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We went to Powell April 5th-12th with my friend Stacie Bater, Buddy Cal
Evans on his Houseboat the "Gitzit". It was awesome!!!!!!!!!!! Here is some
info.
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We went up lake from Bullfrog and fished canyons from Hansen to Trachyte
ended up camping in Cedar and fished canyons up and down from that base and
found the best action in that area. Fished mon-sat, weather was good except
Wed. **very windy** had to re-secure houseboat it was so bad we just chilled
that day. |
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Other days were very pleasant with light to no wind, air as
warm as 75? daytime 45-50's at night, water temp 49 degrees at the coldest
in the mornings, found water as warm as 58 in backs of canyons. |
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Seemed at first fish did not get active until afternoon as water warmed,
later in the trip caught fish all day and when we found 53-54 degrees we did
well. |
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Caught more Smallies than we could keep track of, probably 20+ largemouth,
60+- Crappies up to 14", a couple walleyes, and 3 stripers (we did not
really try to target them, trolled a couple up) then decided why waste the
good Smallie action so we would go back to that. |
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We had good action on
Grubs, tubes in Crawfish colors with 1/8 to 1/4 oz. heads, shad colors in Curlytails
also worked, we had have some luck on jerk baits and crank, caught fish at
depths between 5 and 18 ft in areas that had access to deeper water. |
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For Crappies small curlytails and tubes, lighter colors in flooded pockets of
stickups. The fish were in excellent shape. They all were very fat and
healthy. I can only imagine how good it is going to get when it really
breaks loose.
Thanks for all you do for lake Powell, it is going to be a great
season....... |
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I was able to mark schools in the back of middle rock creek,
twitchell, and reflection, but could not arouse them after dark, regardless
of using a green light in a prime spot close to them, and using copious
amounts of chum. Occasionally one or two would zip in and out just as
quickly, as was also the case in the small inlet just south and outside of
the mouth of Labyrinth. Caught a nice catfish there. If you would like to
see exactly where we night fished: http://tinyurl.com/powell09 (The marker
locations are exact, though google maps took the photo when the lake level
was much lower).
The yellow bullhead... I seem to always finesse these out of the woodwork.
This is my 3rd LP yellow bullhead. Released, as with the others. |
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Reflection had a lot of fat bluegill in the back, though I
always feel better about returning them since they are not a dominant
species. Interestingly, the Gizzard Shad were spawning in the back of
Reflection when we were there. Are they encouraged for harvest? Are they
table worthy? Can they be used for bait or are they a gamefish? Or it is
best just to leave them alone? They are about the only fish I've seen in the
lake that are as fast and agile as stripers, though it's hard to get them to
strike at anything.
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The catfish and carp were an interesting occurrence about
halfway back in Face Canyon (where the night image was made as well). My
wife Lili made a pasta that we didn't end up caring for, and she added it to
the food buffet in the lake. Something about the tomato sauce, peas, or
pineapple drove these fish mad! They liked the scent in the water, though
interestingly enough they didn't eat it.
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The scorpion was a reminder to wear good shoes at night on
shore and look where I walk. !!
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There are two prominent points half way back in Twitchell
that are covered in SMB and readily took brownish hula grubs, lipless shad
colored cranks, and even topwater (chug bugs and buzz baits). It seemed that
anywhere there were slightly submerged rock points on the lake, they were
covered with fish. The few nice LMB I saw, I couldn't interest them in
anything... they would stay in an area, but just cruise the shoreline.
Water temps varied from 66 to 75 degrees. |
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Wednesday late afternoon we launched and had just enough
time to try the back of Bullfrog Bay past the haystack rock. Nothing on the
west side and we managed 2 stripers on the east side in 25' of water. We
trolled Walleye Assassins in black and silver w/green tails almost the whole
time we fished. We trolled with lead line 5 - 6 colors out with a 6' - 10#
fluorocarbon leader. It got dark so we headed to a camp spot.
