New Page 1

July 30, 2008 - Flipper and Nathan - Hite Boils

My son Nathan and I just got back from a great trip to the striper city area. Boated just over 300 in a four day trip. 90% were stripers. Lots of fish, lots of shad, lots of fun. Stripers are rather small as compared to the past years, but are much fatter than usual. 90% of the were within 1/2 of 15 1/2 inches, and would average about 1 1/2 pounds. These smaller fish are very aggressive and rather acrobatic to watch boil. They come clear out of the water and do flips. Nathan caught two doubles this trip (two fish on the same lure at the same time).

We had a friend of ours with us Sat & Sun. He had to go back to work on Sunday night. He felt bad about taking a full coller of fillets back because he thought we had just got lucky the first two days and that we would not catch near that many more( His first ,but I am sure will not be his last trip). He was actually doing us a favor by getting them out of the sun, and into the freezer. The fishing was kind of different in that early and late in the day was dead? The fishing should get better as the size of the shad increase. Easy access into Hite now. Launching in Farley is possible, but risky. Lots of driftwood - especially in White. Water color was perfect for fishing. Lots of places to boat camp right were the fish are.

They are there for the taking - Go get em.

July 31, 2008 - Leonard and Brady Wiggins - Hite Boils

Launch Site	Had another successful trip to Striper city area, fished from Saturday July 26th till Tuesday July 29th. - caught 276 stripers - 12 small mouth, 4 cats, 1 walleye, 2 bluegill, 2 green sunfish, and 7 large mouth. We kept every thing but the largemouth. Weather was great most of the time. Water was like glass about half the time. If the wind blew you could go to the calm side and look for boils. Caught 85 percent of the stripers in or after boils - the others were caught trolling. Best baits for boils were skitter pops in a shad color. We use the 2 3/4" ones on 6 pound mono line. We also caught them on junior spooks - jigs with white and pearl/with black flake 3 inch plastic flip tails - cast masters - and they really hit the sassy shads if you could throw them far enough, and about any crankbait that looked like a shad would work. There was lots of driftwood to dodge depending on if and where the wind was blowing. You do not want to be out at night running around. We put in and took out at in the back of Farley. The people we talked to said that the launching at Hite was easy, and that there were lots of places to camp. The store at Hite has 24 hour gas with a card and had extended their hours to 10:00 to 4:00. They had ice this time for $4 a bag. There were a few good spots to truck camp in the back of Farley.
Camp	There are at least 15 good boat camping spots around or within 2 miles of Striper city. There are three or four good ones at the mouth of White - five or so around the old islands across from the mouth of Farley - a couple more between the Islands and Trachyte - and a couple in Trachyte. There are a gazillion shad in the water. I actually think that the smaller stripers quit boiling because they could not eat anymore. Lots of times when you would be reeling them in they would be spitting out a dozen or so shad. Lots of the fish would have a half a dozen or so in their mouths. The fish up around Farley were around 14" - The fish out in Striper city were around 15 1/2" and the fish over in Trachyte were from 15 up to 19". Monday at noon when we were fishing a boil out in the main channel in front of Farley, we would see clouds of shad well over ten thousand run by the boat with stripers chasing them, and the shad were still there after the stripers had left. Most of the shad were around 1 inch long, but we saw them in stripers bellies from larval size up to 2 inches.
Brady with largemouth	We got impatient several times and did a lot of running around looking and site seeing. Almost every boil we saw was in striper city - we saw a couple in the back of Farley and one around Battle ship rock in White. For those of you that are not familiar with striper city, because you won't find it on the map, it is the bay or main channel between the mouth of Farley to the bottom side of Trachyte. We did not see a boil lower than a mile below the mouth of Trachyte. If I was going tomorrow I would fish the points around striper city for Smallmouth early and wait for the stripers to boil. Chase them when they were up and troll for them when they were down. You should be able to catch a hundred per day per boat by doing this if you stay after them. They boiled at a different time each day and it was hard to figure out when it would happen.
Drift Wood - White	We were seeing around 8 boats a day Saturday and Sunday, three of us were fishing. Saw two boats and a jet ski Monday. Saw four boats Tuesday. Just us and Tedman Fishing Monday and Tuesday. It sure would be nice if people would refrain from camping and parking in the primitive boat launch areas. After you have driven five hours to launch a boat it is aggravating to have someone right in the way just because they were there first. We left early Friday morning with thoughts of catching a few Friday night, but could not get all our gear together and supplies bought. Arrived in Farley canyon right at about sundown to find people camped in all the reasonable spots to launch a boat in. We looked around and found a spot that looked steep but possible to launch in. An hour and a half later we had the boat in the water both trucks back to the top of the hill, one flat tire on the trailer, and camp set up.
