, Dave & LLL - 25 Walleye, 4 or so Stripers & maybe 3 SM with a catfish thrown in for good measure
Once again - so close but no change in big fish compition with one day to go!
Dick & TimS provided for, well maybe I should instead say their wives cooked supper for the crew cooking a very tasty meatloaf, baked potatoes, green beans & applesauce w/ pineapple upside down cake for desert - thanks Guys!
Last day of fishing is tomorrow! The week has flown buy. Everybody has donated to tomorrow night's fish fry so the crew is in for another terrific meal.
Quote from: OneBlade on May 01, 2014, 07:44 PM
Quote from: Fishless on May 01, 2014, 05:01 AM
surprised no crappie yet they gots some big ones in that lake they should be on the move :dontknow:
I found one today in knolls canyon right next to a tree. Yeah!
that be a pretty male ready for love, bet there are more in the area :dontknow: sounds like you guys did well, wind finally died here in the hell hole but now they are talking another wind event mon through wed next week :angry4:
Last day on the water! Perfect conditions for fishing with a slight breeze but did get a little warm towards the late afternoon.
So here's the last day's report:
Dick & TimS - 6 Walleye, 2 catfish, 1 Striper & 1 Bluegill
SteveJ & Peggy - another nice day on the lake but boated no fish
Jerry & Louis - 4 Walleye
Mike & Debbie - 4 Walleye & 1 SM
Bill, Dave & LLL - 11 Walleye, 5 Stripers, 2 SM & 2 Catfish
Matt & Tom - 19 Walleye, 6 Stripers, 3 Catfish & 2 SM
Brian, Tommy & Alan - 23 Walleye (only had 5 at 3pm then ran into a school of them in the back of a canyon) 15 Stripers & 4 SM
If I did my math right - 271 Walleye were caught this week! :headbang: :notworthy:
Outstanding fish fry provided by Mike & Debbie with SteveJ & Peggy providing cole slaw & Applesauce. Got some help from Dick & TimS's wives with leftover pineapple upside down cake and the Merlot Kid bringing over a killer soup. Nice job everybody!! We certainly did not go hungry this week that's for sure!!!
Great job everyone and big ups to Matt for the Crappie!
What a great catch! I gotta go next year.
Wow What a great week. You guys know how to have a great time. Wish we were up there with you. Be safe on the way home.
hope you all had a safe drive home
Tom and I had a rear flat tire on the I-17. Got it changed out safely. 20 minutes later sounded like Dave had one on his boat trailer. Had it changed out quickly as well. Hope no one else had issues.
Another great trip for sure, it was a challenge finding fish everyday, but that is part of the allure of this trip. Every canyon or cove needed to be fished, what fun & awesome scenery. Great meals, tall tales, poker & fishing! Good times for sure, wind be dammed!
what's the farthest most boats ran in a day to fishing spots?
Quote from: Fishless on May 04, 2014, 05:28 AM
what's the farthest most boats ran in a day to fishing spots?
Our boat ramp is at mile marker 93 and several of us fished Warm Springs at mile marker 110. Doesn't look like it's really 17 miles though. I'm not sure if anyone on the AZCrappie group went farther but I think some of Mike and Debbie's friends from the walleye club I think did go further north. Early in the week I think the talk may have been that mile marker 119 and beyond around Good Hope Bay in stained water had the walleye (some boats brought in 110+). Don't know how many boats or how many days though. We went south one one day but Dave/Larry/Bill caught a bunch north so we all followed them the next few days!
The most I herd about coming north of Warm Springs was 6, that's lots of gas for a few fish. Its probably 17 or so miles to Warm Springs. The trip was great, even with the windy days.
Quote from: Fish Hawk on May 04, 2014, 07:19 AM
The most I herd about coming north of Warm Springs was 6, that's lots of gas for a few fish. Its probably 17 or so miles to Warm Springs. The trip was great, even with the windy days.
Agree totally, there were fish all over from Cedar/Warm Springs down to the Island area just past the Halls launch. Weather was great minus maybe one tough day of wind. Every night someone put on a great spread for dinner. That lake is beautiful, catching fish is a bonus. I only took a few screen shots, all from my front ducer. So the SI isn't the clearest due to the trolling motor movement. I should have just switched it over to all 2D to get the full visial of the striper schools.
