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Report for 4-3-2008 to 4-6-2008
Jeff Bierer met me at Powell for some fishing on Thursday but I had
some issues with shifting into gear on my Lund! Turns out that the guy in
Flagstaff that replaced the impeller along with other maintenance did not
seat the shaft to the lower unit, and did not test it either!!
Thanks to Bill at Outdoor Sports he fixed it in 20 minutes without
charging me, and got me on my way! I will start using him from now
on!
Jeff and I made it to the Dam around 5:45 p.m. and Guido and Suzie
were already tied up to the floats! The bite was real slow by then and the
wind was taking the water temps down quickly. We caught 7 stripers before
dark, and the night bite under the green light was non existent!
Guido with a
nice 6 ½ pound striper he took on a spinner bait casting the shoreline!
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Friday we shadowed Guido and Suzie up to Last Chance for a
shot at some
multi-species fishing. We found the stripers in one cove but most we found
at the end of L.C. on the right finger! Trolling up stripers were no problem
in 20 to 35 feet, water temps in the mid to upper 50 degrees, lure of choice
were rattle traps in blue and chrome.
Tim Kelley with big crappie.
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Jeff and I got into some great crappie fishing in the
afternoon, and here is a
picture of monster I pulled out casting a blue and chrome rattletrap. He was
very close to 3 pounds, and this picture does not do him justice. Here is
Jeff
holding a couple of the nice crappie that we got on Friday. We threw a lot
of crappie back as Jeff was leaving from the ramp at the end of the day and
did not want to take fish with him to clean. We kept it at one limits worth.
Jeff Bierer - Back from middle east action |
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The same time as catching crappie I also pulled out some
nice LMB on
Crappie jigs that I was casting along the walls. I think that I caught
around
Twelve pounds for 5 fish that day! ( maybe I should have been tournament
fishing) here is a pic of a LMB I caught on ultra light gear and 4 pound
test.
What a hoot, as he gave me a great fight with a little tiny jig in his
mouth.
Saturday was a blow out for me as I fished alone, but decided to hunt for
Cows (trophy stripers) and used several different lures deep divers and
down rigged some also. It got pretty nasty with the wind on Saturday, and
Guido and I got our boats off the lake by 2:00 in the afternoon.
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Sunday we headed for Last Chance again, and went for a
repeat of Friday.
No disappointment here because the stripers were still in the same place
and willing to take the same lures trolling. Crappie bite was on again, and
Guido's boat took in 17 and I only got 4 (Guido camped out on my crappie
hole).
Great times and food with some great cook outs with John and Suzie, and
her parents, and great to be fishing with Jeff again! |
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Nice website, my family (esp my son Tanner) regularly
reference your site. We have been adding fishing pressure as often as
possible. Each year more and more.
We base our operation on a K-2 Blackjack 224 – it is a white center console
with a T-Top. Be sure to flag us down if you ever see us, would love to chat
and say thanks for all of your efforts. Attached are a few pics, nothing
like photos of kids with fish and boats.
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Our most recent trip was at the back of Last Chance on 4/11
and 4/12. There are multiple campsites with the low water and the fishing
was rather ok. |
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We caught 6 species (Walleye, Crappie, SM, LM, Striper, and
catfish) and fair numbers. Almost exclusively using brown grubs. |
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I have also been regularly visiting the back of Labyrinth
Canyon – there is an exceptional hike there. After 150 yards the canyon
narrows and narrows. As the water raises access will begin to become more
difficult. A must hike if you haven’t visited at low water. Total hike time
is 1 hr to ??? , we generally spend 1.5 to 2 hrs. Be sure to take your
camera.
We also recently hiked West Canyon. It is a long way to the high water mark
and a bit farther to the narrows but well worth the journey. Lots of Beaver
signs, dens and even a couple of sightings. Hike time was about 4 hours.
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Glen Canyon Barrier April 11th and 12th.
My wife Fran and I arrived at Page Thursday evening after a 5 hour drive
from Durango Colorado. We grabbed a room at the Best Western Arizona Inn. We
were up at 5:30 am, threw in a lunch and hopped in the boat at Wahweap and
headed up for the barrier at the dam. There were two large party barges and
one other boat already tied up by the time we arrived. My wife and I could
already see their poles bending and the nets scooping up the stripers
although the sun wouldn't hit the water for an hour or so. We hurried up and
tied up to barrier number 7. We got our lines in the water by 7 am and
hauled in 2-4 lb stripers until 2 pm when our live well was stuffed. My wife
(Fran) counted 80 fish as she hauled them to me at the new Wahweap fish
cleaning station. It took us 2 hours to clean the fish then we headed back
to our room, plugged in the boat and put the bagged fillets in our electric
cool chest in the motel room.
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Saturday we were fishing about the same time again. Because
the word was out about the striper run and it was the weekend, there were
about 8 boats already tied up and we lost our magic spot on the barrier from
the day before (ya snooze, a lose). Fishing was slow compared to Friday with
all boats only getting hit about once every 30 minutes or so even in the
magic spots closer to the wall. One person was having better success than
the other fishermen by constantly casting way out towards the dam and
getting hit as the bait (1/4 oz jig head with ½ anchovy) floated back
towards his boat verses just letting his bait set under the boat.
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About noon some of the boats left the line because the
fishing was so slow. In fact the same two party boats left that were tied up
since they had landed over 200 stripers the day before and I am sure were
disappointed with the slow action. That left a spot back next to the wall so
we tied up close to where we were on Friday. I began casting out towards the
dam and would alternate my two poles so that one bait was on the fall just
about all the time. That seemed to work pretty well as I caught about one
striper every 10th cast. About 3 pm the bite picked up and we started
filling up the live well again as well as all the other boats up and down
the line. Boats were landing two and three at a time. |
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We headed back to the fish cleaning station about 4 pm and
Fran and I cleaned and bagged up 45 nice stripers.
The only bait we used the entire trip was ½ anchovy ( from the Page Wal
Mart) hooked on a Cabelas black or yellow head ¼ oz Solid Color Barbed
Collar-Red Hook Series jig head. These wire hooks seem to stay sharper
longer and prevent missed hook sets when the stripers hitting softly. I used
4 lb Fireline on one rod and 6 lb mono on the other 3 rods.
|
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Northern UT DWR biologists Paul Thompson and Aaron Webber
went out with me this morning in Wahweap. The planned trip uplake was
blow away by the wind and cold. Water temperature dropped to 52 with
the 3 day wind storm. So we stayed in Wahweap bay and went trolling
for stripers.
Aaron joked when leaving the dock that he would like to take home about
30 stripers. I told him to be careful what you wish for. They thought the
weather balmy and I shivered under 4 layers of clothes. |
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We put out the trolling lines and went about 50 yards when
Aaron caught his first striper ever. As Paul was reeling in his lure
another hit and the first stop was a double hookup. In fact, the next
3 stops were double hookups.
Aaron and Paul Thompson |
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We trolled at 1200 rpms (3.5 mph) and ran a zig-zag course
following the bottom contour
Aaron Webber with his first striper. |
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The best lure today was the black and silver wally diver.
It runs 9-12 feet deep and we were targeting reef edges that broke from 12
to 25 feet. |
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The bevy shad (blue gill color) was steady. I retired it
early because the wally diver was working so well and I didn't want it to
get chewed up. The wally diver hooks will need replacement before the
next trip. |
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We had Paul use the custom rattletrap made by Chip which was
also very effective. Action was best early but steady all day. We ran
the same pattern on reefs from Wahweap to the Dam and caught fish on all of
them.
At the fillet station we counted 32 stripers. Looks like Aaron got his
wish. |
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Hi Wayne!
Rebecca and Scotty from Scotty's Sportfishing on Catalina Island, California
here.
We just wanted to report that we had an AMAZING time houseboating on Lake
Powell.
We got to Wahweap on April 24, and it was blowing pretty good at 30-35 mph.
The HB people took great care of us...and because of the wind, they
suggested we may stay on the boat in the marina until it died down probably
the next day.
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Thanks but no thanks! We are used to getting tossed around
on the ocean in the winter, and that never stops us from fishing...well,
almost never.
We had already decided to head out to Last Chance Bay...it took us about
four hours to get there but what is that after driving all the way from
Southern California?
Finding a place to beach the boat was the most challenging part being first
timers...we looked for a spot that would be protected from the wind that we
would be able to get in and out of.
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But the fish showed us the way! As we looked into the
fingers of the bay, a fish just popped up and said "this way please!" We
turned toward it, and another jumped, and we followed that one to what had
to be the perfect fishing spot.
We did exactly as you said - parked the boat with the end out over deep
water - great advice! This finger of the bay had 10 little inlets, shallow
on the edge and deep in the middle. Captain Scotty caught his first fish
from shore within five minutes of setting his feet on the beach.
