|
ANGLERS CORNER |
|
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. |
|
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.
|
|
If you have a general question try
posting on WAYNESWORDS
FORUMS.
 |
August 29, 2010 - Brooke Wiley - Warm Creek
Stripers |
| We came up to Paige as soon as school got out on Friday,
since it was storming we decided to wait to go out on the lake. We got out
on the lake at 515 Saturday morning and immediately went to the floating
porta potty in Warm Creek. There we saw individual jumps that we could tell
were striper. In the 50-100 foot deep area around the potty we saw small
groups (1-4 fish)of striper. We tried dropping spoons but got nothing.
Then we went across the bay to a cove that had worked for us before, that
was straight across from the potty. There we immediately saw jumps, shad
being chased to the surface, and on the finder we marked massive amounts of
fish. The finder looked like when you are in 5 feet of water and it is very
weedy, and you mark solid weeds and the finder is black. This was happening
to us in 75 feet of water with solid striper. We would drop a spoon and feed
out line, after we had fed out about 10 feet of line, it would go totally
slack and we knew we had a fish. In about an hour and 15 minutes we had
landed 70 fish and filled the ice chest and live well. Most were about 2-3
pounds with some small yearlings. As the sun came over the ridge and the
clouds cleared the fishing slowed way down. |
August 29, 2010 - Bill Eakins & Joe Porcaro -
Moki Stripers |
 |
Hi Wayne ... We reported to you on the 20th, when we first
got to Bullfrog...Bill Eakins & Joe Porcaro ... we zeroed in on the stripers
(no boils sited in Halls- Bullfrog area),by throwing sardine chunks at them
just outside of Moki. Included is a pic from Google Earth showing exactly
where we fished .... "X" marks the spot. |
 |
There were two families from Snowmass, Co and a Sister from
back east, (first time to Powell). We went past the Moki entrance and fished
the first little cut on the right, just off the point and inside the
"horseshoe". Stripers responded every morning (6:30 - 11:00) and every
afternoon (5:00 - dark) with us catching 15 - 25 every time we went out.
This went on for the next five days. We brought home over 100 beautiful
fillets ... ate the rest there. |
 |
As you can see in the pictures, we had our own fish-cleaning
station set up on the back of the houseboat. A lot of time was spent here,
letting the kids teach us how to clean fish ....
Joe and I just couldn't get the hang of it, so we stayed out of
the way.
|
 |
Here are pics of the kids getting ready to fillet ... that's
Nicholas and Christopher at the table
after a morning out. |
 |
The second is Olivia
with "fish on" inside the "horseshoe". |
 |
4 year old daughter, Tori,
it's the first real fish she ever caught .... carp on a "Dora" pole ...
Many thanks for your website ... we've been following it for years ....
usually use it to plan our trips .... keep your line in the water ..... Bill
& Joe
|
August 24, 2010 - Phil Roundy, Jesse Needles and Jordan Needles -
Hite Boils |
August 24, 2010 - MSgt. Bryant Buttars -
Striper City |
Myself, my two sons-Matthew and Hunter and my fishing buddy
Mark Gibson fished the Striper City area 19-22 August. We arrived late
Thursday evening, after dealing with a blown out hub on the boat trailer, to
heavy rain. Sat in the car for a while waiting for the rain to quit and then
got camp set up. We camped and launched in the back of Farley Canyon.
Launching was a little tougher than a month ago, but still possible.
We got the boat launched at 7:00 PM and headed out to Striper City. At the
Mouth of Farley we ran into our first boil and were in them until dark. They
were up and down quick but about every fourth or fifth one would come up
consistently where you could “lead” them and have them come up in casting
range. Than night we caught about 12 stripers before it got too dark.
Up at first light the next day looking for boils. Found NONE. Wind was
blowing for a little while but I don’t think they were there. We fished for
Bass the rest of the morning, and managed to catch enough to keep us
entertained, but we had to work for the ones we got. Most came out of 20-30
feet of water. That evening the boils started about 6:30 but were very quick
up and down. They started to boil in earnest about 7:30 and we caught them
consistently until dark. Caught about 15 that evening. This was the pattern
every night. Boils at 6:30 but hard to catch until 7:30, then it was on!
Sat. morning no boils, again! Did some more bass fishing and then started
trolling the North shore by the Horn. Caught 2 nice walleye, several
Stripers and a bunch of bass. That evening caught stripers out of boils
until dark. Caught about 30 stripers for the day.
Sunday morning we found one boil and caught 2 out of it before they went
down, and then that was all the fish we caught. We left about 10:00 am for
home.