Quote from: OneBlade on May 03, 2014, 08:44 PM
Tom and I had a rear flat tire on the I-17. Got it changed out safely. 20 minutes later sounded like Dave had one on his boat trailer. Had it changed out quickly as well. Hope no one else had issues.
We did have a trailer blow out just north of where you guys had yours on 17. It's quite sad that a tire with less than 500 miles on it blew out. After getting home and really surveying the damage, it doesn't look good at all. I'm sure I'm in for a tough battle ahead with Cabelas and/or Eagle Trailers, being that they knew there was an axle issue.
Wow, great screenshots. Amazing size view pics makes me realize I need to get more water shown in my side view screens. Great color and pics on the 2d as well.
Quote from: Fishless on May 04, 2014, 05:28 AMwhat's the farthest most boats ran in a day to fishing spots?
Like was mentioned, Warm Springs/Cedar Canyon at mile marker 110/110A was the farthest our club's boats traveled uplake w/ Halls Crossing being at mile marker 92 1/2ish. We never went south this trip so I can't speak to that.
Now my friends Mike & Debbie did, as they described it, poked their heads into Good Hope Bay at approx mile marker 118 only to find it really stained & muddy. They stopped & turned around fished some areas on the way back to cleaner water. Their fellow Walleye Club friends did make the trip up past Good Hope Bay to where the river actually enters the lake. Now I'm not sure of this location or mile marker given the lakes current water level but was told that the inflows are starting to increase with them seeing extremely muddy water & even debris (logs) coming into the lake. These guys only caught 4 Walleye going up that far.
Prior to leaving on this trip I did read a few reports on Wayne's Words of good Walleye catches around the "Horn" at the upper entry to Good Hope Bay someplace around the 129 mile marker.
Dave's screen shots really shows how valuable a tool electronics are in locating schooling stripers & other species not to mention all the shelves & drop-offs that the lake has.
Now for what I/we were trying to do was to locate the shelves/deep water transitions on the graph then drop our bottom bouncer to deep water dragging it either up the hill to the top of the self or release line to follow the shelf down the hill to the drop off allowing our crawler harness to actually fall off the shelf into the abyss.
We did the same thing for the underwater valleys/washes around the Warm Springs area letting our crawler harness fall into the valley, free spool releasing line & then drag it back up the other side.
Been there, done that with the trailer tires. Hope you can get warranty coverage for the damage. When my tire blew out (less than a year old) the tire company had my insurance company provide an estimate for damages and they covered it. Screen shots are nice! Tom was pretty awesome at running 2 poles off the back of the boat set up with just a trolling weight with a thin wire hook, he caught the most in our boat for sure. We caught a fair amount of fish with the jig as well.
Quote from: sparkchaser on May 04, 2014, 08:35 AM
Quote from: OneBlade on May 03, 2014, 08:44 PM
Tom and I had a rear flat tire on the I-17. Got it changed out safely. 20 minutes later sounded like Dave had one on his boat trailer. Had it changed out quickly as well. Hope no one else had issues.
We did have a trailer blow out just north of where you guys had yours on 17. It's quite sad that a tire with less than 500 miles on it blew out. After getting home and really surveying the damage, it doesn't look good at all. I'm sure I'm in for a tough battle ahead with Cabelas and/or Eagle Trailers, being that they knew there was an axle issue.
with both of you having tire problems in the same area on I-17 wonder if there was something on the roadway, kind of strange to have problems so close, great screen shots and update on fishing, glad you guys all made it home safe. With all the big gizzard shad around in Powell wonder if some of those fish schools are the shad, either that or a chit load of stripers :o
Made it home on Sunday at 10:30 AM. Good to be home after 6 weeks of the south. Thanks to everybody for the excellent food, stories, people, and camaderie. It was fabulous. A person learns new perks, styles, & presentations. It takes special people to bare to your fellow club members, so they too can have the skills to catch the elusive fish. The Merlot Kid and I thank you all for this. It was a great trip. As we had pulled into the driveway and were getting STUFF out, my neighbor came over and said his buddy caught 90 crappie up on Cascade Lake 50 of which were 16 inches or more. HERE WE GO. the dust hasn't settled yet, but have to wait a week for any bugs to die. Take Care and tight lines to all. Freshwater
guy just posted he caught lots of crappie running out of bullfrog in the backs of canyons they were hiding in the tumbleweeds in the backs of canyons.
