Fishing The Overton Arm (January 24, 2018)

By LOREN BROOKS

Fishing reports were good for the first two weeks in January, 2018. Rodney Wood and Alan Luthie were trolling with crank bait one day this month in the north end of the Overton Arm, and got a “grand slam”, catching 8 crappie, 9 stripers and a large mouth bass, aka “bucket mouth”. That’s the beauty of the Overton Arm.

Some big Catfish are there for the taking as well. Bill Blake, born and raised in Idaho Falls, has been fishing the Overton Arm for 23 years. He was trolling this past week with Bryce Bell, Lamar Westley, and Steve Bennett. They landed 15 stripers and two crappie.
John and yours truly caught 24 stripers using anchovies last Monday, (MLK Day).
That same day the Caldwells tied into a nice mess of striper right alongside us, near Sand Island, and got a big speckled Crappie the size of a dinner plate.

Bud, Walt & Junior keep bringing in some nice stripers and crappie.
I met Frank Haughberger, and his friend at Maverick, while they were gassing up his boat for a day on the lake. I have not heard how they did this past week.

Larry Beasley was beaming with pride for the nice fish caught from his pontoon boat, at night this past Tuesday, fishing with Jason Ham. They were using cut bait, anchored in 80 feet of water and caught 21 striper and one catfish.

Elwin Brown, his two sons Kevin and Jonathon, and Jonathan’s wife Kaitlan went night fishing in the harbor at Echo Bay two weeks ago and caught 20 stripers.
Just imagine how many fish have been caught this month. My report is probably a drop in the bucket, when you see how many boat trailers are parked at the Echo Bay Marina. Monday (MLK day) there were about 25 boat trailers parked in the lot. It was a surprise to find the water had come up to the point that one would have to wade up to knee deep water for about 10 yards to reach the dock. Ardine Caldwell said after parking the truck, and walking down the ramp, she took off her shoes and socks to wade out to the boat.

Bryce Bell said he has been checking the water level at Sand Island. The bushes he uses as a land mark are now under water. That’s good news.
When we returned at 3:30 pm that Monday, the dock had been pulled up on the ramp so one could walk off the ramp with out getting their feet wet.

I know a lot of you are left out of this report. Stay in touch and keep those lines tight.