The boils were intense the last hour and a half before dark but fishing was
tough the rest of the day. BUT, the boils in that 90 minutes made it worth
waiting for! There were shad EVERYWHERE in Striper City and Trachyte. In the
evening there were shad schools everywhere on the surface. It looked like it
was raining on the glass lake. There is no shortage of shad in the Striper
City area right now! I’m sure when the full moon is gone the boils will be
even better!
|
August 22, 2010 - Kip Bennett |
 |
Wow what a great summer! I can not wait for the Bass fishing
to really turn on this September and October. Dad and I ran up to Rock Creek
Early Sat. morning to fun fish. Caught a little of everything only saw some
random slurps here and there and seemed to catch them after they would go
down. I was using a 4" Sebile Sinking Magic Swimmer in white that has great
action to it and Dad had Success with the stripers also but was using an old
trusty 4" swim bait that had a spinner attached to it (I think his lure was
like 50yrs old but did the trick)
Robert Bennett |
 |
We had a couple doubles and every time after they would go
down, casting to where they were, letting the bait sink a couple seconds
then retrieving. Caught large mouth in the brush... nothing to huge and LOTS
of small mouth along rocks, deep, shallow, pretty much everywhere! Water
temp was HOT! Called it a day by noon and saved some stranded sea-dooers out
of Padre bay. It is amazing how many boats will go by a broke down boat
before one will stop even with the people waving for help. |
 |
I do need to point out that we went fishing early Friday
morning also throwing nothing but cranks and top water in Warm creek and by
castle rock. I bet we caught 50 or so 8-12" Striper. Every single one reeled
in had about 30 or more following it. Fun and easy to do up in shallow water
if chovies are not your thing and boils not present.
Kip Bennett |
August 22, 2010 - Aaron Proulx - Wahweap Stripers |
| Just wanted to update you on our recent fishing trip (8-14
to 8-19). 7 of us came from MA. We stayed for 6 days but only made it out 3
times. As a group, we only caught 12 stripers. All were caught and kept in
the morning from 6-10am. We used sardines and caught stripers in depths
ranging from 25-50 feet. Weight ranged from 3-8 pounds. Fish were caught as
quickly as 2 minutes after chumming and as long as 45 minutes after
chumming. All were caught along walls in deep channels. One channel wall
around the corner from the dam, and another around the corner from warm
creek bay. DELICIOUS!
I also caught 2 largemouth in shallow coves on a blue and white floating
minnow. Both bass were 3 lbs. and hit the minnow on the descent. 6 catfish
were caught on sardines and worms, behind the beached houseboat. No cat was
larger than 4 lbs. Thanks 4 the fillet video. After the 3rd one, I developed
a decent technique. Hope 2 b back next year. Beautiful lake! |
August 20, 2010 - Bill Eakins - Moki Stripers |
 Caught
this morning outside of Moki on anchovies @ 45 feet |
August 15, 2010 - Mike McNabb |
 |
My son Sean and I finally got to go fishing together last
Saturday. We
headed to Rock Creek and caught a couple. Then headed out to another spot
called Coyote Canyon and had great luck fishing the shallows, 2 to 6 feet of
water with senkos and double tail hula grubs. We caught 10 Largemouth that
ranged from 2 to 3.9 #'s. |
 |
We caught them fishing slow around the base of bushes. We
caught a few on spinner bait. Then the storm hit and it rained on us all the
way back to the launch ramp. We had a great time!
|
August 16, 2010 - Mike McNabb - Bass |
 This
is Julian Couret from France with a 2.9 pound
LM he caught last Friday. We started out using top water and caught 6 or 8
smallmouth and caught that many more using double-tail hula grubs in 10 to
20 feet of water around the shore line around slick rocks. When we got the
fish into the boat they spit out several small shad and inch and a half
long. We fished the backs of coves where the LM were hanging out. They were
in shallow water, 2 to 5 feet deep. The water was clear so we tossed our
bait away from the boat. They hit almost immediately.
Their stomachs were flat and probably empty. It seemed strange to catch
LM so close to where we caught the smallmouth stuffing themselves on shad
and yet the largemouth were hanging around the bushes eating nothing or an
occasional crawdad. Maybe as the water temperature goes down the largemouth
will take their turn hitting the shad and hitting topwater. Last year around
this time when the water temp got down to around 77 degrees we were catching
big LM on topwater. Last year at this time there were full-out boils and
great topwater fishing, it seems to be late in happening this year! The
fishing for SM and LM is okay right now but I think it will pick up really
soon. |
August 16, 2010 - Doepke Boy’s -Rock Creek |
 |
Fished – Sat, 8/7 – Sat. 8/14
We arrived and setup camp in Neanderthal Cove in the rain on Sat., 8/7. We
fished from Gregory Butte to Dangling Rope. The best Striper fishing we
found was all the way in the back of Dry Rock Creek at 6:30am on 8/14. We
used surface lures and when the school would go down they were easily
spooned up. We were almost run over by a black and red Malibu ski boat at
7:00am on 8/14 in this area. I was unable to get his bow numbers but If the
captain of this boat reads this please contact me because we have some
unfinished business! Running this close to another boat is dangerous and
illegal. |
 |
Largemouth and Smallmouth fishing was better than I have had
in years, both in numbers and size. During the day they would be at 25ft.
but would come up to the surface each morning and evening. I used Zoom Super
Flukes in white color on six pound mono to catch thirty fish during each
morning or evening session. All SM and LM were released so we can catch them
again when we come back on Labor Day.
|
 |
All of the shad that I saw were 1 ½” long. No larger shad
was seen during our trip. Most of the stripers that I cleaned were nearly
empty of shad, with an almost empty stomach.
