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ANGLERS CORNER |
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Have you made a recent fishing
trip to Lake Powell?
If you have, please let us know how you did. Send your fishing report to
Wayne Gustaveson (wayne@wayneswords.com)
via E-mail. Please include who you are and where you're from, dates fished,
location, tackle used, species and number of fish caught and any other
information you would like to pass on to other anglers. |
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Fish Report Guidelines
No pictures are needed but they add to the
reports. My goal is to post a basic report that will make it easier for someone
else to catch fish in your spot. Please send the basics with each report -
where you caught fish, what techniques, lures, depth, and what special
strategy worked. Our goal here is to save shad by encouraging harvest of striped
bass. If we do that then all fisheries benefit from the effort.
Keep the reports coming. Try to limit
pictures to no more than 5. I need to have them in jpg format to keep up with
the volume received. I use these pictures for news media releases so
high resolution photos are needed of the best photos. A fuzzy photo can be low
res and I will still use it for the web but not print media. Be aware that your
photo may be used in other locations.
If possible send, first and last name, and
hometown. The media likes unusual pictures of kids (include age) and gals. Be
creative when taking photos. (see the kid and catfish picture below.) Change
poses and backgrounds. Use the flash in full sun to make the face show up under
the hat.
Keep the reports coming. Thanks to all
who have contributed because it makes it easier for a new arrival to start
fishing with confidence needed to catch fish on this huge lake.
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If you have a general question try
posting on WAYNESWORDS
FORUMS.
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November 17, 2009 - Kevin Phillips - Hite
Stripers and Crappie |
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Got to the lake Nov 5th - 8th,with my two brother's from
Kentucky, Jeff and Randy Phillips. got to Four mile canyon around 1:30 p.m.
started out trolling just North of Farley's. Trolling was slower then last
fall, but still good, on umbrella rig's, with Hyper Striper's. Went in to
North wash, around 4:00p.m., and they were popping on the surface here and
there, within thirty minute's, they were every where., we started out with
Zara spook's, but they were slapping at it, more then biting. We ended the
day with 37 fat Striper's.
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Nov6th, started trolling, and it was a faster bite, then the 5th, but not
like we wanted to catch them. So I took my brother's, into White canyon, to
see the Battle ship. They were impressed to say the least. But we were there
to fish. So we went back to North wash, with Striper's on our mind's. They
came up again, around the same time. We started out with top water, but
quickly changed to Walleye assassin's, on a 3/8 oz leadhead. Fishing was
fast until dark. They were in 6ft to 50 ft of water, and all over the wash.
They would boil in small group's, but it didn't really matter, they were
everywhere you looked. Ended the day with 68.
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Went back to camp, and set up for night fishing, it took the
Shad an hour to come in, and the Crappie's didn't disappoint. We caught a
lot of nice Crappie, on 1/16th oz jig's, and a Shad on with that. Night
fished again, and same result's, great Crappie fishing. A lot of Crappie, in
the 8 to 12 inch range, with a Slab every now and again. |
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Nov 7th, started off in North was, 8:00 a.m. A little surface activity, but
not like evening fishing. Caught Striper's in the brush, and any structure,
point's island's, etc. Had to clean fish in between all of this every day,
and then got back to North wash for the evening bite. Wasn't as active on
the surface this evening, but still good fishing. Ended the day with 41.
Started out Sunday the 8th, in North wash again, catching 20 in the early
hour's, and went back to camp, got fish taken care of, and right back to
North wash, at 2:00p.m, until 5:30p.m. the surface was going crazy by 4:00,
and small boil's were seen, and heard everywhere. What a way to end the
trip. Caught 82 more, for a 102 total for the day. The weather was as good
as the fishing, for the trip.
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Ended the fishing, with a night of great Crappie fishing,
with a lot of 13 and 14" Slab's.
Thanks Jeffro, and Randy, for making this one of my most memorable trip's
ever, 248 Striper's, well over 100 Crappie's", took a limit," and some of
the best eating, I've ever had on the lake, Elk steak's, T-bone's, and a
Crappie fry to end the trip, Jeffro's a great cook, and both of my
brother's, are excellent fishermen, and my best friend's, Love you guy's,
and can't wait for our next trip.
Kevin
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October 31, 2009 - Steve Kahler |
| Hey, thought I'd "Chime-in" on your Fishing Report. I have
fished 2-3 days every weekend for 4 weeks (leaving Durango, Co in a couple
of hours) and will fish alone, as my two buddies chickened-out. Cold weather
scares some guys. We have had fun counting the Bass, Large, Small & Stripers
(Throwing Zara's when on top). We have averaged 50 fish per day. The neat
thing is, that the Lg & Sm mouth Bass have been real close in numbers.
Nothing big, 4.2 lbs lg mouth is biggest and the others weighed 2.8 lbs as a
high . Plenty of small fish that raised the numbers. Fished the Rincon down
to Cottonwood (east side best) and last week went in at Hite, where
launching was very easy at the main ramp. We fished "Top Water" all through
the day and worms and grubs slowly on or near bottom. We found fish from 1
ft to 28 ft. Cranking a med size bait seemed best. Fish that were most
active were caught on top. I also threw my 8 wt. Fly Rod with "Poppers" and
had some fun. Got to get some sleep, I'll write you next week and tell you
if it was like the other trips. |
October 31, 2009 - Marty Peterson and Richard Snow -
Bullfrog |
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Tried the night fishing at the Bullfrog covered slips on
10/29. Cold temps and windy. Landed one catfish. Fished off the back of the
houseboat for three hours and that was the only fish. There are new signs
posted that state that no fishing is allowed from the dock or walkways. And
that only owners and their guests are allowed past the signs.
The morning of the the 30th was below freezing but with reports of stripers
being taken trolling in the back of Bullfrog Bay we started out early. Did
not pick up a striper until about noon and that was out of a small boil near
shore. We then landed another twenty spooning out of moving schools using
Wallylures. All in less than 30 foot deep water. Right at dark activity
increased and so we anchored in expecting some good night fishing. But no
shad and no striper. Nearly full moon. Calm wind.
Lake Canyon sunrise |
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We had half a day the 31st to find more fish. Decided to try
Lake Canyon. Found no striper schools. No smallmouth or largemouth either.
Caught one striper on topwater and one on a jig.
Average striper was around three pounds. Our largest 3 lbs. 7 oz. Good
fighters. Air temp Saturday morning 33. Water 57. By afternoon: air 60,
water 64. |
November 9, 2009 - Bob Fenchak - Padre Bay Bass
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Just a couple of the Smallmouths that we caught our last
week out. These were 4 lbs. +. But most of the fish were 2.5 and 3.5 lbs. I
guess it was the Full Moon that week. |
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All of the fish were caught in Gunsight, Padre, and Kane
Creek Canyons. It was a good week for the final week out until next Spring. |
November 8, 2009 - Bob Hahn - British Columbia -
Hite |
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Wasn't I the lucky one with over 3 weeks amidst the splendor
of Lake Powell country. I can't say the fishing was spectacular, but the
weather sure was. There was only a single day with rain and only a minimum
number where I feared to travel far in my 16' canoe.
Obviously, my experiences were different than most people who fish the lake.
Not only was travel limited because of my craft powered with a 2hp motor,
but I have no fish-finder, don't like to troll and prefer to catch fish on a
fly rod. In addition, I found conditions at the north end of the lake much
different than at the southern end where I'd fished in 2006 - 07 (as far
north as Oak Creek) and also has described for 2009 in this website. Of
course, everyone who reads these pages and who fished there this year know
of the huge boom in the shad population. But the fish in or near Farley
weren't back in the canyons even though the shad might be. Farley was always
crammed with bait fish, but the bass just weren't there. I threw out a fly
rod popper for a short time the first evening and was disappointed to only
get 2 very small largemouths out of the drowned willows. Yet, that proved to
be best day of bass fishing deep in the canyon! |
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But crappies were a different story and were they ever huge!
One morning I caught 5 before breakfast, all on a Rattle-trap. And filets
off a single crappie were quite enough for my first fish dinner.
After finding the same lack of fish in the other small canyons, I began to
concentrate on the points in the main channel. Some of my best fishing,
especially with the fly rod, came when I got out on the points to cast. But
I also ended up doing a great deal of trolling close to shore, rarely using
any lure other than a Rattle-trap or close "relative." One day I caught 5
different species--striper, walleye, both LM and SM bass and crappie on that
lure.
Most of the other anglers reported that their only success with stripers was
coming by trolling and that the fish didn't seem to be schooled up. The few
late October reports about fishing out of Hite on this website seem to
confirm that fact.
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There were numerous days when I only caught a single striper
despite trying a number of methods other than trolling. Just couldn't locate
a school with a few
exceptions. The Wally Lure and a white Buzz Bomb (salmon lure) were
effective on a couple of occasions. On my last afternoon I wanted a striper
for one final fish supper, and fished a spot north of the mouth of Farley
where a small submerged reef extended out from shore and was marked by a
single willow clump at the end. |
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I'd caught a number of stripers there before as well
as all the other species mentioned above, including a couple of nice
walleyes (just barely better tasting than stripers). I didn't get a hit
while trolling, but the lake was so calm that the willow clump was enough to
keep my canoe from drifting. The reliable Rattle-trap came through again and
I began to hook stripers by casting. But they were all too large to even
consider for one man's supper so I threw the first 3 back. I finally had to
settle for an 18" "football." Wouldn't we all like to be faced with such a
dilemma? |
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This was the first trip where I didn't catch stripers with
flies. It was also disappointing not to be able to go out and walk the
shorelines early in the morning and exercise a few bass. Even most of my LMs
came off the rocky points. |
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However, I eventually located a reef at the mouth of White
Canyon, again marked by willows, and hit the jackpot one evening when the
LMs were busting shad. The bass loved my modestly colored home-made
gurgler--orange foam body and hot pink marabou tail--and I landed 11 in
about an hour. Also, in my only
venture deep into Trachyte Canyon I lured two of my largest LMs out of the
willows with a revamped Hula Popper that could be 50 years old!
Alas, I never had a chance to get back. |
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Was the fishing terrific? No. Do I want to return? Anytime. Fishing is
fishing, anywhere you go, and a person has to take the good days with the
bad. That meant numerous days with only a handful of fish and then a
break-out with 30 or more hooked. I sure hated to head north to my home in
British Columbia. Nobody will ever have to twist my arm to get me to fish
Lake Powell in the autumn again. |
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November 7, 2009 - Kip Bennett and Shawn Johnson -
Wahweap Bass |
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We read in the paper this week how you said that fishing is
beginning to slow down so we decided to go out and try to prove you wrong.
Went out Saturday morning at sunrise and headed to Ice Cream Canyon. Water
temp was 61 degrees and the air temp was cold enough for 3 layers of
clothing. By 9am we had both taken off a layer though. We started at the
mouth and worked our way back. |
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Kip laid into the first couple bass, all with nice size
ranging from 2-3lbs. He was running low on his "money" bait so he switched
to another plastic bait. Meanwhile Shawn brought a couple in with a 5" Ika
from Yamamoto rigged weightless. |
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We tried ripping some spinner baits but the fish seemed too
sluggish to react quickly to them. We noticed even while bringing the
largemouth in they didn't fight as much as normal so we decided weightless
plastics would be the way to go on this morning. Kip got back into the
action when he found one more of his "money" baits and hooked it on. |
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There was a lot of underwater trees/bushes that we fished
around with fairly good luck. We were in about 8 feet of water most of the
time and caught a couple in 20 foot depth. We didn't see a whole lot on the
graph at 60 foot depth like we had read on your site earlier this week so we
gave up any hope of striper fishing. |
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All together we caught about 15 largemouth and smallmouth
for the morning. We figured we had about a 12lb bag with our 5 biggest bass
which would have been nice two weeks ago when Kip and Robert fished the
tournament. We released all the fish hoping that for next years tournaments
they will be bigger for us or whoever else may get lucky enough to get them.
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November 5, 2009 - Fred Silvester - Hite
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| Three of us fished the north end of the lake from Hite
Friday thru Monday. The bass fishing was great in the brush, and we did well
on stripers. The stripers were not boiling with the frequency we saw in
September in this area but we found stripers in the trees in some bays, and
there was usually and evening boil in the main channel below Hite. The
stripers were healthy 3-4 pounders.
Monday evening while my partner was getting the trailer, a boil started
next to the dock, and I boated seven large female striper in about ten
minutes. As we usually do, we relied on swim baits for stripers, the money
minnow seems to last longest and with the barb bent down on the 1/2oz head
you can unhook the fish quickly and be back after more. We took home eleven
gallon freezer bags of striper fillets from our four days of fishing and
spent most of the middle of each day harassing black bass in the brush with
tubes, shad imitation soft baits, and small swimbaits.
The weather was perfect and the full moon did not seem to alter the fishing.
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November 3, 2009 - Bill Bjork - Warm Creek
Stripers |
 Nick
Smith and I went to Warm Creek and followed Wayne's instructions and caught
all these stripers at 60 feet with spoons. At least 10 of them were in the
four pound range, they fought hard and were not afraid to take some strong
runs making the drag sing. I think any spoon will work as long as its heavy
enough to get down to the bottom in a reasonable amount of time. We had a
great morning! We got to the spot at 8:45 and they bit till about 10. Nick
is fun to fish with and is an awesome mechanic! thanks Wayne you make it fun
to fish here!! |
October 20, 2009 - Brian and Delores Cassidy-
Cedar |
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Started out Oct. 20 and headed north towards Cedar and
Knowles canyons. Found a nice beach in Knowles and set up for a little
fishing action.
Boy where the large Mouth Bass on fire here, Parked the house boat right
near flood brush that the shad loved hiding in and could cast off the back
off the HB and catch the bass attacking the shad in the brush. About Every 2
hours a school of bass would shoot in and tear up the shad for a few min.
then they would just relax with the shad like nothing happened. During the
boils the bass hit EVERYTHING that moved, and we would catch a dozen 1-2 lb
bass that had 2-3 others follow it to the boat.
Found plenty of shad in the brush in Knowles and Cedar but never got a
striper on in these canyons, We decided to try down lake more where we did
good last year. Went all the way down to Cottonwood canyon looking for shad
and stripers and worked our way back towards Bullfrog.
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Bass fishing was Good in most canyons but no stripers or
shad to be found in the backs or brush. Tried Iceburg where last year we did
very well but no stripers or Shad to be found, plenty of bass and Crappie to
be found in the trees in the backs.
Went to a nice beach in Slickrock and did well on bass that evening in the
brush and trees, Next morning there where a few boats bass fishing when we
saw right near the houseboat in the brush a large school of stripers chasing
shad right up on the beach.
Well we grabbed the rods and started to cast and picked up a few real fast.
These fish where very picky about what the wanted, the would chase anything
but only hit lures that looked like the shad. Best where silver X-raps or
Storm swimbaits with paddletails, These look the most real and had the most
action. These stripers where right at shore and a few hit my feet at waters
edge, Oh what a site to see. There where no big splashes an they where in no
hurry, They took their time and picked out shad to force to the beach. This
lasted about 20 min then they moved out a little deeper, So we got in the
fishing boat and started to cast in toward shore and reel outward, picked up
a few this way before the headed deep. We tried spooning the school in 40',
we had a few hits but hook ups.
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These fish are harder to catch this year but in great shape
and fight like the devil, Once you find them the fun begins but it was tough
to get the pattern down.
Of note I like to fish with locking snap swivels rated for fish up to 15
lbs, I use these on pike in Canada and have caught pike up to 12 lbs with no
trouble they are great for quick changes. DO NOT USE THEM WITH STRIPERS , I
had 2 that straightened the swivels and lost 2 new Xraps.
This years. stripers fight so hard its like they are possessed, I thought
the first swivel was a bad one but the next striper did it again.
( Later that day I tried to pull them open and took more then 30 foot lbs)
Oh what fighters they are
For the lazy fisherman in some of us The catfishing is great on any beach,
Grill a few hotdogs chop up and chum a little .
Add a bite size pcs to a hook with a little shot and just wait, doing this
we avg 12 cats an hour with a few nice size fish.
(Cut the cats in to small cubes and roll in cornmeal and Oldbay then Fry for
a great Lunch) |
October 28, 29009 - Pieter Jones - San Diego CA -
Gunsight stripers |
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My father Fred and my friends Ben, James and I fished the
lake the 17th.-22nd. The fishing was the toughest that we have seen it at
Powell. It took us five days to scratch together what I've seen in a day.
Nonetheless, we still ended up with a few nice sacs of striper filets. We
made the trip to fish the fall pattern in the shallow water, which barely
happened. We camped in Gunsight and most of the fish that we caught were in
about 90 feet of water, speed reeling hopkins and crocodile's. We caught
fish like this in Gunsight and Padre.
Pieter Jones |
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We simply used the meter to find the schools and then
dropped jigs on them. Sunday evening James and Ben got into the fish at dusk
in shallow water on topwater in the back left of Gunsight against that big
wall.
Fred Jones |
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We also had a shot at them when we saw them come up on the
point under the rainbow. We ran about an 1/8 of a mile from our camp
following the rainbow to the point which yielded the 8 fish in the dirt pic.
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We also found a pot of gold but there was a leprechaun there
that wouldn't give it up? All 8 of them were caught on topwater in about 2
feet of water. The weather handed it to us Between Monday afternoon and
early Wednesday morning which quickly turned red dirt into a staple element
of our existence; however, we were able to get the cool rainbow pic out of
the deal which is a rare find. Tough but great trip to Powell. Thanks for
the great resource, Pieter J |
October 27, 2009 - Drew Cushing - Hite |
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I just got back from a trip to Lake Powell with my father
and Uncle. We fished Hite the first afternoon and evening and got to see our
first boil. It was just south of the boat ramp at Hite and was quite a
sight. We hooked up 6-8 fish before the light got to bad to see.
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The next day we fished Forgotten and managed a few crappie.
