03-28-2006, 03:09 PM
Sorry if this is a little long, you can also see this out on Wayne's Words.com.:
[font "Arial"][size 2]The weekend started out on Friday morning at the kid’s clinic. Craig Bowen, from [/size][/font][font "Arial"][size 2]Phoenix[/size][/font][font "Arial"][size 2] came with us and we headed out with the rest of the group. Even though we aren’t really kids, we kind of felt like we were as we positioned ourselves at Anchovy Point along with all the other participants and within about 45 seconds had a fish on. Over the nest hour or two we steadily hauled in fish every 10-15 minutes and saw many others having similar luck.[/size][/font]
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[font "Arial"][size 2]After transferring Craig to [/size][/font][font "Arial"][size 2]Wayne[/size][/font][font "Arial"][size 2]’s boat we headed just north of Anchovy Point where we found some light brush in the shallows. As was suggested to me on the message board, I was casting a ½ oz Strike King Rocket shad (the picture here is the chartreuse shad color; I was using the plain shad color). As advertised you can cast these things a mile and even though I was throwing it right into the brush I only hung up a couple of times the whole trip and was able to get it out without much trouble. In about 5 minutes I hooked up with a 5 lb. striper that nailed the Rocket Shad and about took the rod out of my hands. Even more exciting were the two other stripers that were swimming with the one on my line that continued to strike at the spinner bait over and over as I reeled in their striped comrade. This was very exciting being able to watch the action happen in the clear, shallow water.[/size][/font]
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[font "Arial"][size 2]Later we went back up toward the dam and fished along the wall. We doubled up a couple of times and caught several fish. I don’t know if others noticed this, but the fish seemed to be smaller this time around (versus our trip that we made back in February). We hooked up and lost about 7 fish, last time we did not loose any. We were using ¼ oz jig heads mainly, last time we used 3/0 circle hooks with no weight. We switched to the jig head this time around to try to get the bait down a little quicker. I decided to go back to the circle hooks and I just crimped on a 3/16 oz split shot right above the eye of the hook and then tried to hide it a bit with the bait. This seemed to work very well. We continued to hook fish and we stopped losing them as soon as we switched to the circle hooks.[/size][/font]
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[font "Arial"][size 2]Later we headed northeast of Wahweap marina looking for some brush in some of the smaller coves. I am not certain what the name of the place we found as it is not mentioned on the map, but it was north and west of Castle Rock. We saw a lot of fish (mostly carp) and cast to them with X-Raps, Rocket shad, and shad raps. Nothing was interested. I had heard that smallies and largemouths would sometimes swim along with the schools of carp. If they were there, they weren’t interested in what we were throwing. We decided to call it a day, but figured we would troll out for a little while on the way back to the ramp. I put out a Norman Deep Little N +4 Suspending in Lavender Shad, my dad had out a Norman Deep Diver 22 +4 Suspending (which doesn’t suspend very well by the way, may need to send it back) also in Lavender Shad, and I put out a Storm Deep Thunderstick in Threadfin shad color. I didn’t have any luck at all with the Little N or the Thunderstick trolling at about 2 mph with 100 ft out, my dad, however, got two big hits and finally landed 5 ¼ lb striper on his Deep Diver 22, also with about 100 ft out. This fish was definitely healthier than most of the others that we caught down by the dam and we got some nice fillets off of him.[/size][/font]
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[font "Arial"][size 2]Saturday was devoted to trying to catch something, anything, other than a striper. We went out to Gunsight canyon and found some brush and also a lot of submerged, steep, rock drop offs that looked very, very fishy. We had very, very little luck and we were throwing everything—spinner baits, x-raps, shad raps, jig ‘n pigs, curly tail grubs, Storm Wildeye shad swimmers, and just about everything else you could think of. Never could find that really brushy cover that we were looking for. Then we went up what we think was [/size][/font][font "Arial"][size 2]Padre[/size][/font][font "Arial"][size 2] [/size][/font][font "Arial"][size 2]Canyon[/size][/font][font "Arial"][size 2] with similar results. We had a really difficult time trying to find the canyons we were looking for in that the water is so low and the lake really does not correspond with the map that we were using. On the way up Padre canyon, my dad trolled a #9 Shad Rap Deep Diver in the Blue Gill pattern and hooked up with a very skinny 4 ¼ lb. striper. On the way out of the canyon he went back to the Norman Deep Diver 22 and caught another.[/size][/font]
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[font "Arial"][size 2]We headed back to the dam/wall/anchovy point to try to keep me from getting skunked but only succeeded in testing out my first try at a JP rig and whole anchovy. We didn’t catch anything on it, but I have to say that it looked really, really good in the water and I was pretty proud of myself for figuring out how to tie and rig it. Anyway, even though Saturday was slow, we did what we wanted to do as far as trying some new techniques and trying to get some other species. We will have to get some more info on Large mouths and smallies and head back down when it gets a little warmer. Still, it was a very, very good time. [/size][/font]