We had a great trip with the exception of some wake board boats and wave
runners. Can’t wait until our Labor Day trip! |
August 10, 2010 - Bill Mulhair - Knowles |
 |
Just got back from a houseboat trip 7-31 to 8-7. Went from
Bull frog to 4 mile canyon. On the way in it was lightly raining and there
were small boils from Moqui to Knowles. Fished 4 mile until Wednesday.
Looked for boils from 4 mile to Hite on 2 mornings, none sighted. One
appeared in 4 mile Wednesday morning and we caught a few stripers on Rebel
popR and Wally spoons.
Kari Uncles |
 |
Night fishing off the back of the boat (50' of water) picked
up as the moon retreated. Mainly crappie all about 10 to 12. Wednesday we
moved to Knolls and started catching stripers trolling glass shads and SR4
jointed shad raps. Also caught smallies in late afternoon using 3/8 lead
head with Yum crawdads in pumpkin color and drop shotting senkos (Daquri
color) and with top water plugs.
Delaney Uncles |
 |
Attached is a picture of Kari with one of the walleyes we
caught, Delaney showing off his fine filleting skills and again Kari with a
nice smallie off the back of the house boat. Thursday morning we hit a boil
in Cedar Bay that filled a cooler and had the floor of the boat covered with
fish. All stripers were caught in 17' of water or less, smallies were
holding at 20' plus. The more rain we got the tougher fishing became as
water became turbid. I must say we filled our freezer however it was some of
the toughest fishing I have experienced.
Bill Mulhair
Jeanine Mulhair
Kari Uncles
Delaney Uncles |
August 16, 2010 - Devon Newman - Salt Lake City, Utah - Escalante |
Hunted for boils near the Escalante river arm from 8/6 – 8/13 with no luck.
Single and double jumpers was the best that we saw for the week and that was
only during the morning and evening with the sun off the water. We were able
to catch only a few stripers when we were close enough to a jumper to get a
good cast. Smallie action was incredible with a silver kastmaster speed
reeling.
|
August 15, 2010 - SVSherwood |
I had the privilege of hosting a couple of veterans in my
boat at Lake Powell this past week and as always, was duly impressed. World
War I ace Dale Gray and World War II sub commander Jim Hamman can still
catch fish amazingly well even in their old and feeble condition.
Notwithstanding their limited bowel control and constant pill requirements,
I heartily recommend these 2 as great entertainment and fish catching
instructors should you have the time, patience, and funding to provide a
tag-a-long nurse and some extra Depends. You’ll also need a rather large
bucket for all the laughs!!
Now for the actual fishing report; Daily water temps 80+, mid 90’s air temp
& sunny, 3636’ elevation
Arrived at the lake on Thursday 8/12/10 at 1 PM and unloaded our stuff on
the houseboat (Thanks Dave Reay) and then proceeded to start looking for
boiling stripers as that’s what this trip was to be all about. Per the
reports on Wayne’s Words, we looked over the Wahweap buoy fields first
starting about 2 PM then on up into Warm Creek after looking around the cut
near Lone Rock and drove around a lot but saw nothing. We then grudgingly
headed up into Padre Bay and after no signs of boils we headed to Last
Chance. We were able to locate a few small boils about half way up the main
channel but only caught a few as they would sound quickly when we got close
and the wind made it tough. We then went to Rock Creek, near Dungeon Canyon
and over into the back of Wetherill Canyon and caught a few smallmouth.
About 6 PM we went back into Last Chance and cruised around looking for the
non-existent boils and finally went back into Sumner Cove and caught a few
more smallmouth before heading in. We cruised by the buoy fields again but
saw no action. I was really bummed by the lack of striper boils that we had
planned on but as of yet, the two older fellers had not required
mouth-to-mouth so I considered all was not lost.