In three days we caught 87 fish - 66 stripers, 11 catfish, 9 largemouth, and
one carp. We'd fish a few hours in the early morning, then spend the day
hiking and playing, and drop the lines back in around 4:30 for the evening
bite. |
 |
We had hand-made rod holders we duct-taped to the back rail
of the boat and soaked cut anchovies on half-ounce slide weights. We had
scooped up the anchovies in Avalon Harbor after a charter and vacuum-sealed
them - the lake fish loved them. We caught most of the stripers, the
catfish, and the carp off the back of the boat on anchovies. The largemouth
would follow the bait to the surface, but wouldn't bite.
Luckily, we had decided to bring a kayak...and after taking our
3-yr-old for a cruise around the coves, Scotty went out and caught a striper
and the 9 large mouth with an SX shad (silver and blue), a Bomber Fat A
(red/crawdad) and a knocker shad.
We released all the fish (we brought way too much food!) so we don't have
pics of the largemouth...didn't want to lose the camera off the kayak ya
know.
|
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The inlets were full of carp - you could see them swimming
around in the reeds like they were in a fish tank - but they wouldn't bite.
On the last night we were there, April 26, Scotty had planned to go back out
and try for the largemouth and smallmouth again, but he was just too darn
tired from so much fun.
So that is our fish report! Sorry it took so long to get it to you...we had
to hit the ground running when we got back to the island. We loved the Lake,
the fishing was great, the houseboat was awesome...and we can't wait another
year to come back...so we'll see you in October!
Rebecca Twiss
Scott Costa
Scotty's Sportfishing
Catalina Island, California |
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Report for 5/1 thru 5/3, 2008
Tim Kelley and number one son.
Arrived at Wahweap Thursday 10:30 a.m. and set up camp while the w- -d was
howling! Did some maintenance on trailer, and boat while being spiteful of
the w- -d! Guido and Susie showed up later. All of us
decided to hang around for awhile! Guido got antsy and headed for the dam
with Susie. I told him to call me if he started catching! He called me, so
my son and I hopped in the boat and headed for the dam. Guido was tied to
float #3 on the west side, so I tied up to #2. My son caught a couple of
stripers right off, and then the stripers decided my bait looked pretty good
also. After an hour and a half we decided to quit and not clean a hundred
stripers that night, we had 32, and Guido and Susie had about the same. The
big "W" blew most of the night!
|
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Friday morning was chilly, and we went to Rock Creek. Water
temp. was 53 degrees when we got there. Fishing was tough for stripers, we
caught a few on black and chrome wally divers, but most of all they had lock
jaw.
My son and I headed down lake for Gregory Butte in the afternoon. When
We got there the water temp. was 61 degrees, and I remembered what worked
there a couple of years ago, and pulled out the chartreuse and white shad
raps. We started catching stripers and smb immediately. That was the 1st
real good smb fishing I had this year. Here is a pic of one smally on the
deck. They were all about this size. We went from there to Face canyon to do
some graphing, and then went back in.
|
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Saturday we headed up to the back of Last Chance to see if
the school of stripers from a few weeks ago were still there. They were!!
Water temp was 58 degrees
back there, and we kept the chartreuse shad raps going and we started
picking up stripers right away. Quite a few times we had double hook ups,
and it was very
consistent catching. We tired of stripers, and decided to go hunt out some
crappie and smb, maybe some lmb also. We went to the back of a long cove
where Guido and Susie had been for about an hour, and started working a
trolling pattern with some Norman Little N's.
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Guido and Susie hadn't any luck back there and were going to
head for Gregory where we did good the day before for smb. I told them that
we were going to stay where we were at for awhile to try some different
techniques. Glad we did. When the water temp hit 63 degrees all heck broke
loose, with topwater slappin', and splashin', and crappie jig action also
so! We worked the short cliffs for smallies and my son and I got doubles a
couple of times workin' the little crappie jigs. We got into smb, lmb,
crappie, walleye, and stripers workin the little ultra light rigs with
crappie jigs. This can be some of the funnest ways to fish with some great
action, and pole bendin' fish fighten'. What a way to end the trip, and my
son and I had a blast. Next stop the South Rally, and I am ready for it
again! |
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Matt Monson friends and crew from Monson Millworks in
SLC, came down to catch stripers and bass. The early morning striper
fishing was great along the main channel walls between the dam and Antelope
Point. Before sunup, we chummed a relatively shallow shelf along the deep
canyon wall. In a few minutes the stripers lit up. When the chum
cleared there were 55 stripers in the cooler in about 90 minutes on nonstop
catching.
The technique was small jig heads with a small chunk of anchovy. Cast
toward the shelf and let the bait slowly settle. |
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In Navajo Canyon we got a striper school to turn on mid day
along a main channel point using the same light jig head and anchovy
technique. We caught 45 in about 2 hours of fishing.
|
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Then we went fishing further up Navajo Canyon looking for
bass. We used chartreuse grubs on 1/4 ounce jigheads. Casting to
boulders and broken rock worked well in the afternoon after the water
temperature had risen to 65. It was slow fishing for bass in the morning.
Matt Monson |
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The best spot in Navajo was a short creek channel that
joined Navajo Canyon. Smallmouth and largemouth bass were holding on
the steep drop near the channel junction. |
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Bass fishing was great in West Canyon in the afternoon while
morning fishing was only so-so.
Blaine Baxter |
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Chartreuse grubs caught many different species including
bluegill, stripers, large and smallmouth bass and crappie. A walleye even
fell for a smoke sparkle grub.
Reed Baxter |
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Smallmouth were caught most often with 2 to 5 bass in each
spot we fished.
Mark Hunter |
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The reefs in clear water were good but the best luck was
found in the broken rock or mats of floating debris that was piled up in
short little slick rock coves along the channel edge. |
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Having been in the grips of cabin fever all winter, finally
getting that first fishing trip of the year last week was a welcome tonic.
It wasn't just about the fish caught. It was about getting out of the
insanity of Phoenix and the pressure of work for a few days and doing
something that I find totally relaxing. My guest once again was longtime
angling partner John Conrad of Prescott. I first met John 30 years ago when
we both lived in Flagstaff, and over the years we have shared some
incredible fishing experiences.
Last week's trip was no exception, although the fishing we experienced is
almost common place on Powell these days. In our two days on the water we
took five of the seven major sports species in the lake while enjoying
absolutely wonderful weather as well as great fellowship - not to mention a
couple great fish dinners. I also used a new technique with good success
that should help me catch even more fish this year.
On this trip we decided to forego striper angling and concentrate on bass.
We were primarily targeting smallmouths, however it was also my intention to
try and find a few largemouths as well - and hopefully even some walleyes.
To accomplish this we decided to fish the Gunsight area, which is where I
had found good success last fall. Things looked great from the very
beginning when on my first cast a decent smallmouth sucked in my Yamamoto
shad shaped worm. Two years ago, an incredible fishing year for me, I also
took a nice smallie on my first cast; so this was a good omen. I missed a
bass on my next cast and then didn't get a strike for nearly an hour. |
Ed Gerdemann |
We finally hit the jackpot when we moved into a large cove
about halfway up Gunsight on the right side. This cove has two shallow
shelves on each side and a deep V cut down the middle. John scored
immediately on a nice walleye which snatched a small crappie tube he was
fishing on his ultralight. The fish was working towards the end of the V cut
in about 17 feet of water. John soon put two more walleyes in the boat out
of the same spot.
Seeing that my dropshot rigged shad shaped worm wasn't producing at the
time, I switched over to a five-inch Yamamoto Kut Tail worm fished on a
shaky head jig. For those not familiar with shaky head fishing, the best way
to describe it is Texas rigging but using a jig head instead of an offset
worm hook and bullet sinker. A number of companies sell special shaky head
jigs for this technique. As the name implies, the way to fish this setup is
to drag it and shake it along the bottom. The method certainly worked for my
Friday as I almost immediately took a nice smallmouth. I followed it up with
several more decent smallmouths as well as a largemouth and a walleye of my
own. The fish seemed to range from eight down to 18 feet. There did not
appear to be one depth better than the other except for the walleyes all of
which came from the same small area at the end of the V cut. John took two
more walleyes on his crappie tube as well as a couple bass before the action
died down. |
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We then moved to a long point on the north side of the cove.
I took a couple more smallmouth on the shaky head, but John then nailed the
best fish of the trip, a 20-inch smallmouth that weighed 3 lbs. 5 oz. - once
again on the little chartreuse tube. That fish cleared water three times
during the fight. I put my rod down to watch and man the net. The fish may
have been a spawned out female as it did not seem as heavy for its length as
it should have been. Nevertheless, it was still a fine fish. After a few
quick photos John released that fish and we continued up the point catching
several more smallmouths including a couple in the 2-pound plus class. It
was out towards the end of the point that John caught the only striper of
the trip - a healthy 2-pounder. At this point it did not seem the shaky head
was nearly as effective as it was earlier. As we worked along the edge of a
large flat I switched back to the drop shot and the shad shaped worm. I took
several more smallmouths and a couple largemouths all along this area. The
fish again ranged between eight and 18 feet with the largemouths coming from
on top of the flat and the smallmouths being a bit deeper and much closer to
the break line. |
 John
Conrad |
We fished several more areas in Gunsight taking good numbers
of smallmouths along with some largemouths thrown in. Most of the smallies
ranged from 3/4 to two pounds, and the biggest largemouth was also around
two pounds. In addition to these fish, we also caught a couple green
sunfish; and John caught another walleye. Our Friday total was 33
smallmouths, seven walleyes, six largemouths, two green sunfish and a
striper - quite a variety. I stayed with the shad shaped worm the rest of
the day, but John got the last laugh by catching a number of bass on a strip
of chamois he cut and fished on a drop shot rig - a far less expensive
alternative to my Yamamoto baits.