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Thursday morning we were able to get in a few hours of
fishing and headed to the east side of Bullfrog Bay and trolled in 25' of
water again. We picked up a striper or two and a walleye, then a really nice
smallie. Then the bite quit. I moved into 15' of water and we shortened up
to only 2 - 3 colors out and started nailing them. We got smallies,
largemouth, walleye, and stripers. Great fun wondering what you'd bring up
each time we hooked up. I even netted a striper and smallie at the same
time! (see pic). The great thing about those Assassins was that anything
would hit them. Early afternoon, here came the rain and it never stopped. It
rained all through the night and next day. Finally, Friday afternoon we got
a break for a couple hours and headed to Lake Canyon. Well, we never made it
because of the rain showers ahead of us, so I turned around and started
trolling in the main channel along the shore and walls. Just south of buoy
92 on the west side at the wall in the main channel, Sue hooked up while
taking a picture of a waterfall. We never left that wall trolling back and
forth and picked up at least two fish per pass getting stripers and an
occasional walleye with 6 colors out. Fish were on the graph at 20 - 50'
deep. We only managed one striper inside the canyons that we trolled.
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Rain stopped us again and Friday we woke up to more rain. We tried Halls
Creek Bay on the east side for a few hours after the rain with no fish
showing on the graph and called it a day. Saturday was the same with more
heavy rain until the afternoon and headed back to the wall at buoy 92. The
stripers and walleye were still there, but the bite slowed to only one fish
per pass.
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Sunday morning was sunshine!!! We had to leave early so headed back to that
wall and caught about half a dozen more nice stripers and a walleye. The
stripers all averaged between 19 - 20", 2 1/2- 3 pounds and healthy. The
walleye were small but fun, and the smallies were all good size 2 - 3
pounders. The largemouth went over 3 pounds. I tried a little casting with a
white spinner bait w/colorado blades and caught one nice largemouth that got
off and had numerous hits. We also got about 6 catfish on anchovies while
sitting around waiting for the rain to stop. |
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Totals were only about 30 fish...not many....but it's better
than nothing! Hey, you can't have a hundred fish every time, right? All in
all, the rain made it very challenging but we saw some beautiful waterfalls
and still had a great time. We don't get to Powell very often anymore with
our job, so we cherish the times we get to enjoy the greatest lake in the
west. Thanks Wayne for all you do for our fishery and God bless.
Mark & Sue |
Amy Gainsford and Mike Larsen |
I took a group of six young friends down to the lake who had
never fished Lake Powell. In fact, for several of our guests this was their
first trip to the lake. We spent June 11-13 on the lake and fished primarily
in the Bullfrog/Halls Creek area due to windy conditions most of the trip.
We did make a run down to Slick Rock and Iceberg Canyons (which we paid for
on the rough ride back north) and picked up fish in those areas as well. We
caught fish pretty steadily whenever we could find a notch or corner out of
the wind. Large mouth were plentiful and really went after anything we threw
on top water. Small mouth also were active and healthy, and were caught both
on top water and deeper in rough conditions. Green gitzits worked well along
sharply dropping slick rock areas in 12-18 feet of water, producing some
nice small mouth bass. |
Rachael Cardon |
Fortunately, the fish were all responding on cue as time
after time I would show my young guests where to throw and it would produce
that wonderful explosion of water, fish and lure as a large mouth attacked
from its hiding place in the backs of coves. Great fishing! Healthy fish! I
appreciated the fish cooperating. Exciting to watch these folks catch their
first ever bass.
I should note that Patrick Svedin, our photographer, was so busy catching
fish and taking photos we failed to capture him and some of his nice fish
with the camera, but trust me, he caught some, truly he did. I am not lying.
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Justin Osmund
and another nice top water catch |
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Steve Thurman
picked this prize up with a green gitzit. |
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Kim Bake and
friend. |
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The Crew--Mike & Teresa Larsen, Kim Bake, Amy Gaisford, Rachael Cardon,
Justin Osmond, Patrick Svedin and Steve Thurman
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1. Al Beaty with his first striper of the trip |
I've just returned home from a 10-day fishing / houseboating
trip to Lake Powell (June 27 thru July 6) and thought I'd pass along a
report on how we did.