OK so how close is cascade lake to Phoenix :dontknow:
I wanted to say thanks to everyone who helped organize and make this trip happen. Cousinlll, so glad you hooked up with this trip 3-4 years ago and got it part of this group. Thanks to the original Southwest Walleye Club members making the trip happen years back and helping us all get setup with the right gear and such. As usual, the meals were all well prepared and on time making it great to just come in the from the lake, have a drink, and head over for dinner. Everyone put in a lot of effort on those meals and all tasted great. Coordination on the drive up and back was nice having a few vehicles ahead and behind us. We had wind this year, but really every year we'll have 1-3 days of poor weather and really changing weeks at the last moment could maybe work, I still think you can't predict weather that many days in advance and you'd still have some questionable days. Plus, as I found out, I know what sort of conditions I can fish in and 20mph is doable and dressed appropriately with right boat gear, it isn't bad (assuming you're catching fish!). Great to be able to come in each night to trailer instead of tent I must say, clean out boat, charge it, etc. Everyone was VERY helpful in providing information about where they caught and how. So glad this isn't a competition (at least not officially) and we all share info. We all know each day changes so even if a place is hot one day the next day it might not be so that's where all the fun is at. Everyone had different techniques and good to see a variety out there. MeNrats my boat mate did great job again providing great song selection and now have my iPod full of new songs. MeNrats also had similar time schedule and so forth so that all worked out perfect. Menrats did great managing my trolling method and decisions on where to fish. Cost of trip -- while this can be prohibitive for some, I must say for 7 day fishing trip at Lake Powell I don't think it gets cheaper than what we had. I was reluctant to head up last year because of time commitment and so forth but so glad I did. This is a trip some of the people on this site should at least try once and those who have gone before - make the trip up. Finding a boat mate or trailer to stay in is never a problem as we have that shift around each year with new people in and others out. Thanks again for making this year's trip a success!
Nice reports guys. I too have had blowouts on that trip. I'd say it's for sure the road conditions. I think I've lost a total of 3 trailer tires in route to powell. I take good care of the tires and they are not old tires so I've just came to the conclusion it has to be the road along with the speeds we are towing at.
Been told after my blow outs that speed is a very real factor with trailer tires, keeping it under 70 is probably for the best.
Quote from: wadefisherman on May 05, 2014, 06:58 PM
Been told after my blow outs that speed is a very real factor with trailer tires, keeping it under 70 is probably for the best.
lot of trailer tires are only rated at max 65mph, but going out I-10 to alamo you go 65 you get run over ???
we interrupt this lovely thread with the fish count to bring you tires issues on the ride home. come on man. what was the final count cuz?
Quote from: menrats on May 06, 2014, 06:46 AMwhat was the final count cuz?
Quote from: cousinlll on May 02, 2014, 09:44 PMIf I did my math right - 271 Walleye were caught this week! :headbang: :notworthy:
Or do you want it broken down by boat......
please do the math for us per boat. I cant count that high.
Great job everyone. I can't really put into words how cool your trip has become and how jealous I am I haven't been able to be a part of it! You all caught a ton of fish with variety to boot!
Quote from: menrats on May 06, 2014, 06:52 AM
please do the math for us per boat. I cant count that high.
My 2 cents, leave the math for by boat or individual to those that are interested. I like total count for everyone. 271 -- wasn't that very close to previous year? Didn't you guys have the best year not last year but the year before? The limit of 6 was in effect 4 years ago I think so not sure those numbers would reflect reality......
When we did the math I think last years total for all was 268 walleye
what reality were just talking who caught the most fish last week. did we whup em, hold our own or get smoked. swallow that humble pie dude lets see the numbers.