We next fished Smith Fork with no success. We made our way to Knowles with
no luck and then went into Moqui where we did find a good black bass and
crappie bite in the furthest back arm to the south. The crappie were 10-12
inches on average and were really active. |
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We decided to fish at Hite for the remainder of our trip,
mostly on the off chance to see another boil. The wind blew and we did not
see any more boils but we did troll the Hite area down to Farleys and
managed to troll up 20 stripers each day in pretty short order. It seemed
that the fish would not bite unless you were trolling at 3.6-4.0 mph. We
used a zig-zag course and each time we had a hit on the outside rod. We kept
speeding up until we were getting fish on all rods. |
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The fish were 12-20 feet deep and were not picky about the
type of bait but fire-tiger seemed to be the best color. We did find a very
receptive school of crappie in Farleys that we managed to finish our limit
on. The crappie were larger than in the Bullfrog area by 2 inches on
average. |
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This was my first October trip down to Lake Powell and I
loved it. My uncle Bill and my dad Barry had a ball as this was their first
fishing trip to Powell and they were immediately hooked on striper fishing.
As a matter of fact after hooking several 20 inch stripers I had to force
them to pursue anything else. |
October 27, 2009 - Ed Gerdemann - Bass Last
Chance |
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In 15 seasons of serious Lake Powell fishing I've observed
several things about late October fishing. First, it's a high risk/high
reward trip. If I hit things right I'll have some of the best fishing of the
year. If my trip coincides with or just after a Pacific front, however, I
may find it difficult fishing. Another thing I've noticed is while total
fish numbers may be a bit less than earlier in the fall, the average size
seems to be bigger - particularly with bass. Also, I've found that the later
it is in the season, the later the fish start hitting. Early mornings are
not nearly as successful as late afternoons. Finally, I've discovered that
bass later in the fall tend to hit in flurries. I'll go an hour or more
without a hit and then catch four or five in rapid succession. This past
weekend's trip certainly falls into that pattern. The weather was good and,
overall, so was the fishing - tough at times but generally good. Joining me
was my longtime work colleague Jim Buxton. This is our 26th season of
fishing together, and late October trips to Powell have become sort of a
tradition with us. Since Jim has been enjoying retirement the past three
years, I haven't seen as much of him; so our annual fishing excursions
provides a chance to catch up on things as well as catch some fish.
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We fished Last Chance Bay exclusively on both Friday and Saturday. Although
there was a tournament that coincided with our trip, we didn't see too many
tournament anglers in our area. In fact, we only saw them in two of the
coves we were fishing; and they appeared to be concentrating on largemouths
up in the heavy cover and generally ignoring the offshore structure. That
was fine with us as we found more fish just out off the shore a bit, off
that first dropoff at about 15 feet. The one exception to this was Saturday
when a combined group of largemouth, smallmouth and stripers pinned a school
of shad up against the shore. That was the only surface action we saw in two
days. The rest of the time we fished off shore a bit just off that first
dropoff.
On Friday we did my Last Chance milk run hitting the coves that had produced
for my guests and me in my earlier trips. Fishing was very slow until about
10:00 a.m. when we started picking up a bass or two here and there. We found
that drop shotting a Yamamoto Shad Shaped worm worked reasonably well,
however we also had good success fishing a Series 40 single tail grub rigged
on a 1/4 oz. jig head. In fact, as the day wore on the grub seemed to
outproduce the drop shot rig. We combined to catch 42 smallmouths of which
16 were pretty decent. Our biggest ones went right at two pounds, and we had
several between 1 1/2 and two pounds. We did not catch a single largemouth
on Friday. |
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Saturday we started fishing in the same cove where we
finished Friday. Things were much slower there, however. We took six or
seven small bass, and I lost a pretty nice fish; but that was it. We then
went to our most successful cove from Friday only to find a tournament boat
there. I then went across the bay to a cove I hadn't fished this season.
There was no one there, and I hadn't seen anyone go in or out of there all
morning. It was then about 10:00 a.m. Almost immediately we took several
smallmouths off the first rockpile we fished. Unfortunately I continued my
pattern for the day losing fish, getting hung up, breaking off and having to
rerig several times. Jim, having better luck, took several nice bass. As we
were moving into the very back of the cove a tournament boat roared in about
150 yards ahead of us. The front seat angler nailed a striper almost
immediately on a topwater, and the back seater took a decent smallmouth on
what appeared to be some subsurface pattern. We simply went around them and
continued fishing. Right at high noon the boil I described earlier erupted
along the shoreline. I threw a Rattlin' Rapala lipless crankbait into the
fray and soon was battling a decent largemouth. Another largemouth hit Jim's
Pop-R. After unhooking my green bass, I made another cast and was soon
battling a 2 1/2-pound smallie - my best fish of the day. We didn't catch
any of the stripers that were boiling with the bass. As suddenly as it
began, it ended. We could see the fish swimming in the shallows, but they no
longer were interested in our lures. Eventually they exited for deeper
water.
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We continued around the cove throwing crankbaits and topwaters over the
heavy cover and working the outer edges with drop shot rigs. I hooked and
lost a couple more nice bass, and then the day's crowning blow occurred.
While moving around the bow of my boat, I stumbled and kicked my crankbait
rod overboard. I grabbed for it, but it was just barely out of my reach and
sank out of sight. Fortunately, Jim triangulated the area with several
landmarks, and we started searching the area. It was Jim who spotted it
laying on the bottom where my depthfinder registered 18 feet. We both
dropped Wallylure spoons trying to snag it. Jim was able to snatch it with
his spoon, and we retrieved the rod. Although we didn't catch one fish on
Wallylures this trip, it turned out to be our most valuable lure.
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With no more bass showing in the shallows, we concentrated
on the offshore drops where Jim caught, and I lost, several more fish. I
finally scored on a decent largemouth before leaving that cove. As we were
getting ready to leave, I remembered a cove that had been good at last
year's lower water level. I hadn't fished there at all this year and thought
it might be worth a try. Upon first appearance it looked to be an uninviting
slick rock cove with no brush or broken rock structure; however I remembered
what the back end was like last year and figured there might be some hidden
structure holding fish. This turned out to be a great move as we really hit
the jackpot there with both Jim and I taking several nice smallmouths to end
the day. I don't think the tournament anglers fished that cove all day. It
really doesn't look like much at first appearance, but the back end is
loaded with submerged broken rockpiles and brushy cover which are not
observable from a distance. The fish were really active there as we often
saw three or four fish following a hooked buddy. We hadn't seen that the
whole trip. With the sun starting to get low we headed back to the Stateline
ramp having taken 32 bass, including seven or eight largemouths.
Unfortunately we didn't catch any stripers. I graphed what appeared to be a
couple schools but could get no hits on spoons. The only stripers we saw
were in that brief boil right in with the other bass.
This was my last scheduled Lake Powell fishing trip this season. I got off
to a late start because of shoulder surgery this spring, and I didn't get as
many trips this season as normal due to other issues. However in eight days
on the water in September and October my guests and I brought over 370 bass
into my boat. There's not many places that can be done.
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October 21, 2009 - Jim Morrill - Rock Creek |
First I want to say how much I appreciate what you do and
how kind you are to us as we approach these fishing trips. For some crazy
reason, the trips are always so important to us as we prepare for them all
year, it seems. Each time you respond with great info and sooooo graciously
pass on info for the trillionth time. This year I brought outstanding men
and many outstanding fishermen from Iowa, Louisiana, South Carolina,
Georgia, California and of course Phoenix and Prescott. Most of the guys
from out of state had never really heard of Lake Powell and were in awe of
what they saw as well as the fishing.
The fishery is so good that fishing was always great in spite of the tons of
bait. We struggled a lot on the Stripers in Rock Creek and Dry Rock Creek
although what I saw as far as numbers of fish and bait on the screen was
beyond any previous trip except early summer trips out of Hite up near and
in the water color change area. All fish were healthy with our largest
Striper at about 7 1/2 to 8 lbs. Smallmouth ran up to 3 lbs and a nice
Bucketmouth who was living the good life in Dungeon was close to 4 lbs. The
fishing improved for us on this trip 10/16-10/19 over the trip in September
20-27. Stripers were perhaps a little more vulnerable to our standard spoon
the Cabelas RealImage jiggin spoons in 1 1/2 oz but the numbers were still
way, way down from previous years. We experimented with slow baits and the
only one that really seemed to wake up the fat lazy sleepers was a lure that
I will order more of if I can find it. It was a Norwegian or Finland made
lure I believe may be called a Dart Dagger or Dagger Dart. On the drop and
on the rise, the lure scurries horizontally and looks very similar to a
darting small shad. It has both the horizontal and vertical element. In
normal spooning conditions, late year, I believe this lure would be
absolutely lethal. It woke up 6-8 sleepers on this trip and brought them to
the boat. It was dropped into schools with absolutely no desire to bite and
got a hookup in seconds several times. I thought a jigging stroke of perhaps
just a foot or two brought the best darting action. I will try to acquire
some more and want to paint a few white and will report on the results.
Maybe we should all pay more attention to some of these ice fishing type
lures, perhaps there are more on the market that when jigged vertically add
that horizontal darting action that could keep us fishing longer when the
fish slow down and more lethal on a normal fall bite. I was really impressed
with how closely this thing resembled a shad darting around and its small
size, heavy weight, and ruggedness could make it my new best Striper
producer. I think the size more closely resembles the smaller shad of early
summer and could really help during that period. Does anyone else have
experience with this type of lure on our Stripers?
Smallmouth and largemouth fishing in Dungeon was absolutely as good as it
gets with unbelievable bait in the canyon around the rocks. Just keep all
those rocks in mind and don't forget about any of their locations in low
light as I did and banged into one on our last evening and have a little
fiberglass and gel coat work on one of my cat's floats.
Seems to me there will be plenty of fishing to be done yet in the season
with the way the fish are still responding. My best producing lure was the
Norman's mid level diver (14-16' I think) in a light natural gray/white
color. I pulled them back at the speed of light using a 6:1 reel and got a
strong reaction bite in all areas where there was good structure or
vegetation. My partner had limited success on plastics/rubber grubs and
crawfish imitations in all colors and had fully switched to crankbait by
second day with better success. High speed was definitely most productive.
On the way back we dropped the Norman down passing through Castle Rock cut
for another healthy 2 year fish for the bucket. I think that this is the
spot to get rid of the skunk early on the way out to a days fishing or to
end on a high note on the way in. Great trip.
Next year I believe I will be start guiding along with my trips with my
buddies as my heart tugs at me to do it and this new Glacier Bay 2665 begs
to be used for such. I am working on my 6 pack license and will turn in the
paperwork soon. The boat is a 26'(28'fishing deck) twin (Honda 150 4
stroke), 200 gallon fuel tank, 225-250 square feet, onboard stove, grill,
built in coffee/hot drink maker, full spreader lights, 2 fish finders,
Walker downriggers with a downrigger camera and monitor on board to watch
and maybe record strikes, top of the line stereo, VHF, Garmin
GPS/Radar/Sonar/video network and monitor. I believe this power cat may have
one of the smoooothest rides on the lake, built in lockers and fish lockers,
and head. There is zero hull slap ever! My thought is I will charter out
with a group of 3-6 guys and set up a 1st class fish camp deep up the lake
in the areas with the most potential even if that means San Juan, Striper
City or White Canyon. The boat is an efficient, long range cruiser. I will
most likely do nothing less than 5-6 day trips as that seems optimal to me
for a great LP experience. The guys all consider me a gourmet chef so that
will come with my package as standard fare. I can't wait. Guys looking for a
first class trip with a lifetime fish hauler, ex USAF survival
instructor/safety officer with customer service and people skills from years
as an airline captain should look me up next year if I am not already booked
up by then. Guys say I can always find and cook like they do in the finest
restaurants from a rocky shoreline. My most requested dish is Hawaiian
Paradise Pineapple Teriyaki Lake Powell Striper with rice and asparagus or
just Louisiana's Pappadeaux's style fried fish and coleslaw.
Wayne again I sure appreciate you and your great site. I tried to come by
and visit and show off the new fishing platform, but I guess I just missed
you. Hope to get up there a couple more times before the lake freezes over
and it is a lot more convenient to stop by with Wahweap being our only
launch option and the Castle Rock cut is awesome. First time I have motored
Wahweap Bay and Warm Creek in years.
Tragic accident on that houseboat on Friday. We were 1/4-1/2 mile away when
the houseboat exploded. Helicopter response was a little slow. We prayed for
that 8 year old boy several times as you couldn't help from doing it after
watching the accident and hearing the radio calls. |
October 20, 2009 - Galen Landon - Highland, UT -
Bullfrog Bass |
Fished upstream from Bullfrog October 14 – 16, Air Temp in
upper 70’s to low 80’s, water 67-69 degrees.
We fished primarily for LMB & SMB and tried for a few Stripers but unable to
get any hookups. Bass action was steady with most being caught using a 3”
brown/green tube jig, Carolina rig with Gulp worm and a few on spinners.
Largest fish was a healthy LMB in the 3 ½ - 4 ½ pound range (didn’t have
time to weight it) with several others pushing the same size. Great time at
Powell with some of the best bass cover I’ve seen.
Only downside to the trip was due to the recklessness of other boaters as a
cabin cruiser came within 50 feet of my houseboat causing the huge waves to
break my other boat away, wrapping the tow rope around my 12 yr olds leg
pulling it really tight. He’s lucky he was wearing pants and it didn’t break
his leg but did cause some serious tissue damage… Please boaters, obey the
no wake rules! Obviously didn’t have time to get the other boat’s info to
report the incident and thanks to the other boater who stopped to help us
out. |
October 20, 2009 - Mike & Anne Bevelhimer - "GPSPOWELL" -
Hite Trolling |
| We just returned from three days of fishing at Hite.
After prospecting down lake as far Trachyte, all our fishing was done within
three or four miles of Hite in the main channel. The recent winds have kept
the nutrients stirred up and there is an algal bloom of varying thickness
extending as far down lake as we went. Clouds of shad are everywhere, most
seeming to be 2-2 1/2 inches. We saw no evidence of stripers being schooled
up at all and although we witnessed some evening surface activity, there
were no organized boils noted.
Almost all the fish we caught were caught trolling 10-15 feet deep at
around four mph. The catching was very good, averaging about 5-6 fish per
hour on one line. The remarkable thing was the condition of the fish caught.
The males were uniformly between 2 3/4 & 3 pounds, and the females were
between 3 & 3 1/2 pounds. ALL fish were 20" long. I can't remember the last
time I've caught stripers this fat. I've caught heavier fish in the past but
they were longer. Last November we were catching very uniform little
"footballs" around 1 1/2 pounds near Striper City. I think these 3 pound
"footballs" are the same year class, one year older. What a great time, and
how great to put such wonderful table fare in the freezer.
|
October 19, 2009 - Kip Bennett and Shawn Johnson -
Wahweap |
 |
We went fishing early Friday morning on National Bosses Day.
|
 |
Got out as soon as the sun came up and saw some fish hitting
the surface so decided to throw some top water baits and a couple random
Sebile baits. |
 |
Caught some decent size bass all morning totaling to
about 20 for the morning since we had to open the store at 9am. |
 |
We caught a 2.5lb smallmouth, 3lb largemouth, and a 4lb
Striper.
|
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The fish were chasing baits that looked like baby bluegill
as you can see in the picture. |
October 19, 2009 - Flint Stephens - Southern
lake |
Fished Oct. 16 and 17 in Warm Creek, Padre Bay, and
Wahweap. Fishing was slow both days. No stripers, although we graphed
several schools but could not entice them to bite. We found lots of shad in
the backs of brushy coves, but never saw any predators going after them. At
one spot we could see several largemouth bass with a shad ball right above
them but they never tried to chase them.
We ended up catching a few smallmouth bass and a couple of largemouth bass
each day. Biggest was a largemouth about three pounds. We could not even
find any bluegills or catfish willing to bite. I took some ribbing from the
wife and was feeling bad until I saw several other boats at the fish
cleaning station and no one seemed to do much better. Only one striper among
the anglers that were there. |
October 17, 2009 - Mike McNabb - Warm Creek Bass |
 |
I spent the day with Rick, Paul, Chris and their kids. We
had a great time, and caught a lot of fish. |
 |
We spent the day at this end of the lake in and around Warm
Creek. We caught these fish using Grubbs fishing around bushes and trees
about 10-20 feet down, letting the grub hit the bottom and then letting it
sit or twitching it a little. |
 |
We caught fish all day long. It slowed down a bit during
mid-afternoon but that is when we caught the almost 3 pound smallmouth. |
 |
Everyone had a great time. We let the big one go, of
course, and kept some of the fish for "taco Tuesday" dinner that night! |
 |
Once again we we had a great time with great company and
great fishing on Lake Powell!
|
October 16, 2009 - Fred Silvester - San Juan |
| Two of us left State Line Thursday about 5:00 PM and camped
in Cha that night. We caught several stripers and black bass in the back of
Cha next morning, Fished up the San Juan and found great black bass fishing
for quality fish. We were primarily using swim baits on both stripers and
black bass. ( takes less time to remove one hook from a striper that
trebles) We stopped in Spencer camp that afternoon and found some striper so
we camped that night and the next in Spencer camp.
First night we go into a great boil and kept about 25 stripers during the
last hour of light. Next morning and afternoon, couldn't find the stripers,
and the boils the next evening were up and down open water boils we landed
no stripers. Moved back to Piute bay and had great black bass fishing
including a great spinnerbait bite in stained water during the last two
hours of light, mostly healthy largemouth with a few good smallmouth mixed
in.
Next morning went to the stained water (which was full of shad) expecting
a boil, second spinnerbait fish was a striper so we picked up the swimbaits
and boated several stripers in 10' deep water even though no boils. We then
went to the southend coves in Piute bay and spent the middle of the day
having a great time catching black bass on swimbaits. We move to Reflection
for our last night camp. We fished stripers that were chasing shad into the
jungles by casting swimbaits to the edge of the jungle for shift changes.