To begin with, I'm primarily a black bass fisherman, and I've only fished
for stripers once before, in the Sacramento - San Joaquin Delta. That trip
was with a guide, and we spent the day trolling broken-back Rebel minnows.
Consequently, your website was an absolute wealth of information for tactics
on Lake Powell. I would research your website almost every night for the
week prior to our departure. Not only did the information help with the
fishing, but I was also able to have my boat prepared for the QM inspection
prior to launching it, and it passed with flying colors. The inspector was
impressed that I had taken all the necessary precautions in advance, and I
credit your fine website with providing the information I needed to insure
compliance.
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2. Sharon Beaty with one of our morning hauls |
Now, on to the important stuff...
We launched out of Bullfrog on Saturday afternoon, June 27, and tied up our
rental houseboat in the north end of the front cove of Halls Creek Bay, with
my Nitro bass boat tied up across the back of the houseboat. (we could see
the main lake channel from our anchorage). As evening approached, we started
seeing individual fish surfacing, so I stepped off the houseboat onto my
boat (still tied up to the houseboat at this point), clipped on a
shad-colored rattle trap and started casting in the vicinity of the
splashes. My third cast produced the first striper of the trip. As the fish
activity increased around the cove, myself and Al & Sharon Beaty launched
the Nitro and probed the backs of the small coves in the bay. We never saw
any big boils (that would come later in the week), but we managed to catch 5
stripers that first evening.
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3. Me with the only largemouth of the trip
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For the duration of the trip, we never traveled more than a
couple miles to fish...most of our time was spent in the front cove and the
entrance to Halls Creek. We ventured over to the coves between Halls
Crossing Marina and boat ramp, mostly in the mornings. In the cove behind
Halls fuel dock on our third morning out, we saw our first big boil of the
week. Once again throwing rattle traps and shad raps, everyone managed to
catch fish. During lulls in the striper activity, I'd tie on a Spittin'
Image (similar to a Zara Spook) and work it parallel to the shoreline, and
caught several smallmouth (no real size to any of them), and a nice 4.5 lb.
largemouth. I even managed to nail a nice striper on the Spittin' Image, but
for the most part, we exclusively threw Rattle Traps & Shad Raps. It
appeared that color didn't matter, as we caught them on everything we tied
on (personally, I felt the shad imitations did the best job - Al preferred
throwing anything with gold in it).
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4. Me with a few, the morning of July 4th |
As the week progressed, the boils in Halls Creek Bay
progressively moved further out of the cove and into deeper water toward the
main lake. Boils would fire up starting at about 5:45 AM and last for about
2-3 hours, then start again at around 5:00 PM and would last for an hour or
two. The morning of July 3rd produced the most incredible boil of the
week...it stretched practically across the entire cove (approximately 150
yards wide) and lasted a good 2 minutes. Fishing continued to be excellent
in the mornings, and fair to good in the evenings, weather permitting
(lightning and wind forced us off the water two evenings). Our best morning
produced 18 fish in 3 hours for the 3 of us, and the best evening produced
10 fish. I can emphatically state that if we'd had a landing net (we lost a
lot of fish right next to the boat) and had used heavier line and been able
to "horse" the fish more during the fight, we would have done much better,
but I'll tell you, those fish were a blast to catch on 8 lb. test line!
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5. Partial results of our last evening on the water |
On July 5, we moved our houseboat over to Bullfrog Bay in
preparation for our departure the next day. We fished that evening between
the Bullfrog dump / pump station and boat ramp. We saw plenty of boils, but
they were widely scattered throughout the entire area...we spent a lot of
time chasing the fish, but still managed to land 16 of them. The following
morning we fished the same area. We never saw an actual boil, but there were
plenty of fish breaking the surface here and there, and Al and I caught 17
fish in 2 hours by making random casts in the area of the activity. We ended
our trip with well over 100 stripers in the freezer (we actually lost count
somewhere around the 7th day)...even had a few for dinner one evening. Ever
try them marinated in Italian salad dressing, then cooked on the barbeque?
Delicious!
One interesting side note on something we noticed...as we continued making
random casts following a boil, we would consistently pick up several
smallmouth, even out in deep water. I'm guessing they follow the striper
schools and pick off any injured shad the stripers leave behind.