Saturday was one of those strange days in which the fishing didn't seem
nearly as good as it had been on Friday; however when all was said and done
we actually caught more fish. The big difference on Saturday was we didn't
catch as many of the nicer bass as we did on Friday, and we only caught two
walleyes and didn't catch any stripers. We decided to head back to Gunsight
on Saturday planning to fish only the most productive spots from the day
before while trying some places we didn't fish on Friday. We started back at
the cove with the V cut. Right off the bat I nailed a 22-inch three-pound
walleye on a shaky head worm. I also caught several nice smallmouth and lost
two very good fish. John had a tough start to the day only catching a couple
little bass, but things would turn his way later on. We fished up the long
flats catching a few smallmouths and a couple largemouths, and then we went
across the bay to the west side and fished a long point that produced some
good fish for me last fall. We took several decent smallmouths there, and
John got another walleye and 10 little bass that inhaled his crappie tube
every time he pitched it under a shallow overhanging ledge. |
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Having worked this area completely, we went up the bay
fishing some large coves on the west side that we had not fished the day
before. The fishing wasn't fast - one fish here, two there - but it was
steady. Most the fish were smallmouths in the "eating size" class - 11 to 13
inches. We finished the day fishing reefs and flats at the mouth of Gunsight
on the west side. This area produced the biggest smallmouth of the day, a
15-incher for John, as well as a number of smaller ones and a couple of
largemouths for good measure. Saturday's tally was 62 smallmouths, four
largemouths and two walleyes. After some early success, the shaky head worm
gave way again to the drop shot shad shaped worm. John took most his fish on
the small tubes he had used with such success the day before. The colors I
used both days were 297 (Green Pumpkin and Black) in the Kut Tail worm and
194 (Watermelon and Black) in the shad shaped worm. John's tubes were all
chartreuse. His chamois strip was a natural tan color.
One thing that was clear to us was that the spawn was not quite in full
swing. There a lot of fish staging out near the break lines, and many of the
bass we took were still full of eggs. Some fish were on top of the flats and
reefs, while others were still hanging along the drop-offs in a bit deeper
water. No fish were caught really deep, but not all that many were caught in
the really shallow water, either. While the fishing was very good, there
wasn't a bass behind every rock. We had to work for what we caught. All in
all it was a great way to break in the new season. I returned to work Monday
relaxed and refreshed, but I'm ready to come back up and do it all again!
|
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Nine of us went to Wahweap 2-9 May. Fishing was excellent!
We caught over a 150 Stripers on Anchovies (1/3) drifting, no weight, up to
40' deep, caught some on Rapalas and bottom bouncers. Lot's of Smallies on
almost any plastics and crank baits, as you can see those Smallies are
"ferocious" and try to take a Lure as big as they are! Crappie (6) on
Rattle-trap, Rapalas, and Mister Twisters. Walleye (5) on Rapala or Bottom
Bouncer with worm harness. Catfish as well. Couldn't find the Largemouth. We
hiked, went sight seeing, and tried swimming in 60 degree water...wow! Water
Temps were from 60 to 70 depending how far up the Canyon you went. The
stream coming into Navajo was warm and lots of fish there as well. We hiked
up Canyon to the Ruins.
|
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Rented a Houseboat from Aramark and got the early bird
special with a free 19' Power boat. Wasn't cheap by any means, Gas at the
Marina $4.48, Ice $4.00, etc. All in all it was still Great fun!
ARAMARK Staff at Wahweap, Russ and his Gang were very Professional and
extremely helpful. The only
draw back is that you have to Pre-pay 60 days in advance of your trip, a
Damage deposit of $600.00 per Houseboat and $400.00 per Power boat. Sounds
more like a Reservation Deposit to me! Full pre-payment 60 days prior on all
Houseboats and if cancelled within 30 days of trip ZERO REFUNDS.
It is a serious commitment financially.
We still had a great time and plan on doing it again next year!
|
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Well we just returned home from another great spring
vacation at Lake Powell. Yielding a total of 505 fish caught and a new
Gonzalez record!
The first few days were blustery, cold days. After three days of searching
for surface fish and always watching my meter, I noticed a large school of
fish tightly bunched together in and around 40 foot of water. They were
lying in a trough directly across from state line launch ramp in Wahweap
Bay. I assumed they were carp or something other than stripers because I
dropped spoons and other deep water baits and still nothing.
|
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That afternoon I was proudly flying my U.S. and U.S Marine
flags. My son is in boot camp and on his way to becoming a U.S. Marine. A
Marine approached and asked if I could help him out with fishing. He and his
wife were struggling and couldn't seem to locate the fish, so I gave a few
suggestions. That night it rained and they got wet as they were in a tent
and decided to leave. In the morning I found an ice box with five bags of
chovies and a thank you note signed "from a U.S. Marine". We put it in the
boat and went to the school I had seen in the previous days, needless to say
they turned to gold {44 stripers that day in only 2 hours!}.
|
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The next few days warmed up nicely and the wind diminished.
We tried the Gonzalez tradition of jerk baits each morning very early, no
luck; caught just a few on jerk baits here and there. However, spotted big
schools in deep water off points in Padre Bay and mid morning continued to
yield a nice chovie catch. Laura (our daughter, 15) ended the trip with
catching upwards of 200 fish herself. I believe this trip she out fished her
dad! She proudly reminds him of that often. The fishing was unbelievable and
consistent. "like fishing in a barrel"
Had a great time fishing with the team of folks visiting for the Shad
Rally. But nothing could compare to fishing with Wayne and his wife and son.
It was a great honor to help with providing Wayne fish for the samples he
needed.
We are looking forward to our fall trip coming up shortly!
|
June 11, 2008 - Ed Gerdemann |
Dale Marenda and I happened upon the perfect striper
presentation this past Sunday! After sitting for several hours off our
favorite striper point in Navajo Canyon getting a bite here and there, we
stumbled on something so wonderful that I had to share it here. It was
around 11 a.m. and, having eaten breakfast at around 3:30 a.m., we were
getting pretty hungry. We both set our rods down on the deck and got a
sandwich and a bottle of water out of my boat's cooler. Just as we took our
first bites from our sandwiches, our rods both bent over. We grabbed them
and wrestled in two very lively stripers. Laughing about our "luck" and
joking that we had found the perfect technique, we rebaited, dropped our
lines over the side and laid down our rods once more. No sooner than we did,
both rods bent over again, and two more stripers found their way into the
fish cooler. Dale proceeded to do it two more times, each time is rod tip
started dipping as soon as he laid it down and put his foot over the handle.
Unfortunately the pattern dried up after Dale's fourth striper, but it was
really fun while it lasted!
Of course fun is what we always have at Lake Powell. This trip was both a
work and fun affair as Dale graciously agreed to help me repair a soft spot
in the kitchen floor of my Greenehaven mobile. We arrive Thursday the 5th
and proceeded to tear up the floor, take some measurements and lay out a
carefully drawn blueprint on a paper napkin. The next morning we drove in to
Page Lumber, bought the supplies we needed and proceeded to make the
repairs. We then spent Friday afternoon getting our gear ready for some
serious fishing Saturday morning.
Saturday's plan was to chase bass - preferably smallmouths, but we wouldn't
refuse a green bass if it found one of our lures to its liking. We motored
up to the area between Dominguez and Padre Butte which I thought might be
good with the rising water. To say the bass fishing Saturday was tough is an
understatement. We simply could not put together a consistent pattern.
Although we caught over 30 fish, only about a half dozen were decent size.
We tried our favorite drop shot techniques, and I tried the shaky head worm
pattern that was so successful for me last trip. I even threw a spinnerbait
some into the flooded tamarisk and around the mudlines. After reading
Mondo's post about catching both smallmouths and largemouths on
spinnerbaits, I wish I had done this a bit more. Nevertheless we did catch
some fish. If we'd have been fishing about anywhere but Lake Powell, we
would have thought we'd had an exceptional day. Our best pattern, as Wayne
pointed out in his report last week, was fishing the small rockslides along
the steep slick rock walls in Padre Bay. The bass generally ranged anywhere
from 14 to 18 feet deep except for one largemouth I caught under a mudline
at around 10 feet. We tried a number of different soft plastics on our drop
shot setups, but probably the best lure was the old reliable three-inch Slim
Senko in 194J (Classic Watermelon with Black). I believe that our problems
were related to the fast rising lake which may have disoriented the bass and
caused them to scatter. Whatever the reason, we simply could not find that
sweet location/presentation that is normally easy for us on this lake.
