Mead 4-19-14

[wolfs4evr]

Hmmm, where to start. Water going down. Nothing new just sukcs. Almost 2 feet down since last Saturday. What a difference in a week. Knowing there was a tournament out of Callville we launched out of Echo and got to the north end before they even launched giving us a 30-45 minute window before the hoards of tournament anglers arrived. Between the lake going down, the amount of tournaments lately and amount of tournament boats hitting the couple of good spots way up north the spots have essentially dried up. Literally. With the water going/the hot spots turning into land and the amount of fish removed from the area there wasn't shiot to catch up there. The previous 3 trips up there we typically netted 14-18 fish in the first hour alone. Fun fun fun fast paced action. Not this past Saturday though... We hit the primary cove and got 3 dinks. Slow... There was verily a foot of water in the area were most of our catches have been the previous several weeks. Didn't spend 20 minutes in there knowing I didn't have much time (I'd of liked to of stayed longer and enjoyed the morning and caught a few more but impossible to do with the Saturday tournaments lately). So we motored over to the secondary hot spot and got 2 more dinks before the tournament guys got there. I am fairly sure I seen almost a dozen boats motor by to the one spot not big enough for 1 or 2 boats to work. Then several came directly to the #2 spot. We hauled out of there as they arrived to another spot I knew of and managed several more before anyone arrived. Fairly disapointing day so far. We then hauled for south of the launch ramp to a couple other spots and got into a few smallies. Again depressing. So decided to make the day a sightseeing day from there on since fishing was sukcing. Headed on down to check out the B29 for something to do then headed way over to the Gregg Basin. Never been past the Temple Bar Marina before so what the heck.

With the motoring we already did going north in the Overton Arm I ended up not having enough gas to make it as far as one can go in the Gregg Basin. At least not enough to feel safe to go all the way. Another disappointment... To finally get around to making that run and not be able to see it all. Less than 10 miles remained but wasn't feeling the risk was worth it of running out of gas going back. My gas and range are all "guestimates" since I don't have a smartcraft gauge for detailed gas consumption, etc. Seat of the pants fuel consumptions is what I go off... In the end we could of made it even though my gas gauge was almost pegged empty by the time we got back to Echo. I siphoned the gas remaining in the tank Sunday due to being curious about how my gas gauge operated irt actual gas quantities in the tank. (I also learned my tank holds several more gallons than advertised once I refilled it. Which is nice to know after several years of owning it.) Doing all of that at least I now know for sure given the weather we had Saturday, etc that 4.3 mpg is what we got. Mostly full throttle/max speed conditions. My seat of the pants number in my head after owning this boat for several years and guessing the mileage was between 4.25 and 4.5mpg. (I use 4mpg for trip estimates in my head). I wasn't far off... I know for sure now.

Owning boats and having to fill them is ohhh so much fun. For those that are thinking of buying a boat someday something to consider that one may not know. Boats don't get good gas mileage. 4mpg isn't actually that bad verse other stuff out there... 96 mile trip and $78 bucks later for the day in boat gas alone. Then the truck gas. Gets up there fast for a "fun" day on the water.

Anyways. We made it into the main Gregg Basin but the southern end. Had to catch a fish out there to say we did. Fishing was quite a bit better than Overton. We caught quite a few. Nothing of size though. Also the Quagga Mussels are like 10000 times worse over there. I was highly shocked at what I saw over there on anything in the water/now above the water line as the lake goes down. Everything was 100% covered. I was re-tying whatever we were fishing with once every 4-10 casts due to our Fluorocarbon getting so tore up/shredded from the mussels.

Only took a couple pics...

This spot I fished over to the water on the other side on March 28th... Depressing watching the lake go down so fast. Almost faster than my gas gauge movements on Saturday. lol (Note all those white/black spots on shore... A whole lotta dead birds. Not sure what was up with that)



The B29. Didn't spend too much time going over it for better pics. Just a few laps and off again.



Madison's big one for the day. lol (I know none of us would ever pose for that picture but a kid is all over stuff like that. lol)


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[wolfs4evr]

Hahaha... Today's comic on BFT actually hits home to the "T".


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[vegaskid]

haha, I feel your pain man. I was one of those tourney boats. I drove up to the meadows and turned right back around. WTF, everyone and there brother was up there. That smallest cove had 3 boats in it. Hahahaha, it barely holds 1. I was like uh no thanks. I ended up south towards boneli bay. Bite was a little tougher than I expected. Probably only had 15 fish. I turned in 5 for around 8lbs.[fishin]
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[wolfs4evr]

(The Saturday before there was 7 boats in that small azz cove at one time including us... We were there almost 45 minutes before everyone else got there though and had already worked it pretty good. Madi got a 4 pounder out of it and the rest were in general dinks. We had boats within 20 feet of us to the left, right and behind us.)

The bite sure did do a 180. Several weekends in a row 3-5 pounders galore and the next what the heck happened. I know we wouldn't of had 8 pounds to turn in. 5 keeper fish, yes but all of them would of been dinks just passing the legal keeper line on the measuring board.

I did hear several boats after they passed the spot I was in fire up or just turn around and haul tail right back south. I was in the cove 4-5 hundred yards south of the one I know most everyone was shooting for.

I almost headed over to Bonell Bay after hitting up the B29 but then decided to just sightsee and headed over to Gregg Basin.

I guess time to start saving some $$$ for some summer camping/fly fishing trips to the north...
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[reellittlephish]

We went out in the afternoon on Wed. 4/16. Fished Swallow Bay back into Quiet cove. Water is low enough that many previously good spots are out of the water. Julie did manage a nice largemouth dragging a creature bait but lost it at the boat. I managed 2 short smallmouth. Around 1:30 PM we did get follows from bigger laregmouths out by the main points so maybe the bass are moving out in that area. Afternoon surface water temps around 67°, if I remember. Fished till I had to run in with lights. You can still launch at Boulder Basin with maybe 7 ft under the hull, where it was dredged, going across the entry bar.

I also saw a lot more then usual quagga mussels around Napolean's Tomb, Boat Wreck Point areas last time the water was low.
Lost a jig at Swallow Bay to a quagga mussel covered rock. Sliced the 10# fluorocarbon easily.


The Yamaha 225-2 stroke gets about 3.5 miles per gallon at 4000 rpm.
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