Friday we did a quick run by the buoy fields on our way out at 5:15 AM but
it was too windy to see much so we headed to Last Chance looking for boils
as we went but saw nothing. Turning up into Last Chance I only went a ½ mile
before it was very apparent that it was too windy to ever see anything if
they did boil so up to the San Juan we headed with plans to go as far as
Zahn Bay looking for boils but finally ran into some just before the Wilson
Creek area. One boat was already on them but the poor guy couldn’t cast his
small spoon more than 30’. We stopped and hooked up a triple almost
immediately and soon had to get the defibulator out for the WWI ace. We were
on them pretty good and some of the schools would even stay up but the short
caster boat boy insisted on driving in right on top of them and putting them
down. I’m not sure if he was just figuring too make us all miserable if he
couldn’t catch any or if he really couldn’t see where they were but it
didn’t take long for our Ace to inform him of his folly. I guess he was deaf
as well since he never responded. We eventually left this area as the sun
got up higher and the boils ceased and shorty boat boy went to sulk. These
fish were all in the 4-5 lb range and would willing eat big to bigger
Spook/Sammy type baits. I really don’t think it mattered all that much as
long as the presentation was good. We went onto Zahn’s and never saw any
more boils but proceeded to catch lots and lots of SM and LM bass in all
shapes and sizes with occasional sunfish thrown in. Some on med/shallow
cranks, some spinnerbaits (way to go Dale!), many small grub/jig fish and a
bunch on dropshot. >From 5’ to 35’ and all points in-between.
We stopped at Dangling Rope on the way back about 6:00 PM for a little ice
cream and to listen to a guy tell us he had driven from Wahweap to Halls’
Crossing never seeing a boil. (I guess he should have read Wayne’s Words
late Thursday Fishing Report where it stated the main lake boils were all
but gone unless you went up by Hite….I think our experience and this poor
guy with a deep investment in Mobil found that out the hard way!) Anyway on
the way back in we went back into Last Chance and fought the low sun but sub
commander Jim spotted some boils and the chase was on. We managed to land a
fair number of these stripers but boils were few and far between and we had
to look carefully for the many slurps instead which was tough with a bit of
wind and low light conditions. These fish would also eat whatever was placed
by them for the most part and were in the 3-5 lb range. This was in the main
channel only about a mile up. We fished as long as light would let us and
hurried in.
We debated even going out Sat morning but decided to go up Navajo Canyon and
it turned into a great time. We ran into some single boils here and there
about a ½ mile past the double islands and spent an hour mostly chasing but
occasionally catching one here and there with both bass and stripers mixed
in. Some small and other good ones including a 5 lb striper that out of
nowhere attacked the Super Spook of our Ace when it was almost back to the
boat. That left a ‘mark’….. We left here and motored up the river until we
hit 20’ and fished a little bit with limited success. We came back out a few
miles and stopped in an area that had been good in previous years but was
doing nothing with grubs in 10-20’ when our sub commander noticed fish
hitting the surface out behind us in the middle of the channel with
regularity. We got on them but they were a bit more picky preferring smaller
top water baits and jerk baits. All the stripers in this group were in the
1-2 lb class but we had some decent LM bass and some really good SM bass
come aboard until we had to pack it in at 10:30.
Thursday totals: 10 fish maybe, Friday totals: 160+ Sat: Approx 60 Summary:
Maybe 30 good stripers on top water so don’t plan a trip where this has to
be the deciding factor for success. If you don’t see stripers in a few areas
where recent reports have indicated they would be, pick a good fish area
(San Juan) and just go fishing for whatever! |
August 15, 2010 - Bryan Harrison - Hite stripers |
 We
fished two day's at the North end, and caught 153 Striper's, most in boil's
on Friday, we caught 93 on Friday, 63 in a boil, in the morning and the rest
trolling Hyper Striper's. Didn't get there til Thursday evening, and caught
a cooler full, and caught 12 trolling before we left on Saturday, to see if
they were going to boil again, but they didn't boil where they had, Thursday
evening, and Friday morning. And they didn't boil Friday evening either, in
the same spot in North wash. But we caught 63 Friday morning, on Walleye
assassin's, and my son-in-law was using top water, and caught a little
better fish on them, but had them filleted, and the fish cleaning station
cleaned up, and was through by 10:30, it was fast action, while it lasted. |
August 14, 2010 - Bret Maughan and Dave Dodds - Last Chance Aug
13-14th |
 Bret and
Jamie. |
We left Jeramie and his family home this time and brought our wives. We
should have invited Jeramie...the cove that has been producing for us this
summer was deserted. Keeping up with the reports had us excited to get into
some Last Chance boils, but with winds in the mornings it wasn't happening.
We cruised a few of the side canyons on Friday night but never saw more than
a few surface splashes. We did manage to find a small school in one of the
right/north side canyons and with enough chum we kept them under us for a
few minutes. Enough to catch 10-15 before the school moved on. |
 Dave and
Britney. |
The first few were caught at 50 feet, but soon the striper
were rising to within visible range and taking the anchovies with a silvery
flash. The rest of the trip was rather slow. Small bass were eager to hit
just about anything, no matter what size, and they usually coughed up their
previous meal upon de-hooking. Several spit up fairly large shad and
sunfish. A shad colored swimbait dropped down a vertical wall produced one
striper and one smallmouth in the middle of the day. At least we didn't get
skunked! |
August 12, 2010 - Steve A. |
| Great Site Wayne! Started in Warm creek Thursday the 5th.