On our way back to Greenehaven Saturday afternoon we stopped and bought some
anchovies. Convinced that bass fishing was not where it was happening, we
decided to devote our efforts Sunday to stripers. We first motored from the
Antelope Point ramp to the Buoy 3 area in the main channel which has
produced a lot of stripers lately. It was too windy there to hold the boat,
so we went to the power plant intake where the water was much calmer. Dale
quickly nailed a striper, however we went for the next 30 minutes without
another bite. Convinced it wasn't happening at the intake, we then ran up to
the double island area in Navajo Canyon. We graphed the first point above
the islands and didn't see anything. We then noticed a boat off the second
point and motored there to check it out. The couple in that boat had just
taken a couple of fish and invited us to join. Over the next several hours
the action was not fast, except for when the "lay down the rod" pattern was
working, but it was fairly steady. Dale managed to take over two fish to my
one which he attributes to the red bead he had between his sinker and
swivel. Actually, I think it was the way he held his nose; but we'll never
know for sure! At any rate, over a six-hour span we managed to put over 30
stripers in the cooler - again not a great day by Lake Powell standards but
pretty darn good just about anywhere else.
Hopefully when the lake begins to stabilize the bass fishing will improve.
But if I have to resort to striper fishing with anchovies on my next trip, I
will make sure to lay my rod down after dropping the bait over the side.
I'll also try different "nose-holding" patterns and maybe a red bead. Having
that "perfect" presentation is so important! |
 |
We spent a week at Powell week of June 18th on a houseboat.
We stayed in Friendship Cove. Weather was great not too hot and no major
wind problems. I was there with my family, my 2 sons Johnny and Mike both
from Prescott and my daughter Cindy from Canada my other daughter Sam didn't
make it this year and their familes. We go every year at this time, a little
early for the good striper bite but usually do pretty good and get everyone
catching fish.
Paul Padrnos |
 |
This year was a little tougher I think the rising water and
cooler water temp. was hurting us. Saw a lot of stripers on the surface all
small fish working the points at Friendship Cove just before the floating
restroom and around the small islands heading towards Dangling Rope across
from friendship Cove. We also
saw a lot of fish in Rock Creek working but small also.
Cindy - Canada |
 |
Caught a few fish out of the boils, had to use small cast
masters in the 1/4 oz. size to get them to bite. Had most of our luck
metering fish and using anchovies to get them going. Once you caught a few
we would jig with the Cabelas Mirage Jigs. Caught a lot of small mouth off
the rocky points across from Friendship Cove using shad color rattle traps
and crank baits.
Ciara |
 |
With the high water the shore lines can be deceiving with a
lot of brush under water now. Water temp. was in low 70's. |
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We really had the most luck off back of houseboat using anchovies, catching
catfish ,stripers and small and large mouth bass.
Paul with Channel Catfish |
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Stripers are boiling every morning from an hour after first
light to about 9 AM. The most aggressive boils happen between 6:30 - 7:30
(MST). They will take full sized surface lures and shallow running
crankbaits. The lure is not as important as placement.
First, stop the boat just in casting range. Determine direction of
travel and coast that way. These fish are going to the right. See the smooth
water ahead and riffled water behind the boil. Put the
trolling motor on high, bear to the right an try to keep up. |
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Approaching from behind is better than having a school come
head on. They are hard to cast to when coming toward the boat. Lure
placement in this group should be well over the biggest concentration in the
middle of the picture. One angler should cast over the middle group
while the other casts over and right of the splashing fish. |
 |
After sounding there is a period of waiting while the school
regroups and comes to the top again. Look to see which way they were heading
when they went down. These are going right. Move the boat slowly in
the direction of travel hoping that fish pop up in casting range. When
that happens the first cast should be a hookup. But sometimes the fish
double back and come up 200 yards in the wrong direction. In that case get
on the big motor and try to get close again. |
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A tight boil means all fish have surrounded the prey.
DO NOT CAST into the pod. That will cause the fish to jump in unison and
then flee at full speed. Cast beyond or to either side and bring the
lure into the strike zone. |
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When fish are down look for stragglers to come up. A couple
of swirls mark the location of the school. Sometimes a single swirl
will tell you where the next surfacing event will be and give you time to
get in range before they come up.
Happy chasing. Right now you should be able to get 20 fish in 2
hours of chasing boils. |
 |
Thanks for the great website and all of the fishing reports! Here are a few
pictures from our trip up to Powell during the beginning of the month. |
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The fishing was excellent early in the morning until about
11 and then picked up again around four in the afternoon. We caught some
early morning topwater fish on ricos. |
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The rest of our fish were either caught fishing double
tailed hula grubs or dropshotting in 15-30 ft. of water. Most of the walleye
came out of 20 ft. of water or more. Two of the most productice colors were
silver smoke and chartreuse. |
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We had great luck drop shotting a four inch yamamoto cut
tail worm. We also pulled some largemouths out of the submerged trees
fishing weightless senkos. |
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All of our fishing efforts were concentrated in Padre Bay.
My name is Shane Spravzoff and I was
accompanied on the trip by local catfish guide Scuba
Steve Ruiz and Lacey 'The Striper Killer' Nylen.
|
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The bass are still there, just gotta go a little deeper!!!
All of the larger bass were released!!! |
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Hope the tips help! |
July 30, 2008 - Ed Gerdemann |
There is simply no other way to put it, fishing was
difficult this past Saturday. Despite what would appear to be an ideal
fishing day - cool, cloudy and a bit of a breeze - putting any kind of
pattern together was a difficult proposition for Cap'n Chuck Duggins and me.
The plan was to leave Stateline at dawn and cruise the lake looking for
striper boils. If we didn't find any boils, we were going to fish some
smallmouth structure.
Heading uplake we didn't see anything that might have resembled a striper
boil. In fact, I cannot recall seeing a fish of any kind break surface on
the trip uplake. There was a chop on the water which probably made that
difficult; however there was some smooth water along the main channel wall
between Warm Creek and Gunsight, but no stripers showed. We stopped at an
area of good looking points and reefs right at the mouth of Gunsight, but 45
minutes of working that area yielded just a couple small bronzebacks and a
channel cat. We then fished completely around a big island right in the
channel opposite Gunsight. Here fishing was a bit better as we picked up
several bass. We didn't get much in terms of size - the biggest fish going
around 1 1/2 pounds - but at least it was some action. I had a funny thing
happen when working a point at the far end of the island. I hooked and lost
a smallmouth. That bass also managed to strip my Senko from the hook. Since
we had gone down that side of the island with the wind, Chuck felt we didn't
fish the area as thoroughly as we might and suggested we turn around and
fish it again against the wind. I dropped my bait right where I had lost
that fish and was soon hooked up again. When I landed that bass it spit up
the Senko I had just lost. It was undoubtedly the same fish. It just goes to
show we are not dealing the smartest of creatures here.
A bit later while Chuck was struggling to untangle a loop from his reel, a
bass picked up his lure as it lay on the bottom. When Chuck started reeling
after straightening out the mess, the fish was there. This may have been a
clue that we were fishing too quickly. The bite certainly was not
aggressive. When smallmouth are really hitting at Powell most of the strikes
will come on the initial drop; however on Saturday many of the strikes came
while deadsticking and slowly dragging the lure along the bottom.
After fishing around that island, we motored back up into Gunsight to fish
some of the steeper banks as well as some rocks sticking up out in the
middle of the bay. We managed to catch a few more fish before the sun burned
through the clouds forcing us to call it a day. We finished the day having
caught about 20 smallmouth total, 13 we kept, as well as the one catfish. We
did not catch a striper nor did I see anything on the graph I could
positively identify as a striper.
We fished a wide variety of depths from right up against the bank to well
out over 30 feet. Most of our fish came from 12 to 18 feet with a few
deeper. The cloud cover undoubtedly was the reason most of the fish were
shallower than we expected. I caught all my fish on the old reliable 3-inch
Slim Senko fished on a dropshot setup. Chuck caught his on a Yamamoto Ika.
We both tried throwing spinnerbaits around flooded brush with no success.
Because of several conflicts, I won't be back up until September. Hopefully
by then all fishing will improve. This has been a tough season for me. Given
the success I've enjoyed the past few years, I guess this was likely to
happen. I'm hoping fall we bring better tidings. |
 |
Thanks again for the great web page. Here's a report from Labor Day Weekend.
My name is Shane Spravzoff, and I spent the
weekend fishing with my favorite fishing partner, my Dad Steve Spravzoff. We
got up to the lake on Friday afternoon and we were greeted by our good
friends Mike and Jen Packer. Mike had located a bunch of stripers up at the
mouth of Friendship cove and Rock Creek, so we made the run up lake for the
evening topwater bite. My Dad is normally a crappie fishing fanatic, but we
turned him onto the stripers! |
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There was a wide open bite and we were catching them on half
ounce rattle traps and zara spooks. The stripers ranged between two and four
pounds and they fought like the dickens! The fish were bustin shad, and
there were some really nice smallmouths mixed in with the stripers. My Dad
had an absolute blast!