We suffered through the Monday night wind storm and caught another half
dozen stripers on the edge of the jungle before heading to Wahweap we
arrived before the major boat traffic made the channel a mess, only passing
one tour boat around Gunsight. We usually fish out of the north, even when
we go to the San Juan, so it was interesting to see the California end of
the Lake, The vistas are very beautiful, but we will stick to the north
where it is easier to hide from the wind and the boat traffic is not so
brutal.
|
October 13, 2009 - Alec Wilkins - Cedar/Knowles |
We decided to try and make a last run and try and track down some boils
before hunting season takes over. We launched on Saturday 10/11 at bullfrog
and headed north. We popped into Knowles and it was packed with camps. we
cruised all the way to the back without seeing a boil or any significant
schools on the sonar, so we headed up to Cedar. Cedar had a couple camping
spots left so we grabbed a stretch of beach and unloaded the boat and
immediately hit the water...we graphed fish in Cedar, but not real thick. We
spooned up three stripers, right where the canyon narrows down, about 40
feet of water. We caught some SM and crappie in the very back of Cedar. That
night we ran down to Knowles, no boils.
Sunday we fished short canyons right off the channel. We were graphing fish,
but they were in 130 feet of water and suspended around 70 feet. I spooned
one striper out of the deeper school, but that was with a lot of trying. We
moved into Seven Mile, and caught some small mouth and one largemouth.
Finally decided to run up to Good Hope.
Active Striper School on Graph
We pulled into one of the coves on the south end around 11 AM and
immediately started graphing fish in 50 ft of water, as we went back into
the cove there were a lot of fish boiling on the edges and in the tammys,
but the real action seemed to be under water. We spooned up 18 stripers
before we lost the school. Lots of doubles and quite a few lost fish. Speed
reeling or jigging or on the fall didn't seem to matter, we used 1-1/2 oz
slab spoons, these seemed to get down the quickest and while we were on the
school, we had a hook up almost every cast. Fish were thick on the graph
from the bottom at 40 to 20 feet. The wind ended up pushing us into
shallower water and we lost the school. Spent the rest of the day looking
for a repeat, but no such luck. End of the day had us back in Cedar, the
wind was bad enough that holding steady with the trolling motor was a real
workout. We trolled until dark and then headed back to camp. We chucked out
anchovies, but only had a couple of tiny bullheads interested.
Monday we returned to Good Hope, and it was pretty quiet, schools all seemed
suspended in deep water and had lock jaw. We went back into the cove where
we had graphed stripers the day before and nothing. Right as we got to the
edge of the submerged tammys (30ft) we graphed a small school. We ended up
spooning up 12-15 smallmouth and one yearling striper out of that school.
Again the wind made it hard to hold in place and when we would drift into
shallower water the school would disappear. We found that school a couple of
times before they disappeared. Fished the stickups until about 12, with one
nice small mouth and a couple of dinks.
Stripers were all caught on slabs, smallmouth on watermelon or white senkos,
Lipless cranks and a couple on topwater. We were really chasing stripers and
the action was a little slow, but everyone we talked to seemed to be doing
well on bass in the trees. Heard from one couple in a white Lund that Monday
had a pretty good boil in Knowles. |
October 12, 2009 - Mike Larsen - Rincon Bass |
 |
When the case you are scheduled to try settles and all of a
sudden you have some free days on your hands, there is only one thing to do:
GO FISHING! And that is exactly what John Wilson and I did last week at Lake
Powell. When the case settled, we grabbed our gear, some groceries and our
spontaneous wives and headed to the lake. We arrived on Wed. afternoon, Oct.
7th and once situated on we headed out for some evening fishing around Halls
Crossing marina and surrounding areas. Fishing with white and green tubes we
picked up lots a nice small mouth bass and an occasional large mouth. Fish
got more active and aggressive as the sun started to dip in the west. Not
surprisingly, points on open water were most productive with the backs of
notches less productive, except for an occasional large mouth hanging out in
the back of a nice cut.
Mike Larsen |
 |
We were staying on a boat I keep in a slip at Halls Crossing
so early Thursday morning found us fishing the cuts above Halls Crossing and
Bullfrog, again with good, steady success using white and light green tubes
or grubs. Calm winds also allowed us to throw some top water lures with
limited action and generally smaller fish.
John Wilson |
 |
After a very good morning, we collected our wives, packed a
lunch and headed south for the rest of the day. After a relaxing lunch in a
beautiful cove, we got back after the fishing while the girls read and
napped. Occasionally we begged them to ohhh and ahhh at our fishing skills.
Mostly they just rolled their eyes and went back to reading their books! We
fished the Rincon area again with steady, good fish, particularly on points
for small mouth and recessed notches for some nice large mouth. Occasionally
a school of stripers would slip under us and a well placed gig produced a
few stripers although we were not really going after the stripers--the bass
fishing was just too much fun. The middle of the afternoon on Thursday
introduced lots of smallish bass messing with our lures, mixed with some
solid fish. As evening fell the quality and pace of the fishing improved
significantly. Every other cast was producing a nice fish for us. We were
treated to a beautiful sunset to go along with great company, a lovely fall
day and some great fishing!
|
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Friday morning found us again down in the Rincon area.
Conditions seemed ideal for some topwater action and John picked up a couple
of fish but generally fishing was slower on Friday morning than it had been
on Thursday evening. Tubes in whites and various shades of green seemed to
work best, with the bigger fish holding in deeper water 8 to 10 feet away
from the shore and on the points. All in all, another great time had a Lake
Powell.
Mike Larsen
SLC, UT |
October 12, 2009 - Mike McNabb - Lower Lake Bass
|
October 11, 2009 - Bass Man - San Juan |
| Left Wednesday Night. Arrived at Bullfrog @ 3:30 in the AM
. Got Boat inspected and launched boat. Looked in the back of Slick Rock on
the way to Jack's arch. BOIL!! Caught six nice stripers and headed on.
Stopped at the first canyon to right past the Rincon. Boil on!! caught four
more stripers. No sleep all day or night. Got to Jack's arch and started
setting up camp. Then the wind started blowing. Slept the rest of the day
and night. Friday went to the back of Najsa at first light. caught multiple
black bass and a few stripers. Went back to JA and took a nap. More Wind!!
Went to Reflection got into one boil and caught multiple black bass.
Saturday went back to Najsha at first light caught multiple black bass and a
few stripers no boils. Went up to Cha and Wilson more black bass. Most SMB
were all a pound or over I caught one 3 lb. SMB and Megabite caught 1 3Lb.
LMB. Went to the upper San Juan and caught and released a bunch of crappie.
A lot of shad on the upper San Juan. Sunday went to Najsa and Desha. Spooned
a bunch of stripers on BMS spoons! Thanks again Howard Great Weekend except
for the afternoon winds. What an excellent fishery and the fish keep getting
bigger. let's keep the QM out of Lake Powell. |
October 12, 2009 - Megabite - San Juan
|
Arrived Bullfrog about 3:30 am Thursday. Mussel inspector
arrived at 5:40 am after removing the cones from the ramp. They are very
cautious: Bass Man's live well had some water, they washed it out even
though the boat had only been in Lake Powell since August.
As Bass Man said, we found a boil in Slick Rock. Should have checked Annie's
- somebody should go check the back of each fork of Annie's Canyon. Checked
the Rincon - no boils, lots of shad, ravens and a heron waiting in the cove
in the back left. Found a good boil going at the back of the main (right)
fork of Long Canyon. There were 3 schools of shad in two different sizes,
two schools had long thin 1-1/2" shad, other school had 3" shad.
Heard report of boils in Nasja. Found shad in the back of most canyons.
Found a lot of shad suspended towards the back of canyons. Found some but
not many striper schools. Spooned up stripers in Nasja, spooned up a lot in
Desha, saw lots of shad and stripers in Reflection looking like they were
getting ready to mix it up. The upper San Juan was a bust just like last
year - Piute was full of feeding shad with only one smallmouth in the whole
bay eating furiously.
Found good black bass fishing everywhere. Best spots were around tamarisk
especially in the backs of canyons because of the shad hiding out there.
Best lure was a white spinnerbait that I make (because you can't buy them
any more). Fire tiger worked best earlier in the year, but white knocked
them dead this trip. Had more than one double of bass. There was no mid-day
pause, we caught bass all day long. Walking stick baits were a distant
second. Crankbaits caught a few. Poppers were not very popular this trip.
Tried a large variety of crankbaits, poppers, and some plastics. Best 1/2
hour was one night right before dark - caught six large smallmouth along one
shoreline near camp including a double.
Almost every fisherman we talk to reads Wayne's Words. Meet a lot of great
people out there. I keep trying to convince them to post a report or send an
e-mail to Wayne when they get back. |
October 12, 2009 - Bent Rods - Escalante |
Spent Oct. 7-10 up Escalante and had a great
time. water temps were 68F (compared to 65F in the main channel). Only
encountered one boil of yearlings before sunrise on the 8th. I wasn't able
to graph a school that would hang around long enough to have success
spooning. We did troll up a couple 3-pound stripers but trolling wasn't very
productive. I had a really hard time keeping 9-11" smallmouth off even large
lures. Just outside of the brushlines about every other cast resulted in a
hook-up. I filleted a dozen or so for dinner one night along with the
stripers. I'd never eaten a smallmouth before. They were actually really
tasty.
If you've got kids, go anchor in some submerged brush in 6-8' water and hand
out rods with single-salmon-egg sized hooks. The 5-8" bluegill action was
non-stop. My kids (all under 10 years old) probably spent 15 hours fishing
for bluegill this trip and never got tired of it. I think more time was
spent taking fish off hooks and re-baiting than waiting for bites.
|
October 12, 2009 - Ed Gerdemann - Last Chance
Bass |
 |
Normally when chasing Lake Powell smallmouths, once I find
that magic depth where the fish are holding I can concentrate my efforts
there for the greatest success. That was not the case this past weekend,
however. There was no magic depth nor was there even a magic range of depth.
Smallmouths were ranging throughout the water column anywhere from as
shallow as five feet to as deep as 35. There were hanging out on flats, all
cliffs, on broken rock, slick rock, bare rock and brush covered rock. An
equal number of small and big fish seemed to be holding throughout the water
column. The only consistency we found was they were mostly found in towards
the backs of the coves and canyons. The outer reaches did not hold as many
fish. The other consistency was the largemouth we caught were hanging in
shallow brush.
My fishing partner on this trip was my old friend Dale Marenda. Our
relationship goes back to the mid-1980s. Dale was a personal injury
attorney; and I, being an insurance claim representative, had a number of
cases with him. Over the years it got to the point we'd talk about two
minutes on whatever case we had going and then 20-30 minutes on fishing. We
started fishing together in the late 1990s, and Dale has been frequent guest
of mine at Lake Powell this past decade.
|
 |
With a forecast of good weather, we decided to concentrate
our fishing in Last Chance Bay where I had excellent success my previous
trip. We hoped to find either some striper boils or schools we could spoon,
but our primary interest was smallmouth bass. Our plan was to fish three
coves on the right side of the bay about halfway up. These coves were
excellent for me last fall and had proven good on my previous trip. Our day
Friday started with a bang. Dale hooked up with a smallmouth on his first
cast, and I nailed a nice largemouth on my second. Then, except for a couple
small fish, that was it for the next two hours. I threw a lot of topwater
into the brush but only got one half-hearted strike. Finally, as we moved
around on the opposite side of the cove we hooked into several nice
smallmouths. Those fish were mostly near the brush at five to 15-feet deep.
I tried fishing straight down at 20-30 feet with no success. We moved up to
the next cove, and the fishing seemed to pick up. It was not one fish after
another, but we had consistent hookups. Here is where we starting finding
smallmouths at greater depths. Fishing straight down below the boat was very
successful as we worked along a series of jetty-like points that ran out
into the bay from the back end. The two "canyon" sections at the very back
end of each side of the cove also produced fish. Around 2:00 p.m. the wind
started coming up, and we decided to head back; however the wind died so we
decided to fish a rocky bank along the west side of Padre Canyon where we
caught several more fish before heading back to Stateline ramp. Our tally
for the day was around 35 bass - not as many as on my previous trip but the
overall average size was quite a bit bigger with several bass in the
two-pound class.
|
 |
Saturday found us back in Last Chance in the cove where we
started on Friday. However, on Saturday we started on the opposite side. On
my second cast I was into a decent smallmouth. Dale was soon into one as
well. We took seven nice bass within the first 20 minutes, and then
everything stopped. We fished completely around the back of the cove
catching only a couple small fish. I actually lost a couple decent fish, but
for nearly two hours we caught very few. We then went back to where we
started where Dale picked up several fish including a dandy crappie. I hit
some hard luck having one nice smallmouth break off while another simply got
off the hook near the boat. At our second cove the fishing was even better
than it had been the day before. As we moved along the south end we took
several nice fish. My highlight the day was catching a three-pound plus
smallie in the far back end of the south side. Here the cove narrowed down
into a small canyon-like section. I took the fish in about 10 feet of water
off a rock slide between two slick rock walls. The big smallmouth hit my
lure on the drop. When I took out the slack I felt the weight and began
reeling. As I swept my rod to fighting position I could feel the power of
the big tail. The bass then jumped three feet out of the water and headed
for the channel taking a lot of my line with it. Finally the spring of the
rod wore the fish down and Dale got the net under it. After some photos I
released it. Hopefully it will be a four-pound plus next year.
|
 |
We had difficulty working the points that were successful
for us Friday because the wind had come up and was blowing down the bay. We
went into the narrow area on the north side where we found some shelter and
continued to catch fish. It was here I took the lone striper of the trip
which clobbered a Yamamoto Shad Shaped Worm as I was reeling in. I spooned
the whole area but was unable to get any more hookups. The wind calmed, and
we went back out to the points but only managed a couple small fish. I then
decided we should move down to a cove we hadn't fished this trip. The wind
was starting to come up again, and I felt this cove would be sheltered and
might produce a few fish. This turned out to be a good move as over the next
hour we took a dozen more bass before calling it quits for the trip.
|
 |
As on Friday, we found fish from right up against the bank
all the way out to over 30 feet. A good tactic was to drop our lures
straight down along rock faces. A number of bass darted out from cracks,
crevices and overhanging ledges to grab our baits as they dropped. Dale had
good luck by casting out in deep water and letting his lure pendulum back to
the boat. He believes, and I concur, that bass will congregate under a boat
that stays in the same place for awhile for cover and shade. At any rate,
his tactic worked quite well.
The most disappointing aspect of the trip, besides the lack of stripers, was
the lack of topwater action. I threw a lot of topwater both days an failed
to connect with even one fish. Everything we took came on drop shot soft
plastics. Dale caught a few fish on Senkos, however the Yamamoto Shad Shaped
Worm was the bait of choice. Color didn't seem to be all that important.
Dale had good luck on watermelon green. I didn't have any Shad Shaped Worms
in pure watermelon, but I did have good success on the watermelon/white
laminate (Color 901). On Saturday, having run out of the watermelon/white
laminate, I found a pack in natural shad (Color 306) which seemed to work
equally as well. The most important thing was getting the bait in front of
the fish - and that meant working a lot of depths. This is something I'll
remember my next time up.
|
October 10, 2009 - Steve |
| Fished the last two S/M/T, going back in the morning for
another 3 days. Found more LG Mouth's than in the last few years, though
only up to 2 1/2 lbs. Fished Slickrock (Backend), main channel sloping banks
up to 25' and single Stripers ( 3-5 lbs. ) on Zara's. Caught over 100
(variety) each trip, jerkbaits good for Smallies and 4" - 6" shakey head
worms for Largies.
Also fly fished (Poppers) and had Topwater bite early or cloudy. Overall,
great trip when out of the wind. Swamped Gambler at 3am. Entire back of boat
up to windshield under water. Bailed out in morning, cranked engine and
fished last two days. Pretty scary night, batteries, gas tank, oil tank and
all compartments under water. Was amazed that we started back up and fished
and got back to Halls. Taking friends Skeeter this time.
|
October 8, 2009 - Brian Myers - Bullfrog |
 |
Lake Powell Fishing Report 10/1 - 10/5
Water temp: 72-75
Thursday
I got on the water at about 2:30pm. Because it was late I would only run to
Halls Creek.
Started on a spot where I catch nice smallmouths. Picked up a tube and on
the 4th cast caught a 3lb smallie. I'm out of there. I will save it for the
Bullfrog open.
I threw rattle traps, spinner baits, crank baits and flipped jigs. I was
only able to produce small fish and lots of bites that did not hook up.
Friday
I was on the water before safe light and headed south. The moon was bright
so I was able to get a good head start on the day.
The boat ride was incredible. I pulled into the first canyon I wanted to
fish only to pull up on a striper boil in the shallow brush next to a
houseboat. Zara spook, SMACK! Again and again and again. Ok let's try a
tube. ZOWIE! Largemouth after smallmouth after largemouth. Oh boy is this
great! |
 |
After a few hours of chasing schools of largemouth, smallmouth and stripers
I was off to another spot. When I got there it was the same. It was mostly
schools of largemouth and smallmouth chasing the shad in this cut. I started
flipping a tube into shallow brush where shad were being chased and it was
largemouth after smallmouth after largemouth.
I then ran into Ice Berg clear to the back only to find nowhere near the
shad I had found in the other canyons and the fish I caught were small. But
Ice Berg is always worth a look. It is one of the most beautiful canyons on
the lake.
I will fish the previous spots with my clients tomorrow.
Zara spooks, buzz baits, drop shot senko and Texas rigged tubes ruled the
day and the fish. Most bass were 1-2lb with a few larger and the stripers
were 3-6lbs and fat. Everything is fat and still feeding. |
 |
Saturday
This was a fishing trip to remember. Four long time friends on Lake Powell,
and we were catching. After the 1.5 days of pre-fish, I had a plan. We would
start south towards the Rincon.
Our first stop would be the back of the canyon where I found the striper
boil the morning before and as a guide you couldn't ask for a better start
to the day. I stopped the boat and picked up a spinning rod with a drop shot
senko. I showed them how to flip the bait out towards the bank using the rod
tip so four anglers are not casting sharp hooks overhand and told them to
let it sink to the bottom once the bait was in the water. As I am showing
this to them a fish hits the bait so I set the hook and ask an angler to
hold the rod for me and reel. WHAM! Largemouth #1 was in the boat.
