Pathetic!

Moon Phase:

Fishing Time: 8:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Weather: sunny, clear, 80's

Another Friday off and decisions on where to fish! I wasn't in the mood to travel to far so I decided to hit an urban pond that has created quite a buzz this year! Salem Pond! They planted largemouth in their a couple years back and they have gotten to be pretty good size from the stories and pictures I've heard and seen. I got there around 8:00 a.m. to find this Grass Carp dead on the shoreline. I walked to another edge of the pond and instantly saw Bluegill lining the shoreline under any structure they could find. I also saw a few Largemouth swimming around the same structure and they were just like the stories I had heard. some of them had to push 18 inches. Only problem was I couldn't get them to hit for nothin. I threw an assortment of drop shot rigs from plastic worms to minnows and I also tried many different colors of curly tailed grubs. Not even a bite! I did find a new bait that is killer for channel cats. Last weekend on my Powell trip I started throwing a Gulp Minnow in black shad color and instantly caught Catfish after Catfish. Well now I did the same thing at Salem pond. I only caught one cause I only fished with it for a minute, but the Cats obviously love this new rig. Unfortunately this Channel Cat was the only thing I pulled out of Salem Pond all morning! On my way home I got an itchin to stop at Utah Lake where Spring Creek enters the lake. I dropped a float tube in and started fishing a dark green sparkled plastic worm rigged drop shot. On my first cast I had a hit of a lifetime and got the fish all the way to my tube when the fish dove strait down into some brush and got me tangled up. I ended up losing the fish! 3rd cast I had another one on and the same thing happened. I was getting very frustrated cause I was obviously sitting right on top of some nasty brush. It only got worse from there! On my 5th cast I caught another one that only stayed on for about 3 seconds before spitting my hook. Being more frustrated than I think I have ever been while fishing I didn't get another bite all day. Ouch that one hurt. So to wrap up my day in one word the only thing I could think of was PATHETIC!

Another Year At Powell!

Moon Phase:

Fishing Time: All Day

Weather: mostly clear, sunny, 90's

Water Level: 3,605 ft amsl

Who Went: Phil Bringhurst, Mike Duncan, Mike Zenger, Dunc

It was time for another yearly trip to fish Lake Powell. None of my friends could go this year so I went with my cousins Phil, Mike and there friend Mike Zenger. Turns out that Zenger was a good one to invite considering he had a nice 17 foot Bass Boat, a nice truck to pull it and a Houseboat for us to stay on while we were there. We tried this trip two weeks ago only to make it to Lake Powell in the snow, stay in a hotel one night and go home the next morning due to more snow in the forecast. So now for round two. We got to Bullfrog on Friday night and finally found the houseboat in the dark. Saturday was an early wake up call at 5:30 a.m., and it was an absolutely gorgeous morning with a beautiful sunrise to start the day!

When we first started fishing it seemed as if it was going to be one of those normal days of fishing at Lake Powell. Fish were jumping everywhere and Zenger had a Smallmouth to the boat right off the rip. Soon after Phil was in the mix adding the trips first Striper. The two Duncans were still looking for their first fish while Phil and Zenger continued to catch a variety of different fish. I really got jealous when Zenger pulled in this nice Largemouth. Still the Duncan boys were fishless. We tried moving to different spots and trying different tactics but nothing seemed to work for us. Phil and Zenger had slowed down at this point but they were still catching an occasional fish. It was really starting to make me angry. I had a few hits and just couldn't bring them to the boat. We tried yet another location across from Bullfrog bay and the houseboat fields and I had 3 hits with nothing to show for it. Phil had on the nicest Largemouth I have ever seen in Powell and got it right to the boat before he decided to spit the jig out. Soon after Phil scored again with a Walleye caught on a chartreuse sparkled curly tailed jig. Still no fish for me or Mike! Our next location deep in Halls Canyon we found a cozy little cove with many dead trees and reeds lining the shoreline. I finally hooked up with my first fish of the day with a nice little Black Crappie. The action was hot for me for about 10 minutes bringing in two more Crappie, and a small Largemouth Bass. In all the excitement of finally catching fish I forgot to take any pictures! Nice going Chris! My glory soon ended and I was back to catching nothing. Mike finally got off the snide by pulling in a dink Smallmouth. Once it hit mid-day the fishing died off dramatically so we decided to hit Moki Wall to see if we could find some Stripers. It didn't take long to find them right along the wall, and with a little chum we had them all around us.

After catching as many Stripers as we wanted we got bored and decided to move on. We fished the evening looking for more varieties of fish and found very few of them. We caught a few of them here and there but the fishing just never reached the normal Lake Powell mode of RED HOT!!! It didn't impress my cousins much so we hit the sack woke up the next morning and went strait to Moki Wall where we knew we would at least catch fish. We caught Striper after Striper for a few hours and then called it a day and made it home in time to see the first game in the Western Conference finals between the Jazz and the Spurs. Jazz got blown out and the Spurs took a 1-0 lead in the series.

Pineview Finally!

Moon Phase:

Fishing Time: 7:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Weather: sunny, clear, 80's

I have always wanted to get back up to Pineview to chase some of those toothy Tiger Muskies. I have only tried it once and lucked into catching one back in 2004 while staying at Moose Hollow with the family. It was about 30 inches long but real skinny. Now I finally convinced someone to make the trip again. JJ and his dad got the bug to catch one of these weird looking creatures, so we headed up there this past weekend. It was a beautiful morning and the lake was glass. The Wakeboarders were not on the water yet so the lake was all ours. We started fishing out of Anderson Cove and I was the first to find action when I landed this nice Smallmouth.

I caught it throwing a gold rattling crankbait. Happy with the catch but longing for a musky I soon switched to a chartreuse and bright orange curly tail jig in order to entice the toothy ones. It didn't do much for them but shortly after I found another Smallmouth on the end of my line and pulled this guy in. After this one swam off, we went on a long period of drought. I threw everything I could think of that might entice one of these elusive Tiger Muskies, and couldn't buy a bite. I had one follow my jig all the way to the boat only to turn away at the last second and go strait back down into the green water. The weirdest part of the whole trip was that I could see the Muskies everywhere! They were just basking in the sun right next to the shoreline. The problem was they wouldn't move for anything. I threw all sorts of things their way with not even a look. I actually hit one right on the noggin while retrieving a jig and it just moved a few inches to the side and sat there again. It was driving me nuts! They could have cared less about us. We started floating right over the top of them and they wouldn't move until the boat was inches from hitting them. I tried to take a picture of one of them in the water and it didn't turn out as well as I thought it would, but if you look close in the bottom left hand corner of the picture you will see a long oval looking dark spot, this is one of the basking muskies that we floated right over the top of!

We continued to throw everything in our tackle box trying to entice a hit, but to no avail. JJ finally hooked up on his only Smallmouth of the day with this little tike. He caught it on a drop shot rig with a white with black speckles Senko. After he caught this one we called it a day. But I will be back to try for these toothy guys again they have got me determined to catch one and that is not a good thing for them!!!