Boil in Trachyte	The next morning we were up at day break looking for boils. Nothing started up until around 8:00. We managed to catch 15 or so chasing boils in the striper city area. Around 9:30 they stopped. We traveled down the lake to red canyon. Did not see a boil anywhere. Did catch a few in Scorup in a small slurp. Caught several bass - cats and bluegills fishing points, and rock piles. Brady caught a double of aggressive green sunfish on a skitter pop. Check out the picture. Went back to camp. That evening we where out at 6:00 looking again, as soon as we hit the mouth of Farley, we could see a dozen or so small boils between us and Trachyte. The water was like glass all the way across striper city. We had a hard time catching up with them before they went down. We figured out pretty quick that if we could get to were they were we would all three cast a crank bait or rattle trap in different directions. If one of us hooked up, we would head the trolling motor in that direction. About half of the time using this pattern the fish would come up within casting range. We caught 61 more before 8:00. Right around then they would just shut down? The last hour of the day was slow every day we were there? This is usually the best time to catch them? One other boat was fishing also and we got close a couple times, but never bothered each other. 84 for the day Sunday we were up again looking early. Was kind of slow again. We caught about a dozen or so and they just quit. Did a lot more chasing than catching. Decided to troll and fillet fish. We were catching them faster trolling than we were chasing them. We were using smaller shad raps on the side poles and a silver walleye diver in the center just at the end of the prop wash. The center pole would catch three times the fish as the other two combined. Did not make since to me how when you are trying to sneak in on them with the motor running they will go down from a hundred yards away, but they would come up 40 feet from the back of the boat to hit a crank bait? We went into camp mid day to eat and store fish and moved camp over to a better place closer to the water. Decided we would go out and wake board and ski for a while. After about an hour of skiing, we ran into a nice boil in the mouth of White canyon. Put the skis up and got the poles out. Chased them for three hours or so and got another 55. We would again go to were they were and cast in different directions and go the direction of fish hooked. At times they would come back up for the skitter pops after they had went down. Sent our buddy Brady back to work in Grand Junction with a full cooler of filleted fish and a lot of memories. 75 for the day
Double on stripers	Went back to camp to back up to get ready to head home. Wind came up and scattered camp. Gathered up everything and went to get the boat trailer. Truck battery was dead. Pulled one out of the boat. Got everything thing running and loaded up and was about to back the trailer into the water to get the boat when the wind died. I asked Nathan if he wanted to catch a few more while we were here. This meant that if it got good that the may not get home until 2:00 a .m. or later. He said what the hell lets go. We made three trips around looking, and were just about ready to head home when they lit up just about everywhere. We started on a bunch just down creek from the mouth of Trachyte that were close to the bank. Just as we hoped, they headed into a cove and we hammered them for about an hour. Had to move a couple of times and broke off four lines after we had them landed and still caught almost 40. Nathan had another double on the same lure. 68 for the day. Hopes this helps someone wanting to go and have a good time catching a bunch of fish.
Brady with two green sunfish	Monday more of the same, Slow in the morning but we caught up with them a couple times. Trolled and caught several while we were filleting. Decided to go and look down country again. Went down to Red again. No boils anywhere? Did see a truck between Red and Blue notch and a guy fishing in a personal pontoon boat. Went back to Striper city area - no boils - started trolling and were catching a few. Got out the binoculars and started looking. We were about half way back in Trachyte when we spotted a large boil in the mouth of White. About 2 1/2 miles away. By the time we got squared away and over to them they had split up into three separate boils that were full blown feeding frenzys. We had about 30 in the boat when Tedman showed up just coming down from launching and was headed down to set up camp. He started in on one side and we took the other. They kept boiling but getting smaller and less intense for another 30 minutes. We ended with around 50. That night it was kind of slow again. 77 for the day. Tuesday right at day break it was slow again. We ran all over looking nothing going on anywhere. Around 9:00 we found a bunch in the back of Trachyte tearing it up on the bank. Caught 30 or so really quick before they quit. This was the first time we were able to find any close to the bank. They were going crazy. Nathan hooked a double. two fish on the same lure - check out the picture. Trolled and cleaned what we had.

August 3, 2008 - Chet Garling Boils - Buoy110-113

We camped and fished around mm 110- 113 from the 25th-1st, boils were spotty till the end of the week when they became more sustained, we were able to get one or two stripers out of each boil, the timing was all over the place, the only thing I was sure of, if I was towing the kids on the tube or wakeboard then we would see boils.