Looked for the shad but didn't stumble into any so tried some bait fishing
near the floating restroom. Saw some schools on the sonar, but only caught 1
yearling. Tried by the cliffs across from Stateline ramp and found a couple
of stripers in the 4 lb. class. Friday was tough and didn't do well for
striper or bass (just a few small ones), gave up about 10 am to golf in
town. Great fun till lightning storm! Great views though!
Saturday went to Gunsite early enough to fish some shade and found a
school of 2.5 lb. smallmouth to harass. Great fun and got 6 fish from the
school. Went to middle of Padre bay and used binoculars to find a couple of
striper schools and was able to get 2 fish from 2 schools. Sunday found
large boils in Last chance as a couple other posting had mentioned.
Aggressive fish in the 4 - 5 lb. class. Shared the boils with another boat
in the bay. Great of them to share as they found them first. If you read
this, Thanks guys! |
August 10, 2010 - John Tanner - Piute, San Juan
|
 |
Hit Piute Bay from Waheap on Thursday, August 5, for my
annual "stock up on fish" extravaganza. It is a 60 mile drive counting a
stop at Dangling Rope. No action at all Thursday evening at my regular hot
spot in back of Piute Canyon. I could see fish in water over 50' deep thick
as mud, but no action trolling deep or on anchovies. Friday morning I hit it
a little late after being so exhausted from the trip up. The boils were in
the front of the canyons, not the back. I hit fish immediately. As soon as
the sun touched the water, everything stopped. Except for the smallmouths. I
killed the bass nearly all day long. That was fun on my ultra light.
|
 |
Around 6pm after the sun left the water, the stripers
started boiling like crazy. The entire bay was churning. It was so loud
around the boat, it sounded like I was next to a waterfall. I was using a
Rapala jointed shad rap. After that night, the front treble hook was gone
and the rear only had 1 barb left. Saturday morning I was on the lake at
5:30am waiting for the boils. It was the day of the all day rain that
started around 9am. It was already overcast and I new the boils would last
longer with no sunrise. When it started, it was unprecedented. I was using a
Johnson Sprite spoon. The fish were on before I could start reeling in. The
stripers were pushing the shad up against flat boulders on the shore and the
water was black with fish. I ended up with 22 fish all between 20" and 24"
long. I new the pattern now. The fish would boil for the first 90 minutes in
the morning and last 60 minutes at night. Once the boiling stopped, you
couldn't catch a thing. I never saw any daytime rises at all. I could see
the fish layered in water from 30' to 50' in water over 50' deep. Any
shallower, and the graph was blank. I trolled thru these fish, jigged, fed
them anchovies, and never caught a deep water fish. I fed my anchovies to an
otter at my camp. (didn't know they were on Powell). I ended up with 70
stripers for 3 days fishing. |
 |
Tip for preserving ice and fish: This trip I reinforced the
insulation on my coolers. I bought a 4 x 8 sheet of 1" foam from home depot.
I cut it to fit inside my Walmart 120 and 80 quart Extremes. Bottom, sides,
lid underneath and on top. Use 1.5" screws with a fender washer for lid.
Tape all the edges with duct tape. Keep a bed sheet, ( I used my sleeping
bag) over the cooler to keep the sun from touching it. After 3 days, I
hardly had any water in my coolers. It worked so well, I wanted to share it
with everyone. I also make my own ice at home in 4 x 4 tupperware containers
and quart milk jugs.
After seeing the fish caught on the previous reports, I would probably fish
closer to Last Chance. It was hard to find a flat spot to place my small
tent on the shore in Piute, plus you have to haul gas to make it back to
Dangling rope unless you have a 100 mile plus range. It is definitely hotter
there than Waheap area too. |
August 9, 2010 - Shaggy - Last Chance Stripers |
 |
August 8. Headed out of Page on our fishing camper Friday
afternoon and settled in Last Chance Bay. Caught a few Walleye and Stripers
trolling that evening. Saturday was one of those rare overcast rainy days at
Powell which makes for better sleeping than fishing. Worked hard for few
fish.
Shaggy |
 |
Saturday evening the skys cleared and the entire bay came
alive. 42 out of 2 big boils. Then Sunday morning as the sun hit the water
(6:30ish) the fish were on fire. 4-6 pound stripers with attitudes. Top
water poppers were being unmercifully murdered as quadruple hookups
prevailed. Alright.....bit dramatic but true and fun. When the dust
(stripers) settled about 9am the boat was littered with 71 fish. Total of
approx 120 fish made for lots of work motoring back to the marina. |
August 8. 2010 - Richard Campbell - Wahweap
Night Fishing |
Trevor Campbell and Kris
Espinoza
Caught these in 35 feet of water near Wahweap marina on anchovies
08/05/10 from 10 to 12 pm
Ranged from 2-5 lbs |
August 8, 2010 - Gonzalez Family - Striper boils
|
 |
Arrived at Lake Powell July 26 with a friend and went
fishing that evening. Found fish boiling at the mouth of Warm Creek and
caught 25 - 3 to 4 lb. striped bass with 96 degree temperature and what felt
like 100% humidity. Couldn't drink water quick enough, miserable conditions.
