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Lake
Powell Fish Report |
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Have you made a recent fishing
trip to Lake Powell?
If you have, please let us know how you did. E-mail your fishing report to
Wayne Gustaveson (wayne@wayneswords.com). 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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Visit the
Anglers Corner -
Fishing reports from Lake Powell by anglers for anglers. |
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If you have a question try
posting on WAYNESWORDS
FORUMS. Reports from the previous week can be
seen by clicking on Archived Fish reports
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October 28, 2009
Lake Elevation: 3633
Water Temp: 62-64
F |
A fantastic fishing season is drawing to a close. It has been a banner year
for all species. Habitat, food/forage and fish numbers have peaked at near
optimum conditions. Great fishing will continue into the winter months, but
his will be my last report for a while.
Now it is time for me to go to work sampling fish on the lake. I will be on
the water during the week and not near a computer for awhile. Reports will
continue sporadically as something news worthy happens. I leave you with
this advice.
Shawn Johnson - Wahweap Largemouth
Bass
Today shad are still in the shallows with bass and stripers standing guard
in close proximity. But a winter storm is bearing down which will drop water
temperature into the 50s. Soon winter fishing patterns will be in place.
That means top water fishing is almost over for the year. It is wise to have
a surface lure hooked up during November, just in case, but the real
catching will be done at depth.
We fished this morning in Warm Creek. Shad schools were swimming happily in
the shallows with little regard for any threat. A surface lure did hook a
couple of small bass but the action was slow. Later in the morning we left
shallow water and began graphing for stripers. There were none in the creek
channel at 25 feet nor any at the next drop to 45 feet. It was not until we
reached mid channel and mid bay where bottom depth registered 60 feet that
we saw a fish school close to the bottom. Spoons were deployed and stripers
cooperated. The spot was marked with a float for reference. During the first
flurry we put four fish quickly in the boat. Then we returned to the marker
and caught more. Each time we lost the school we circled the marker until
the school was located. Each time spoons were dropped while fish were on the
graph fish were hooked.
This will be the striper pattern for the
next two months. Find a school on the graph in deep water then
quickly drop spoons, stump jumpers or swim baits to get the school excited.
We try to keep a hooked fish in the water column as long as possible to keep
the school from drifting away. Schoolies tend to follow a fish that is
feeding/hooked. Likewise a fish that comes unhooked and swims away often
takes the whole school with him. When that happens return to the marker and
start the search over.
We caught 30 stripers (2-4 pounds) in 2 hours after spending 3 unproductive
early hours fishing too shallow. Winter time success comes from fishing
deliberately in deep water for specific targets. Striper bass, walleye and
catfish can all be taken in this manner.
Unfortunately bass fishing will slow with each degree of cooling. November
fishing will be fair only to grind to a halt in December and January.
Surprisingly, crappie fishing will improve with November being perhaps the
best month of the year for fishing success. Crappie will be schooled in the
densest brush shelters in the canyon. Fish vertically in heavy cover with
small curly tail grubs for best results.
Walleye are good winter fish with most of them caught in the northern lake
near Hite. Catfish success declines with cooling.
For the rest of the year stripers, walleye
and crappie are the best fish to target.
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December 12, 2008
By Wayne Gustaveson
Lake Elevation: 3620
Water Temp: 56-57
F |
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Fish are waiting for the days to lengthen and the water to warm just a bit.
For now the best fishing is under the marinas with night fishing being
better than in daylight.
We should utilize this break in catching to gear up our defenses to prevent
quagga mussels from invading Lake Powell. What the heck is a
quagga mussel?
Dont confuse that with the Asian clam that is
already present in Lake Powell |
 Asian
Clam |
An Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) task force determined in 1999 that
zebra
mussels would eventually cross the continental divide and infest western
waters. It was determined that Lake Powell would be the likely point of
introduction because of the many visiting boats that use this great
resource. Since 1999 an active program has been in place to prevent zebra
mussel invasion. Any boat entering Glen Canyon NRA from east of the
Continental Divide has been questioned at the entry stations to find out if
mussels could be hitchhiking on entering boats. Any boat with questionable
credentials was given the option of a free hot water wash to kill any
lingering mussels. The program seems to have worked. Mussels have not yet
been found in Lake Powell.
Mussels did finally arrive and during January 2007were detected in
Lakes Mead, Mohave, and Havasu. The invading mussel is a close cousin to the
zebra. Its called a quagga mussel. Quaggas have been characterized as a "zebra
mussel on steroids". They prefer deeper, cooler water and can attach to
soft and hard substrate. They can live more places than zebra mussels.