There was one boil around mm 113 that was more consistent than others. The wind would pick up in the afternoon on Wednesday and Thursday but the boils were still going on just hard to spot, and seemed to last
longer and we were able to pull out 3 - 4 stripers out of each boil, most stripers in that 1-2 lb range with the occasional bigger one.

The area just up lake from the mouth of Warm Springs on the north side of the main channel is holding a huge striper school, trolling 10' deep always got stripers and a few smallmouth at different times of the day.

Smallmouth fishing was great, first light, on topwater is such a blast. On the way back in Friday saw people fishing boils across the main channel from Moki and around the Halls buoy field. Good Hope bay did not have boils when I checked it a few times, went north towards Hite saw boils but once again no chance to fish them it was way too hot for the guests, a lot of debris from the Horn north.

August 4, 2008 - Dave W Boils Buoy 110

Got on the lake a week ago Saturday. 15 people on a houseboat. I had 6 people that "wanted" to try fishing. Used the 4 person fishing boat to get around.

1st morning only one wanted to go out, so we headed out with assasians and rattle traps. 1st boil -- 4 fish -- 2 hr's later 20 fish in the boat, and we went back to the houseboat. For the next 7 days, we had to draw names to see who got the 4 spots.

As "Captain", I always had to go-- too bad for me--. Lost count of the number of fish we got. We were all hooked up many times.
All we did is run the walls on the main channel up lake looking for boils, stop cast into them , pull out a few fish, and head to the next one. When we got to MM 110, we would turn around and do the same on the other side as we came back down lake.
Some of the best fishing I have ever been in. All the fish were fat, and healthy. Used nothing but Assassins and white rattle traps

August 4, 2008 - Josh Cannon - Hite Report

Returned 8/3/08 from a five day trip to LP with my 14 year old daughter Natalie. Launched at 6:00 PM Hite at the south ramp with the courtesy dock. Easy launch with about 1/2 the back truck tires submerged to float my 19 foot open bow. Found a good camp site in White. Later noticed that the coves at the north end of striper city would be good to check out with good shelter and a view of striper city.

Got up late the next morning as waking a teenager before sunup was more work than I cared to take on the first day of vacation. Motored over to show Natalie the battleship about 8:00 and got into our first boil. Messed around all day fishing, skiing & wakeboarding and then staked out Trachyte that evening for boils. About sundown every little cove came alive with boils, often completely surrounding the boat.

Natalie is new to long range casting and we had some fun keystone cop moments. Well, the next morning, guess who was ready to get up at sunup? We were paid off with a big boil in a cove at the north end of striper city. Another nice couple motored in to join us, which is a little risky giving the small cove and casting accuracy issues. Just then another boil broke out in the adjoining cove and we each had our own. We love Lake Powell.

The boils cooled off and the water was like glass. I asked Natalie if she would like to wakeboard now, and she replied “Dad, how about we keep looking for boils?” I laughed and told her she now had the fever and there ain't no cure! Later that day we had the real pleasure of meeting Kevin from Huntington Utah, who we ended up chatting with several times over the next few days as we waited for boils.

Kevin had found big boils at the Horn the night before, so we tried that in the evening. They were spotty for us, but we picked off fish from splashes. Kevin showed up about 7 and said the report was the wall across Hite was a solid boil, and then headed that way. Natalie and I waited around the Horn awhile longer, and then went to join Kevin. We never found him as we kept hitting boils once we were north of striper city.

Next morning we had our same boils in the coves at the north end of striper city, and then headed up north toward Hite. There we got into our biggest sustained open water boils, and the fish were also larger. Went back to camp to pack up and head home. Saw boils in the channel about 10 AM in the channel approaching Hite, including one about 100 yards from the dock. That made it tough to load the boat, but the fishing rods were all packed.

If I were going now, I would probably make that channel between striper city and Hite my first choice for boils. For other info, the sign at the Hite store says now open 9 – 4 seven days a week. Gas is $4.96/gallon. Don’t forget your extra prop as we had to use ours. We hit a submerged log near four mile that was not in a raft and no other wood in sight. Thanks to everyone on this site for fishing info.

August 5, 2008 - Bradford Brown - Hite Boils

Put 12 fish in the boat fishing about 3 hours on Saturday. The strippers boiled all day long from early morning until evening. Mid day 11 to 3 seemed to produce the longest boils. Most boils were short with fish sounding before we could even get our boat positioned. We did the best by trying to anticipate where the fish would come up next and just waiting. A lot of single fish hitting the surface everywhere and once in a while one of these fish could be caught when close to the boat.