20-30 largemouth's and smallmouth's later plus some nice stripers on light
tackle but before 11am, we were just getting started. We started with 2
different set ups. The drop shot senko I mentioned prior and a Texas rigged
tube. Schools of largemouth, smallmouth and stripers were feeding in the
backs of canyons where shad were. They were all chasing shad up on the bank
and into the shallow salt cedars. I was worried that the full moon would
slow down the feeding fish but there was something in this moon that
triggered the fall bite. We didn't see as many boils this day but once we
found the bait balls, we would just flip our baits to surrounding cover and
BANG! Fish on. |
 |
At around 11am we headed for the Rincon and stop #2. When we got there fish
were busting on shad everywhere and it was hammer time. We realized after
about a dozen bass that the drop shot senko was out catching the tube. We
pulled up on a beach to eat lunch and re-rig all spinning gear to the drop
shot. If you put on a robo worm, nothing. If you put on a lizard, maybe one
fish. If you put on the senko, BANG!
20-30 more bass later with many doubles and a triple it was 2:30pm and time
to head in. The day was warm with a slight breeze. Good friends with great
commentary all day. The fishing and catching was one of the best I ever had
on Lake Powell. It was perfect.
I can't wait for tomorrow.
Sunday:
Blown off the lake.
Last night the winds came up howling. High wind advisory, 25-35 with 45mph
gusts. It was every bit of all that all night and all day today clear into
early evening. Bummer!
Monday:
I picked up Mike and his wife Kathy at the Bullfrog launch ramp. They had
flown from Saint Louis to Vegas and rented a vehicle to see the west.
Welcome to the most beautiful, desolate place on earth.
I would stick to the same plan as Saturday and head south. The winds were
gone and it was going to be another great day as long as yesterday's winds
didn't blow the fish out.
When we arrived we immediately started hooking up to largemouth. It was a
little slow at the first spot but I could see boiling in the very back so
off we went. The fish were schooled up on the shad in the very back. The
drop shot was working them over. I picked up the Zara spook and hit the
boiling water in the brush on the bank and every striper in the boil was
blowing it out of the water until one finally hooked up. Mike never let go
of the Zara spook the rest of the day. Kathy was cleaning up the fish under
the boat with the senko while Mike was picking them off the top with the
Zara Spook. The fish did not have a chance.
We were catching more smallmouths today and even a school of 2 pounders came
through and couldn't resist the dog a walking. Nice fat 3-5lb stripers and
even one mean 5" largemouth that ate a 6" lure. The feed is on. This day
would end at noon and we still caught plenty of fish throughout the 1/2 day
trip. The water is so clear you can watch the schools of fish come in after
the shad.
Another awesome day on Lake Powell. |
October 7, 2009 - Danny Woods |
 |
Fishing Report October 4th and 5th - This Side of That Guide Service
Early Sunday morning looked to be a good day, calm winds and cool weather.
The fishing poles all had new Gamma fishing line spooled and ready to go, we
had 12# on the bait casters and 8# on the spinners. I new the wind was
coming and was trying to beat the afternoon breeze, that did not work out.
The wind came early and we got blown off the lake by 10:30am. I was fishing
with Larry Vinson, his wife and 79 year young mother, Christine. We managed
to land a few small mouth bass, but nothing to exciting, the fishing was
difficult and slow.
Christine |
 |
The weather report called for lighter winds on Monday so we
loaded the boat and launched from State line at 6:30am to give it another
try. The wind was a constant problem and again the early fishing was slow,
Christine landed a descent smallie right off the get go, but it shut down
after that. We spent some time graphing stripers and schools of shad, we
found plenty of fish but could not get them to bite. We found some relief
from the wind in the backs of some coves in Warm Creek, as the day began to
warm the fish started to bite, but not for long. The schools of shad are
still loaded in the backs of the cove and the stripers are hanging in about
40 feet of water just waiting for the shad to swim out. We started graphing
the fish and sending blue and silver cast masters down to the schools, we
had a few hook ups that produced a few small stripers. The small mouth bite
was descent for about an hour, top water with plugs, white and grey crank
baits close to shore.
Throughout the day with a lot of hard work we boated 8-10 small mouth, 3
large mouth and 3 stripers, one tough day of fishing, cold and windy.
Christine who will turn 79 years young this month out fished the entire
boat. She used the bait casters with the 12# Gamma line and to my amazement
controlled her lure in the wind and the lake chop, Christine boated this
beautiful 3+ lb large mouth bass, awesome fishing. |
October 4, 2009 - Richard Roberts - Gunsight Bass |
 I
have not written in lately but have certainly enjoy reading your report and
listening to all of the fish reports from anglers. It is very motivating to
come to Lake Powell after reading the site. My wife,
Raelynn Roberts (me, Richard
Roberts) and I went out for the day and decided to stay local to Antelope.
We spent the day at Warm Creek looking for and signs of Striper on the
bottom or for that matter top! Not finding any striper on top (early/Late)
we looked for SMB,LMB.
We found the rock piles surrounding the Warm creek area. While we normally
catch a great deal of SMB, My wife, Raelynn, fishing from the stern seat
caught a SMB. This SMB looked to be about 2 1/2 plus lbs. I said
incredible!! Awesome fish. Shortly (5 minutes) after that, she said hooked
another!!!! I ran back to look and notice this Whale she hooked. This thing
jumped about 3-4 feet out of the water trying to spit out the PUMPKIN Grub
with a small jig weight out of its mouth. I freaked and said WOW, this one
has to be around 3 1/2 -4 lbs. My scale is old and inaccurate. The weigh is
a guestimate.
Location: South West side of the point on Alstrom. Reddish Rocky Point area.
Taught her everything she knows!!
I caught a handful of SMB but absolutely have to say my wife rocked this day
for us with her catch.
I now know what i have to do! One more trip up this year. There have to be
more there!
Thanks again Wayne. |
October 1, 2009 - Matt Pennington - Last
Chance Stripers |
 |
We fished the big pond this last weekend (26-27) and had a great weekend. My
wife and I are from Bloomfield, NM and I have been coming to Powell for over
20 years. I have probably told her so many stories about Lake Powell's
famous striper boils that she doesn't even pay attention any more. |
 |
We left our houseboat at Wahweap early Saturday morning and
headed toward Gunsight. No stripers but a couple of nice largemouth taken on
silver/white poppers and silver rattle traps. |
 |
Sunday we ventured farther out and went up Last Chance
taking a left at the Y. Again, a couple of nice largemouth and some small
smallmouth taken on 1oz Kastmasters, but no stripers. Then as we were
working our way back south we stumbled into the largest boil I have ever
seen in my years at Powell. It was just before we reached the Y junction to
turn south. It easily filled the canyon side to side and my graph was solid
to the bottom at 70 ft. My wife's first cast produced a nice 5-6 lb striper
while my first cast brought back a small yearling. She enjoyed that. |
 |
The surface action ended quickly with us boating 5 or 6
decent fish. Usually I would chase the strays but thanks to all the pointers
on this sight we started jigging our 1oz Kastmasters. Not only did the
action heat up but so did the size. It was amazing to see the size of the
shad schools. They looked like wind moving across the water and it was so
quiet that it sounded like rain. The shad surrounded our boat at least 20 -
30 yards in every direction and were over 20 ft deep. |
 |
We fished until the setting sun forced us to leave....the
action still going. The hardest thing I've ever done. In all we took over 20
fish and most weighing over 6 pounds. I don't know if Ill ever see a boil
like that again, but i can hope. Sorry I didn't take any pictures of the
action but my hands were full! Thanks for the help! |
October 1, 2009 - Ed Gerdemann - Last Chance
Bass |
 |
There's no doubt I'm a big fan of fall fishing on Lake
Powell. Typically my best days on the lake occur in the fall, and this past
week was no exception with two outstanding days and one better than average
outing that was cut short by the wind. Joining me on this trip was my uncle
Tom Estes from Bluffdale, TX. This was Tom's fifth trip to Lake Powell, and
the third September in a row he's fished with me here. I suspect it won't be
his last.
Our first morning out was Monday, the 27th. After reading in Wayne's fishing
report that the shad had moved to the backs of the coves, I believed we
could duplicate last year's successful pattern of working the backs of
several coves in Last Chance Bay. Unfortunately the first one we fished, one
of the best from last year, failed to produce much. I took a decent
largemouth, managed to catch a striper on a spoon, and we both took a couple
smaller smallmouth; but that was it. When I caught the striper I had graphed
a school on the bottom. I started jigging a Wallylure spoon, and the fish
marks started showing up off the bottom on my depth finder screen. I then
got four hits, too hookups and the one fish; but that was it. After that the
school disappeared, and I couldn't find it again; and I was not able to
duplicate that pattern the rest of the trip.
|
 |
We moved up one cove and, after catching a few small bass, I
noticed some shad rippling in the far back end. I immediately cast a Spit'n
Image topwater lure into the riffles and was rewarded by multiple strikes on
every cast. The smallmouth blew up on that lure time and time again, often
knocking it in the air. I did manage to hook and land several, a couple in
the two pound class. We also discovered that throwing drop shot soft
plastics around the shad brought almost instantaneous strikes as well, and
far more consistent hookups than with the topwater. Still, it was fun
watching those smallmouth blow up on the Spit'n Image. This was far my best
success for smallmouth on topwaters in my 15 years of seriously fishing Lake
Powell. Although the drop shot rigs brought more consistent hookups, the
average size of the topwater caught bass was larger. Unfortunately this was
another pattern I was not able to duplicate later in that day or for the
rest of the trip. I threw a lot of topwaters over the three days, but the
only strikes I got were this one time when shad were readily visible.
Not being able to duplicate the topwater pattern was tempered by the fact
that we continued to take big numbers of smallmouths on soft plastics. In
addition to drop shotting, Tom fished Texas-rigged worms around the brush
catching both largemouths and smallmouths. We fished one more cove that day
that had been good the previous year and did well there again, however this
year more fish came from the north side of the cove vs. the south side which
was better in 2008. On the first day we kept 37 bass and released probably
that many more. This was by far my best day on the year to date.
|
 |
On Monday we decided to try and duplicate Sunday's action
and were generally successful except for the inability to get a topwater
bite. The first cove we visited was the one where we had the topwater
success Sunday. The bass were still there and still willing to take soft
plastics either Texas-rigged or drop shot. Tom took a couple nice largemouth
from the brush, and I caught my largest bass of the trip, a fine three-pound
smallmouth, on a drop shot Yamamoto Shad Shaped Worm. I also took another
lone striper while bass fishing while Tom caught a nice walleye that proved
a nice addition to our evening meal. The action wasn't fast paced, but it
was steady all day. After completely working the back of the first cove, we
visited the other one where we had success Sunday and found similar action
there. Our second day totals were about the same as the first except we only
kept enough bass to replace the ones eaten the evening before.
|
 |
Not knowing if our productive coves would hold up to another day's
onslaught, Tuesday we decided to fish some coves we hadn't fished before if
our first spot first didn't produce. That cove did produce but not like in
previous days. We managed several decent smallmouth, and Tom took another
good largemouth out of the brush, but that was it. We then moved into a cove
we hadn't fished before, and things looked good when I took a very nice
smallmouth on my second cast. However the action slowed from there. Finally,
we started fishing some long, shallow points and flats which started to
produce, however the wind came up in our face making it difficult to hold
the boat. We went across the bay into another cove to get out of the wind,
but results where disappointing there as well. Finally, I decided the wind
was getting too much, and that we'd better get back to Stateline ramp. We
then enjoyed a bone-jarring one-hour boat ride over a heavy white capped
chop to end our day. We "only" caught 43 bass Tuesday which would be a good
day in most places, but after what we did on Sunday and Monday; Tuesday's
catch was somewhat disappointing. We also didn't get quite the size Tuesday
as in previous days. I do believe that had the wind not cut our day a couple
hours short that we would have been close to our previous days' tallies. It
was a good thing we left when we did, because just after taking the boat out
of the water the wind velocity increased significantly. I would not have
wanted to be on the lake when that happened. |
 |
Most of our fish were taken in 12 to 18 feet of water mostly
on the edge of drop offs, however some came off the middle of large flats
and some, mostly largemouth, came out of heavy brush. We took a few bass in
just a couple feet of water and some as deep as 25 feet. My three-pound
smallmouth was about 15 feet deep right on top of a big drop off. As
mentioned previously, our only topwater success came when we could actually
see shad riffles. Our best colors for our soft plastics were watermelon and
a combination watermelon and white laminates. Tom also had some luck on what
looked like a junebug colored worm. I really don't think color was all that
important - location and presentation were the keys.
I have two trips planned for October and hope to enjoy the same success,
hopefully with some stripers added to the equation. However, I'd be more
than satisfied with good bass fishing. I love fall fishing on Lake Powell! |
September 28, 2009 - Chuck and Colleen - Boulder, CO |
The wife and I arrived at Bullfrog Sunday and got the boat
into the water and over to the marina just in time for the big thunderstorm.
The winds broke all connections to the beach and the floating dock began to
float away while the ramp disappeared underwater. The ramp was reconnected
Monday and power restored on Thursday. I believe sewage was still out at
week's end.
We fished Monday through Thursday, totally skunked. We tried around
Bullfrog, the lower end of Hall's, and the Moki Wall and canyon. Silver
spoons, Kastmasters, curlytail and feathered jigs, wacky-rigged worms, drop-shotted
plastics, and spinnerbaits were all losers. On the day at Moki we didn't
observe a single catch on the 6-8 boats around us. Some marina staff told us
that they hadn't observed a boil in 2 weeks. Water temp was 75 with good
visibility. Maybe it was a high pressure weather system of the wrong moon
phase, but we gave up and left 2 days early. Maybe next time.
Wayne's Note: Striper boils are very
specific. The only ones that can be counted on occur at first light
and last light. There is a random boil during the day but it is not
predictable. The location is midway or all the way back in
canyons. There are no open water boils to speak of now.
The good news is great bass fishing around
trees that hold shad in the backs of canyons. |
September 27, 2009 - Wayne Gustaveson - Short
Canyon Boils |
 |
My fish report mentions boils at twilight in short canyons
next to the main channel. There is no subtlety here. |
 |
When time to boil there is no missing the presence of the
900 pound gorilla. Stripers announce their presence with splashes
bigger than boats on the shoreline. |
 |
When the splash gets in range just toss the surface lure
close enough to be seen. The strike is instantaneous. If he misses the
first time, he keeps after it until he catches up and inhales the 5-inch
bait. |
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Then reel in the heavy fish quickly enough to take him off
so the next cast can be made before the boil subsides. |
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More anglers throwing lures into a boil results in more fish
being caught. |
 |
This is the end result. |
September 27, 2009 - Wayne Gustaveson - Boils in
Shallow Coves |
 |
Shad live in the trees in the backs of almost every canyon
with brush. The riffle in this picture shows a school of shad happily
feeding on the surface. It is easy to locate shad by looking for the riffle
or driving the boat into the shallows and actually seeing shad shoot out
under the boat. |
 |
Stripers periodically come into the cove for a shad snack.
These stripers are in about 3 feet of water and very easy to see from my
vantage point on shore 10 feet above their head. |
 |
On the right side of the picture a school of shad runs from
the striper school attacking from the left. |
 |
Cast a topwater lure into the cove for an instant hookup.
|
September 25, 2009 - Shane Spravzoff (Flagstaff, AZ) - |
 |
Just got back from another great trip at Powell! Fishing was
very good at times and it when it slowed you could always find some
cooperative smallies on the dropshot. I guess my Dad (Steve Spravzoff) ran
into you on the lake. He was in the white Champion. We spent most of our
time fishing in Labyrinth as there were lots of smallmouth, stripers, and
shad in there. Find the shad and find the fish! Lots of fish were taken
fishing zara spooks.
|
 |
On Sunday night when we put the houseboat away I was
pleasantly surprised to find a huge striper boil off of the tire line in
Wahweap. The fish were going nuts and we took advantage! There were clouds
of stripers and shad on the graph all the way from 2 ft down to 100 ft. Keep
your eyes open around the marina, there were a ton of fish in there. I
included a picture of my Dad, Steve Knecht,
and Mike Packer in Labyrinth and a picture of myself in Wahweap.
Fishing is about to bust loose up there!!! Keep up the good work!
|
September 25, 2009 - Bill Miller - Silverthorne, CO -
Stripers in Knowles |
Sorry no pics, I was fishing by myself.
I fished from Bullfrog north to Knowles last weekend. On Saturday I was able
to vertical jig some Stripers up in Hall’s creek with a ¾ oz silver and blue
Kastmaster with a white dressed treble. I spotted them by looking for Grebes
and then finding the school with the electronics suspended between 20- 40
feet. I only hooked two, but they were nice fat fish in the 3# range. I
fished the shore by Hall’s buoy field and the back of Crystal Springs canyon
until dark and caught a lot of 10” smallies and a few large mouths, but
nothing bigger than 2#. They liked green 5” double tail hula grubs on a 3/8
oz football jig or a White 4” single tail Yamamoto grub on a ¼ oz stand up
jig.
Sunday morning I went cruising north looking for boils at dawn and tried to
hit a few isolated striper rings with top water baits to no avail. I headed
for Knowles and arrived about 7:45 AM to discover the whole entrance bay
filled with striper boils. It was pretty incredible top water action until
about 9:00 AM and I filled a big cooler with stripers all in the 2-4# range.
There were several other boats in the bay having some success although they
arrived late to the party. I used two top water baits: Lucky Craft G splash
in a shad pattern with a white dressed tail treble and a Sammy in a ghost
minnow pattern. The larger noise of the G splash seemed to do a little
better, but anytime I could get a cast near a splash ring there would be a
hook up. What an exciting treat to catch stripers on top water baits for
that long!