Went out next morning, caught 3 fish in Rock Creek and then went out that
evening and caught 17 more stripers boiling in Warm Creek. Fishing really
slowed down for the next few days due to wind and boils were scarce.
It wasn't until my wife and daughter arrived on 8/2 that the fishing
exploded. With her eagle eye, we were cruising up to Rock Creek and she
found boils in Dungeon Canyon where we hammered 33 stripers and 6 small
mouth bass boiling in the back of the canyon. |
 |
For the next few days, we continued to spot boils in Rock
Creek, Last Chance Bay and Dungeon Canyon where we had a total fish count of
131 stripers all 3-4 lbs. Rock Creek boils where sporadic and very
unorganized but what a blast as you would see a fish come up, cast into ring
and hook one up. As the days progressed the boils in Last Chance Bay became
more aggressive with hundreds of fish. The boils lasted longer but were very
difficult to sneak up on. As we headed towards a boil, the fish would get
spooked and dive down. We started running the boat on plane looking for
boils to appear near the boat so we could get casts off. Once we started
this trick, what we called "Drive by's", we would all get hooked up almost
every time. There was even a time that 2 fish were caught on 1 lure 4lbs
each. Thought we had a big one, but it was a true double hook up. Also had a
blast catching small mouth bass while they were boiling, with a total count
of 10 fish for the trip. |
 |
Fishing was awesome, the weather turned out nice, but the
lightning storms were unbelievable. Every day we would have a great time
fishing, then head back to camp with an awesome evening lightning display.
To make the trip even better, it was a great pleasure to see Wayne out on
the lake as well as visit with him at camp. It is always exciting to tell
Wayne about our daily fishing trips as we can enjoy our excitement with him!
Wow, it couldn't have been any better. |
August 8, 2010 - Craig Smith - Hite Stripers |
Fished out of Hite from 8/3 - 8/8. brought home about 30
Stripers caught primarily from very brief boils. We had no luck in Trachyte
where we found good fishing on our last trip (july 15-19).
On the boils. We happened into a string the biggest boils that we
experienced this season on Friday about 1.5 hours before a very big squall
(driven rain 50+? mph winds, dust and sand from the rim of the canyon.....).
The boils were very aggressive and about the size of a tennis court. They
were located in the main channel about a mile upstream (towards Hite) of the
entrance to Farley and White canyons. The fish pulled from these boils were
larger than the fish we had been been catching in the Farley, White canyon ,
Striper city area, and previously in Trachyte. The difference in size would
be the fillets of three fish to stuff a ziplock compared the fillets of four
fish... if that makes any sense |
August 5, 2010 - Sean Giddings - Hite |
| Went down with the family monday and tuesday. Son and I
headed out each morning fishing while the wife and daughters stayed in bed
until forced to get up by the heat. Hite was muddy and brown. The water
greened up as you got close to Farleys. We boated about a dozen striper and
some SM, sunfish and bluegill while trolling monday a.m. in the main channel
and Farleys as we watched for boils. Never saw any monday a.m. Spent the day
playing with the family. Monday night found boils in Striper City area and
boated another dozen in about an hour. Boils were small but staying up for a
while and coming right back up after going down. We could have probably
pulled alot more striper in but my 7 year old was really tired and cranky
and wanted to go to camp. Huge storm monday night and alot of trash and
driftwood had come out of north wash in the morning and muddied the water
up.
Ran down to Red Canyon tuesday a.m. and found a large boil there and
boated a dozen or so striper before they went away and didn't come back up.
Went back and packed up camp and refueled the boat. Headed down and played
across from 2 mile canyon in the afternoon and a boil came up and kept
popping up for about an hour as we swam and the kids jumped from rocks. We
kept thinking about trying to go catch some but knew that as soon as we
tried they would disappear.
Ran down to Red Canyon and hung around looking for boils about 5:30 p.m.
and spent an hour and never saw any. Ran back to Striper City and found
boils there right away. Pulled about 15 Striper out before having to head
back in. The boils were small but didn't stay down for long. One time they
came up all around the boat and we had 4 rods at once with striper on them.
After the boil went down my 7 year old asked if she could cast her
Shakespeare pink ugly stik spincast out and she ended up catching a striper
and told us to help it was trying to pull her out of the boat. It took her a
while but she finally got it in with her little pink rod and 6# line.