It was the kind of day that we could have put 100 fish in the boat but we were more committed to wake boarding and tubing with the kids and would stop when we were on top of a boil catch a fish or two then resume other water activities. The fish where all healthy about 1 to 1.5 ponds. Caught at mile markers 132 to 135. Only 4 or 5 other boats out fishing these boils. Caught most fish on kastmaster spoons and silver colored surface plugs that could be cast a long ways.

I launched a 24 (233 sunesta) foot boat without problem at Hite. You will want to have a four wheel drive.

It was very hot at Hite, 96 degrees in the evening. It seemed 10 degrees cooler just a short distance down the lake.

August 7, 2008 - Kevin - Hite Boils

Got to Hite Friday, with my Son-in-law Bryan, and went to talk to Tony Ferris, to see what he had seen or heard of boil's in that area, and before we could get through talking, there was a boil strait in front of Dan Spitzer's camp. We had to cut the talk's short, and Tony was out of there, and on his way home.

We talked with Dan and his boy's a while, and headed out to look for boil's. We fished scattered boil's all day, and ran into Bassman and Bryant and son, and fishing had been a little slow, but enough to keep people fishing. Around 3:oo p.m., it got calm, and they started to pop, and boil, all around Striper city. Then it got windy, and stopped them dead. And with the sky's black, Bryan and I decided it would be smart to pack up and go wait in the truck, and while we were waiting out the storm, we met Jim R., and Ken, from Denver, two great guy's and fishermen, that had there first boil trip, and I'm betting it won't be there last.

So were setting there in the truck, and it was lightning a couple of mile's away, really good, and it started to quit blowing, and I told Bryan, there were boil's I could see, about a half mile away. And about that time, we saw Jim and Ken come out of there camp, with binoculars, saying they could see them also. It was around 5:00 p.m., and the boil's in the rain were on, until dark. It was awesome to say the least. We cleaned fish, and had caught 109 fish, cleaning 105 of them. What a night.

Saturday, started off great, with a good mourning wake up call, close to Striper city, with 7 out of a small boil. Then it was pretty slow the rest of the day, and we saw Bassman, and told him how they had boiled. He was there that evening waiting for them, when Bryan and I were going back to wait also, or see if they were boiling yet, and ran into Bassman, as they were taking off for a boil. We all caught several out of it, and they died. They never boiled again, until probably 6:30 p.m., and they started up, and were scattered all over until dark, we ended the day with 70 more, and 179 for about 32 hour's of fishing. Another great trip, and more boil fever, there are gazillion's of Shad, and fat healthy Striper's. It's going to be some great fishing, for, I would guess several year's to come.

August 7, 2008 - Rock Hite - Boils

Farley Canyon Report July 30 - Aug 5
Rock -- 8/7/08 9:03 p.m.

Farley Canyon fishing report – July 30 – Aug 5. Arrived at Farley Canyon around midday on July 30. I launched a 22’ deck boat with no problems, although (per my other post), I don’t recommend it unless you are really skilled at maneuvering a trailer and have an abundance of adventure and courage. I suspect this launch spot will cease to serve once the lake drops below 3630. The exact coordinates of the launch are N 37 degrees 49.215’ by W 110 degrees 24.154’.

Now on to the fishing – on July 30 we were exhausted from the trip from Oklahoma, and thus only gave a half-hearted effort Wednesday evening and managed to boat 5 stripers from quick boils. However, Thursday morning we were blessed with boils from 6:30 -8:30 and boated about 40 fish. Again, Thursday evening, the boil gods smiled upon us and we boated another 25 fish from about 6:30 – 8:30. Rather than bore you all with the specific daily details, the above pattern lasted the entire trip. Boils seemed larger and more intense as the trip went on. Fish were actually boiling almost all day long, however, we only fished the early morning times, and late evening times as we were determined to get in some good wakeboarding too…and wakeboard we did! As far as where the boils were occurring, we never got more than about 2 miles from the above gps coordinates! We found the best boils in Trachyte canyon, particularly toward the back of the canyon where the finger heads off to the north. We also had great success at the mouth of Trachyte all the way up to the south end of striper city (there are four brushy coves and the 3 most westerly coves were best). We usually picked up a half dozen fish on the way in and out of Farley in scattered boils. We also picked up a few fish at the first split in White canyon. Other than that, we didn’t go anywhere else on the lake…no need to, we caught well over 200 fish, and could have easily boated 300 if we wanted to, but my fish cooler was full and quite frankly, I was tired of cleaning fish. Plus, my electric fillet knife broke on fish # 214! That’s when we decided to call it quits. Overall, it was a fantastic trip; fishing was excellent, never touched an anchovy, caught all our fish on spooks and spoons, had an excellent camp spot in Farley, and the weather was hot, but reasonably good. I can’t wait until next year!