Thanks to you and your advice and all of the other reports, my fishing on
the Lake has improved dramatically over the years. I have fished the Lake
for 25 years, but this season was the best for me. |
September 24, 2009 - Bill Bjork - Spooning
stripers at Wahweap |
 My
brother Derek Bjork and his friend Miguel Perez came down from Washington
state and Oregon. We waited at dawn for striper boils at the buoy field by
stateline, it didn't happen for us. So we went to the cut, no action on
either side. We drove the rest of the way around antelope island and then
stopped at the dam. I went over to the chains saw stripers on the screen,
sent down the spoon brought up a striper. Miguel got one, but unfortunately
his bloody fish jumped out of the boat while trying to get a picture and
turned off the bite. So we went to the main marina. I heard they were
boiling in there yesterday no luck. So I took them to the island by Sandking
and the fish were a little further off shore this time. If I could see them
on the graph they were easy to spoon up. we got 18 stripers in the well,
probably 4-5 smallies were released. They were some of the strongest
fighting stripers I have caught this year. Lines were broken and spoons were
lost! We had a great time.
Thanks Wayne!! |
September 22, 2009 - Todd Silva - Gunsight |
 We
caught about 10 fish mostly stripers including these two small mouths within
a couple of minutes off the beach near Gunsight. There were boils as big as
you will ever see right off the shore. This was around 6:00 a.m. Sunday
September 20th. Randy Simmers from Litchfield Park Az. Used a Rapala Deep
diving shad lure. It was a beautiful morning. More small and large mouths
were caught later in the day from Gunsight to Cookie Jar. We used a lot of
green colored grubs with weighted hooks in these areas and had a lot of
success.
Todd Silva
|
September 20, 2009 - Brian Benedetto (Litchfield Park, Az) |
 |
We spent an awesome week of fishing, camping and sightseeing
at Lake Powell. We caught about 200 smallies, a handful of LM and about 50
stripers (largest was about 6 lbs). We would fish from about 4:30 pm to 6:30
pm every evening and every morning from safe light until about 0900. |
 |
If you did not get out at safe light you totally missed the
top water striper action, it was usually over by 0630. We were camped out in
a cove by Dangling Rope. Sun-Wen the weather made for tough conditions due
to high winds & rain, we still made our way out rain or shine, we would not
be denied . |
 |
I love having big stripers nail the top water lures and rip
off line after they get done thrashing it. Sadly, one pole did not survive
the trip, that striper was a little to much for it. SNAP! After the morning
striper bite was over we would throw top waters at the shore line and the
smallies would take over, numerous dinks with occasional 2 lbers thrown in.
|
 |
The last 2 days we found some schooling stripers down deep
by the camp site and we were able to spoon up a few before they moved off.
There was a huge school of shad that they were feeding on at 20-50 feet of
water. It was an awesome trip that we have done the last 2 years, your
website is awesome. Tight lines!
|
September 16, 2009 - Bill Bjork - Wahweap Boils |
i saw a boil this morning just outside of the rental breakwater about 100
yds. only caught one out of that boil. ended up spooning up a mess and 3
smallies near the big rock wall and broken rock just to the left of sand
king there is a house boat parked there called harmony( i dont know what
that rock is called. it is behind the rock island.) then a big boil broke
out on the point even further to the left aroud 11:30. they went down as
soon as i got over there and i only got one from it. thanks having such a
big bad website!!! |
September 16, 2009 - Denis and Maria Denardo - Lake Havasu City
Wahweap Bopils |
 |
It was nice meeting you at the fish cleaning station during
our vacation
last August 2009.
Maria and I had a great time chasing boils and being on such a beautiful
lake. As I mentioned to you, we chased boils right outside the Marina south
of the breakwater, near the Dam, Warm Creek, Navajo and out to Buoy 22. All
off our fishing was done with Top-water Lures. Caught them both mornings and
evenings.
Denis and Wayne
|
 |
Our favorite evening was August 20th, perfect weather. We
were in boils
between the Wahweap Marina and the Dam for two hours until it got dark. I
spent the rest of that evening cleaning fish.
Maria Denardo
I included a few pics for you to enjoy.
Maria really enjoy spending her vacation time fishing Lake Powell, even
waking up to fish at 5 AM....you couldn't have asked for a better
fishing trip to Lake Powell. |
 |
Please pass the word on that Colleen with the National Park Service is
truly dedicated in protecting the Lake from the Mussels and was very
helpful in assisting us with the boat and insuring we had a great time.
She was very appreciative of the way we prepared our boat for inspection
since we were coming from a Lake with the Quagga Mussel issue.
Thanks for your hard work and the information you provide regarding
fishing at Lake Powell.
We'll see you next summer...right around the same time.
|
September 13, 2009 - Danny Woods - Warm Creek Bass |
 Fishing
Report Sept. 13 2000
Sunday was perfect Lake Powell weather, the water was like glass and at
5:15am not more than a few boats spread across this awesome water. The air
temp ranged from the high 80's when the sun was out from behind the clouds
to the low 80's when the sun disappeared behind the distant thunder heads.
Water temp is still a bit warm, high 70's but cooling down and getting the
fish active.
The fishing was slow for us early in the morning, throwing top water with
the occasional attack from a lurking bass. We were fishing in the backs of
some of the coves in Warm Creek that had small points poking out here and
there. As the air warmed the fish seemed to be heading back from deep water
to the shad filled shallow water, the fun begins. Boils of small mouth bass
began to appear on the little points chasing schools of shad. The shad were
all over the surface of the water and the bass started to aggressively
attack the poppers and spooks that we had been tossing earlier.
From 5:00am to 1:00pm we boated 20 to 25 nice bass, ranging from 1 to 2
pounds, most of the fish we caught were on the heavier side. The top water
fishing was sporadic throughout the day but when it was on it was on!!! We
had a lot of action on Sunday and everyone on the boat left with a great big
grin.
Leon |
September 14, 2009 - Sherm and Letts Fish
from Anglers Corner Bullfrog
|
fished 11th 12th and morning of the 13th
first day we fished up lake and at buoy 119 got into the fish big numbers
all on slab jig with a few on lipless crank bait, there are large numbers of
shad in the area. Really good fishing in this area for small mouth bass
using crank bait and spinner bait
On the 12th we hooked up with Howard and chased boils around bullfrog bay
until 9:30 am you need to be on the water before the sun comes up and if it
is white or shad colored it will work, after the boils go down you can also
add some fish to the live well with a lipless crank bait. Stay in the area
and keep casting after the bullfrog morning fishing we headed down lake and
slabbed up some more at the point at lake canyon.
SPEED REELING WAS THE ONLY WAY They
would not take the slab any other way it had to be flying.
13th fished until 11:30 am fished boils in bullfrog with Howard once more,
there was only one but it was a good one then we slab jigged up some more in
the same area as the boil.
Letts Fish
Took my friend Steve on his very first Lake Powell fishing trip. Happened to
be his birthday. Also my first trip in the summer/autumn to look for boils.
So we're rookies. Got there Friday at 9:30am and by 10:30am we were at the
mouth of Knowles Canyon. Marked fish, and Steve's first drop with a spoon
and he yells FISH ON! First trip, first cast and first fish - about a 4 lb.
striper! We just happened to be on a school and spooned up about 6 nice fish
before they moved.
Friday eve we saw a boat with a WW Flag and met Howard in Bullfrog Bay and
got into a brief late boil at about 7:30pm. Again real nice fish up to 5
lbs.
Sunday morning we happened to meet Sherm and Shelly and their friend Bobby
early at the ramp and when we saw them scream by at about 7:00 am - we saw
why - a nearby boil was started and as we got there, it just exploded near
shore! Fish flying everywhere!
If I never see another boil, that one will stay in memory! It didn't last
but a few minutes, but it was about 100 feet wide of shoreline violence - an
amazing site.
Steve called this fish hunting. Other
than the very late and very early boils, graphics were everything. Speed
reeling on marked fish with a heavy silver spoon was the ticket. You can't
reel fast enough.
Rookie lessons learned:
*Use 15 lb spider wire or other line.
*Find short(2"or 2.5"), but very heavy, slabs.
*Use large hooks and sharpen them.
*Retie lures after each morning/afternoon.
*Bring multiple rods and lures.
*Look for Grebes - they somehow sense even deep shad schools and
accompanying stripers.
*Get all the info you can from other fishermen.
Thanks to all who shared their knowledge to let us have a great trip. Those
attending the shad rally should have a great time, next year we'll try to
attend.
|
September 14, 2009 - Sam Sherwood, Mesa AZ -
San Juan
|
We arrived at the upper San Juan near Cha Canyon about 2 PM
on Thursday 9/10/09 and quickly picked the worst campsite around, dropped
off our excess stuff and headed to the Neshkai Wash area and spent most of
our time there before coming back to fish around camp. The day was very
overcast and looked like we would get rained on that evening but we never
did. The air temp was probably low 80’s and the fishing was very good. We
did not see any surfacing stripers but caught small/largemouth bass in
abundance, many over 2 lbs. Top water poppers were very good as was DT6
cranks. A white spinnerbait was also working pretty well. My novice fishing
partner caught 24 and I was double or more of that. Largest fish was a few
stripers caught on a jerkbait, about 4-5 lbs. with a 2 ¾ largemouth thrown
in on top water.
Friday was more of the same, lots of very good bass action with a largemouth
of almost 4 lbs (DT10) and many areas where the largemouth ruled and were
caught 10-1 over the smallies. We spent a lot of time driving around looking
for striper boils, much to no avail, wasting over an hour in the AM and
another 2 hours about noon after we spotted some boils in Zahn bay on the
far side of the Great Bend. Most of the time they were up and down before we
ever got close but we did manage to hook up with a few schools that came
fairly close to us where we could get a few cast in before they sounded. We
did catch 5-6 lb fish out of these groups. We still spent enough time bass
fishing to catch at least 150 this day with top water poppers producing well
and the DT 10 crank along with watermelon Hula Grubs & drop shot putting the
most in the boat. Anywhere there was brush, mostly salt cedar, we were sure
to catch at least as many largemouth as smalls.
Sat seemed slower although we only fished until 10:30 before packing up.
While top water did do well for the first hour and then shallow cranks, it
dropped off quickly and we then went to the dbl tail grub and robo worm drop
shotting out deeper (15-25’) to catch them. We probably only caught about 60
this morning and many were on the small side although we did have another
couple of largemouth in the 2.5 range.
We never did go over used water so it’s hard to say it was an area
thing but the hot sunny weather seemed to make things tougher and by noon on
Sat it seemed lots more than the 88 degrees the truck temp gauge read. It
was VERY surprising the amount of largemouth we caught. They were pretty
much everywhere and very dominant in the flatter, brushier areas for sure.
It was also quite disappointing not to see any more striper activity than we
saw and we drove lots of miles and in backs of canyons and open water to see
very little and what we did never stayed up for more than a few minutes. Of
the 250+ fish we caught, 1/3 were less than 10” and 90% of that was
smallies. Another 1/3 were over 13” and 60% of these were largemouth. It was
very encouraging to see the largemouth make such a comeback. The water was
still plenty deep to use the Castle Creek cut and cut many corners off of
the long way around that has been the norm previous to the past couple of
years. Water temp was 76-80 degrees and air temp was probably in the low
90’s late in the day. |
September 10, 2009 - Rich Tolway, Tony Lunato and Ed Elefante -
Knowles Canyon Boils |
 |
After a slow day in Bullfrog and Halls Crossing the friendly game wardens
informed us we should move up North to Tapestry Wall and Knowles Canyon to
fish. We moved the houseboat to Knowles Canyon on Saturday afternoon and
found boils all over the bay between the wall and the canyon. Silver spoons,
Kastmasters and Crippled herring were producing large stripers all Saturday
evening when cast into a boil. The full moon had been covered by cloud cover
all Friday night. All the stripers were 3-4 lbs. A couple of bigger ones
were lost at the boat (of course). The boils were large and fast moving. One
striper had 21 full grown shad in his stomach.
Rich Tolway |
 |
Tony Lunato (Eastlake, Ohio) |
 |
Ed Elefante (Phoenix, Arizona) |
 |
Sunday and Monday the boils were hard to find. The full moon had been out
all night and we could hear them feeding all night. The wives had a large
boil in Knowles next to the houseboat for awhile while we were at Tapestry
wall. We switch to trolling and found Chartreuse deep running shad plugs at
20 feet caught a nice mixed bag of Walleye, smallmouth and stripers. With
the moon waning, I can only imagine the fishing will get better. The schools
were there.
|
September 10, 2009 - Danny Woods |
Danny Woods (This Side of That
Guide Service)
The top water bite has slowed down, the warm weather has sent the bass back
down to about 25 feet of water. The long deep points on the main channels
are still holding a lot of small mouth bass, if your looking for numbers
this is the place to fish. Larger fish are a bit more reluctant to bite but
like i have said before, be patient, slow down and the size of your fish
will increase.
Shad colored crank baits, watermelon hula grubs and the ol' blue/silver cast
master all produced good numbers of fish. The air temp was in the low 90's
and the surface water temp ranged from 79 degrees to 82 degrees. It is not
going to be long until the backs of coves fill up with large fish waiting to
attack unsuspecting critters to eat. So, until then keep on fishing!!!
|
September 8, 2009 - Marc Caldwell -
Floating Striper |
 |
Wayne - My name is Marc Caldwell and I'm from Rifle
Colorado. On a recent trip to Lake Powell in early August we were looking
for a camp site in the Red Canyon area when we happened upon this monster
striper floating in the shallows, it weighed
36 pounds 4 ounces. We had some
friends camping within a 100 yards or so of where we found the fish and they
told us that there had been a boil in that cove just a few hours prior to us
showing up. The fish was not hot or stiff yet so I believe that it had just
died. A pretty fun start to an awesome week at Lake Powell.
Marc Caldwell |
 |
I also have included a picture of a large mouth I caught
last fall on a crank bait in 6 to 8 feet of water in the Good Hope Bay area,
she weighed 5 pounds 12 ounces.
The Lake's Getting Better And Better Everyday. |
August 27, 2009 - Tim Kelley - Bullfrog Boils |
Chris and Dave |
Halls Fishing Report 08-24-09
Tim Kelley, Hot Wheels, Chris, Dave, Wayne & Kathy
Headed to Halls on 8-19-09 with Chris and Dave from Flagstaff to meet
Hotwheels, Wayne and Kathy Dorsett. We arrived at 2:00 p.m. and Hotwheels
had left me a phone message to meet him up at Tapestry Wall. Chris, Dave & I
arrived at the wall, and were hailing Jack, but know reply. I told Chris to
head a little farther north, and about 1 mile north on the east shore a big
boil was already in progress. We glided in on the boil and had a triple hook
up right away. We were pulling stripers in left and right for about 20
minutes, when Jack hailed us on the radio. I told him to get his buns over
there as we had a boil going around us. He pulled up with Wayne and Kathy on
the boat with him, and said that they were in a long afternoon boil in Warm
Springs canyon, so they couldn't hear our radio. They caught a couple out of
this boil, and said they had no more room in the cooler, so they were
heading back to the cleaning station! (Can you imagine leaving a boil
because your 160 quart cooler was already full?) Too funny!! We fished it
till it subsided and ended up with 32 fish. What a way to start the trip-we
were pumped. Got into a small boil in a little cove on the right before the
ramp on the way back, stripers and small mouth together caught a few more.
|
 |
Thursday morning we started early in the Halls houseboat
field, and they were already going when we arrived. Boils everywhere, just
cast and catch! This went for about an hour and a half, and Hotwheels and I
had the magna cooler half full!! After that we went to Tapestry Wall just
before there we caught a few from the channel, and then we went to the wall
and started catching them right on the wall. They were cruising the wall and
if you got close to the wall and then started casting parallel to the wall
you would get a hit or catch a fish every cast. Wayne and Kathy were there
along with Chris and Dave in
Chris's new Lund. We worked the wall all the way to Warm Springs Canyon, and
caught quite a few off of the points at the mouth, and in between the
points. We went into Warm Springs Canyon and filleted the fish in the shade,
another giant cooler full. I think I died and went to fishing heaven.
Wayne Dorsett |
 |
Friday morning we went back to the Halls houseboat field,
but nothing. Wayne Dorsett saw a boil erupt across the bay to the right of
Stanton on the shore line. We screamed over there and started getting into
them big time. They were busting shad clear into the tamarisks. That boil
lasted for about 30 minutes and then dispersed and turned into small groups
feeding out into the channel. We went from there up to Tapestry wall and
fished the rest of the day to fill the cooler again.
Saturday morning we got into the tail end of the boils at Stanton, and
headed up the channel towards Tapestry wall. Kathy Dorsett and Dakota joined
Hotwheels and I on the boat as the Dorsett's had some friends come up to
fish with Wayne on their whaler. About two mile south of Tapestry wall the
whole channel was lit up with dispersed feeding, but what we found out was
that fish were packed in there all throughout the channel, and all you had
to do was fan cast the channel and catch stripers.
Jack Herrin |
 |
Several boats were on this pattern, and Topcat and Denn
showed up too. We fished this channel most of the morning with numerous
double and triple hookups all morning long. It didn't take long to fill the
cooler. The stripers ended up moving towards the west shore line along the
sloping rocks, and it was a blast tossing top waters to the shoreline for
numerous hook ups. Lures of choice were large saltwater poppers, super
spooks, sammys, and walking sticks. Spent the afternoon filleting fish, and
pulling Chris around on water skis. We heard the National Weather Service
severe storm warning so we headed in early, and we were glad we did. It
wasn't as severe as what hit the southern end, but it was pretty windy.
Kathy Dorsett |
 |
Sunday morning the storm must have knocked down the boils
because there was nothing happening early in the morning, however a big boil
came up over by the haystacks and ferry cove later in the morning. We went
up to Tapestry wall and fished most of the morning up there. Hotwheels and I
caught around 30 stripers, before we had to head back to get everything
packed, and removed from the pontoon for the trip back home on Monday. What
a great trip, with good friends, and spectacular fishing.
Tim Kelley |
September 8, 2009 - Scott Barclay - Bullfrog
Bass |
| Fishing this weekend was spectacular for small mouths and
large mouths. I could not find the stripers. The small mouths were hitting
spinner baits, rattle traps, shad raps, and plastic worms. The large mouths
were hitting the same lures. My brother and I fished for two days. Saturday
and Sunday, and we caught 75 small mouths and 15 large mouths.