In closing, let me thank you again for furnishing such valuable information
on your website...it certainly provided us with a trip to remember! |
July 21, 2009 - Tim Richard - Elizabeth CO -
Escalante Stripers |
 We
were at Lake Powell from 7-10-09 until 7-16-09. My first chance to fish came
on 7-11-09 and we had set up our house boat in Slick Rock Canyon. I used a
wave runner for my mobile fishing vessel and on the morning of 7-11-09, I
left Slick Rock canyon and crossed the main channel straight out of the
canyon and found a lot of “slurp” action. Took me all of 30 minutes to tie 5
good striper on the stringer using a ½ oz. silver Kastmaster with a white
tail. I simply quit fishing after I had 5 fish, because at the time, I had
never eaten striper, and I didn’t want to clean a bunch of them if I didn’t
like to eat’em. I should’ve kept fishing!!!
Tim Richard
That afternoon, we moved down the lake into the Escalante River arm. The
morning of 7-12-09, I again used the wave runner and went to the mouth of
the Escalante and the main channel, and there was not nearly as much “slurp”
action here as there was back in the main channel at Slick Rock. But, by
using the “patience, cast accurate” method, I was still able to catch three
more good striper that morning. And this was the method that I used for the
rest of the week. No boils, but feeding fish non-the-less, so it was all
about being patient, and casting accurately to fish that surfaced with-in
casting range. I ended up catching 19 stripers, all on the ½ oz. silver
Kastmaster with a white tail and all from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m.. I didn’t do any
afternoon fishing.
Also, whoever posted the simple recipe of marinating the filets in Italian
dressing and grilling them, THANKS!! Delicious table fair, and very simple
to prepare. |
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Just thought I would drop a few pictures from our trip. We took the
houseboat down to a canyon across from Slickrock Canyon and found a good
camping spot. At the break of dawn the stripers began boiling in the canyon
and along the wall to the north. My father (Tim), my son (Keedan age 5), and
I would use the electric to motor over to the boil and the fun was on!
Keedan Decker |
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We had three rods rigged up each, two with shallow running
x-raps, two with intermediate bombers, and two with large silver spoons. We
would start shallow and hook up a fish on the x-rap, then hand it off to one
of the kids or the rod holder, and then depending if the school was still up
use the bomber or cast the spoon and let it go deeper to the remaining fish
(10+ feet deep).
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We also found the jetski to be a great fun way to attack the
stripers, you can get up enough speed heading toward the boil and kill the
engine about 30 yards away from the school and coast into casting range
without spooking the school. In total we caught 60+ stripers, 20 smallmouth,
5 small largemouth, and the kids caught too many cafish and bluegill to
count. We had a great trip despite generator problems in 105 degree temps!
Thanks for the site and all the great info!! Attached is a picture of Keedan
and his 4.1 lb. striper (the biggest he has ever caught), and Tim and Keedan
with the first stripers of the trip.
Jasen Decker |
Steven
Leitch of West Jordan, Utah caught this 5 lbs. 4 oz, 26 inch long
Striper on Feb. 16th 2009 using a jig with anchovy while fishing out of
Bullfrog with Richard Snow and I. It was the best one of the 32 fish we
landed over two days.
Fished
Bullfrog on Monday March 16th and 17th. Weather was great. Didn’t catch
much. Richard Snow caught 4 Stripers Monday and me, one. On jigs tipped with
anchovy. In the 3lb range.
There
was a new Utah and Lake Powell record crappie caught near the Escalante.
We just got back from a great weekend of fishing except for Saturdays wind.
This is in reference to April 23 – 26, here is a picture of me
David Leach with 2 of the better
ones. We did catch some real nice smallies on Saturday, like 16 ½” but did
not get any pictures as we got blown off the lake. We were using just about
anything but crank baits were the best for us anyway, just go slow.
Leonard
Iversen on the front lawn of his house. While taking a break from
filleting Stripers caught out of boils on July 9th.Leonard saw many boils in
the channel around the Rincon.