[font "Arial"][size 2]The weekend started out on Friday morning at the kid’s clinic. Craig Bowen, from [/size][/font][font "Arial"][size 2]Phoenix[/size][/font][font "Arial"][size 2] came with us and we headed out with the rest of the group. Even though we aren’t really kids, we kind of felt like we were as we positioned ourselves at Anchovy Point along with all the other participants and within about 45 seconds had a fish on. Over the nest hour or two we steadily hauled in fish every 10-15 minutes and saw many others having similar luck.[/size][/font]
[font "Arial"][size 2] [/size][/font]
[font "Arial"][size 2]After transferring Craig to [/size][/font][font "Arial"][size 2]Wayne[/size][/font][font "Arial"][size 2]’s boat we headed just north of Anchovy Point where we found some light brush in the shallows. As was suggested to me on the message board, I was casting a ½ oz Strike King Rocket shad (the picture here is the chartreuse shad color; I was using the plain shad color). As advertised you can cast these things a mile and even though I was throwing it right into the brush I only hung up a couple of times the whole trip and was able to get it out without much trouble. In about 5 minutes I hooked up with a 5 lb. striper that nailed the Rocket Shad and about took the rod out of my hands. Even more exciting were the two other stripers that were swimming with the one on my line that continued to strike at the spinner bait over and over as I reeled in their striped comrade. This was very exciting being able to watch the action happen in the clear, shallow water.[/size][/font]
[font "Arial"][size 2] [/size][/font]
[font "Arial"][size 2]Later we went back up toward the dam and fished along the wall. We doubled up a couple of times and caught several fish. I don’t know if others noticed this, but the fish seemed to be smaller this time around (versus our trip that we made back in February). We hooked up and lost about 7 fish, last time we did not loose any. We were using ¼ oz jig heads mainly, last time we used 3/0 circle hooks with no weight. We switched to the jig head this time around to try to get the bait down a little quicker. I decided to go back to the circle hooks and I just crimped on a 3/16 oz split shot right above the eye of the hook and then tried to hide it a bit with the bait. This seemed to work very well. We continued to hook fish and we stopped losing them as soon as we switched to the circle hooks.[/size][/font]
[font "Arial"][size 2] [/size][/font]
[font "Arial"][size 2]Later we headed northeast of Wahweap marina looking for some brush in some of the smaller coves. I am not certain what the name of the place we found as it is not mentioned on the map, but it was north and west of Castle Rock. We saw a lot of fish (mostly carp) and cast to them with X-Raps, Rocket shad, and shad raps. Nothing was interested. I had heard that smallies and largemouths would sometimes swim along with the schools of carp. If they were there, they weren’t interested in what we were throwing. We decided to call it a day, but figured we would troll out for a little while on the way back to the ramp. I put out a Norman Deep Little N +4 Suspending in Lavender Shad, my dad had out a Norman Deep Diver 22 +4 Suspending (which doesn’t suspend very well by the way, may need to send it back) also in Lavender Shad, and I put out a Storm Deep Thunderstick in Threadfin shad color. I didn’t have any luck at all with the Little N or the Thunderstick trolling at about 2 mph with 100 ft out, my dad, however, got two big hits and finally landed 5 ¼ lb striper on his Deep Diver 22, also with about 100 ft out. This fish was definitely healthier than most of the others that we caught down by the dam and we got some nice fillets off of him.[/size][/font]
[font "Arial"][size 2] [/size][/font]
[font "Arial"][size 2]Saturday was devoted to trying to catch something, anything, other than a striper. We went out to Gunsight canyon and found some brush and also a lot of submerged, steep, rock drop offs that looked very, very fishy. We had very, very little luck and we were throwing everything—spinner baits, x-raps, shad raps, jig ‘n pigs, curly tail grubs, Storm Wildeye shad swimmers, and just about everything else you could think of. Never could find that really brushy cover that we were looking for. Then we went up what we think was [/size][/font][font "Arial"][size 2]Padre[/size][/font][font "Arial"][size 2] [/size][/font][font "Arial"][size 2]Canyon[/size][/font][font "Arial"][size 2] with similar results. We had a really difficult time trying to find the canyons we were looking for in that the water is so low and the lake really does not correspond with the map that we were using. On the way up Padre canyon, my dad trolled a #9 Shad Rap Deep Diver in the Blue Gill pattern and hooked up with a very skinny 4 ¼ lb. striper. On the way out of the canyon he went back to the Norman Deep Diver 22 and caught another.[/size][/font]
[font "Arial"][size 2] [/size][/font]
[font "Arial"][size 2]We headed back to the dam/wall/anchovy point to try to keep me from getting skunked but only succeeded in testing out my first try at a JP rig and whole anchovy. We didn’t catch anything on it, but I have to say that it looked really, really good in the water and I was pretty proud of myself for figuring out how to tie and rig it. Anyway, even though Saturday was slow, we did what we wanted to do as far as trying some new techniques and trying to get some other species. We will have to get some more info on Large mouths and smallies and head back down when it gets a little warmer. Still, it was a very, very good time. [/size][/font]