A special thanks to Wayne for validating my action plan (dates of trip and location to camp/fish)…it was perfect! Here’s to hoping the lake comes up enough next year to make the San Juan doable! I’d love to camp and fish back in Piute farms again before this decade is out…

August 13, 2008 - Grant - Hite to Good Hope

Fishing was poor to excellent depending on location. We ended up camping across from the horn and couldn't have picked a better spot. We fished up toward Striper city and down toward Good Hope. The boils were hit and miss and very short lived in Striper city area. The horn was really productive early in the morning and after 7 pm. The fish seemed bigger and the boils lasted longer in the Horn neighborhood. Downstream toward Good Hope was also good, with numerous, short lived boils. My general impression was that the fish were smaller the further north one went. They were all in the 1.5-2.5# range and chunky. We also had lot's of small mouth boils right around camp in the coves on each side of camp. Several of the smallmouth approached 1.5#. Our lure of choice ended up being a 3/4 oz Kastmaster (silver and chartreuse foil). They worked great for the surface boils and as soon as the boils would stop, you could still spoon by letting the Kastmaster sink.

The other fishing we found to be quite good was for largemouth. We fished with a weightless senko on a 2/0 worm hook rigged weedless with the hook tip just slightly buried in the body of the Senko. The half submerged tamarisk was a hoot to fish. I got one largemouth that weighed almost 4#.

August 28, 2008 - Flipper - Hite

Fished the North end from Saturday night to Wednesday. Went by myself, the kids backed out at the last minute which kept me from asking someone else. Started out in North Wash and worked my way down all the way to the back of Red canyon and back, trying every canyon in between. Caught about 75 fish mostly Smallmouth, mostly Trolling. Not much surface activity anywhere that I could find. Most of the people I talked to would tell me they were here last night or you should have been here this morning.

Tried casting in the bushes for bass in the mornings in likely boil areas waiting for surface activity. This yielded 3 nice Largemouth. One 18" and 2) 16 1/2", two of them were out of the same bush in Trachyte, just 2 days apart. Trolling produced a limit of 12 to 14" small mouths about every day. Did catch a crappie and three walleye trolling also. I was disappointed to catch only 7 stripers in all the trolling I did. I trolled about 6 to 7 hours per day. Last trip same locations same lures produced 4 to 5 stripers per hour trolling. Tried night fishing - nothing, bait fishing during the day with shad - nothing, spooning - nothing, and chasing boils - limited success. Only caught 17 stripers in boils. Most of the boils I managed to see were less than a dozen fish, and they would sound before I could get the motor started. The boils I did manage to get to or came up beside me were finicky fish.

I keep eight poles rigged, each baited with a different bait, just so I can adapt as needed. My old standby, the skitter pop would only hook up on about one in three cast. The 3" Storm swim shad seemed to be there favored choice. The shad were 2 1/2 to 3 inches and very abundant. I would climb to the top of the old islands at striper city to glass for boils early mornings and early evenings because you can see a lot of country from there, and save a bunch of gas. At most times you could see at least fifty schools of shad on top. Some the size of a bath tub and some the size of a house. They resemble puffs of wind from a distance if the water is calm.

If I had to guess I would say that the stripers are able to catch there dinner more easily now than before, and the larger size means they only have to catch 3 or 4 to get full instead of the 15 or 20 they had to catch a month ago.

Launching was tough at Hite. The ramps don't have enough pitch to them and you have to have your truck way out in the water to float the boat off. Water was just about to run in the door when I got out, and I still had to push the boat off. I launched at the old marina site, and took out there also. I checked out the Old concrete ramp when I was leaving and it was a little better. The uplake side was a little better than the down lake side. I think I will try the river rafters take out spot next trip.

Had a good time and was able to see a lot of old friends. Every time I go I learn something new, and about every time I think I have it figured out I am proved wrong. After running around all over the north end of Good Hope and Red Canyon Monday morning, I ran up onto a guy fishing in Blue Notch in a Kayak. I had not caught a fish yet that morning. He had 10 stripers and about that many smallmouth that he had caught in boils with in 100 yards of his camp fishing from a kayak with a 12 pack behind him on an ultra light Wall Mart special Zebco and a lure that he had found in a bush by his camp. Go Figure.

