Lake Powell with RMA

Shortly after attending my first RMA meeting I was invited by some of the guys to participate in their Lake Powell Tournament. Come to find out, to these fearless fisherman the word Tournament is synonymous with "lets go fishing".

 We arrived in Bullfrog on Thursday night, had a dutch oven dinner and set up camp for the night. The next morning we hit the lake. The scenery was fantastic. It was a like a trip to a half flooded alien planet.

We made our way up to Good Hope Bay and started fishing. I really did not have many pre-designs about the trip. In fact, I really did not know what to expect. I had been to Lake Powell about 16 years ago and only ever caught a Smallmouth Bass. I had never caught a Walleye or a Striped Bass and I was hoping to knock a few firsts off of my species list. I soon landed a Smallmouth and my boat buddy quickly caught a Walleye. I was excited to see a Walleye in the boat and was waiting patiently for my turn.  We fished and fished and fished, had several bites that were followed by jumping Largemouth but the day was interrupted by a surprise wind storm. Other than a bonus Smally from the dock that would be it for the day.

We spent that night in a tent braving winds that caused me to fear waking up in the land of OZ. The morning came with much anticipation but the sky showed no sign of letting up. It would be too risky to hit the canyons in those conditions, so we decided to wait it out.

Saturday night we accepted an invitation to stay with some of the guys at a rented trailer. We hunkered down watched the NBA playoffs and ate BBQ and fish fry. Even though I was disappointed by the weather I had a fantastic day and learned a ton from these seasoned Walleye veterans.

Sunday morning came and we headed back up to Sevenmile Creek. Right away we felt bite after bite after bite, but there were no hook ups. In the shallow bay we could see several bluegill swimming around and chasing our lures under the boat. From around the bend I was hearing a faint yell WALLEYE!! Then a few minutes later another Walleye!! It echoed off of the narrow canyon walls, Walleye!!. It was one of our other groups. Every time I heard the yell I felt more and more discouraged. I felt that I was destined to be let down. Just then I felt a furious and powerful hit. After a fantastic fight filled with darts and runs ending with the splash of the net, I held up my first Striped Bass for a photo op.

After getting back to it with no more interest in my lure I re-rigged a full crawler on a drop shot. A few minutes later I felt a slight tug and set the hook. Out of the water came my first Walleye. These two fish took the edge off. If I didn't catch another fish the entire trip I would have felt just happy with what I had.

In the next two hours I landed two more Walleye, another Striper, a Smallmouth and several Bluegill. This was the fishing that I had traveled to Lake Powell to experience. Even though we had to head back early I was hooked. Lake Powell was slow to make an appearance but when it did there was no holding back.

After saying our goodbyes on the water and filleting a whole lot of fish we hit the road for the long drive home. 

The Final Tally:

3 Walleye (First Ever)

2 Striped Bass (First Ever)

5 Bluegill

3 Smallmouth Bass

The Best Walleye Education Ever

Monster Pike at Yuba

On Saturday morning Kristian and I set out for Yuba Reservoir in search of monster Northern Pike and possibly a Walleye or two. We made it out on the water and began trolling for Walleye around 7:30 am. I rigged up a few spinner harnesses on wire lead in case we hooked any pike while trolling for walleye. We ran bottom bouncers with no luck. We switched to crank baits and continued to strike out. So we rigged up the swim baits and started working the shallows for Pike. This was not our first time chasing these toothy animals around the reservoir. We visited a couple of years earlier for a tournament and had little problems catching our limits of hammer handles. Although the largest fish was only about 24 inches I was able to secure 2nd place. Since then, we've been dying for a second chance to land a heavier fish. We noticed right away that the bite was a lot slower than we had experienced our previous visit. We continued casting and adjusting our presentations with only a few bites. After moving a few hundred yards down the shore line Kristian hooked into a solid Northern and broke our dry spell.

After this exciting specimen got our adrenaline going we started pounding the shore line with a new vigor. We had several more bites and I was able to play a healthy sized fish to the boat before letting it slip off my line. The score remained 1-0 and before I had a chance to even things up I heard the greatest three words in the English language, "I got one". Measuring in at just over 35 inches this beautiful beast was just the type of fish we were after.

I felt a little silly taking a picture with Kristian's fish but I couldn't help myself, this thing was awesome. Besides, it was the only photo opp I would get this trip.

At about noon the clouds started in on us and the wind pushed the waves higher and higher. We had no choice but to make a run for it. We fought the rain and rolling swells while making our way back to the boat ramp. Neither one wanting to give up we kept casting to the shoreline near the dam hoping for another bite. It took a couple bolts of lightning to finally scare us off the water.

Final score Kristian 2, Boat Captain 0