SHAD Rally@Lake Powell  Spring Fling

The mission of the SHAD League is to save the little guy on the left from the big guy on the right!

Spring arrived and it was once again to gather anglers together for some fun fishin and food!  This time around it was decided for the convenience of the greatest number of people that two gatherings would be held.  One in the South and another at Blue Notch in the North.  

SHAD Rally South Spring Fling! April 2001 Wahweap

Well folks another gathering of the SHAD helpers and defenders has come and gone. Right off the bat I must declare it a Grand Dragon Success!!!

Even though we had two major weather events behind us, it appeared that the weather gods should have been kind; our concerns over Ed bringing his dad along came true! The day Ed and Paul arrived at the lake the wind started to blow and the temps dropped 20 degrees! Even the national weather service changed their forecast after hearing of Paul’s arrival. There were doubts cast about the event being able to be held on the weekend but the true defenders of our Shad braved the doom and gloom predictions and arrived to do battle.

It turned out to be not nearly as bad as we had feared. We had wind, some stout ones on Thursday and Friday, Saturday it was supposed to rain! It did, but not until we were all off the water. We only had one big change of plans due to the weather that was the evening activities were moved indoors to the DWR building. It felt good to be out of the coolness.

 

Friday afternoon 14 of us met and gathered at the picnic area and became acquainted. Wayne was suddenly called to Flagstaff for an important meeting and was unable to join us Friday afternoon. (I think the score was 15-3)! But Capt. Chuck Duggins from Yamamoto Baits filled in very well. His wit, wisdom and humor are welcome at any gathering of anglers. Pairings were arranged for those without a boat and most were going to launch around 8am. Some wanted to chase the smallies, that are now eager for warmer water so they can take care of their spring rites of passage, and launched earlier.

One missed his scheduled time of departure, now for the NutCases that read this you know who it was, as usual I have a pocket full of excuses. Bill Bryant deserves an award for waiting for his back seat to arrive with the LateCat!

Fishing? Well it was a day of fishing and not a day of catching. The Stripers seemed to have lockjaw or just did not like the cloudy skies. Most of the group was able to fish together all day. We started at the dam and nothing was happening. Then most of the group moved up to protected cove upstream from the dam. TopCat went to the intakes to see what was happening there. Though there were a dozen boats there all were also fishing and not catching.

Within a couple of hours we all moved back to the dam and had some success there. At days end 16 anglers brought in 13 fish. At the cleaning station, Capt. Chuck put on a filleting clinic!

                

All were happy for the demonstration! (Actually it was great to have someone else’s hands on the knife, but all watched on with great interest)! While still at the station a group of young men showed up with a pretty good-sized stringer of fish. They did not have a filet knife with them. Well Capt. Chuck continued the clinic for them too! Ya gotta love a guy that will eagerly help out others, and Chuck did just that. They were also very appreciative to have the help and the lesson.

This was the time the weather decided to hand out it’s worst for us. The wind blew hard the temps dropped another 10 degrees and it started to rain on us. The decision to move to inside for food and fellowship was an easy one. Wayne put a video on about boil chasing last fall as the food was being spread out. It was very entertaining to watch Wayne and Russ “Bassdozer” disseminate the stripers. We have got to get this flick available to many more! The menu also got modified a bit, due to moving inside we did not do the fish fry, I did not think that the rest of the folks that work in the building would appreciate the aroma that such an activity would leave for many many days. We gorged ourselves on soups and stews and salads a plenty! Slotbusters wife Terri, make a special Cajun soup that was ohh so special! Bryan & Jill Kelly had two pots of Tortilla Soup that was also very taste. Oh and then Bill Simpson arrived with his “Smokin Missouri Chili”! WOW now that stuff is good! He had two huge pots of this stuff and even though we were not so hungry all had to test this one out! (I even got away with a huge pot of it too)!! And this time around Wayne did not get away with the beet cake!! He only got one piece this time.

       

   

Wayne talked with us about stripers, smallmouth, largemouth and all of the species found here at Lake Powell. Then answered an almost endless stream of questions about the management plan and activities that effect fishing here at Powell.

It was time for the awards. What seemed like an easy task quickly turned challenging as we had five anglers with pairs! So I quickly declared the event was to be a team event! Oh helped a bunch too. Bill Simpson and Dave Gal boated 4 fish and there fore would take top honors for the Rally. Second place, well we again had a tie. So a quarter was located and tossed into the air. Ed Gerderman and Capt. Chuck won the toss over Bill Bryant and Detrick Begay,

The prizes were laid out and the teams were allowed to select from them the prize they wanted from those donated. Mike Fuller of Lake Powell Bait and Tackle donated a float tube with t-shirt and hat. Yamamoto Custom Bait donated one of their highly coveted fishing jackets and a hat. Dave Wallace of Wallylures, donated a four set of WallyLures.

LPBT is also the newest retailer of the “WallyLure”

We also had a special award for something that may have seemed a little strange, odd, funny or entertaining. Dr. Bill Simpson received a T-shirt and hat from LPBT for wearing his surgical gloves all day!

I want to extend a special thanks to the sponsors of this event.

Lake Powell Bait and Tackle Yamamoto Custom Bait Capt. Chuck Duggins, Pro Staff, Yamamoto’s Inside Line WallyLures

I want to make sure that Wayne and the rest folks that work in the UDWR office also know how much we appreciated the opportunity to use the facility during the inclement weather. It was appreciated.

Finally my thanks go out to YOU! The attendees that make such an event possible and what it is. Without you there is no gathering of friends. This Rally reminds me so much of the larger Rally@ events that have swept the nation. Friends, introduced via the internet and finally getting to meet each other. Putting faces with names and enriching our lives for getting to know each other.

S.H.A.D. Rally "Spring Fling"  Attendees
Name	State	Handle / E-mail	# of Fish	Results
Bill Simpson	CA	wsimpson@mindspring.com	2	1st
Dave Gal	CA	nitediver@landset.com	2	1st
Ed Gerdemann	AZ	mailto:egfish@uswest.net	2	2nd
Capt. Chuck Duggins	AZ		1	2nd
Bill & Atha Bryant	AZ	athasfurniture@theriver.com	2	3rd place
Detrick Begay	UT		1	3rd
Paul "Weatherman" Gerdemann	AZ
Frank & Terri Peligrino	UT	mailto:slotbuster@thebigpond.com	0
Dave Wallace	UT	wallylures@aol.com	2
Bryan Kelly	AZ	kelle22@worldnet.att.net	0
Jill Kelly	AZ		0
Daughter Kelley	AZ		0
Son Kelly	AZ		0
Donathen Lee	UT		0
Terry Christensen	UT	mailto:terryc@hubwest.com	1
Chris Christensen	UT		0
Wayne Gustaveson	AZ	udwr@aztrail.com / Wayne	0
		Total Striped Bass Harvested	13
		Shad Saved	13,000