By
Water Temp: 75-80 F 
The lake continues to rise
slowly. The main impact of maximum elevation is floating driftwood. Much new
wood was deposited in the lake last October during the big flood. That wood and
debris was stranded when the lake declined over winter. With rising water, wood
is floating again and will continue to be a nuisance until the lake begins its
decline in July. Fortunately, wood does not prevent travel to any location.
Just be careful to slow down near debris to protect your boat prop.
Fishing is super
for slurpers. Stripers from 8 inches
to 3 pounds are found chasing tiny shad on the surface on most calm days. Wispy
little surface riffles point to schools of feeding stripers that are very
catchable while they are looking up. They go down quickly when a boat gets
close but pop up a short distance away within a few minutes. It's
great fun and an exciting way to catch abundant juvenile stripers that are so
good to eat.
The technique is to cast small heavy lures over or in front of the leading fish
in the slurp. Lures include Kastmaster, Wally lure, CC spoons, small plastic
grubs on heavy jig heads, or small surface lures (walkers and poppers).
Retrieve the lure in the upper 3 feet of water while slurpers are on the
surface. After they go down, follow them with a spoon to catch some while
waiting for them to resurface.
Slurps are found from
Launch site at
Old Hite marina. Use 4wd and watch for driftwood on the way to great
fishing
Bigger stripers are schooled up along the breaking edge of the main channel.
They can be caught with anchovy bait but need lots of chumming when fishing
slows down. Schools were found last week near the Good Hope Bay floating
restroom at Buoy 119, Moki Canyon and Moki wall, Rincon north of floating
restroom near buoy 77, mouth of 50 mile canyon in Escalante, Rock Creek, in
front of beach guarding mouth of Friendship Cove, points above islands in
Navajo Canyon, Power plant intake and the dam.
Striper activity on top tends to get all fish in the mood to eat. Walleye are
still active near tumbleweed and tamarisk brush any place striper slurps are found. Bass and bluegill will feed near stripers on the
same food. Just go down to the bottom with big plastic grubs to find quality
large and smallmouth bass. If the bass bite is off with regular plastic try
scented baits like Yum and Gulp for a change of pace. Of course trolling the
edge of brush in 12-20 feet of water is sure way to catch bass. Use a shallow
running plug like a bevy shad for bass and
walleye. Use a deep diver like a Thunderstick for stripers.
The catch has dropped off because fishing trips are shorter. Average catch now
is about 30 fish per boat. That is a slow day by Powell standards but still
good enough to warrant a rating of hot fishing.
And that's not just about the weather!