The boils were right at the shoreline at times making it hard to even get
a lure into them. After the boils left there were ravens coming in and
eating the shad that had gotten onto shore and into the rocks trying to get
away from the striper. I think that if we had stuck with it each evening we
would have been able to boat a lot more fish but we had fun. Ended up with
about 50 striper for 8 hours of fishing but if had chased more seriously
could have probably put a lot more in the boat. Used Kastmasters, top waters
and I had great luck with a shallow diving white glitter crank bait. The SM
and LM were pretty tight lipped. We fished for them with a number of
different techniques and only boated a few small SM. Trolling was actually
where we caught the most. |
August 4, 2010 - Wayne Gustaveson - Rock Creek
to Wetherill - Stripers |
| Ran to Rock Creek early this morning to get in on striper
boils that have been hot there recently. Sure enough this morning they were
not - at least for us. Rich Gonzalez was there and caught fish before
we arrived. We came in and the waters calmed immediately. We
chased singles around for awhile without catching one and then decided to go
further upstream. When we left, Rich said a boil came up in our wake.
He caught some more. We went to mouth of Wetherill and found a few
isolated splashes. True to the new character of boiling fish, if we
could cast close to the surfacing school they would readily hit shallow
running pointers and Rapala minnows. We got 5 and lost a couple more at the
boat. Then we caught some bass by casting to the shoreline eventually
working our way downlake hoping for the mid day boils.
Rich went downlake after he left Rock Creek and caught a bunch in the
back of Dove Canyon running shad on shore. That's the first shore boil I
have heard of this year. Another new dimension has opened. The search
pattern now has to include the backs of canyons.
Ron Colby stayed downlake and caught a big boil in Warm Creek. At
the fish cleaning station Ron had 10, Rich had 25 and Wayne had 5.
They should know its not a good thing to have me down by double figures.
This is not over yet! |
August 4, 2010 - Jason Jones - Forgotten Canyon
Stripers |
The fish were boiling like crazy in the evening. Fishing was really hard
during
the day. Then around 5:50 P.M. we started seeing boils by forgotten canyon.
We
were in the main channel and fish were everywhere. we chased them all over
and
were pulling in fish left and right. we ended up with 46 fish in around an
hour
and a half. total for the day was 70 with a couple large mouth and a few
smallies. Fishing these boils you better hold on, these fish are fighters
and
alot of fun.
|
August 4, 2010 - Sean Stansberry - Olathe Yacht
Club - Knowles |
 |
The Olathe Yacht Club took another voyage to the lake July 27th - July 31st.
Great trip! Nice weather with the cloud cover and some rain. Set up camp in
the back of Knowles Canyon, but never made it up to Good Hope.
Austin |
 |
Striper boils were slow and sporadic in our area, but the
bass were busy chasing shad. Shad everywhere! Saw several smallmouth boils
in the backs of canyons. Caught them on top water, cranks, spinner baits,
tubes and about anything else we threw.
Calvin |
 |
Here are pictures of 2 and 3 pound large mouth caught by Zac,
Austin and Calvin.
Zac |
August 3, 2010 - Chet Garling - Buoy 110-120 |
| Arrived at camp just uplake from mile marker 110 on Friday
the 23rd, fished a boil(slurps) and managed 5 fish right around mm 110. The
rest of the time we spent having a family vacation with some fishing cruises
involved. Traveled back to Bullfrog and Halls a couple of times and did not
see any boils south of mm110. Found very difficult to fish boils at mm
110,113, 114, 117 (had one boil around 117 that we managed 9 out of), and
the cove where the floating restroom is at the bottom of Good Hope bay, all
of Good Hope would light up with very frustrating slurps that would go down
just as you got there and of course were moving too fast for the electric,
fished one strong boil at mm 126 had a personal best for the boat with six
fish on at one time, landed about 20 out of that boil which happened at noon
(saw Wayne's netting boat there).
Bass fishing at first light was hit or miss, had success some days and
some days not, topwater seemed the best one day slow presentation - one day
a fast presentation worked. Could not entice deep bass with anything during
the day or on evenings (spent more time cruising for boils anyway) Ten days
on the lake had only one day of rain which produced some great waterfalls.
The boils got better as the 10 days went on and the moon waned.
Successful lures included Sammys, Spooks and Jrs, silver Kastmasters, both
wallylures and Howard's Bassman specials, pop'rs, pete klockis diving
crankbaits(with feather) and rabbit hide jigs chartruese color (sorry forgot
names for them). I could not find schools to use spoons on to jig up,
checked all the places where I have had success in the past. Boils were very
boat shy with the exception of a couple. The best part of the vacation was
having my wife tell me that 10 days wasn't enough, we could do more, and the
kids(21 and 16) still love to come to Powell with us, can't wait for
retirement. |
August 2, 2010 - Terry Mulkey - Escalante to San
Juan |
 Fished
for 5 days on the Escalante and San Juan, find the shad in back bays and
canyons and look out it will be non-stop action. Numerous small boils in
main channel early AM and PM starting about 3:00 PM Fish very spooky to any
motor noise, usually one fish per boil then move on.