Shane and Steve Spravzoff |
 |
Thanks to Mikey for turning us onto the fish! Saturday
morning we fished for bass in Padre and we caught 30 nice smallies and large
mouths between 630 and 830 a.m. We caught the bass on ricos, rattle traps,
and drop shotting. My Dad landed a nice 3 and a half pound smallie. We also
picked up some boiling stripers in Padre.
Jamie and Molly Packer |
 |
Sunday morning was great fishing for bass once again before
the rain started up. Got off the lake at about eleven. All in all a great
weekend! Mikes daughters Jamie and Molly are pictured on the beach with the
stripers! The stripers were in extremely good shape and I saw the most shad
that I have seen in a very long time on the lake!!! Looks like it should be
an outstanding fall season!!! Hope the report helps!
|
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Sunrise in September is not only beautiful but the ambient
temperature is just about perfect. It is the perfect time to go
fishing. The sky lightens at 5:30 and the sun peaks over the rim of
the mountain about 6:15 AM. If serious about catching fish it is wise to be
up with the sun. There are more fish caught between 6-8 AM than all the
remaining daylight hours.
I spend the first hour looking for splashes if targeting stripers which I
am because the fish are averaging near 3 pounds and I can catch them on top.
|
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Lure selection is simple. Put on a favorite surface lure
like the clear Sammy pictured here. Tight walking action is more than
tempting for both bass and stripers.
A medium runner like a Lucky Craft LV (left) or bevy shad works great
getting more hook ups in a tight or loose boil but lacks the visual
display when a striper decides to play volleyball with the surface bait.
The past week jigging spoon have out classed all of the other baits
because fish are near bottom more than on top. That, however, does not
preclude me from throwing the surface lure just because. |
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At 6 AM or PM stripers come to the top. Timing may be more
important than location. Boils are up all over the lake during the
same time frame. In the past two days, big boils have been seen in
Warm Creek, Padre Bay, Rock Creek and more that I don't know about.
Just see them and catching is easy. These two fish and 15 others
were taken this morning on a combination of spoons, jumpin minnows and
Sammie's in Padre Bay, main channel and back of main Rock Creek.
Fillets today were perhaps the thickest striper fillets I have ever
collected at Lake Powell. These fish are prime. |
 |
Thanks for doing your website. I live with my wife and six
kids in Middleton, near Boise, Idaho, but I grew up in Page. My dad Bill
Thieme worked as an operator at the dam for years before moving away to
California. My best friend from Page, Matt Gifford, lives up in Washington
north of Seattle. I have kept in contact with him over the years.
Anyway, I have been back to the lake only a few times since 1985, but
finally we rented a houseboat and spent a week for my dream vacation. It was
wonderful!
Dan Thieme and Jackson - 3.5 pound
striper
|
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We beached the houseboat in Padre Bay on Sept 1, and caught
a few crappie off the back deck in the mornings (we released all but a few
for a fish dinner). At night we would hang a fishing light off the back deck
of the houseboat, and it attracted lots of shad, but we only caught channel
cats at night. No stripers or crappie. We graphed tons of large fish -
likely stripers- at 40-60 feet in Padre Bay. The last few days they started
boiling, and we saw boils on the way home from Padre into the main channel.
The biggest boil was about 500 feet off of Stateline marina as we were
transferring things from the houseboat to the boat.
Evan with catfish - (9 yrs) |
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I had just had my 10 year old son take all the lures off the
poles so they would travel better, and then a huge boil erupted ten feet
from the houseboat, within easy casting distance! But, by the time I got a
lure back on a pole, they were gone! I told my son, " Since when have you
listened to me the first time I ask you to do something! This was a perfect
time to drag your feet!" The only striper we caught was trolling in a side
canyon near rainbow bridge. The 3 1/2 pounder was really a scrapper and we
fried him up that night and that was some fantastic table fare.
3 1/2 lb striper
Jackson with big crappie - (10 Yrs)
.
|
 |
Bryson (4 yrs) with the
carp. |
September 18, 2008 - Brent Barre - Rock
Creek |
Camped in the back of Rock Creek 09/10 thru 09/14 with my dad Ted and
brother Ryan . Cruised mornings and evenings throughout the area looking for
boils and saw only 2, both on Thursday night. The first was in Dry Rock
Creek, a fairly large school which was up long enough to boat a half dozen
fish on Jumpin' Minnows and Spooks. Dropped spoons (Wallylures/Kastmasters)
as soon as the school sounded to hook a couple of more fish. These fish were
strong, fat, and..... FAST.... Lost the school almost immediately and no
amount of graphing could pick them up again. Headed back to Rock Creek at
dusk and hit the second boil with the exact same result: Several fish each
in the boil and several dropping spoons after the topwater action stopped
(fish total was 25 stripers). Again, the school moved so fast that once it
was lost it was impossible to find again. Tried trolling/graphing for
stripers, but only managed a few smallmouth. As for boils, I think we might
have been victimized by the extremely bright waxing moon, as there was
almost NO action on top, not even single splashes, especially in the
mornings.
Smallmouth fishing was very good around points in large coves and channels
using crayfish colored tube jigs, and the occasional top water cast. Fish
were generally deep (30 feet or so), except in the evenings when smallies
would venture up to chase shad.
Fished flooded tamarisk for largemouth where ever we found it during the
day, action was slow but hooked fish sporadically using a mix of rattle
traps, chartreuse spinner baits, and suspending jerk baits. While fishing
the tamarisk in the cove just up from the Cookie Jar, we found an unlimited
number of voracious 8"-10" largemouth, would have been a lot of fun if we
had some kids on the boat. (Who am I kidding, it was a lot of fun for me!!).
Saw a few nice sized fish but could not get them to do more than just lazily
follow anything we threw at them.
There were a LOT more shad than I thought there would be in the southern
lake, (not as many as I saw in the northern lake with Josh 2 weeks ago), but
still many very large schools near the Cookie Jar and in Rock Creek. Without
exception, fish of every species were the fattest and healthiest we've seen
in the last 8 years of fishing Lake Powell, with the stripers having bellies
giving them the shape of fat largemouth. WARNING: THESE STRIPERS WILL
STRAIGHTEN HOOKS AND SWIVELS NEXT YEAR!! :)
Thanks again everyone for all the past fishing instruction making this
another successful fishing trip! |
 |
With the exception of my first trip in May, it has been a
tough fishing year for me on Lake Powell - certainly my toughest since 1999.
My trips and June and July met with little success, and I had to cancel my
August trip because of a scheduling conflict. So it was a redemption of
sorts I was seeking when I left Phoenix for Greenehaven last Wednesday.
Meeting me at Greenehaven was my uncle Tom Estes of Bluff Dale, TX. This was
Tom's fourth trip to Powell having previously fished with me here in 2001,
2002 and last year. After spending Wednesday afternoon getting the boat and
tackle ready and running some errands in town, we launched at Stateline
Thursday morning with high hopes. Those hopes appeared dashed early on as
we really struggled. Like most anglers on the southern end, we were not able
to find any stripers; and the bass fishing in the areas we fished was very
slow. We primarily fished main lake structure in the Gunsight and Cookie Jar
areas taking 22 smallmouths, but most were small. We managed enough
"eating-size" fish for a Thursday night dinner, but that was about all.
While at the fish cleaning station two other anglers showed up with a fairly
decent mixed catch of largemouths and smallmouths. Although reluctant to
respond to our direct inquiries, we overheard them talking about fishing in
the back of a cove. Armed with that bit of information, we decided to change
our location on Friday. |
 |
That next morning we motored to Last Chance Bay. The reason
we chose Last Chance is because it has lots of big coves on both sides of
the bay. Our location change did the trick. In the first cove we took 20 or
so bass, mostly smallmouths but with a couple largemouths for variety. We
saw a lot of boiling fish; but they were smallmouths, not stripers. What
looked like striper schools on the graph were actually smallmouths. They
would ignore spoons dropped to them but would take soft plastic baits. In
one spot I caught eight smallies on eight consecutive drops. Most of the
fish were taken in 20-24 feet of water with a few shallower and a couple at
over 30 feet. After spending a good part of the morning in that cove, we
moved to the next one up where we doubled our bass totals in just a little
over an hour. We finished the day in a third cove adding 10 or so more fish.
These coves were about halfway up Last Chance and on the ride side heading
north. Given what had happened Thursday, we were feeling pretty happy as we
headed back to Stateline Friday afternoon. |
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Our confidence boosted by Friday's success, we headed back
to Last Chance Saturday morning. Our first stop was our second stop the day
before. The fishing was slower here than Friday with the spot yielding six
smallmouths and one green bass. We then went back to Friday's last stop but
fished on a different side. We found good numbers of smallmouths on the edge
of a big flat where the water pitched off from 12 to 35 feet. We also found
a lot of fish in a narrow channel at the very back end. There were big shad
schools in the back of that channel, and bass were boiling on them. I tried
a surface lure in the boils. I had a couple blowups but no hookups. However
both Tom and I took a number of nice smallies back there on soft plastics.
