RMA Tournamnet at Willard Bay

Thursday I participated in the Rocky Mountain Angler tournament at Willard Bay. We met in the parking lot at 6:30 am and stared in awe at the 4 foot swells being produced by the descending cold front. Having the smallest boat in the group I was extra intimidated by the wind and whitecaps. As the wind started to subside I was feeling extra confident, as the week before I was able to fill the boat with walleye by trolling crank baits. The weather conditions were not friendly to casting or bottom bouncing so trolling crank baits seemed to be on the menu once more. Along with about four other captains I slowly made my way out past the safety of the marina. We spent the next 30 minutes nose into the waves and hoping the worst had passed. This was not the case. The wind made another rally and chased us back to the marina riding with the waves the whole way. After another half hour of waiting the weather pulled a 180. Like someone had flipped a light switch, the sky turned blue and the wind stopped. Finally, it was time. I tried trolling the same locations that I had previously had success, trolling the same lures at the same speeds. Something was different. We were not catching fish. We changed lures, speeds and colors. No fish. A few hours later I finally connected with a fish. I was relieved to have removed the skunk from the boat but a little let down to see it was a catfish. I had never trolled a catfish at 3 MPH. Soon after I caught a nice sized wiper. Dan, my tournament partner caught a 20+ inch walleye which ended up being the final fish of the day.

I believe any day of fishing is a good day even though my expectations were corrected and brought down to earth in comparison to the previous weeks success. All in all I learned a few things:

1.   Be very careful when judging wind conditions prior to launching your boat. The waves and wind are often much worse than they look.
2   Fish are not always where you left them. Always consider environmental factors when targeting fish.
3   Especially when targeting predator fish, the wind blown side of the lake will often yield better results. Even if it is where the water is the most turbulent.

Final Tally:

1 Walleye

1 Wiper

1 Catfish

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