I went on a Cruise to Alaska earlier this summer and talked to an old fishermen in Ketchican who gave me some great fishing advice - check out the picture. Chasing boils is about being in the right place at the right time. This last trip I zigged and zagged all over looking for them. Looks like I zigged when I should have zagged.

September 1, 2009 - Josh Cannon - Hite

Brent and I got back last night from five days at the north end. Not huge fish numbers, but a really good fishing trip with a little over everything. Camped at the north end of the Horn at spot recommended by Grant. Good flat protected spot.....thanks Grant! Got into boils everyday including Trachyte, North Wash and small canyon on the east side of Good Hope below the big Blue Notch/Red Canyon Bay.

Did not have much luck on shad colored plastics in the rocks for small mouth until we switched to a green tube and things picked up. Silver & blue rattle traps and rattlin rapalas worked well on small mouth and stripers. Had a new experience Saturday where I was throwing a jr spook into middle of active boil and did not hook up for several minutes, but Brent was throwing rattle trap and catching larger stripers than what we were catching on top. Largest weighed fish was 3 pounds and hard, hard, hard fighters.

September 28, 2008- Neal Mead - Hite

My brother & I spent the weekend of Sept. 19 - 21 fishing at Hite. We saw a few puny boils (two to five fish), but nothing that turned into much fun. We did, however, find plenty of fish while trolling in the backs of canyons, particularly north wash and white canyon. The shad were scattered everywhere, so maybe that's why the stripers were also scattered. We caught mostly stripers, but also several smallies, walleyes and largemouths. We even picked up one nice crappie while trolling. All in all we caught close to 100 fish after we found where they were feeding, but we wasted one whole day hunting boils. The small & largemouth bass we turned loose - many of them were puny anyway. Kept the stripers & walleyes.

There was some surface action early mornings and late evenings in the main channel right by where we were camped, (south of the hite boat ramp), but we didn't have the right lures or something. I mainly cast sassy shad & kastmasters to no avail; my brother was throwing crankbaits - also not much luck. We saw people catching fish, but couldn't hook up, so we went trolling again.

As for trolling, there was no hero lure. I used glass shad raps and my brother had a big blue & yellow deep diver (always getting snagged up). We caught about equal amounts of fish.

We had fun and took home a bunch of fillets, but never got the excitement of a striper boil, which was what we were really looking for.

Thanks for maintaining a great website!

October 22, 2008 - Tal Bane - Hite

I'm Tal from Wyoming and usually meet my brother-in law Tom from New Mexico twice a year at Powell. I was really happy we got back to Hite. We were there from Oct 4 to Oct 19, 2008.

The first week all fishing was turned off but by the 15th it really came back. Striper boils were seen even up river. We caught a lot of stripers trolling the last 4 days we were there using rapala black and silver divers with red throats at about 75 feet behind the boat. We had a lot of double catches which someone had to wait for the other to land his catch. We caught 25 to 30 fish an hour and all of them fat. Even had boils start while reeling in a catch. Even smallmouth were hitting on plastic and lures.

There are a couple of useable launch ramps if you are careful. The old marina site is the best launching.

October 27, 2008 - Kevin - Hite Stripers

We camped in Four mile, and had a ball with the Crappie's at night, under the green light's. But Striper's were slow, unless your willing to troll for them. We used your spoon's, and did catch some, when we found a bigger school. But after we started trolling Hyper Striper's, and you need to get down to 20ft, we caught the heck out of them. We had grey and white Hyper's, with a Walleye assassin trailer, and they worked great. The guy named Harold, was killing them five color's out with leaded line, and we didn't have any with us, so we just put the lead's on, about an ounce, with a 3/4 ounce Hyper. And it was great. We would have had an easy 200 fish trip, if we would have started this from day one.

We used 30lb power pro line, with a swivel, and 4ft of fluorocarbon line. We caught the Crappie's on 1/16 oz baby shad jig's, and just a whole Shad, with a hook, and split shot, 15 to 25 ft down, in 70ft of water.