We caught somewhere between 20 and 25 fish from this spot before breaking
for lunch. Our final stop of the trip was two coves up. I noticed an area on
the right side (see photo) where the channel narrowed. There was a broken
rock bank on the right side and a wall on the left. This spot turned out to
be our very best. There was one little V cut in a rock shelf on the left
side at the mouth of the channel where the smallmouths were stacked up like
a striper school. For well over an hour nearly every time we were able to
get a bait into that cut we'd hook a fish. There were several other good
spots where that shelf pitched off into deeper water and along the broken
rock bank which also produced fish. We also caught a number of decent fish
in the far back end of the narrow channel. Again, they were working shad
back there and would strike a top water bait; however once more I did not
manage a hookup on top. Soft plastics were once again the ticket. I'm not
sure how many fish we caught in this final spot as I lost track after around
30. My guess is we took somewhere between 40 and 50 bass, mostly smallmouths
but with some largemouths as well, from this relatively small area. In all
my years of fishing Powell I never took that many bass from such a small
area in such a short amount of time.
As on Friday, 20 to 24 feet proved to be the magic depth with a few fish
coming from both shallower and deeper water. The fish in the little cut,
which was quite deep, seemed to be suspended as our strikes most always came
before our baits hit the bottom. Drop shotting was once again the most
effective presentation on both Thursday and Friday. We were using 1/4 oz.
drop shot weights hanging 16 to 24 inches below the hook. By far our best
lure was the Yamamoto Shad Shaped Worm. All the dark green colors such as
Watermelon with Back and Gold (323), Baby Bass (305) and Green Pumpkin with
Black (297) all worked equally well. We also caught a few fish on 3-inch
Slim Senkos and 4-inch Kut Tail worms, but the Shad Shaped Worm seemed to be
the most consistent. |
 |
Our best presentation was straight down. When we could see a
school of fish on the graph we'd drop straight down below the boat. When the
line stopped dropping we'd tighten up and were often rewarded with a bent
rod. When fish weren't showing directly below the boat, we'd cast over
likely spots. Most of our hits on both straight down and horizontal casting
presentations were on the initial drop. We did take a few fish while
dragging the lure back and even had a fair number of strikes while reeling
in quickly after we felt our baits were outside the strike zone. Our biggest
bass, both bronze and green, were a bit over two pounds. We caught a lot of
fish in the 3/4 to 1 1/2-pound range. We caught very few dinks on both
Friday and Saturday. Tom felt that Friday and Saturday were the two best
fishing days of his life. They were certainly my best bass days of the
season and probably my best overall in a couple years.
We only caught one striper, a fat two-pounder that nailed Tom's Shad Shaped
Worm. With the number of shad moving into the backs of the coves, however, I
don't believe it will be long before the stripers will follow. I'm looking
forward to some nice striper catches on my two October trips. But if that
doesn't happen, I'll be happy catching feisty bronzebacks along with a few
ugly green bass. This trip was definitely redemption time for me.
|
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Just got home from another epic trip up to Powell!!! The
bite was wide open for largemouth, smallmouth, and stripers!!! We caught a
number of really nice fish throwing rattle traps in the evenings off of the
islands at the entrance to Friendship Cove and Rock Creek. |
 |
During the day we had great luck throwing cranks and drop
shotting. Most of our efforts were concentrated in Padre Bay, but we did
fish farther up lake, as we ran up to Rainbow Bridge one afternoon! We
caught a number of nice smallmouth in Forbidden Canyon on the way to
Rainbow! |
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The fish were extremely healthy and we saw a ton of shad! I
can't wait to see what next summer is gonna be like up there! |
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I included a picture of a dead striper I found at the
entrance to Last Chance. I estimated the fish to be somewhere between forty
and fifty pounds!!!! It was a MONSTER! It's nice to know that there are a
few of those swimming around in the lake and your next cast could be a fish
of a lifetime!!! Hope the report helps!!!!
|
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October fishing at Lake Powell means high risk and high
reward. The high risk is the chance of catching an early Pacific storm which
can put a damper on any lake activities; however the high reward is great
fishing if you catch things just right.
My fishing partner Jim Buxton, a former co-worker, and I experienced just
that this past week. On Friday we had a beautiful day with great fishing,
while Saturday - well, I'll get into that a bit later. This is the 25th
anniversary for Jim and I fishing together. We made our first trip together
back in 1983 - a hike-in fly fishing trip to East Clear Creek. We both lived
in Flagstaff then. Although we were both transferred to Phoenix later that
year, we continued annual trips to East Clear Creek throughout the 80's.
When the 90's rolled around, and I bought my first boat; we started fishing
the desert lakes. We made our first trip to Powell together 11 years ago,
and it has been an annual affair for us over the past several years. |
 |
Before leaving from Phoenix Thursday morning, I checked the
weather forecast. I figured we'd have a pretty decent day Friday, but I felt
Saturday would be marginal. When I picked Jim up at his house I told him I
could promise a good day Friday but would make no promises for Saturday. We
discussed our options and decided that on Friday we'd make the run up to
Last Chance Bay where I'd experienced excellent bass fishing two weeks
before. The pattern two weeks ago was 20-25 feet deep in the backs of the
coves off broken rock structure. Some brush here and there was even better.
When we arrived at our first spot Friday morning, it was soon apparent that
pattern was still holding. We took several nice smallmouth and one
largemouth, the only green bass of the trip, at that first cove. We then
visited several other coves, all but one I had fished my previous trips, and
were rewarded with a number of nice bronzebacks at each stop.
|
 |
Everything about this trip was just like the last one. There
were a lot of shad in the backs of the coves. The bass were found at the
same depths. Drop shotting a Yamamoto Shad Shaped Worm on a 1/4 oz. weight
15 to 24-inches below the hook was the top technique. Just like last time,
the only boils were smallmouth. I did not see anything either on the graph
or boiling on surface that I could positively identify as a striper. What
looked like big striper schools on the graph turned out to be smallmouths.
We took somewhere between 50 and 60 fish before the wind started coming up
around 1:30 p.m. Although we didn't catch any really big fish, most of the
fish we took were in that 3/4 to 1 1/2-pound range - ideal eating size. We
took very few dinks. |
 |
With Saturday's ominous weather forecast, we decided to stay
close. We motored over to the twin islands on the Warm Creek side just past
the Castle Rock Cut. We fished around those two islands as well as some
points coming off Antelope Island. We managed to take about 20 smallmouths
in a couple hours; however, unlike Friday at Last Chance, most were small.
At around 9:30 the wind really picked up and the rain started falling. We
decided to head back to Stateline Ramp. When we cleared the Castle Rock Cut
and headed onto Wahweap Bay, we were greeted by three to four-foot rollers.
Fortunately they were coming from the launch ramp side of the bay, so we
could motor directly into them.
My Ranger took some water over the bow but got through that rough water
just fine. Cold and wet, we decided to call it a day. Ironically, a few
hours later the rain stopped and the wind died. Because the forecast said it
would rain and blow the rest of the day once it started, we had unloaded our
gear and put the boat away. |
 |
Had we known the weather would improve in the afternoon, we
likely would have gone back out; however hindsight is always 20-20.
Nevertheless, with Friday's action it was a fun trip. I plan to be back
in late October to do it again. Hopefully this time it will only be high
rewards.
|
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I went uplake and fished on Saturday. (It was not my
choice.) I said the wind was going to blow hard but sometimes duty calls. It
was Carlos Dibble's birthday and he was going to use the new boat no matter
what. So we went - wind or no wind.
We pulled into Dungeon Canyon mid morning and tried to tie the boat up
with swirling wind blowing from a new direction every 5 minutes. After
securing the last anchor I looked toward the white capped channel and saw
stripers coming to the surface. The wind white caps were uniform while the
stripers were making a different type of splash.
|
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I told the group stripers were boiling and got some funny looks considering
the weather. But I got my jumping minnow rod, walked 50 yards up the beach
and made a cast to the spot. INSTANT HOOK UP! Then others scrambled out and
got rods flailing with good success. We caught 5 from the first spot.
We then headed back to the boat to continue with the hiking plans when
they came up again off the back of the boat. Rods whipped again and we put
another 5 stripers in the boat.
Raquel Dibble fishing off new boat. |
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When the fish headed away from the boat Carlos ran up the
shore line and found bass feeding after the stripers departed. All fish were
taken on topwater or jerk baits. They were very agreeable as a school
of shad had taken up residence under the big boat after the first boil
subsided. Shad stayed there the rest of the time.
Dr Carlos Dibble. |
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My wife, Charlene, ran up the shore to check another splash
and was rewarded by catching two smallmouth on one cast. A first for her and
quite proud too.
