November 10

March 4, 2009 - Tim Bagley - Red Canyon Stripers

Just walked in the door from another 2 day trip out of Hite. Stripers were gone from striper city which is the general area at the mouth of Trachyte canyon. Between there and White canyon. The same place we caught them last Sat and Sun had not one fish in it. We had to go all the way down to Good Hope Bay to catch them. We ran down to Red Canyon and caught over a 100 mostly trolling megabaits behind the island in the back in 25' of water. All the same size @ 3 lbs. Rough ride back up the lake today.

We used jointed megabaits. Not the soft type but rapala type. They dive right down to 22-23 feet with 10lb test. I can't remember the exact # but it seems like J120. Silver in color. They dive a little deeper than the #9 shad rap which we also used with some success.

We also trolled the Spro hair jig with a walleye assassin tail at 3.5 MPH. We put a Spro jig on leaded line out 4-5 colors I think. Let it out till it stays just off the bottom. They will also work with downrigger but its a lot of work.

There are a lot of good spots but it will depend on water clarity as run off is already starting. The mud line is only 1/4 mile from Farley canyon today. For the most part the side canyons remain clear. you can always find them somewhere.

The store at Hite is closed but gas is still available from pumps. When launching at Hite now you have to watch the tire line. Most of it is underwater and you will bump them but they go down so you can pass.

March 9, 2009 - Wayne Crowder - Hite

Just got back from camping at Hite. Launching the 21 boat wasn't bad at all and getting over the tires was easy. The smallmouths were biting good up north and some of the largies were out as well. Nothing huge, but we had a great time and tried our best to keep warm. We even made it to North Wash to fish. Wow, what a great place! Water temps all weekend were 48-51. Not bad considering it snowed on us Saturday.

March 10. 2009 - Don Allphin - Hite Bass

I launched at Hite the other day after speaking with you. The water temperature was 49 degrees. The launch went well but we hit the tire reef going out. It might be wise to remind folks to be careful until the pass the tires, noting that the visible end of the tires is not actually the end.

We fished the upper end of the lake for a couple of days and found a few bass up shallow. We only caught 10 or so bass a day, all but two were largemouth, two of which were over 4 pounds. Our baits included crankbaits in crawdad colors and spinnerbaits in greens and whites. Tubes took a few fish but they were still pretty lethargic and very deep (30-plus feet).

I don't think the bass will wake up until the water warms a bit. We found, but did not fish for crappie in the back of Trachyte. They appeared just like a Christmas tree on the finder so I know they would have been easy to target if that was our desire.

All in all, the water was muddy near the channel and very cold. Hopefully things will warm up over the next few weeks and the bass will wake up and come to the party.

March 26, 2009 - Dave Behunin - Hite Bass

Just thought I would let you guys know how the fishing was Saturday at Hite. My boy and I fished from 8:00 to around 3:30 when the w@*@ came up and we just could not hold steady on the shore any longer. When it was calm and you could feel the very light bite fishing was good. We caught around 20 large and small mouth and lost some very nice fish to the good old tail dance. We used a watermelon senko and fished it weightless and weedless and very very slow. I guess Wayne you might call it "dead sticking" but maybe not quite. We tried trolling for stripers with no luck. Fished Red Canyon and White Canyon and caught fish in both places. Tried crank baits and zara spooks with not even one hit.

We used an offset, round bottom hook, My Son bought the hooks so I didn't see the package they came but I'm guessing they were 5/0. We used the 5" original senko's. (I believe the 9 series) It seemed like as long as it was an extremely slow retrieve and with the line always tight you could catch them, if you let the wind or the boat drifting to allow slack in the line then no action. As long as you had the line tight and you could feel the very subtle bite you were catching fish. I was using a very sensitive graphite rod and I think it made a difference. I have toyed with senkos and a slide sinker a little in the past with out much success. I'm thinking the difference must have been the much slower retrieve and not adding weight.

Most of the water was 56-57. The warmest I noticed was 58.6 in the afternoon in shallower water. Also I tried to do a little sight fishing but just didn't see many bass. It seemed like as long as we fished the slick rock slopes covered with rock structure we were always in fish. I love to catch large mouth on a zara spook and tried a number of coves with vegetation and not one surfaced after the spook, so I just kept going back to the senkos with success. Maybe the water is just not warm enough for a spook yet?

Wayne, fish were very healthy. Counted 22 boat trailers in the parking lot when we loaded the boat, viewed several other boats fishing and tried to pay attention to see what they were catching and did not see any fish caught. ? Sure wish the fish cleaning station was up and running at Hite. Can't wait to get back down there.

April 6, 2009 - Bass Man - Hite

Or should I say C-C-C Cold Fish Report: Arrived at the lake Thursday @ about 6:00 P.M. The old marina boat ramp is in excellent shape. launched and went and camped in 4-Mile. Water temp. was 54 degrees. Fished for about an hour. Gold Cup caught 1 crappie and I caught 2 SMB. Friday it was cloudy, Fished White and caught several nice LMB. One on a crankbait the rest were on spinnerbaits fished s-l-o-w. Went and fished striper city found stripers on top or around the shalow humps in 10 to 20 feet of water. Caught them on Storm deep thundersticks and Norman deep little N's. Caught most of them when the crankbait would bump the bottom (reaction strike) caught about 20 doubles that way. It was nice and the water temp was 55 degrees.

