Hi Everyone,
I am planning on taking my first ever trip to Mardons the end of July for 4 days of fishing and sun.
Anyone of you out there experienced any good fishing there that time of year either trolling or dock fishing
at night for rainbows as I plan on doing quite a bit of both?
I have heard that glo-hooks are popular for the night fishing crowd on the docks. Any truth to that
or is it just rumor?

Thanks for any input and tight lines to all.

Iceman,
Personally, I haven't done much night fishing at Potholes, but have found the guys are Mardon resort to be very helpful with what's working and where the fishing is good. They can probably answer your question. If you haven't checked out their website, they have a weekly fishing report on their website that is also good (www.mardonresort.com).

I've done well using a bobber right off the dock (for trout and perch) and done well walking along the rock face of O'Sullivan dam casting for small mouth. The trout seemed to bite at all times of the day, but the small mouth fishing was best from early am until about 10:00. If you have a boat, there are lots more places in that lake that have great fishing.

I'm headed over for the 4th and will report on how it was and what worked for me.
JMS

Just behind Mardon resort is Corrall Lake. Not fished very much and it has huge rainbows in it. It's a great place when the wind picks up on the res. Stop in at the check in booth and look at the pictures on the wall. Numerous 10-12lb fish are up there to tempt ya. We hit it in august coming home from montana. We fished just before sunset for about an hour and a half slow drifting corkies tipped with worms and slow drifting wedrings right off bottom. We got 4 nice fish between 16-20" and on the last pass my g/f landed a nice 5-6lb fish. Pretty good for just that little bit of effort and time.

last summer i got out to potholes in july. the weather was hot and sunny for days before hand and the fishing was bad. everyone who had any luck said you had to fish late dusk thru dawn. hopefully their getting some cooler weather as well to help keep it going. good luck.

Don't forget the sunblock, I'd try to find some of the SPF 150,you'll need it! When you get there go to the store at the resort and get a map of the seeps lakes. If you spend all your time at the resevoir you'll miss out on some great fishing behind the dam. There is about 40 smaller lakes back there that have the same fish in them as the big lake. It's always fun to do a little exploring.

Night fishing is a good idea this time of year,cause it's really hot during the day. I've never needed glow hooks to catch fish there as the dock is well lit. The dock is fun cause you never know what you'll hook from cast to cast. in six casts you may catch six different species.

They say the trout fishing is good right now,but I think it's to warm to be really good. The walleye and bass should be great though.

Have a great time...and save some fish for me!

Just got back from Potholes. What a great weekend. Weather conditions were great until late in the day Sunday. Fishing was good, but not great. Some light winds (picking up in the afternoon), air temps in the 85-90 degree range and surface water temp hovering around 70 degrees. Trolled for walleye most of the time, but experimented a bit for trout. First day on the water kept 6 fish and released one smaller one. Second day only fished a few hours, but landed 2 larger fish. Third day managed to land one larger fish before loading up to head home. Mardon reported fewer fish caught, but generally larger in size. Saw probably half a dozen jumbo-sized rainbows being hauled off the Mardon dock. Our lure of choice for walleye was a small brass bladed wedding ring spinner used with a bottom walker. Bead color didn't seem to matter. My opinion...blade size was very important as spinners with larger blades did not get any hits. After switching over to the same setup as our lucky rod our other rods started picking up fish. Caught fish at depths anywhere from 10 feet to 25 feet deep, but found the sides and tops of submerged dunes the most productive.
JMS

The wind does seems to kick up every day, late in the afternoon and almost always from the west...at least it did when I was growing up around there. If you can hike, get off the roads and try some of the less frequented lakes. Wear good boots and be cautious about the snakes, though. My brother once brought home a 24 inch rainbow he caught in Shiner Lake, but he had to hike in to get it. I love that country, but I'm glad I don't live there now!

Guys/Gals,

Well I am back. Happy to report that the fishing for Walleyes was spectacular. Trout was virtually non-existent though.
Our biggest walleye was a 30" 9lber I caught just North of the Mardon swim area and another 28" 7.5 lber taken not too far from there. Most of our luck was around Goose Island trolling a Hot Lips around 2.5 mph and about 20ft deep. ALso caught a nice fat 2+ lb smallie there also.

My daughter was quite shocked when that 1st Walleye emerged from the depths and looked quickly back at me and said "I am not netting that". Well she did and she was hooked. I have to say we were there for the trout but like my daughter said "been there done that....let's stick to the Walleyes". I couldn't of agreed more. Afterall they do taste much better.

Weather was very mild considering time of year. We lucked out there.

Tight Lines............