We fished near Bullfrog bay and Halls Crossing. We fished the north edges
of the main channel between the bay and Moki canyon. We also fished Moki
canyon but didn't have as much success. Again, we did not see a single
striper boil or catch a single striper. We did catch one walleye. We caught
mainly small fish but about 10 of the smallmouth were over 2 lbs. Largemouth
were fun to catch and a little bigger than most of the smallmouth. Most of
the fish were caught on spinner baits.
We tried the green lights at night as those have worked well in the past
and the shad would come to the lights in huge schools (the shad sure are
bigger this year) however, the strippers never showed up. We really wanted
to catch the strippers. If you could tell us where they are we might go back
down this next weekend and try to find them. |
September 6, 2009 - Brian Chee |
 I
took this shot with my phone, I caught this on the morning of 8/22/09. it
was about 9am in the morning, i was using a 4 inch orange grub with skirt on
a 1/8 jig. I caught this over next to state line launch ramp. it was about 5
to 6 lbs. this was my only catch that day but one of my biggest largemounths
I've caught.
Brian Chee |
September 6, 2009 - Shane Spravzoff - Mid Lake
Bass |
September 4, 2009 - Scott Stelmach |
Here's a report from the Captain who had the pleasure of taking 6 ladies out
on our houseboat last week!! We pulled out of Bullfrog slips around 12:30 pm
on Friday Aug 28 and headed straight down to Slickrock Canyon. Found a nice
quiet beach to ourselves and set about anchoring and preparing appetizers.
About the time we had retired to the back of houseboat to relax(maybe 6ish)
a boil exploded across the entire channel!! The easiest thing to untie was a
jetski so I leaped off the back deck with rod in hand and shot out to the
boil. I had not thought much about what rod I grabbed and that was my first
mistake. The first cast near the boil and the rod bent immediately.
Unfortunately, I was throwing a Lucky Craft Sammy 100 on fairly light fluoro
line (6 lb) so really had to play them to get them in. And of course in my
haste to mount the jetski I hadn't grabbed any kind of hook removal device.
Well I did manage to pull one hook out of my index finger so that I could
continue to fish the boil after I had gotten the first fish aboard the jet
ski. After that a little more care was taken to pull each fish into the
trough of the jetski. The boil maybe lasted 15 minutes and 3 were
successfully landed (already enough for a fish fry).
On Saturday morning I awoke to the sound of single splashes so this time I
was READY. The Boston Whaler was loaded with rods ("Are those all yours?"
the ladies had inquired the night before). Off I shot in the boat and
started casting single splashes/shore structure with mild success. This kept
me occupied until around 6:45 am when the bay again exploded with a boil.
This time I put down the Lucky Craft Sammy that I was using for shore
fishing. Smallies and started throwing a single hook swimming shad. It was
easy fishing and each cast brought in a Striper. The single hook made it so
easy to just drop the fish in the back and chuck the lure into the boil
again. Well, unfortunately, I had left the Sammy floating out near the shore
instead of reeling it in when the boil started (amazing how many bad choices
a boil causes!) and now that rod was about to fall out of the boat while I
had another Striper on the rod in hand. Luckily my foot caught the rod
before it jumped out of the boat but I heard a snap and the $15.00 Sammy was
now a delightful piece of jewelry for a Striper. By the time all was said
and done I might of had 8-10 fat fish before the boil dissolved. After the
boil I spent some time casting the shoreline with another Sammy and was
amazed at the size of the Smallmouth. Still caught numerous fat 12-14
inchers but then there'd be a 2.5-4.0 lb fish interspersed. Headed back to
the houseboat to fillet fish for dinner and noted that at least half of the
Stripers had nothing in their stomachs while the other half had one shad.
Makes me wonder if the shad are becoming sparse in Slick Rock area?
Saturday afternoon we watched a movie with the air conditioning on and all
the shades closed. That evening not a single boiled appeared but we had a
delicious fish fry and had so much left over we took it to two houseboats
parked in the canyon with us. In talking to people aboard the other
houseboats we discovered there was a huge boil during the afternoon while we
were watching the movie! They had wondered where I was during the explosion.
Sunday was an odd day and very few fish showed themselves so we all just
floated and relaxed.
Monday a.m. again had boils moving through the canyon and I repeated the
same system with great success. Monday evening was the "girls gone wild"
night so I spent time chasing boils up and down the canyon while the ladies
were my spotters from the top of the houseboat. Literally the canyon would
resound with 6 woman screaming "BOIL!!!!!" at the top of their lungs so that
I could keep track of where the fish were coming up next. Fishing boils is
exciting enough but to have an audience made it even more thrilling!
That evening I gave 7 stripers (and two swim shad lures) to a boat that
hadn't had much luck.
Well that's it for this year...thanks for all the info you help pass on to
us all. Please tell Sonny (with the DWR) that I met at Bullfrog ramp that I
did send a photo in poor resolution. The metal stringer broke right after
the photo on Saturday morning.
Long live the lake |
September 4, 2009 - Robert and Billie Morris - Heber City, Utah |
Friday, September 4, 2009
Just got back from our every morning fishing activity and I think I am
on-line. Just like last year we trolled off of Gunsight Point, right out of
Padre Bay, and have caught around 40 smallies (some in the 2-3 lb range,
WOW) and several stripers in the 5-8 lb range, all in just a few days of
fishing . . . with the grandkids. All the bass were caught (trolling at a
pretty good speed) on shad colored shap rap lures of medium size. Some were
caught on green colors and some on green, yellow and red in combo. Fishing
was fast and furious and best from 1/2 hour prior to sunrise to about 1/2
hour after sunrise. We had several triple hookups and lots of smiles and
laughter from everyone on board. All of the grandkids caught fish and even
all of the adults!! Great times, thanks for the Website and all the info!
I will try and send several photos in additional emails, I am using a
verizon wireless air-card and am in Padre bay but cannot see Navajo so . . .
you may not get the photos, but I will try.
All the kids, spouses, grandkids and even a Mother-in-law!
|
September 1, 2009 - Danny Woods |
 |
Monday Aug. 31st - Tues. Sept. 1st.
Well, sometimes the fishing slows down and on smoky Monday (smoky, hazed
filled Warm Creek) the fishing was slow. My clients Peter and his son Carter
and I left State Line at 2:30 pm Monday afternoon to go find some striper
boils, it was not happening. After scouting around with zero success I
decided to hit the points once again for some small mouth action. The bass
fishing was still good but was defiantly slow. We managed to boat about 20
small bass, nothing with any size. We fished the Blue Gill patterned rapala
and small poppers, lots of activity but light fish. The last hour of dark
was going to be our attack time but the wind picked up and blew until dark.
Managed to land a few.
|
 |
Peter and Carter really enjoyed the Lake and the trip and
decided to try it again on Tuesday. I received their called and was happy to
accommodate. Tuesday was a real turn around, the overcast sky and lower
temps seemed to get the fish active. We tried once again to chase down a
boil or two. We located 3-4 boils over by the dam and a few more in Warm
Creek. Peter and Carter were unable to hook up but what a great thrill
chasing boils. The boils we saw are large boils and were not staying up very
long, timing is everything on these boils.
The smallies seemed to enjoy the cooler weather as well, we stayed with the
same lures as Monday and started catching larger bass throughout the day.
This time the last hour of dark was calm, cool and the backs of the coves
were like glass. We headed to the to coves and started our top water attack.
We all had on silver colored plugs, fishing 8# test line. The Large mouth
and smallies were on the bite. We ended up boating 2 nice Largemouth and a
handful of little chunk smallies. Top water fishing early in the morning and
late day is only going to get better!!
|
August 30, 2009 - Jeff Rogers and family- St. George, UT |
 |
"Dad get the net" said Jeter, age 7, as he reeled in a
smallmouth bass. It was the first time he cast, hooked, and landed a fish
all by himself. It was a one day family outing led by Jeff Rogers, with his
son Clint, grandson Jeter and friend Randy Freston. The day started with
finding a short lived striper boil near Tapestry Wall in Navajo Canyon. We
caught 10 stripers all about 4 lbs in size along an east wall at about 8am.
We had the most success with topwater lures in the boil although a
rattletrap and wally lure also caught fish.
Jeter Rogers |
 |
The boil and slurps quit soon after and so we switched to
smallmouth fishing using drop shot rigged senkos. Topwater lures also worked
well for smallmouth even in the middle of the day with no shade on the
water. We landed and released 20 smallmouth bass from various spots around
the lower lake, the biggest of these at about 2.5 lbs. At the mouth of Padre
Canyon we fished around a large submerged rock and caught smallmouth from a
periodic boil. It looked like a small striper boil but topwater lures
brought back smallmouth bass instead. It was a great day on the lake, and we
brought home some healthy looking striper fillets for a fish fry. |
August 30, 2009 - Bill Brown- Great Auk |
Well, for the first time in the last few decades, our
intrepid fishing team returned from a couple of days of fishing during
perfect weather, great barometric readings, no wind, and little moon with,
gasp!, no stripers. We hit all the spots from Halls up through the northern
reaches of Good Hope on two mornings from pre-crack-of-dawn through mid
morning, and never saw anything but an occasional fish on the surface. We
searched the channels,
we checked out the canyons, we deep-trolled at them, we shallow-trolled at
them, we top-watered at them, and we anchovied at them shallow, deep and in
between. The scopes showed lots of stripers at all kinds of depths in
different places, ranging from 16 to 90 feet. The only boil we came across
was during take-out right by the pooper dock at Halls, and even that one
lasted less than a minute. There seemed to be loads of shad on the surface.
At least the smallmouth were cooperating pretty much everywhere along rubble
shores and around cover. |
August 30, 2009 - Capt. Brian T. Myers |
Lake Powell, Aug 18-20
I had clients coming in for a houseboat trip that would take them south to
the Escalante. I began scouting out old haunts from years way past in the
Rincon. WOW! I have not fished Powell for what seems like a dozen years when
the water was up this high. I began in the north cut of the Rincon with a
buzzbait over the flooded salt cedars where rocky points fell off into
deeper water. I caught several 1-2 pound small mouths and I was amazed at
the amount of shad in this cut. I have never seen the shad like it is now.
For the past few years the shad population in areas that I have fished has
exploded.
I then began scouting the Rincon area seeking striper boils but they never
materialized. I then ran further south to an area a friend took me too when
I first started bass fishing. We call it the shady wall because you can keep
out of the sun until early afternoon. It has lots of big chunk rock and
usually held all species of fish. I caught several smallies on drop shot
senko's and crank baits and got to watch a pair of Peregrine Falcons hunt
what looked like canyon wrens.
I started back north to another area we refer to as the pockets off of the
main channel. I found several 1-2 pound small mouths and large mouths on
crank baits. I spied another cut across the channel that looked interesting
so I ran across and on the first cast caught a 2 pound small mouth that had
about 30 in the school with him when I brought him to the boat. As I moved
towards the back of the cut I could see a large ball of shad that the school
was feeding on. It was like watching the Blue Planet on Discovery channel.
The water was so clear and you could see bass from 4 inches to 2 pounds
feeding and chasing the bait onto the bank. I went to a drop shot senko and
a Texas rigged tube and I was catching bass on every cast no matter where I
would cast the bait.
I then headed back to Iceberg and ran clear to the back where every cut was
full of shad in the flooded salt cedars. I could see some good large mouths
cruising but was unable to get them to eat anything I served up. I was able
to catch several 8-10 inch large mouths on spinner baits.
Next stop was Slick Rock. I fished a hump in the middle that came up to 12
feet and had several bites on the tube. There was a lot of traffic in there
so I went to the back and found the same 8-10 inch large mouths on spinner
baits. As I was leaving Slick Rock a striper boil on the front point erupted
and I caught several 3-5 pound stripers on a zara spook.
I then ran into Lake Canyon and found the same with the largemouth bass in
the very back. The shad in the backs of these canyons is just unbelievable.
It reminded me of the the lakes in TX and OK. The next day and ran
into Halls Creek and started working a wall I usually catch nice small
mouth's on with a tube. I caught a couple of small fish and a blue gill. As
I worked my way to the back of the cut I could only scrounge up 6-10 inch
small mouth. Then I heard this noise and looked out to the front where the
cut met the main channel in Halls and it was one of the largest striper
boils I have ever seen. I ran to the boil, picked up a zara spook and went
to spanking 4-6 pound stripers on every cast for an hour and a half. I
literally wore myself out. This boil was over water that was 30-50 feet deep
and the sonar was just covered with bait and stripers. One of the boats from
shore came out next to me with a fly rod but I never saw them hook up. The
zara spook was hooked up every cast into the boil.
I then ran to the very back of Halls where the main creek came in looking
for some big largemouth. The creek channel went back about a half of a mile
and was wall to wall shad. I flipped jigs into cover on the banks, I through
spinner baits but could not find any takers. With all the bait fish and
heavy cover it is hard to even no where to start to find the bigger fish.
The grebes in the back of Halls all had their babies with them and there was
a pair of Osprey in the back that was also fishing.
That night before at the Halls RV Park I shared some information with some
other anglers staying there and they said that the striper boils had been
slow up north but on the way back they found a good boil in the middle of
the day at Tapestry wall. So I headed north to check it out. Once I got
there I was graphing huge schools of stripers on bait in about 60 feet of
water. I thought this would be a good time to try out the downrigger. After
about 20 minutes of trolling I saw a pontoon boat pull up on point where
Tapestry wall goes into Warm Springs. Then I saw them run back into Warm
Springs. I pulled up the rigger and ran back to find the stripers boiling on
the shady side of the channel. I picked up the Zara spook and went to
spanking the stripers again for about an hour on every cast. The stripers
were all fat 3-6 pounders and I wore myself out again.
The next morning I would pick my clients up at 5:30am. I was hoping the
striper boil in Halls would return. After a quick safety orientation we ran
to Halls and explained to my clients that we need to make sure they needed
to know how to work a bait caster and walk the dog with the zara spook. We
had about 45 minutes until the striper boil would appear. At 7am I started
idling the boat over to where the boil was the day before and the same boat
with the fly fisherman was already waiting also. We then had another boat
show up and several stripers were starting to hit the surface. Unfortunately
the group of anglers in the boat that showed up would not turn the motor off
and the stripers would only boil for a few second and scattered. Finally
after that boat left I could see the boil inside the cut where we started.
We ran back there and for about an hour my clients went to hammering the
stripers. The stripers had the bait fish pushed up on the bank and the bank
fisherman got to enjoy the moment also. One after the other I was removing
treble hoods from stripers releasing them and turning to reel another.
We then ran north to the original client spot #1 where all the bass were.
The school of shad was still there and the bass were in trouble. After
watching bass feed on the bait ball and catching numerous small mouths we
ran across to the pockets and my client hooked up on a crank bait with about
a 1 pound largemouth that had 5 bigger small mouth's trying to take the
crank bait out its mouth. You just can't make this stuff up when everyone in
the boat is also seeing it.
We then ran to the Rincon and worked the area in the middle of the day with
a buzz bait and pulled a few of the smallmouth I was catching a couple days
earlier. Then the super bonus of the day happened. We were just fishing,
minding our own business when a B1B Stealth bomber dropped out from over the
cliff above us and buzzed the inside of the Rincon all the way south down
the lake and went supersonic straight up out of the canyon. That woke up the
neighborhood. I love those guys!
|
August 26, 2009 - Danny Woods |
 Fishing
Report Lake Powell 08/26/2009
Danny Woods
The fishing has definitely changed and is changing for the better, if you
want to start catching some better bass. We were unable to locate striper
boils, so my Friend Randy and my son Christopher concentrated on the long
rocky points with deep water close. The small mouth were hot and active
around 2:00pm for about an hour and sporadic until an hour before dark. Once
the sun went behind the canyon walls the long rocky points began to swirl
with small mouth bass. Blue gill colored rapalas was the lure of choice and
it paid off big dividends. We all had multiple hook ups and the size of the
fish are noticeable larger then what we have been catching all summer. We
caught plenty of fish around the 1.5 pound range. The smaller fish are still
attacking like crazy but the larger fish seem to be getting hungry.
My son, who is four years old, caught and landed four fish by himself. To my
amazement his fourth fish ended up being a great catch. I thought for a
moment that he had hooked a striper until I saw the gold white flash of a
large small mouth bass. I jumped up to retrieve the net hoping my son keeps
the line tight. He fought the fish to the boat like a little pro, drag
ripping and pole bending, close enough so I could scoop the trophy into the
boat. After a great laugh and some great pictures he returned the beauty
back to the lake. |
August 26, 2009 - Wayne Gustaveson - Warm Creek
to Navajo Boils |
 |
I took some first time striper chasers with me to Warm Creek
this morning. The fish were late allowing us to marvel at the sunrise over
Warm Creek. It was one of the good ones.
But the singles that usually start to come up with the sun were late. I
start looking around Warm Creek red buoy 12-14. Being patient absolutely as
long as possible I left after 5 minutes. |
 |
At the mouth of Navajo we started to see single splashes.
I had the rookies throw to a splash ring and WHACK... the lure
disappeared.
We kept that up for about 10 minutes until we started to see groups of 5
to 10 fish. Then the chase was on. We got close enough a number of times.
|
 |
Stu and Roger Sandall
turned into boil veterans within the hour. We tossed 22 fish in the cooler
and then headed to the dock so we could go to work and take Roger to school.
We left the fish boiling. Looks like they are going to keep feeding
for most of the day.
Boils are fun! |
August 24, 2009 - Dennis Sheperd - Hite stripers
|
Just got back from Hite, we were there from the 19th to the 22nd. Fished
every where from Red Canyon to North Wash. Best fishing we had was in the
main channel in front of and back into North Wash. Saw a few boils early
morning and late evening. Most of the fish were healthy but we caught four
skinny fish, we've attached a picture of two of them. We caught 40 fish, not
the numbers but enough to have some nice dinners.
Den and Lisa
|
August 23, 2009 - Brandon Genereaux - Grand Junction
Spooning stripers |
8-20 8-23 fishing.
