Had the opportunity to camp at the mouth of West canyon with my brother-in-law Carlos and wife Raquel. We left Wahweap at 5 PM arriving at Gregory Butte in time for the evening bite. A quick troll with a rattletrap resulted in a 3-pound striper within 50 yards after placing the bait in the water. My wife Charlene was the lucky angler.
It was difficult to decide whether to watch the fish being landed or gape at the fantastic sunset painted on the western horizon. The forecast wind up to 35 MPH failed to materialize much to our delight. We drifted into shore, close enough to cast to the tree line and hooked up on 3 more fat stripers. The very best time to fish for stripers in the southern lake is the last hour of daylight in the evening. But it was dark and the trees ate a few lures so we went to shore and found a campsite.
Raquel got the last fish of the night before heading for camp.
Next morning we caught a few small bass off the back of the boat and in the nearby trees but we were looking for bigger fish so started trolling once more. Trolling from 9-noon seems to the best time and we put 6 fish in the boat in a couple of hours. It was not fast but the warm calm morning made it all so delightful.
All the stripers were about 3-pounds and most were taken on rattletraps – until the girls decided that it was time to use the HOT PINK X-raps Raquel had brought with her. These stripers were obviously overcome by the beautiful day and hypnotic wobble of the pink lures. I would not recommend that any of you manly men even come close to holding a pink lure but I had to humor the girls so they would cook dinner. That’s why we have pictures of me unhooking fish with pink lures in their mouths. For the record, there was never any intent on my part to troll a pink lure or even take one out of the tackle box.
I cannot explain why the pink lures worked so well on this day. I will leave it at that.