Charlene Gustaveson |
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She let me hold her fish because I had to take them of the
hook. She likes to fish but I like to unhook the critters more than
she does.
Wayne |
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Charlene tows another customer to be unhooked. This picture
cracked me up. We kept the stripers and released the bass. There are a lot
of fish in Dungeon right now.
We were not as fortunate with weather as the scene in this quiet cove
depicts. The ride backs was quite a challenge in 40 mph winds.
Waves in Wahweap, Warm Creek, and Padre were ginormus.
|
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Sunday morning my wife and I grabbed a wave-runner to
do some sight seeing on our last full day on the lake. We were going to go
across the bay and check out Face or Labyrinth canyons but after a couple
minutes I realized that at barely 50 degrees outside it was too cold to go
that far, so I remembered a little cove on the back wall of Padre Bay near
the Cookie Jar, and was curious what it was like with the water up higher.
We cruised around in there a little while, noticed a large school of very
small fish.
Evan Coleman |
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Then on our way out of the cove maybe a couple hundred feet
from us I saw something white floating, and in my head I quickly assumed it
was trash blown from a boat because of the strong winds during the previous
days, and almost dismissed it as such, but we decided to check it out and
what a surprise. We could see it's gills, and it's two front fins moving
slowly back and forth. |
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I was a little nervous about grabbing it thinking it might
come out of shock and swim away or start flailing about. We made a few
attempts of trying to grab it, my wife acting as a counterbalance, but
finally I was able to get a hold of it, grabbing around it's belly and
getting it up far enough to slide it into the trough of the wave runner were
you put your feet. It seemed much bigger out of the water. We were still in
disbelief as we head back to the houseboat. |
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Looking down at it I noticed a tail of a fish just barely
sticking out of his mouth, but couldn't identify it. Their were many boils
back in Kane Creek where we were beached and caught some nice 2-3 pounders
but this was amazing. At the houseboat when we picked it up by the mouth and
the fish it had in its mouth slid down it's throat almost out of sight.
Later on at Stix a guy pulled it out a little and we could see it was a
carp. Then a few of our group went to Wahweap and got some pics taken of us
and and tried to get direction on what to do. So we went to Bashas's and got
it weighed. 41lbs even. After that we went to Stix and confirmed no new
record. The same guy that identified the carp in it's mouth said it looked
like it was very healthy. Under it's gills was a nice full red color and it
had no large scars on it. Depending on whose tape measure you used it was
48-50" with a girth of about 28" It was starting to stiffen up by then and I
wanted to keep it strait, so not knowing what to do with it I brought it to
work and stuck it in the walk in freezer where it sits now, seemed too nice
to cut up and eat. This by far eclipsed the 3 days of fighting with the
wind. Just happened to be in the right place at the right time........Here's
some pics. My boss said he'll mount it in the office. |
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Just got back from another great trip up to Powell! I fished the 13th
through the 15th. I too thought the fish would be affected by the moon
phase, but they weren't!!!! The bite was WIDE OPEN!!!!! Once again, our
efforts were focused in Padre Bay. The water temperature was 65-68 and the
fish were keyed in on the shad. |
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The shad were schooled up in the backs of canyons and coves
all throughout Padre Bay. Is all you had to do was find a cove with shad in
it and you would find the fish! Once we found the shad, we would rip a
lipless crankbait such as a rattle trap or a jerk bait such as a lucky craft
pointer through the outside edges of the shad schools and the stripers and
smallmouths were there waiting!!!! It was one of the best bites I've seen at
the lake all year, and it was quite possible to catch 100+ fish a day. It
was unbelievable!!!! |
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I'm sure the fish were feeding at night with the full moon,
but it didn't seem to slow the bite during the day! We had numerous double
hook ups and many times we caught fish on consecutive casts!!!! I'm telling
you, it was ON FIRE!!!!
Get up there and take advantage of the great fishing now, cause once that
water temp dips down into the 50s its gonna get a whole lot tougher! I'll be
back up there again this weekend!!! Look for me, my mom, my Dad, and my
silly English Setter in a red Ranger!!! Until then............
Tight Lines,
|
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P.S. Lacey Nylen is pictured in the photo with me, we had to
use the timer on the camera because no one was around! I also included some
moons pics so you wouldn't think I was BSing! |
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|
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I flew out to Page from Castaic California to fish Friday and Saturday
mornings with my brother in law (from Wrightwood California), my father and
my father’s friend (from Prescott Arizona). We hired guide Bill McBurney and
went our searching for striper boils.
|
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We started out at Wahweap and worked that area without a lot
of luck on Friday. There were a few fish coming up, but not much. We then
moved back to Warm Creek on Saturday and found one boil early and landed a
nice 4 and a half pound striper on a top water lure. After that the boils
were nowhere to be found (I guess the schools were all up in Padre Bay
according to the other report here).
|
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Later in the morning we went after largemouth and smallies.
We had some luck with the largemouths throwing everything from plastics to
cranks, and later got into a fairly nice smallmouth bite. The smallmouths
were all in the two pound range. The weather was absolutely perfect, and you
can’t beat Bill McBurney for a guide. We all had a great time out there and
plan to fish Powell again down the road. |
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Bruce Tracy and Bill
McBurney |
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I thought I'd send you some pictures of our houseboat trip last week. The
weather was fantastic! We did lots of fishing using top water mostly and
crank bait. We fished the back of coves in the brush where we found shad.
Mike McNabb |
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We caught smallies and largemouth on top water in the
middle of the day. My
daughter-in-law caught a 4.3 pound largemouth on top water (sammy) it was a
kick watching her bring it in. It was the biggest fish of the trip.
Sean and wife
|
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Paul caught a 3.6 pound smallie and Sean caught a
couple of largemouth that were close to 3 pounds.
Paul McNabb |
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The trip was just what the doctor ordered, it was layed
back and fun. We played games at night and sat around the campfire enjoying
each others company. My granddaughter Tayler was on the trip with us and she
had a blast. We celebrated my birthday while on the houseboat. Tayler and I
went clam hunting along the shore a few times. She loves fishing and has her
grandpa wrapped around her little finger, she is our little angel!
Tayler McNabb |
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We caught several small largemouth. They were really
aggressive, as you can see in the picture with my trophy largemouth that is
as big as the bait!! I'm going to have it mounted! |
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Just thought I'd share some pictures and info with you and
your readers. Good luck!
|
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In deciding whether or not one had a good fishing trip; one
must consider where he or she was fishing, and what is the norm for that
water. By most other standards, Dale Marenda and I enjoyed some pretty
decent fishing this past week; however by Lake Powell standards it was
pretty slow. After a couple trips where 50-60 smallmouth bass per day for
two anglers was average, having to "settle" for 43 smallies over two days
was somewhat of a disappointment. Still, if we had been visiting most other
waters in Arizona; we'd have been very happy with the results. Wanting to
avoid the the Anglers Choice tournament launching at State Line Friday
morning, we made the 20-mile drive from Greenehaven to Antelope Point where
we found a deserted launch ramp and plenty of parking near the water. Our
plan was to head up to Last Chance Bay where I had enjoyed some excellent
smallmouth action the past two trips this fall. In addition to the smallies,
were hoping for a few largemouth and perhaps even getting into some
stripers. |
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After a somewhat chilly, but beautiful ride; we arrived at the first cove
I wanted to fish. My past patterns this fall had been the back ends of the
coves in 20-24 feet of water. Chunk rock banks had been superior to slick
rock, and that proved the case again last week. We tried the big rocky bank
in the back of the first cove but only took a couple smallmouth. We then
moved up the bay one cove to the spot that had been my most consistent
producer the past two trips; however there were three tournament boats
sitting on the spots I wanted to fish. We fishing a spot further out from
the back, but that only produced one fish for Dale. We then moved to what
had been my second best spot, a couple coves further up. There we found
solitude and a few willing fish. Unlike past trips to this spot, we were not
able to get on one piece of structure that yielded a bunch of fish. Instead
it was one here and a couple there. We tried another cove that had been
productive my last trip but took only two bass.
After eating lunch, we motored to the opposite side of Last Chance to a cove
I'd never fished. I located a shelf on the graph that pitched off from 12 to
30 feet in a very short distance. On my graph I saw a large school of fish
suspended along that dropoff from 24 to 29 feet.
|
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I dropped a Yamamoto Shad Shaped Worm on a drop shot
rig right into the transducer cone below my trolling motor. When the thin
double line on the graph reached the arches, I engaged my reel and my rod
bent over with my best bass of the day. Dale and I took several off that
spot before the school moved on. We picked up several more fish in other
areas in the back of that cove before calling it a day. Our total for Friday
was 27 smallmouths. Although our biggest bass was only around 1 3/4 pounds,
we took many chunky fish in the one to 1 1/4-pound class. We only took four
really small fish. It was apparent by their condition that these fish had
been feeding quite well, with several of them spitting up shad as we fought
them.