Buddy and I spent the end of the week between Bullfrog and Escalante. Caught
lots and lots of small mouth on rattle traps and tube jigs everywhere,
morning, noon, and almost night.
Caught lots of stripers from 6:30AM to 9:00AM on the shaded banks of the
north side of the entrance to slick rock. Don’t just hunt for boils they are
a good indicator for finding fish and of course fish can be caught but if
you know what to watch for on a fish finder you can haul 3x more fish
vertical jigging cast masters or fast sinking jigs. The boils only lasted
for about 40 minutes but we caught fish for two hours after the boils ended
by dropping jigs into 50 feet of water and reeling quickly up about 20 feet
and then dropping back down, drop, rip, repeat. 1 – 1.5 ounce cast masters
had the best success due to their quicker drop, silver and gold. Also caught
a bunch of fish Sat evening in slick rock canyon, the wind made things extra
challenging but the two of us put 40 fish on the deck droppin and rippin on
steeper south bank mid canyon. This method also worked great on the east
shores of bull frog bay south of the boat ramp at noon Sunday! An awesome
boil popped up as well right at mid day while we were jigging in 40-50 feet
of water! If you saw two guys with constant double hookups on the front of a
pontoon boat that was us.
Also beware the fish police are on the prowl at night! Got checked at
midnight outside Slick Rock canyon while anchored on the wall night fishing.
Night fishing is hopeless by the way. Also made a trip to the entrance of
the Escalante and it was barren Friday evening and Saturday morning, was
rather disappointing wish we would have stayed around slick rock but can’t
beat the scenery. Caught an endless amount of small mouth on the eastern
banks at the upper part of the bend midday, fished a small mouth boil in the
back of a cove! |
August 22, 2009 - Russ Bassdozer |
Striped Bass Fishing Fun!
Field-Testing SEBILE's New Lures
for 2010
What do a trio of guys who work in the fishing business do for fun? We
just can't help it. We confess. We love to go fishing more than anything
else!
This time we shot forty-two miles up lake in the cool dimness of false
dawn, itching to reach a hotspot nestled in the back of Rock Creek Canyon on
Lake Powell in Utah. Fish had bitten well there on Thursday, when a lot
(approx. 50 stripers) were deep-jigged off bottom. We were disappointed
there on Friday morning, when "only" 8 to 10 stripers obliged us. On
Saturday, the wind blew them off their feed. So with two "off" mornings in a
row, as we sped back up there on Sunday morning, I just knew (I hoped) that
they'd be ready to go wild in the windless conditions on Sunday morning -
and they did!
Patrick Sebile, a Frenchman who has relocated himself and his lure
company to Palmer Lake, Colorado supplied us with some new lures we were
field-testing for him. Patrick's possibly the best angler in the world
today.
Also joining us was Captain Jay Withers, a saltwater charter captain
sharpie from Port Charlotte, Florida.
We hit stripers and smallmouth on Sebile's new lures, which will be
available in late 2009 or early 2010. I'm here to tell you, you need to try
them too! The hit list included:
- New Fast Cast Jig. An ideal choice
for distance casting, speed reeling and jigging bottom in deep water.
- New Vibrato Jig. I can only
describe the Vibrato as a wacky jig, with the line tied to the center of
the long, slim metal jig's body, and a treble dangles off each end of the
bait. On the fall, it flutters like a wacky worm, and when you lift it, it
paddles hard, vibrating side-to-side with a throbbing resistance felt in
the rod tip. There's really nothing else quite like it
- New Spin Shad #1. We fished the
smallest of the Spin Shad sizes from anywhere just below the surface to
sixty feet deep, and caught stripers non-stop with it. The Spin Shad was
also the most productive lure for smallmouth on this trip.
- New
Crankster SR (Shallow Runner). We didn't use this a lot, but
when we did, stripers and smallies were all over it!
- Slim Stick and Splasher Topwater Baits.
These aren't new (although many anglers have yet to try them) - but it was
too much fun for us not to toss them for stripers and smallies on top!
- New Magic Swimmer Soft and new Stick Shadd
Soft. We Carolina-rigged and dropshot these new soft lures,
having success with smallmouth - but that's another story. Let's take it
back to the big striper blitz right now...
So there we were - battling schoolie-sized landlocked striped bass. At
times on every cast all three of us were reeling them in - reveling in the
world-famous beauty of the scenic southwest desert impoundment, Lake Powell.
As the sun and temperature climbed quickly and uncomfortably, the
stripers retired for the day to parts unknown. After the striper action
subsided, we did try largemouth and smallmouth fishing, which was slow, but
the poor cooperation from the black and brown bass didn't dampen our delight
or tarnish our shared memories of catching the plentiful striped bass that
were breaking the surface in an early morning feeding frenzy. At times they
surrounded us in all directions for magical moments that didn't want to end.
The barrages of feeding stripers everywhere were amplified and echoed off
the cliff walls, seeming all the louder in contrast to the stillness of
early morning.
Differences Between Freshwater and Saltwater Stripers
People often ask if there are differences in the quality of the fight,
the coloration, body tone, or if stripers taste different from fresh or
saltwater. No, there really is no difference I can notice.
One thing though, is that freshwater stripers fixate or predate heavily
on pelagic (meaning open water baitfish) in large impoundments like Powell.
They do not normally pursue bottom fish, mollusks, panfish, crayfish for
example, unless pelagic baitfish (like shad) become so scarce or
inaccessible that the freshwater stripers really have no other choice but to
scavenge for anything else they can find, which doesn't happen that often.
Fortunately, they can usually find shad, shad and more shad. It's their
mainstay on Powell.
In contrast, in saltwater, it seems there is such a multitude and variety
of bait available to striped bass, that they tend to feed on whatever's most
plentiful at any given moment, which may vary widely. What this means to an
angler, is that saltwater striped bass will often hit a wider variety of
lures, especially colors that match whatever fodder's most prevalent at the
moment. Sometimes that may be red-hued sand eels, golden yellow baby pollack,
amber brown squid, black-striped mackerel, sheening butterfish, black eels,
blue herring, not to mention shrimp, clams, crabs, worms, bottom fish (baby
blackfish, porgies, flatfish) snapper blues, hordes of young-of-year
weakfish and so much more. Now, it’s true that day in and day out (including
night fishing for stripers), odds are you can't beat a white color lure for
saltwater stripers - but since the menu is so varied in saltwater, other
colors seem to be of more importance in the salt to match the almost endless
menu in the seas. Conversely, since the menu is so limited in freshwater
impoundments like Powell, basically to shad, the importance of a white color
lure is absolutely essential, such as the Sebile White Lady (Q2) color in
freshwater. Certainly have fun trying other colors, but white really is the
"go to" color for freshwater stripers, plus shad-imitating silver-sided
colors like Sebile's Holo Greenie (D9) and Natural Shiner (O) for instance.
|
Russ lips one on Sebile's Fast Cast jig.
Bassdozer hoists another on Sebile's flashy blue sardine color Fast Cast
jig.
Capt. Jay had much success by "walking the dog" with Sebile's Slim Stick
topwater bait in White Lady color.
Patrick Sebile demonstrates effectiveness of his new Fast Cast long distance
casting jig in Holo Greenie (D9) color.
Patrick Sebile and Russ Bassdozer chuckle gleefully over a double whammy of
bent rods and hard-fighting stripers!
Russ and Jay wax victorious again!
A good time was had by all!
After stripers schools had broken up the shad schools and pushed the
remaining shad up against offshore reefs or deep cliff walls, then schools
of smallmouth would come out to clean up on the left-over shad. That was
when Captain Jay Withers, saltwater expert from Port Charlotte, Florida,
would pop up a little smallmouth on the side with a Sebile Splasher topwater
lure.
When the stripers schools took breaks (which didn't last long) to let the
dispersed shad regroup back into schools before charging them again, that's
when smallmouth would come out from the nearby reefs, points and walls and
blast anything that moved, including a blue chrome Sebile Crankster SR
(Shallow Runner) fat crankbait waddled along the surface with a stop-and-go
retrieve. Swim the Crankster SR barely below the surface for several feet
and then let it pop to the top during pauses in the retrieve, which is when
smallies love to smash it.
|
Sebile's New Product Showcase
These are examples of the new products we put to the test, producing
results that exceeded our expectations. What a memorable and rewarding trip
this was for Patrick, Jay and I!
New Crankster
SR (Shallow Runner) has a super-loud knocking rattle inside, and
casts super long distance. It waddles desperately just under the surface.
Try pauses every few feet to let it pop to the top, then continue.
New Spin Shad
#1 (shown top) weighs 5/8 oz. This is the size we used from just
below the surface to 60 feet deep - and at any depth in between wherever
striper schools showed up in mid-water on the electronics, we were able to
count down and keep the Spin Shad #1 working at any level necessary in the
water column. We did not get a chance to try Spin Shad #2 (bottom) which
weighs 1-3/8 oz and is easy to use, according to Patrick and Jay who have
fished depths to 120 feet, with it - which is not uncommon for striper
fishing or offshore ocean fishing.
New Vibrato Jig,
which I refer to as a "wacky-rigged jig" since the line is tied mid-center,
remindful of how one rigs a wacky worm, except this is a solid metal jig. It
flutters on the fall and throbs with vibration when you lift or jig it.
Stripers and smallies hit it on the fall as well as on a steady retrieve or
when bounced on bottom. On a steady retrieve, I fished it like and it felt
like a tight-wobbling crankbait. It worked any way I tried to use it!
New Fast Cast
Jigs. These metal-bodied beauties weigh approx. 1-3/8 oz and are
2-3/4" long, but will come in larger and smaller sizes too. They're great
for long distance casting, they swim and swagger on the retrieve and excel
for deep vertical jigging. The Fast Cast proved productive on stripers and
smallies alike.
|
August 21, 2009 - Danny Woods (This Side of That
Guide Service) |
 |
Monday/Tuesday August 17th & 18th
Boils going crazy in Warm Creek on Monday. Air temp low 90's water temp is
dropping and the striper were staying up for a long time, long enough that
we caught 5 fish out of one boil. Cast, catch, cast again and catch again,
absolutely amazing. We have been using the same gear as we have the whole
summer. 6 lb test on spin casters with medium size blue spooks, great combo!
|
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I do have a suggestion, I am starting to switch to fire line
14 lb test 6 lb diameter, the striper are tearing up the line and I am
loosing spooks after about the 7th or 8th fish. Tuesday was not as
productive as Monday, we saw a lot of boil but the were going down fast,
timing and a little luck was the key. Tuesday was also a lot hotter then it
was on Monday.
|
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Smallmouth bass are attacking top water lures early in the
morning. Poppers seem to be a little bit more productive than the smaller
spooks but both of these lures will produce. Trolling crank baits have
slowed down, still catching a few but not like it was a couple of weeks ago.
For those who are willing to fish the hot late afternoon, try throwing
silver and blue cast masters off the main points in the channels with a
sharp up stroke and then a subtle fall. Nice Bite!! Good Luck and Good
Fishing www.fishingpowell.com
|
August 17, 2009 - Jeramie Kerns - Last Chance -
bass |
 |
Date Fished: Saturday, 08-15-09
Tackle Used: Rattle TrapsAfter much excitement from reading about the
recent striper boils, the guys in our family headed to Lake Powell for my
brother in-law's bachelor party. We saw several pics on the website over the
last month with boat loads of stripers, and were looking forward to getting
in, on the action.
Jeramie Kerns
Cedar City, UT
|
 |
Starting at 6 AM, we fished the canyons from Padre Bay back
out to the main channel hoping to see some surface action. Unfortunately
mother nature had other ideas. Saturday was an extremely windy day to be on
the lake and eliminated the possiblity of seeing any surface action. As a
result, we altered our strategy and hit a cove deep within Last Chance.
Thankfully it paid off and, within one hour we caught ten SMB and a handful
of small stripers using Rattle Traps.
It wasn't the striper action that we were hoping for but we had a great time
anyway catching SMB. |
August 16, 2009 - Mark Thompson - Neanderthal
Cove Stripers |
 |
My name is Mark Thompson. Our
anglers included my son DJ, my brother
Scott, and my girlfriend
Rebecca. We are from San Diego, CA.
We just returned from Lake Powell (August 7th-August13th) with one of our
greatest fishing experiences ever. |
 |
We stayed in Neanderthal cove and striper action
was non-stop. We fished the morning and evening feeding frenzy. Our first
morning we never left our cove. We averaged 15 stripers a piece each
session.
We even caught a couple walleye on top water. When the action was slow we
trolled and fished for bass. I cant tell you how many bass in the 1 pound
range we caught.
|
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We caught bass all day, mostly on reapers and on the troll
with kastmasters and shad raps.
We used spooks, pop r, rapalas, rattle traps, yozuri, and kastmasters. My 12
year old son was grinning from ear to ear for a week.
We fished from mile marker 28 to 30 in the main channel and cruised the
coves all around looking for boils. It was a cat and mouse chase. Sometimes
the schools were 30 yards by 30 yards wide.
|
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On our way back to Wahweap we spotted huge schools outside
of Padre bay, I packed all poles away because if we stopped we were going to
be late.
If anglers are only fishing, they will be able to spot and stalk boils all
day. On the 9th we fished all day and the striper boils were everywhere, all
day.
|
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I wanted to thank you and all the anglers who have posted,
without everybody's help prior to us going we would have been a little
handicapped. I knew
exactly what to take and what to look for, thanks again.
|
August 15. 2009 - Tony Ferris - Hite
|
 |
Just got home after another epic adventure. I never remember
to send fishing reports, so this is a first. Of note, we saw NO sign of red
marking or weird things on any of the fish we caught. All looked quite
normal. Most stripers were 2-3 lbs and fat.
Our trip across Good Hope Bay on Friday afternoon was truly terrifying. It
was the first time I've ever been caught in bad weather on the water in all
the years I've been going to Powell. I honestly thought we were going to
capsize a couple of times and figure the only thing that saved me was
praying real hard. Prayer works well! I don't want to go through that kind
of experience again - ever! I tried to get into Scorup Canyon, but wind was
blowing at 90 degrees to the canyon and that wasn't going to work. I wasn't
sure what I was going to do, but decided to head with the wind to the
opposite side of The Horn, regardless of the rocks, then just as I finally
got in front of the whole thing, I realized the Horn itself was blocking the
wind. Seeing a real beach behind me, I hung a quick 180 and beached as fast
as I could. I never want to repeat that again!
We found a really great beach in a protected cove on an island due west of
Farley and White Canyons on the tip of the peninsula that sticks out into
the bay except at really high water. I was able to tie up securely to rocks
with three ropes on each side and a bow rope. After the wind storm, I had no
desire to have a wind problem.
|
The young boy is my friend Curt's son Bryce.
He was really excited, but the flash went off at an strange time, so his
look doesn't do justice to his excitement!
|
Sunday my friend Curt and I trolled the portabote all the
way into Trachyte with nary a bite. It was pretty disappointing to say the
least. Monday afternoon we trolled all the way up Farley. You could actually
get up to where you could see the campground and even the outhouses. It's
been years since you could get that far.
Monday night, we encountered a truly epic boil at the mouth of White Canyon.
In my 12' fold up portabote, my friend Curt and his son Bryce and I followed
the boil into White Canyon and were in the middle of it for about an hour,
pulling out 33 stripers, losing a few others. It was a blast! I landed 13 of
them and the other two got 20, I don't know what the ratio between them was.
Hard to imagine making only about 15-20 casts in an hour, but I was too busy
getting a hookup and getting them off the hook. A 12' portabote is not
conducive to having multiple poles for everyone.
The next morning, I climbed to the top of the little island we were camped
by and saw another big boil in the cove where we were camped the year
before. I hopped in my boat and went over by myself - everyone else was
asleep. It was about 1/2 mile around the point to get there and as I cruised
up, I made one cast and they went down, never to come up again that morning.
Not to worry, I cast between a couple of tamarisk that were mostly under
water and proceeded to catch small and large mouth bass for the next hour,
having about 20 hookups and landing 15, all very nice size. Most were
probably 1.5 to 2 lbs. It was a blast.
Tuesday and Wednesday were slow fishing, but we still found a few small
boils, caught 3-4 and couldn't complain of being skunked. A few other
smallies from the same cove as Tuesday morning and even several nice
stripers trolling. As for tackle, it was the old tried and true chartreuse
Yamamoto hula grub for everything every day.
We went to the tip of the point towards Trachyte on the island we were on,
so we could jump off the rocks and swim and right as we got there (without
fishing poles) in the middle of the day, a huge boil occurred right on that
point and it was nasty to watch and not be able to do anything about it. I
ran all the way back, got the boat and poles and got back only to scare them
down and they didn't come back up. Oh well...We ended up with 58 fish for
the week, about 40 of them stripers.
|
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Emily caught a huge largemouth on Wednesday morning and I
was so excited for her, I never thought about the camera, so we have no
photo, but it was as big as some of the big stripers we caught - maybe 3-4
lbs. I was amazed. She had fun, though she only got into one boil. We pulled
out and were headed home by 10:30 Friday morning, record time for us getting
away early.
I think the next Hite trip will be done earlier, probably the last couple of
weeks in July. We were there earlier last year and had much better luck,
almost 300 fish in a week and most of that was fishing boils from shore that
swam into our cove. You can catch them way faster from shore than a boat if
you're lucky enough to have them boil next to you.
Oh, one other thing - we took a trip up White Canyon one day in the
portabote and I couldn't believe how far we could go. I bet it was a couple
of miles past the battleship rock. We saw a beautiful desert bighorn sheep.
A big ram with a great set of horns.
|
August 14, 2009 - Chad Pitt - Gunsight bass |
 |
We recently camped over in Gunsight July 19 - 25 and fished
from shore next to a drop-off. I was out there for approximately 2 hours and
catching small mouth bass non-stop.
Chad Pitt |
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They are much smaller than the striper, but I had a
fun time watching my 3 year old son and nephews reel them in. It was a great
way to teach them how to fish!
|
August 13, 2009 - Mike McNabb |
 |
We fished the main channel leading to Rock Creek and some of the coves
around that area and did very well. We used top water lures, Sammies, up
until noon then used a dark colored double tail hula grub. Alexander caught
a few nice smallies around the 2 pound range and his dad Scott caught the
larger stripers.
