what a great trip. Saturdays trip up was a wild ride. huge heavy thick snowflakes poured down all around the flagstaff area. before tuba going north we got hammered by a squall with high winds and hail that tore one of matt boat cover straps in two. we ducked for cover retied and then turned east at tuba and ran into the same line of stuff. then mogi duki cliff. lets just say that fatigue from boredom was not a factor.
then it was the frigin matt one blade show on the water. for six days straight matt handled the boat caught the fish and provided the tackle to allow me to catch the few that I did. on wed one blade handled the boat with 20- 30 mph winds. indeed I admit I did not wish to go out that morning but wasn't going to burn one blades day nor send him out by hisself. so I left the rats and got in the boat. matt caught 16 eyes that day and we boated 22. and the copper blade was the ticket. but also matt was working his ass off. hed watch the fish finder and constantly real up or down with heavy bottom bouncers to keep his line on the bottom, where the eyes reside. not only that but hes constantly pulling his rig forward and dropping it down on the bottom, a jigging motion, which he was usung to tap the bottom with his weight. by the end of the trip I was ltterally watching matt. when he lifted up me too when he dropped me too. and I did better as the week went along. including the big eye, yay.
I don't care what anyone else might say matt was the man mon and much respect to the walleye slayer of lake powell! he caught more fish than anyone, worked harder with his fishing technique than anyone and indeed picked the best tackle. my contribution to our success was perhaps picking the spots to fish and stayin with those spots. we left the coves on the last day and ventured into the big water of bullfrog bay and fished the points. we caught the big eye off a point where we saw more fish than any where else the whole trip. took 6 at least from two holes on either side of this point. matt caught five including a double where matt had gone back to two rigs in the water he announced oh my look at all the fish in that hole then bam bam both lis rods are down and I got to real one and at the same time unhooking a snag on my line. it was an exciting moment and a great capper to the week.
I usually wont mention money here but this trip total cost us 700 each. this included lodging gas for boat and car and all meals. for 7 nights. 100 bucks a day for everything. now that's cheap, about 600 lodging 500 in gas and oil and 300 in food devided by two. with the big fish win and two wins on poker night I won 160 bucks. of course I lost a rod and real,which just disappeared without so much as a splash while I was netting a striper for one blade, so I broke about even their. by the way one blade was using wallmart gear nothing fancy old rods and reals. indeed he snapped a rod in half and the bail on one of his two reals was jacked. the dude is the man!
and that is what ill remember most, matt, one blade, one copper blade in which he dealt death and mayhem to the walleyes of lake powell in late april of the year of our lord 2014.
Thanks for the kind words Tom. I'm not as good with focus here on me and just want to say I like the non-competition style of our group and really assistance and encouragement everyone provides. Every year it seems each person has their day whether it be catching lots of fish, a big fish, etc. and I had a good week. I do believe with the healthy fish population at Powell it's more a matter of some luck and some skill finding the spot on a given day. Brian did it last year on that wall jigging and this year the last day as well his boat was stopped short to come back and fry the potatoes. Dave's boat also had a great day netting 22 or something one day with some real slayers on that boat - very nice! Mike and Debbie had different tactics and seemed to pull good numbers and nearly got both big fish when they went out. Other boats caught a nice variety and seemed to find the walleye as well.
Awesome words to share menrats and thanks for all that detail.
Oneblade, even before reading that - you are the man and I'm digging the avatar!
Sounds like you guys made a great team. Great job to you both!
Matt the new avatar is very fitting. You were the man on this trip on the water. I spent every day up front on my boat trying to put the guys in the back on fish, and catch a few myself. It was a lot of work, but both LLL and Bill were very patient. For you to put 16 in the well on probably the worst day with the wind was awesome. When I saw that stringer you guys had at camp on Wednesday, I was very inspired. Especially seeing you guys back trying to frantically retie new rigs for the next day. Can't wait until next time.
sounds like a great trip, I miss the days we went out of the south end of the lake, started tenting it then learned about house boats man was that a big step up, we did one trip to bullfrog in the trailers and they were great but we hit it right after a major cold and snow/wind storm and the lake really shut off, wish Powell was closer to the valley, congrats Matt on your fishing knowledge with the walleyes.
That's a cool story Tom. Matt, One Blade, Copper , Walleye,.....that's cool.
Funny thing about the walleye bite on this trip, the fish were there one day and gone the next. The key seemed to be able to try new spots if you were not getting into the fish. I think we were a week or two early this trip due to cool water and wind. We still had good numbers of fish caught but there were two additional boats added. Warmer water would have probably got the smallies more active as well. The last day we left the fish biting, I actually had schools of walleye show up on the graph, thought they were stripers, dropped the worm down and bam, walleyes in the boat, felt like a tuna boat for about 3 hours! We finished up with 23 but probably could have hit the 30 mark if we stayed another hour. Good memories, especially after the terrible day before when I didn't land a fish all day. Go figure.