Gary Foell and Wayne - Annual Gill Netting

	Gary and Gary arrived at Hite Saturday and made camp and started fishing. They caught stripers everywhere they fished but most were taken trolling main channel north of Farley. Most of our stripers were caught trolling Shad Raps. Met up with Wayne Tuesday AM to help out with the survey. We caught a couple fish that were released without harm. Gary Foell
	Wayne's camp in Blue Notch during annual gill net sampling
	The net work boat with tubs, boat hooks and operator
	During the survey some fish are caught and released. Razorback sucker are an endangered species that are caught infrequently. We take a length and weight and return them to the wild.
	Flannelmouth sucker are not yet endangered but they are considered a sensitive species. We treat them just like endangered fish, releasing them when caught.
	Gary Childers has helped us fr the past few years. Here he is some of the more abundant crappie that have shown up this year. The netting survey detects gross changes in species abundance which is one of the reasons that we do the survey on an annual basis.
	Mike Milburn was our channel catfish specialist. Every time we caught a catfish we called him to the front of the boat to take it out of the net. (Not really) This just shows that there are some large fish caught in the nets occasionally. More often the smaller net mesh sizes target average size fish.
	After nets are picked all fish are brought to the big boat where they are weighed, measured, and biopsied to determine health, maturity and stomach contents. Scales are taken so that age can be determined. Georg Blommer is taking data while Maureen Brinton records the information. Dave Brinton is taking lengths and weights on every fish that is captured. Volunteers allow us to complete the work in a timely manner. My thanks to all those that have helped us complete the surveys which were performed at Good Hope, Rincon, San Juan and Wahweap. Volunteers were enlisted at each station.
	When the science is completed volunteers fillet the game fish so that these fish are not wasted.
	Here is an amazing picture showing a threadfin shad that is bigger than a striper. This may be the biggest threadfin shad I have ever seen. It was more than 7 inches long.
	The fish at the top is a threadfin while the two fish at the bottom are gizzard shad. You may be able to see the difference in the mouth structure. The threadfin mouth is at the front of the body, It is not shown well that the mouth of the gizzard is on the bottom of the head much like a carp mouth mouth. Threadfin have a yellow tinged tail while gizzard tails are clear. October 20, 2008 - Ken Gallacher - Bullfrog

November 10, 2008 - Kevin Phillips - Hite striper and crappie

	November 10, 2008 - Kevin Phillips - Hite Wayne Florez and I arrived at Hite around 1:00 p.m. Thursday the 6th of November, and headed to Four mile to set up camp. After we set up, we ran straight back to just North of Farley's, where we had caught Striper's two week's ago. It was blowing pretty good, and we started trolling Hyper Striper's, in Gray and white, 3/4oz. on braided line, with 3/4 oz of lead above a swivel, and a three ft., piece of 10lb fluorocarbon leader. It was hot right away, and we fished until thirty minute's before dark, cathing 47 nice fat Striper's, biggest one at 25 1/2 inches, and weighing 5 1/2 lbs.
	We got back to camp, and built a good fire, and got set up for the night fishing, under the green light's. Crappie fishing was great in 72 ft of water, they bit well, and we caught 40 to 50 easy. We kept a limit of 20, of slab's, 15" being the largest, on 1/16oz baby shad jig's, white with a white and purple body. Friday, up at daybreak, and off to the same area, around Farley's. They hit right away, and we fished them all day, same trolling method, and caught 103, and went in to clean fish, instead of fishing for Crappie.
	Saturday the 8th, was the same story, but crazy fishing. They bit like wild, and I forgot to mention the Umbrella rig I was using, and catching Three Striper's at a time on, three different time's, and multiple double's. If you trolling guy's have never used one, it's a blast. My friend Jim Dickerson, showed it to me two week's ago, and I ordered a few, and it work's great. We started fishing at 7:45 am and fished till 11:30, and had 75. It slowed down, later on, and we ended the day with 95 caught. We cleaned fish again that night, instead of fishing. We got up Sunday for our last mourning fishing, and it was cloudy as heck with a chance of rain, so we caught 30 more, and went back to four mile, and loaded up, and got out of there by 11:30 a.m.
	What a way to end the year, the water was cold at the courtesy ramp, 47 but we were fishing 60 degree water at Farley's by the end of the day. We did catch four out of a small boil, we saw while trolling, But there was no need to try anything else, trolling was the ticket.
	We camped in Four mile, and had a ball with the Crappie's at night, under the green light's. But Striper's were slow, unless your willing to troll for them. We used wallylures, and did catch some, when we found a bigger school. But after we started trolling Hyper Striper's, and you need to get down to 20ft, we caught the heck out of them. We had grey and white Hyper's, with a Walleye assassin trailer, and they worked great. The guy named Harold, was killing them five color's out with leaded line, and we didn't have any with us, so we just put the lead's on, about an ounce, with a 3/4 ounce Hyper. And it was great. We would have had an easy 200 fish trip, if we would have started this from day one. We used 30lb power pro line, with a swivel, and 4ft of fluorocarbon line. We caught the Crappie's on 1/16 oz baby shad jig's, and just a whole Shad, with a hook, and split shot, 15 to 25 ft down, in 70ft of water.