About 2:30 the front hit. We went and stayed in the tent the rest of the day watching it blow and rain, rain and more rain. Saturday morning, water temp. was 52 degrees Fished South out of 4-mile along the North shore (Big Rocks) caught several nice LMB and a few SMB. Went and fished striper city again and caught about 20 more stripers. About 3:00 P.M another storm hit we could see about 2" of snow on the bluffs around Hite. Cold Burr. Went and stayed in the tent and watched it rain some more and the wind blow. Sunday morning, water temp. 51 degrees, caught 2 SMB. The black bass just did not want to play.

We went to striper city and caught about 30 more stripers and called it a day. The wind was out on the North and it was still cold. Gold Cup caught first fish every day. I caught the biggest black bass every day. We tied on species. Gold Cup caught the only crappie and I caught two nice walleye. So the fishing was "HOT" but the weather was "COLD". Excellent trip! I love Lake Powell

The bottom Line: Stripers 110, LMB Friday best 5 weighed 11 pounds. Saturday biggest 5 weighed 13 pounds. SMB we caught about 5 a day they weighed from 3/4 of a pound to two pounds. Both walleye weighed about 2 pounds. All fish were FAT and HEALTHY. They made it through the Winter in great shape. Come on water temp. it needs to get to 57 to really kick off the black bass bite.

April 6, 2009 - Steve and Matt Scheidell - Murray, Utah - Hite Stripers

My son, Matt, and I just returned from Hite. What a cool trip! Water temps were 4748 degrees in most places. In the back of Scorup we found a balmy 51.9! ( Matt wanted to wakeboard!) I think the cold was pretty tough on the LMB and SMB fishing. It had no effect on the stripers. Matt and I fished Red Canyon. We trolled behind the island and graphed a few lone fish, but no significant school was present.

On the way out we talked to a fellow and his wife who were pulling out stripers non-stop. They were trolling North and South in 25 30 feet of water in the main channel. Matt and I threw out our Storm deep running jointed Thundersticks and trolled at 2.5 3.0 mph. We trolled from the hump that is north of the entrance back to the opening of Red Canyon. We had catching like we have never experienced! It was insane! Each pass was good for 3 6 fish. Often we had doubles. We did this for 2.5 days except when the waves got too big. 130+ fish!

Matt Scheidell

GPS is 37 43' 15.71" N 110 27' 37.24"W. We never did try Farleys or White, but the preliminary reports from Gold Cup and Bass Man look like they enjoyed similar success in Striper City.

A few folks have asked about launching at Hite so I have included some pictures of the ramp and tires. Launching was easy. We have a 19’ Bayliner. We launched with a 2WD truck and had no problems. The tires are not a challenge just go to the right of the two Northern-most tires. It is easy to navigate the tamarisk stickups that are 40 50’ North of the 2 tires. DO NOT go between the 2 tires and the line of tires because there are submerged tires there.

Other info mud line is just before Farleys. We did not see too much debris. Please remind folks to stick to the left side going down canyon as silt deposits have left boat-eating mounds in the middle of the channel.

Please feel free to use the pictures if they will help someone. I thought the one of Matt was funny - 42 degrees, raining sideways and he is in shorts!

Thanks for all you do, Wayne. Your love of the lake and enthusiasm for the sport has touched many including the Scheidell family!

Hite Ramp at 3610

April 13, 2009 - Don Morris - Hite

Story by Don Morris from Pueblo Colorado.

Fishing partners: Tim Messersmith from Pueblo Colorado and Eli Duncan from Phoenix Arizona area.

Planned this trip to Lake Powell for three months, it was the only weekend we could make our schedules work.
April 8th through the 11th, not the best time of year for Lake Powell fishing.
Arrived at Hite Marina Wednesday evening the 8th. Got on the water early Thursday Morning and headed for Trachyte canyon for some striper fishing.
Thanks to everyone updating the Hite access and fishing report I knew I could launch and to stay to the left of the canyon as I went out.

It was just Tim and I Thursday, Eli had to work Wednesday and drove from Phoenix on Thursday.
It was a good day for striper, not great but good, we caught 11 nice striper by trolling 15' crankbaits in 20 to 30 feet of water.
The striper are nice and fat and we got some excellent fillets, thanks to Eli showing up just in time to fillet the fish.
Friday was another Good day with Eli winning bragging rights by catching a 4.25 lb walleye while trolling for striper.
Saturday was good too but we put them back in the lake because Eli said he was not filleting anymore fish.
This was Tim's first trip to Lake Powell so I really wanted it to be memorable for him, I think Tim had a good time.

