August 27, 2008
By Wayne Gustaveson
Lake Elevation: 3630
Water Temp: 78-83 F

Damien Dibble, Perry UT, shares the back deck with two frisky stripers caught in a boil in Padre Bay!

Oh, oh! Stripers have slipped into their lazy mode over much of the lake. That means they are feeding easily with little need to join in large schools to trap shad. Apparently shad are abundant, scattered and easy to eat at random over most of the lake. Surface feeding is equally easy to see but hard to approach in time to cast to fish before they go down. The chase is fun and punctuated with just enough large sustained boils to make number of fish caught at the end of the day respectable.

The extreme north and south ends of the lake are experiencing these lackadaisical scattered feeding events. Perhaps the best place to be is mid lake where more boils of longer duration are found. On a cruise uplake yesterday from Wahweap to Bullfrog, decent boils were seen mid day at, Buoy 27, Dangling Rope (main channel), Buoy 55, mouth of San Juan, Halls Crossing Marina breakwater and the Bullfrog docks.

The best school in the lower lake was found in Padre Bay around the island separating Gunsight from Padre Bay. Some days the stripers are scattered across Padre, but this morning the big school stayed up from first light to 7:30 AM. Then they fragmented into small groups and feed in all directions throughout Padre Bay. They were easy to catch in the early morning but hard to hook after 8 AM. The school seems to regroup at about 8 AM and then boil once more at 8:30 before finishing the morning feeding event.

Stripers boil again in the afternoon in the same locations beginning as early as 3 PM but feeding may be delayed as late as 6 PM. Most serious anglers end up with 30 fish after a good morning or evening trip.

Smallmouth bass are being caught with ease now along the shoreline but most fish are small. Bigger bass are feeding deep along the shoreline or with the striper schools in open water. Some really big largemouth have been taken recently on surface lures in the backs of brushy coves.

Catfishing is excellent with bait in the evening near camp.