Dale Marenda
Saturday turned out to be quite a bit slower than Friday. Although we
encountered tournament anglers in only one cove Friday; we found them in
several of our spots Saturday, including once again my best spot of the past
couple trips. After seeing two tournament boats at the first spot we wanted
to try, we went to our second best cove from the day before. Again we found
fish, but we had trouble hooking them at first. We finally managed to boat
10 decent fish. We tried a new cove on the west side of Last Chance - the
best looking spot I had scene in three trips - but only managed a couple
fish. Our best spot from the day before only yielded a one more. We finally
went into my favorite cove from past trips, but only Dale managed to land a
fish there. It was quite apparent that the tournament guys had hit this cove
quite hard as there were tournament boats in it every time we stopped by. We
ended the day by going back to the first spot we fished Friday morning where
we took two more. Our second day total of 16 included 15 solid fish about
the same size as the day before and just one dink.
|
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Every fish taken was a smallmouth. Neither Dale nor
I landed a largemouth, and I'm fairly certain neither of us hooked one. We
saw nothing that we could identify as a striper either visible on the
surface or on the graph. In fact, the only surfacing fish we saw all trip
was one smallmouth working some shad in the back of a cove. Although we
tried topwaters and spoons, once again our best technique was to drop shot
soft plastics at 20-24 feet. We took a few fish higher than that as well as
a few down as deep as 29 feet. Our best bait once again was the Yamamoto
Shad Shaped Worm. I had the opportunity to try the new laminate model in the
901 color - watermelon and white. The top of the bait is watermelon and the
belly is white. I think it will be a winning color on Lake Powell. Dale took
several nice fish on a Yamamoto 40 Series single tail grub in a root beer
color. He also had some success with the old standard 3-inch Slim Senko in
194J (classic watermelon with black).
|
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In trying to figure out why the fishing had slowed so much,
part of it could have been the tournament. Although we really didn't run
into too many tournament boats in the area we were fishing, there is no
doubt those we did see were hitting the same spots we were - not only during
the tournament Friday and Saturday, but on the Wednesday and Thursday
practice days as well. The second reason I believe the fishing had slowed is
simply the fact there are so many shad in the lake that the fish are so well
fed and are not in that frenzy feeding mood we had seen earlier. I do not
believe the weather played a part as it was steady, and the water
temperature ranged from 65 to 67 degrees - ideal for smallmouth fishing.
It appears this will be my last fishing of the season. There are a number of
things upcoming in Phoenix, and I'll likely have to use vacation and
personal time that would normally be used for fishing. While I would have
liked my last trip of the season to have been the best, I still had a good
time. I always enjoy fishing with Dale - true gentleman and overall good
guy. We're already talking about next season.
To most folks not accustomed to how good Lake Powell fishing can be, what we
did would sound like an excellent trip. That is a testament to just how
excellent the fishing is here at Lake Powell.
|
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I have had the pleasure for Patrick Sébile to
visit me and to fish with him on Lake Powell (in Utah) the past three days.
Frenchman Patrick Sébile has fished in 61 countries. He's caught 564 species
of fish.
He has over 300 records - over 50 IGFA world records, 100 European
continental records and 150 French national records.
He has written seven books and a thousand articles on fishing. His photo has
appeared on 150 fishing magazine covers around the world.
He is possibly the best angler in the world today, maybe ever. There is no
one else who comes close to his accomplishments.
|
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We caught many striped bass, smallmouth and
largemouth for the duration. We got into a number of surface feeding blitzes
instigated by the stripers, but of course the black and brown bass nose in
on that kind of surface action as well, courtesy of the stripers' efforts!
On our first day (Nov. 10th), we fished in the backs of creeks:
to the right and left of Labyrinth Canyon,
within Padre Canyon,
the western and easternmost of the three Kanes, and
Mexican Hat (behind the floating restroom at mile marker 24)
On our second day (Nov. 11th), we stayed in the westernmost of the three
Rock Creeks (our best day).
|
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The first two days, we found similar conditions
in the backs of many creeks (to the sides of Labyrinth, Padre, the Kanes,
Mexican Hat and the Rock creeks). Medium-sized shad were found in the brushy
backs of all these creeks, wherever water was trickling into the lake. Shad
were buried deep in the brush lines, and they did not come out into open
water, but were entrenched deep in the brush lines. Needless to say,
predators were present and buried within the brush lines also. Likewise, we
the anglers had to fish within the brush where the bait and predators were
thickest. If you fished outside the brushlines, it wasn't where you needed
to be. Many times, we had the boat behind the brushlines or smack in the
thick of them.
|
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Our third day (Nov, 12th), we stayed in Wahweap
basin, which was our least productive day, although it had its moments. We
failed to find shad in the brush in the areas we checked in Wahweap basin on
our third day, but we did get a bunch of smaller fish in Wahweap which was
still made for a fun day fishing!
|
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Since he has his own hard bait product line, we
decided to fish soley Sebile hard baits for the duration. I decided to rule
out deep water fishing for this trip. With the limited time we had to put
Patrick's hard bait product line through the paces, I elected to forego
deeper water and instead concentrated on the backs of creeks for most of our
three days together. This is because the shallower depths in the backs of
the creeks would let us have fun with a wider range of Patrick's product
line which includes hard plastic topwaters, jerkbaits, minnows, crankbaits,
lipless, stickbaits and double-jointed swimbaits.
|
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We did not get anything too big, but there was
certainly enough action to keep us on our toes for the entire three day
trip, particularly the first two days.
We found the Holo Greenie (hologram green back) color closely matched the
pale green-backed shad, but we tried many other colors that produced fish.
|
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Several sizes and depths of Sébile's Flatt Shad
lipless crankbait, including the 54 SK, 66 SK, 66 XH-SK and 77 SU proved
best for the duration. At first we fished them on normal retrieves, which
proved productive. On a few retrieves, reeling in quickly at the end of the
cast, we observed some followers and flashers reacting to the quick pace. So
we began to burn the Flatt Shads by reeling rapidly, and fish began to react
and chase instinctively. We further modified our approach to whipping the
Flatt Shads by sweeping the rod tip quickly up from water level to say 11
o'clock, pausing at the apex of the sweep, and then reeling in the slack on
the downstroke as we lowered the rods to whip again. That gave us the fast
lure movement on the upstroke that caused the instinctive chasing - followed
by a pause each time we reeled in to match the sinking Flatt Shad's fall on
the downstroke. This whipping tactic proved most productive of all.
|
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Other Sebile hard baits that landed plenty of
stripers, largemouth and smallmouth for us were:
Koolie Minnow and Acast Minnow in several lengths and lip sizes, worked with
jerk-and-pause retrieves as well as trolling long lip models in 25-35 feet
of water
|
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Slim Stick topwater walking baits in 98 and 118
sizes
Stick Shad 72 SK, 90 SK and 90 FT hard plastic stickbaits in floating
and sinking models
Double-jointed Magic Swimmer 95 SK, 125 SK and 110 F-SK models
Crankster MR 65 medium-running fat-bodied crankbait
Rattsler flat-sided crankbaits
|
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Proppler Buzz buzzbaits in the very thickest of
heavy brush
It was strictly a Sébile hard bait outing for us as we elected not to try
other brands or styles of baits. |
This
is one of the many stripers of all sizes that I caught in New York while
visiting my family there during the holiday season.
I’m
a week late in reporting (March 14-15). I live 4 houses south of Gar Summers
he is a great guy with lots of enthusiasm for fishing Lake Powell (I love
Gar!). I went with 2 friends for 2 nights 2 days of fishing I knew it was
early.
This
was from March 9-11 last year. We must
of caught 600 fish in two and a half days. This picture is the first day we
were there. I think there is 170 fish. It was bite after bite. We were using
anchovies near the southeast part of the dam. The average striper we caught
was 9 lbs. and 2 feet long. I've never caught so much fish in my life.
Everyone was jealous of us and racing to get our spot the next morning. But
you have to wake up before 4 am to get our spot. It was priceless to see
their faces when they rolled up and saw we already had 60 on our line and in
our spot.
Went
up to Last Chance and Mike Beall caught this nice 4.10# LM on a dark
Here
is a photo of the big fish I caught today. We are fishing tomorrow in our
final tournament of this season. The bass weighs 6.27 pounds. It was a real
fighter and very healthy.
Fishing
Wahweap was incredible today. The fish are hungry. We fished for 4 hours
this afternoon and caught some very nice smallmouth and largemouth. This one
was 5.02 on the scale. All of our fish were caught cranking fast!
I
fished with my cousin Wayne to learn about catching stripers. We trolled and
spooned up 36 in the morning and then went back in the afternoon to catch
another 36 on bait. He just parked over the school, chummed and the
fish went crazy. This is really fun! 
We
headed out early in the morning around 5 am and took off through Castle Rock
cut and headed over to Face and West Canyon. Kip asked which one we wanted
and I told him Face Canyon. I was itching to get back since 3 months earlier
I had gone out with Dave Allen and his kids to Face and his son, Adam had
caught a very nice 1.7lb crappie and we had seen some very nice largemouth
under some sagebrush. 
August
8-10th