Alexander |
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As we chased boils in the main channel the trick was to get
to the boil in a hurry, cut the engine and drift in on them. When we got
close we were successful in pulling out stripers, a few times we had 2 on a
once. When we got there after the boil went down we threw out anyway and
hooked up with ones that were just under the surface hanging around still
looking for something to attack.
Scott |
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When fishing in the back of coves and saw one hit the
surface you really didn't know what you were going to catch, striper, SM or
LM. We had a great day of fishing with great company.
Water Cave in Rock Creek |
August 13, 2009 - Mike McNabb |
 |
Went out again today in the same area, around Rock Creek at
the crack of dawn and caught a lot of Smallies on top water, Sammies and a
few on the dark colored double tailed hula grubs. Once again some of the
smallies were in the 2 pound range and one really nice 4 pound largemouth.
Unfortunately the largemouth got the Sammy caught up in his gills and didn't
make it back where he came from, we tried to revive him but the injury was
too bad. |
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We only saw one boil early in the morning and the stripers
were small. I'm not sure if the heavy cloud cover had much to with not
finding the boils but the
fishing for smallies was still good and the one big largemouth. We fished a
half day and had a great time. I really enjoyed Lawrence and Terri and the
boys, wonderful, fun people. |
August 13, 2009 - Ronda Doss - San Juan trophy |
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We go to Lake Powell every year first part of August and
always have a great time, but this is the first BIG fish we have caught in
many, many years.
The big fish weighed in at 12 pounds.
Ronda Doss |
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I was using a white hell bender lure and the location was
along the canyons of San Juan just before the big open bay area.
|
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There was striper boils all over San Juan area the week we
where there, they did not last long, as fast as they came up as fast as they
went down. Nice boils! |
May 3, 2009 - Jim Maack - New State Record
Crappie |
 There
was a new Utah and Lake Powell record crappie caught near the Escalante.
Jim Maack from Wisconsin was the lucky angler.
The fish hit a roadrunner crappie jig.
The fish measured 18.5 inches long, and 15 inches around.
This monster weighed 3 pounds and 5 ounces.
Congratulations Jim Maack |
June 8, 2009 - Roy Kimura - Oak Canyon |
 I
went house boating at Powell Jun 4th thru 10th with my Hawaii gang.. Spent a
few days in Oak Canyon.
On Monday morning my friend Landon Stkoa and I went trolling at dawn in
the main channel.
Picked up this 31lb 11oz
Striper on anchovies!
Roy Kimura |
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Sunday morning my wife and I grabbed a wave-runner to do
some sight seeing on our last full day on the lake. We were going to go
across the bay and check out Face or Labyrinth canyons but after a couple
minutes I realized that at barely 50 degrees outside it was too cold to go
that far, so I remembered a little cove on the back wall of Padre Bay near
the Cookie Jar, and was curious what it was like with the water up higher.
We cruised around in there a little while, noticed a large school of very
small fish.
Evan Coleman |
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Then on our way out of the cove maybe a couple hundred feet
from us I saw something white floating, and in my head I quickly assumed it
was trash blown from a boat because of the strong winds during the previous
days, and almost dismissed it as such, but we decided to check it out and
what a surprise. We could see it's gills, and it's two front fins moving
slowly back and forth. |
July 5, 2008 - Robert McAden - Big Striper
Contest Leader - Navajo Canyon |
 Robert
McAden of Greenehaven fishing with his son
Jason and grandson
Michael Ryan caught this Giant in Navajo Canyon
on Saturday, June 28, 2008. He had been handing Michael Ryan his rod
whenever he hooked up on the 1-2 pound stripers they had been catching. This
one almost pulled the boy out of the boat before Robert could grab back the
rod. He thought he had hooked a big catfish until it surfaced. Then they
knew their net was way to small.
They hauled it aboard and went to Antelope where the scale only went to
30 lb. On to Basha's where Mike the meat man weighed it out at 36 lbs. What
do you do with a giant striper? Robert was going to buy a chest freezer but
he didn't have room in his garage because of all his other toys. So it's out
to Big Water to his buddy Franks' freezer. He's going to have it mounted.
It's a sure bet he'll find room on his den wall for it.
Reported by Chris Cross
MORE DETAIL: Wayne
Robert and group were bass fishing without much success so they decided
to go to Navajo and catch some stripers. Robert has a good dependable bait
fishing spot further up the canyon well past the twin islands but not as far
as the big sand dune.
Upon arrival they soon got the stripers going with chum. Robert would set
the hook on very light-biting stripers and let young Michael finish the job.
On about the fourth fish Robert set the hook and was just handing it off
when the big fish took off at a high rate of speed and headed for deep
water. He took the rod back thanking his lucky stars that he had just retied
his lead head jig on 14 pound test line. The big fish took 1/3 of an
anchovy on a jig head. It made some impressive drag-squealing
runs for about 15 minutes before it came to the top. The bait was swallowed
deeply with line rubbing dangerously on the rough grasping teeth of the
striper's mouth. Jason netted the big fish and got it in the boat with
Dads' help. It as a real family effort.
Each big fish has a unique story. To my knowledge this is the first
one to be caught on bait. The fish hit in 30-40 feet of water and then went
over the ledge into deep water. More surprising yet, the fish was hooked at
noon in the heat of the day and in full bright light. Robert was as
surprised by these facts as am I. I have no answer as to why this fish
was so completely unpredictable.
Robert will get a fiberglass mount. The frozen fish will then be given to
Wayne for analysis of age, diet, and other biological facts. Thanks for
sharing this adventure with us and for donating the big one to increase our
knowledge of these rare fish. |
February 8, 2007 - Sherm Mcdonell (Waynes version) |
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Sherm was on the couch resting when Shelley said "we
moved here to go fishing, so lets go". He reluctantly chose the better
path and went fishing. They spent the day exploring Knowles
Canyon. Since it was their first trip to Knowles they just drifted and
fished the entire canyon. They used anchovies in deep water and caught a
walleye in open water. Near the end of the canyon with bottom depth
about 20 feet, Sherm picked up his chartreuse bass grub on the light 6' Ugly
Stick rod with 6 pound test to try the shoreline for bass. |
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He had caught a few 1-2 pound stripers on the grub in deeper
water so it was working quite well.
As the grub descended in the clear water he saw a flash of a nice fish
and set the hook. It was a solid hook up and Sherm was sure he had a
10-pounder. The first run was strong but Sherm was on the trolling
motor as the fish passed under the boat and headed for deep water.
He told Shelly that he was going to win a hat in the Big Striper Contest
with this fish. |
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The first run stopped in about 40 yards but Sherm couldn't
gain much of his 6-pound line back without using the trolling motor to take
up the slack. He did get quite a bit of line back before the second run
started. The next run was longer but fairly steady so he was able to keep up
with the trolling motor. He felt lucky to still have the fish hooked
up. On a warmer day the runs would have been quicker and longer and the
first run would have been the last. The striper would have been the proud
owner of a green grub.
Sherm stationed Shelly on the big motor with instructions to crank up at
the next run. She was ready but the big fish came to the top and
rolled over. Then Sherm saw it was no 10-pounder but much bigger. |
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It was just a matter of time before they got the fish close
enough to the boat to put the net under it. It was 3 PM, at the warmest part
of the day. Fishing was best between 1-3 PM.
Then the pictures and fun began. They raced back to Bullfrog to get
the official weight- 32.5 pounds 43.75
total length and 26 inch girth.
There was a large crowd congregated at the Bullfrog Service Station where
the certified scales were surrounded when the fish was officially weighed.
The trophy is headed to the taxidermist where it will make a great mount
and the stomach contents and other pertinent internal information will be
gleaned.
Nice Fish Sherm - Keep listening to Shelly! |
May 2, 2006 - Michelle and Richard Gonzalez |
Semi - Annual Gonzalez Family Lake Powell Fishing Trip
– April 28th thru May 5th
We arrived at beautiful Lake Powell to start our
semi-annual fishing trip on Friday, April 28th, the weather was
perfect and the water was pristine. Our first boat ride out to the
fishing spot at Last Chance Bay was 4:45 on Saturday morning where we
starting throwing various colors of jerk baits. The same routine was
followed for several days yielding an average of 35 Striped Bass per day
with a weight of 1 – 6 lbs. On the second day of fishing, my husband
Richard an avid fisherman, broke his pole and complained about his spare
rod the whole next day. So I finally gave in and traded him poles leaving
me with the spare rod (a junk rod that has been around for ages). 
On Monday, May 1st during the morning
hours, after catching over 20 fish, my husband hooked up with a 1 lb
striped bass using a jerk bait. As he was retrieving the fish, we
noticed a huge striper swimming next to him (approx 3 ft long.). The
huge striper tried to engulf the hooked fish for over 3 minutes. The
mouth of the huge striper was completely covering the hooked fish, but we
were unable to lure him into biting any other bait that we threw. He
then decided to swim off into deeper water.
The fishing trip gets even more interesting and
exciting on Tuesday, May 2, 2006 fishing the east side canyons, south
facing shoals in Last Chance Bay. I was fishing on the old junk rod,
with 10 lb Stren LoVis Green fishing line, using a 4” XPS Excalibur Natural
Shad jerk bait (which I use every year) when on my eighth cast of the
morning at approx 5:30 a.m. I got a strike and set the hook. At
first, I assumed that I had side hooked the fish by the way it was taking
line, but then the rod loaded and I knew I had a good fish. It’s
initial run pulled 60 yards of line when my husband told me to move to the
front of the boat where we could chase the fish if we needed to. I slowly
began to gain line back when I thought that I had lost the fish, one treble
hook (# 6) gave loose, but to our pleasure, we still had the fish hooked
up. Still reeling in slowly we saw a huge tail break the surface of
the water. (we thought it may be the same fish we had seen on the previous
 day).
My children awoke at the excitement and my daughter
grabbed the video camera. The fish swam by the port side of the boat
were we were finally able to get a good look at it, and my husband noted
that it appeared to be a 20 pound Striped Bass. After a few minutes
of steady pull the fish rolled on his side where I was able to get it close
enough to the boat for my husband to use the Rapala grippers to grab the
fish with. When he heaved it on board, we all saw the fish’s girth
and were shocked at the magnificent specimen that we had caught. We were
all amazed that we were able to land the fish with only one treble
(partially straightened), hooked to the lower part of his jaw. We had a
preliminary reading on a digit scale that we had on board at 34 ½ lbs. We
all assumed it was a female, but in fact it was a male.
Cameras where flashing, video was rolling and we were
already sending picture messages to our family members who where still
trying to enjoy their morning rest. Everyone on the boat was
still screaming with excitement and amazement when my husband tells my
children and I that we should release the fish back into the lake. That he
was too beautiful to keep. He was overruled and the fish made its way back
in an ice chest stopping at Antelope point for information on who to
contact and advise of the fish. They informed us that we should take
the fish to Bashas for official weight and that folks would be waiting for
us there. The cameras were flashing at Antelope point as they advised
us to get it weighed immediately.
On the way back to Wahweap, we held the fish up to
every boat that passed by to share the excitement of the catch. Upon
arriving at Bashas, we were met by many local town folks who instructed us
on where to go to get the fish weighed. Official weight was 34 ½ lbs,
40 ½ inches long with a girth of 27”. The biggest fish my family and
I have ever caught and to that matter, ever seen in our lifetime.
Every year we talk about catching the 20 lb fish of lifetime, this year we
exceeded it. What a wonderful experience, one that will never be
forgotten. We are looking so forward to returning in September to our
favorite place in the world “Beautiful Lake Powell”. And by the way,
during the entire trip of 7 days fishing, we caught 243 Striped Bass and 2
Small Mouth Bass.
|
May 3, 2006 - Michelle Gonzalez (and Wayne Gustaveson) |
|
The Gonzalez family has been coming to Lake Powell
each spring from Riverside CA to fish for stripers. They get up early in
the morning and cast jerk baits in the early dawn shadows along the shade
line of Padre Bay, Last Chance and Rock Creek. Sometimes stripers hit
till shortly after dawn and other times the bite lasts past noon.
 The
Bass Pro XPS Minnow jerk bait which is close to the lure used to catch the
big fish.
XBPM35: 3-1/2"; 3/8 oz.; dives to 5'.
XBPM45: 5"; 7/8 oz.; dives 5'-7'.
This year’s trip was no different. On the first
day of vacation, stripers near Cookie Jar in Padre Bay hit jerk baits all
morning. They caught 55 fish weighing 2-6 pounds and called it a day.
Feeling confident on the second day they slept in and arrived at Last
Chance after the sun was on the water. The fish did not bite and that
day was not as good. They choose to only fish artificial lures so the many
stripers hanging around the canyon walls waiting for a fresh piece of
anchovy meat weresafe. 
The third day found the Gonzalez family back to their
old successful habits, launching the boat at 4:30 AM and making the run
uplake in the dark. Following their formula for success they again
found willing stripers eager to chase the Bass Pro Shops brand of jerk bait
called the XPS Excalibur. It runs about 6 feet deep and is most
effective when jerked and paused in a regular cadence during the retrieve.
Both shad color and blue back color were working well. On this morning
many stripers were following the bait but not taking the last bite
necessary to take the hook. Finally a one-pound fish hit the bait. While
playing the little striper another larger fish could be seen following the
fish. It was not the normal 3-5 pound schoolie striper but a monster
over 3-feet long that followed the hooked fish to the boat and then turned
away to be seen no more.
 Day
four found them again jerking baits in the same cove in Last Chance. They
were on the opposite end of the cove some 600 yards from where the big fish
was seen the previous day. Catching was better this morning in dawns
early light. At 5:30 AM Michelle got a hit that she thought was a
side hooked striper because it felt heavy and moved slowly. When the
fish took a run that stripped off 60 feet of line she realized it was, in
fact, a monster. She played the fish masterfully and thought half way
through the battle that she had lost the fish. Later she learned that
the momentary pause and slack line was caused by one hook coming loose.
When the big fish rolled near the boat the $1.99 XPS lure was hanging by
only one barb. But her husband used his hand held fish grippers to
lip the fish and get it into the boat.
After much hollering they got on their picture cell
phones and started rolling family and friends out of bed back home in CA.
Michelle has had a permanent grin fixed on her pretty face ever since.
Their secret was to find a successful technique (stop
and go jerk bait) and stick with it. They come each spring to the same time
and fish in the same locations. The very best time to fish is from 5-7 AM
in the morning. That combination finally paid off with a 34.5 pound
striper. It was 40.5 inches long and 27 inches around.
Michelle has promised to tell her own story here next
week after she gets home. Way to go Michelle. |
June 16, 2005 - Dan and Mike Porter (Waynes Version) |
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First let me tell you that some things in yesterdays fish
report were correct. There are some good fish in Rock Creek, however
trolling is not necessarily over for the year. Sorry this first
picture is fuzzy but it shows a thunderstick with NO split ring or hook on
the back and only a well stretched split ring on the front. This story was
one coil of split ring wire away from not being told.
|
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Dan Porter from Salt Lake City and his brother Mike drove to
Bullfrog yesterday and launched the boat. They knew they had to go
south and they wanted to troll. That was as detailed a plan as was
developed. So they started looking for campsites at Escalante
but when it was dark they stopped at Dry Rock and spent the night.
|
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When dawn cracked at 7 AM they got in the boat to troll.
One pass in the middle of Dry Rock Creek resulted in a 6-pound striper for
Dan. That was fun so they turned around for another run. Dan had
5 colors of leaded line out with a thunderstick as the terminal bait. The
next pass took about 5 minutes before the big one hit. It seemed to be a
snag but the water was 113 feet deep. The big trolling rod never did
snap back and the fight was on. Dan will send us the details when he
gets home to SLC. He has pictures taken by his wife during the whole
30-minute event. The big one finally came up and took a run toward the bow
of the boat. They used the motor to get back in control, pull out the
slack line, and put some tension on the fish. At that point the
big striper rolled over. The net was placed under the fish and when
pressure was applied the aluminum handle broke. Despite this adversity
the fish was hoisted in and Dan collapsed with a permanent smile affixed to
his face. Then he noticed one hook gone and the other hanging by one
strand of wire. |
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The fish was taken to Dangling Rope and measured at 42
inches long and 27 around. The decision was made to get it weighed
officially. So Dan, Mike and wives took the food out of the cooler,
put in the fish, and headed for Wahweap. That is the only place to get
an official weight for a big fish on Lake Powell. Wayne met the group at
Wahweap and weighed the fish at Bashas' Grocery store. It was 38.5
pounds. It must have spawned the week before since the rule is that stripers
weigh about one pound for each inch of length. It was probably 42 pounds
before the spawn and after dinner. Lake record is 48 pounds so this
one was a bit short - but a darn nice fish. |
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Mike indicated later that he had done some homework before
the trip as he held up the printed version of everything that appears on
this website. Mike and Dan expressed their good fortune in catching the big
fish. But it looks to me like they had a good plan. They were wise
enough to head downstream from Bullfrog where the fishing was better.
So far their total fishing time this trip is 20 minutes.
|
July 10, 2003 - Maury and Cody Foye - Flagstaff AZ |
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On Saturday July 5th, my wife and I
found what I believe would have been the new state record for
striped bass. It must have just died because it was very flexible
and had not discolored any. We pulled up to it, near the San Juan
area, and took some measurements. I am estimating the weight at
70-80lbs.(it broke my 50lb scale after it went all the way around to
the 10lb mark again then twang...snapped spring) It was 62.5 inches
long with a 37 inch girth. With the mouth fully extended the
steering wheel on my boat could nearly fit inside. |
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Why I am writing is to find out how
common these toads are caught/found; and with these measurements how
much it actually weighed. (If there is a formula or something) I
have caught lots of large fish in Hawaii and holding this one felt
very similar. What might have been the cause of death? (no visible
markings or injuries) how old would a 5'2" striper be? |
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