The problem with mussels is that they are so prolific that they cover the
lake bottom and hard underwater structures with live shellfish. They can
even attach to slow moving animals like crayfish. Nothing is safe. They have
been known to form a shell reef over a foot thick and actually deposit
enough shells to close off water pipes less than 18 inches in diameter. |
 Mussel
encrusted shopping cart |
Millions of shell fish eat by siphoning water through the shell. Lake
productivity is soon impacted as the plankton is siphoned off by shell fish
before other fish can eat it. Fish populations are restructured. If mussels
enter Lake Powell, smallmouth and striped bass fisheries would decline
dramatically.
Mussels discard waste in such volume that the bottom becomes fouled and
water chemistry changes. Lake Powell is threatened by all of these drastic
end results.
The mussel threat to Lake Powell has now increased beyond description. While
mussels cannot climb over Glen Canyon Dam to enter the lake the chance of
boaters bringing larval mussels from the lower basin to Powell is "almost" a
certainty. The only chance for Lake Powell to avoid this fate is if all
visitors are made aware of the problem and take steps to prevent invaders
from making it to Lake Powell. Please do everything in your power to prevent
mussels from altering the beauty and bounty that is now enjoyed. |
Mussel encrusted outdrive. |
What You Can Do:
o Drain the water from your motor, live well, and bilge on land
before leaving the
immediate area of the mussel infested lake.
o Flush the motor and bilges with hot, soapy water or a 5%
solution of household
bleach.
o Completely inspect your vessel and trailer, removing any visible
mussels, but also
feel for any rough or gritty spots on the hull. These may be young mussels
that can
be hard to see.
o Wash the hull, equipment, bilge and any other exposed surface
with hot, soapy water
or use a 5% solution of household bleach.
o Clean and wash your trailer, truck or any other equipment that
comes in contact with
lake water. Mussels can live in small pockets anywhere water collects.
o Air-dry the boat and other equipment for at least five days
before launching in any
other waterway.
Additional information can be found at www.protectyourwaters.net
www.100thMeridian.org.
Expect to be asked questions about your boat and where it has been
before entering or launching at Lake Powell. DWR techs will be on the ramps
beginning in March 2008 to answer your questions about mussels and protect
the lake from mussels. |
October 29, 2008
By Wayne Gustaveson
Lake Elevation: 3623.99
Water Temp: 63-65
F |
It has been a great fishing season but this is my last regular report for
the year. Next week we head up lake for annul gill net sampling so I won't
be able to provide a new reports from my other office - which is Lake
Powell. There will be incidental updates through the winter as news worthy
events occur.
The yearly summary is very bright. Shad made a tremendous comeback in 2008.
They fed the rising generation of game fish left over after the old
generation passed out of the picture in shad-poor 2007. Young stripers grew
rapidly, doubling in weight from 1.5 to 3 pounds from spring to fall. Some
trophy stripers remain and continue to pack on pounds but the bulk of the
population weighs in at 3-4 pounds and is primed to produce a bumper crop of
stripers in 2009.
Shane Spravzoff
Striped bass hatched in 2009 will survive on plankton early in the year and
may eat some shad in summer and fall if shad are abundant. The main
predatory impact of the new striped bass overpopulation will not be felt
until 2010. Striped bass fishing in 2009 will be great for large numbers of
4-pound fish. If shad are scarce, bait fishing will be excellent. If shad
are abundant in 2009, then stripers will grow to 6-pounds before the
predation induced forage crash occurs in 2010.
Bass, particularly largemouth, were treated to a forest of habitat as the
lake rose 45 feet in 2008. Brush that had grown around the lake edge was
flooded providing dense cover for largemouth, crappie and bluegill. Copious
shad were added to the fish forest resulting in lush habitat and feeding
conditions seldom seen in this lake.
Smallmouth hung out on the rocks at the edge of the habitat forest feeding
on shad at a leisurely rate and loving it. These conditions were optimum for
all sport fish. Bluegill, crappie, walleye, and catfish all excelled. The
perfect mix of food and cover was to the liking of all participants, perhaps
with one exception.
The only one left out in this ideal aquatic situation was the angler. When
fish are well fed and housed they have no reason to respond to baits and
lures with more than a token attempt. Stripers lost interest in anchovy bait
in early summer. With live shad or dead bait on the menu there was little
reason to choose bait. Cover made it hard (not impossible) to coax bass out
of the sheltered lair to feed when they could consume sunfish and shad
without leaving home.
It is refreshing to have a complacent fish year like this occasionally to
allow the sport fish a chance grow larger at their leisure. The standard at
Powell is large numbers of small fish with low to no forage which makes
hungry fish easy to catch. Results in 2008 were completely different with
fat fish being difficult to catch. Those pleasant conditions (for fish)
remain in place today and it may remain that way through winter.
Patience is the key. This season is all but over. Normal conditions will
return. Fishing success will improve in 2009. The end result will be
excellent fishing for bigger better fish. I love it.
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