December 9, 2008 - Gem Morris - Trolling at Hite - Umbrella rigs

	We launched at Hite about noon on Friday following Thanksgiving. Our concerns about the weather were unfounded. This is the best weather we've had in 4 consecutive Thanksgiving trips. As we were getting put in and ready to go Hambone and his son and daughter launched as well - it was great to meet them at the lake and spend some time fishing with them. Hambone shared some of his freshly made salsa at camp one night that was absolutely delicious. Thanks Hambone! I was very anxious to try Kevin's umbrella rig that I had ordered and some of his Hyper Stripers. It was a lot of fun to fish with. There were me and 2 other guys fishing on my boat and although we didn't really keep a tally, I'm sure I caught as many fish as they did combined (they were not using an umbrella rig or the Hyper Stripers).
	But I did get 2 fish at once...I really liked using this setup...I caught about half the fish on chartreuse and half the fish on gray/white but the stripers we did catch very healthy with nice fat shoulders. We brought home 10 one gallon bags of fillets and that will be plenty to last over the winter. I opened up one of the bigger stripers and there were 20 different shad I could make out inside of it. Thanks to Kevin for all your help and suggestions! Following Kevin's advice we trolled right at 3 mph. This put my rig down at 19 feet. I would start hitting the bottom at 18 feet. I lost a few of the Hyper Stripers here and there, but never lost the whole rig. I was using a medium weight Ugly Stick trolling rod with leaded line with 2 colors out.
	I didn't vary this setup a lot (going deeper or shallower) because it worked so well. Occasionally we would get a fish on while reeling in to check our rigs, so it made me think we could have trolled shallower, but I never did. The other guys were lust using lures on monofilament we figured they were getting down to 10 feet or so. The medium weight Ugly Stick trolling rod has quite a bit of action...sometimes trolling rods are so stiff they're not any fun to fish with.
	On Saturday we settled into a good trolling pattern fishing "Mushroom Cove". If you look at this rock formation and squint your eyes, you can make out what looks like a King Bolete - a delicious mushroom common in the northern mountains of Utah. This is just upstream from Striper City on the same side (east side) of the channel There is a submerged hump just out from the gravel bar in foreground of the mushroom. This hump would produce 2 or 3 fish at a time. This picture shows the area we trolled all morning long. At the bottom of the screen is Striper City and we would troll from there north - back and forth in that area. We filled two coolers with fish in short order
	We caught several nice largemouth bass while trolling.
	I actually caught this one while trolling the umbrella rig. She was released unharmed.
	We caught a few really nice crappie. This one was a real hog. Hambone concentrated on crappie and did much better than we did...we just picked up a few here and there trolling.

December 16, 2008 - Drew Cushing - Hite

	As I indicated when I talked with you on Saturday evening, we had a great trip. The water temperature at Hite was 38 degrees but just a mile down reservoir the temperature was 50 or better. This area was just loaded with shad and all of the game fish were there looking for a meal. John
	We fished about 1/2 mile upstream from Trachyte Canyon. We would have trolled and missed out on some really fantastic fishing but my pull rope on my kicker broke on the first pull. So we pitched Rattle-traps and rapalas in shad patterns along the shore and really did well. We caught crappie, walleye, largemouth, smallmouth, stripers and even a 30 inch northern pike. Drew Cushing and Craig Walker
	We keyed in on points that were closely associated to canyons or large cove along the main channel of the reservoir. Almost all the fish we caught were caught near or among flooded salt cedar bushes. The weather was in the 50's every day and bluebird conditions. Jason
	We did fish Bullfrog, Hall's Creek Bay and Moqui Canyon on Saturday and the fishing was much tougher. We did manage to find a school of large stripers in the trees in Hall's Creek Bay and stay with them for a couple of hours but they were not nearly as cooperative as those fish up north. We managed a few fish at Moqui as well. John
	We did have one heck of a storm come through Saturday evening that brought sleet and winds. I thought that would eliminate any chance of success on Sunday but we woke up to more great weather and good fishing.
	The launch at Hite was touch and go!!!! We tried the main launch area with no luck. We next tried the southern most primitive launch. On the north side of the courtesy dock it was just too shallow to float a boat. The south side if you angle your trailer from north to south and crowd the dock as much as possible there is enough water to launch a fairly sizable boat. I don't think it will be possible to launch if the water drops another foot.