Available Fishing Guide:
Website: Lake Roosevelt Charters
Rough day. Were planning on hitting Spring Canyon to explore good spots to go in the winter off of the bank. With the high winds down south, we decided to go North. We were going to go to Northport, but for several years, including this one, we have struck out up there. So we made the game time decision to stop at Evans, and potentially work our way up the lake until we got on the fish.
The wind report for Northport was only 5-8 mph compared to the 16-22 mph winds down south. Win. We got to Evans at 6:40, and had our lines in the water by 7. No wind. Win. Brother in law got his first bump at 7:10. Win. Nothing more, so we moved down the shore line. He pulled in his first fish in after moving to new spot at 7:30. A nice chunky 16" fish. 15 minutes later, he pulled in a nice 20+" buck. Beauty. Then fishing died down. We moved 2 more times down the shoreline, and on our second move at noon, the wind picked up to about 8-10 mph. The sun poked through the clouds, and the waves started rolling. This must have kicked it up, and I got hit and pulled in a 15" bow. good fish.
Then the wind picked up some more, and we decided to pull ship and move up to North Gorge at 2. We got there, and the bay was all iced over, but we were still able to fish the back side of the cliff and throw out into the channel. It was super calm back that way, and I cannot believe we didn't catch anything there. We moved back to Evans at 3, and that's when the weather really got interesting. The wind had been coming from the south all day, and in a flash, the sky got black in the north, and the 5-10 mph winds from the south were overwhelmed by the 20-30 mph gusts coming from the North, as were we. I got to see the waves turn directions in a flash, and we got blown off of the bank. We sheltered in the truck, waiting for it to blow over, and it did. After some rain, we were back on the lake at 4:40 for the evening bite. And bite it did, we got hit at the same time at around 5:20 after soaking bait for 30 minutes. It was the spot my brother in law had pulled in two earlier in the day. He had the initial tap, tap, then Wham, Wham. When he went to set the hook, the fish wasn't on. Immediately, I had a tap, tap, then nothing. Both of our baits were molested, and we had no fish to show for it. We re-baited, but had no more takes when we decided to call it at 5:50.
I rated it a 3 from a 2 due to the action after the storm. All in all a great day with bro-in law, and another winter experience on Lake Roosevelt. Not another fisherman in sight all day, and we definitely made a good call going north.