I have attached a photo with my grand kids and son-in-law, most of these
were caught by my two grand kids Jake and
Jaden 12 & 10 I did not have time to fish as they were always
hooked up, the attached photo was 3 hours early AM fish. |
August 2, 2010 - Craig Smith - Farley to
Trachyte |
 |
We fished July 15-19th and had good success trolling wally
divers in 12 - 40' of water (parallel to shore) picking up Walleye (15) and
stripers plus an occasional small mouth and fat green sunfish. Additionally
trolling in center channel away from the inlet of Trachyte we hooked an
adult Gizzard shad in its dorsal fin. These fish must be immune to any
waterborne perils except stripers because the MUCUS that covers them is the
thickest, stickiest and most waterproof GOO imaginable!
|
 |
Boils in the area were numerous enough that we'd interrupt
our trolling to pick up hungry fish, but for most of our weekend, boils were
not frequent enough be our only quarry. We picked up about half of our catch
of stripers from boils.
Walleye were the unexpected bonus of this trip (picture attached). I'd
always considered them an occasional and accidental catch at Powell, but we
found them numerous and healthy.
|
August 1, 2010 - Brett Perkes - Bullfrog
stripers |
 My
family and I were on LP 7/20-23. We had regular boils in Bullfrog Bay when
the water was fairly calm. In fact the fish in the attached picture were
caught directly west of the boat ramp and buoy field. We also found a number
of boils about 5 miles down river from Halls Marina. We couldn't pick up
boils up river traveling from Bullfrog to Good Hope Bay.
The shad seemed to be smaller than the Kastmaster lures that we had but the
stripers were still willing. The stripers were very intent on feeding and
when a boil would subside we could still pick up fish by letting the lures
sink some before retrieving. Most of the time we would just continue to fish
and catch after a boil finished. After 5 or 10 minutes they would be right
back at the surface. Great Fun!
Blair Perkes (11), Kason Perkes (14), and
Kohle Perkes (16) (Left to right)
|
August 1, 2010 - Stephen Coldren - Padre to Last
Chance |
 |
My dad and I went out from July 25 – July 27 with a friend of ours,
Bill and his son Scott. We started the first day fishing brush in the back
of Last Chance and found nothing. Then we moved closer to Last Chance bay
and went looking for stripers and also found nothing. Later, at 3 we moved
into coves in Padre and finally found some fish.
|
 |
We were fishing pumpkin Yamamoto Senkos rigged wacky style
with a weight, as shown in your Fishing Tips, and chartreuse Gitzits
vertically and very slowly in about 20 feet of water. We would let the lure
sink to the bottom and some fish would hit when it was dropping, but if it
got to the bottom without a hit, we would bounce the lure up and down.
Sometimes, it was hard to tell right away if the “hit” was a tree or an
actual hit from a fish. We fished there for an hour (3pm-4pm) and caught
four fish: a catfish, a walleye, a smallmouth, and a largemouth.
Stephen Coldren |
 |
The next day, we decided to stay around Warm Creek and
Padre. We got on the lake at 5am and idled through the cut and immediately
turned right as we saw a lot of smallmouth jumping around on the surface. I
was using a white surface popper and caught four nice smallmouth. As the
surface action slowed, we decided to search for stripers by “Kane Wall”.
Right as we arrived, there was a small boil, but unfortunately it was windy
and the stripers were uncooperative. |
 |
We decided to chum to see what we could get… Scott (9)
caught a good catfish with an anchovy. As we were leaving to go back to
where we had luck the day before, the stripers resurfaced for a little, but
we got nothing. We all had high hopes as we still used the Senkos and
Gitzits along with the same technique. I caught 3 nice largemouth, Bill
caught a catfish, and my dad caught a largemouth. Overall, it was a great
weekend. Thank you for all your reports! We love the website.
|
August 1, 2010 - Rickey Jackson - Warm Creek
Stripers |
 |
We arrived on the lake on Tuesday and looked for boils, as we approached
Warm Creek we saw a large boil which lasted a half hour. I was able to catch
12 stripers out of the boil. The splashes were two feet high and the fish
were very aggressive. |
 |
Later in the day we did not see any more action and were
able to pick up a few small mouth. Wednesday I took the rest of my family
out was not able to find a single boil or slurp.
|
 |
We went from Warm Creek to the back of Navajo were the kids
picked up a few largemouth and smallmouth. Finally on Thursday we found
small slurps in front of Castle Rock cut and each kids was able to pick up a
few stripers. |
 |
The action was brief and in all we were able to pick up 24
fish. I know the fishing should break out soon.
|
|