April 15, 2009 - Iron Rod -Alan Sargent - Northern lake

Wayne- thanks again for all of your advice! We drove all night Wed night and arrived at the Lake around 5:30am. We slept for a couple of hrs and hit the lake around 9:30am. Fished lost canyon and marked a lot of fish around 50-70ft down but couldn't get them to bite. Went to Halls, fished shallow in the willows and trees but no hits. Marked fish almost the entire way down the bank-come to find out we were fishing too shallow. We were casting into 5-10 ft of water and most fish were being caught in 15-20ft.

Around 2pm we headed to Moki. In the first 3 casts we caught two super fat LMB! I was sure it was going to be fast and furious fishing but....not another bite! We continued to fish all the way toward the back of the canyon-marking fish the entire way but couldn't seem to entice a hit. Headed back to the marina around 6pm and we were hammered!

	As my two friends headed to the motor home I decided to fish in the marina at Bullfrog. I was watching some young fisherman catch carp and noticed in the water that there were some lighter colored and faster fish that kept swimming by..... I threw on a silver jigging spoon and after about 10 min I caught a 2.2lb gizzard shad! People in the marina couldn't believe it-nor could I. I will have to say that those fish put up a good fight!
	Next day we were joined by my two brothers-in-laws and sister, we headed to striper city. We got there around 7:30am via the reservoir-what a beautiful ride! The ENTIRE way there the lake was complete glass-couldn't have had a smoother ride. Stopped around bouy 136 and started to troll. Within 10 min we had our first striper of the trip-the first striper for any of us! Trolling in 20ft of water with the thundersticks. We had a couple more hits then picked up a 14" smb. We must have had "too good of conditions" because we couldn't get another hit. Fished the mouth of all the canyons.
	Around 1pm we headed to Red Canyon and trolled around the mouth and all the way up into the canyon. We missed 4 different hits but didn't land a fish there either. I saw 4 other boats and didn't see a fish landed so I am hoping it wasn't just the fact that I'm a novice striper/bass fisherman! Anyway we counted that as a successful day and headed back around 5pm.
	Fished again near Lost Eden canyon that evening and picked up another smb. Our last day we decided to stay close and hit Halls....Fish were ON from the start! Everyone in the boat managed to catch at least 1 striper. We trolled the North shore about 15-20ft of water with deep diving crankbaits-white seemed to be the best color. I had 4 of these that were rated to dive 20ft and after losing all 4 the fishing was very slow. Picked up two more-one on a perch colored bait and one that was silver/blue with a red bill. The filets were so thick! First time eating this wonderful fish and it won't be the last!

Eli and I have been going to Lake Powell for 20 years but this was our first trip in 10 years so we were excited to go again.

May 4, 2009 - Mike Milburn - Good Hope Bay

I had a chance to fish a little last week while acting as the chief cook and bottle washer on our annual get together.

Wednesday was a beautiful day weather wise with light winds in the morning and blue skies. My partner for the day was Kevin and we made a great team. We started fishing in the main channel just below the south end of Good Hope Bay. Water temps were in the 56-58 degree range in the morning and the fishing started out a little slow. By noon the water had warmed a little and the smallmouth came alive. We did best on greenish brown 3 1/2 inch tube jigs with either a 1/8 or 1/4 jig head, depending on the wind. We caught over 100 bass on Wednesday and all but three were smallies. I did get one LMB about 3 pounds. Kevin caught a nice walleye fishing the same tube jig, but allowing it to sink a little deeper. Another boat with us tried trolling deep diving lures in the mouth of Red Canyon just south of the Castle Butte. They got around 15 nice 3-4 pound healthy stripers. They also did well on the brown bass, but they have more patience than I do and
they trolled most of the mid day.

On Thursday Kevin and I were joined by another angler and this was his first time ever fishing. We had him casting well and catching smallies within 15 minutes and I didn't even end up with a set of treble hooks in my head! It did get a little breezy on Thursday afternoon and I tried a crankbait because light jig presentation was very difficult. I got several very nice SMB on the Rapala DT 6 in Bluegill color. I think the fishing is poised to get better as the water warms further. I had to leave my boat at Bullfrog. OMG! I'll have to go back and get it.....any day now. Take care my friend. I have attached a photo of Kevin with a nice Walleye he contributed to the annual fish fry on Thursday night.

June 21, 2009 - Rich Vosepka, Salt Lake City- Farley shore fishing

I fished Farley Canyon on June 18 and 19. Frequent small boils were all over the bay -- sometimes quite close to shore. The boils were most frequent early in the morning, before the sun was above the canyon rim, but there were at least a few boils throughout the day. I got six, all in the three-pound range, all on a 1/2 oz. shad-colored RattlTrap. I was fishing from the bank, rather than from a boat, so it made an interesting challenge -- running along the steep rocky bank trying to get within casting range of the boils before they subsided and without busting my head open on the rocks.

I also got a 20-inch walleye and a bluegill of almost a pound. Also on the RattlTrap. The bluegill was likely defending its nest.

June 29, 2009 - Juan Garcia - Hite

I went fishing last week for a few days with my fishing buddy Neil and his son Colby. We decided to head up to Hite and avoid some of the crowds. The stripers were boiling pretty consistent in Farley but were very shy. We had to approach them cautiously to even get a chance to cast. One pod of stripers came up all the way back into Farleys early one morning and we fished them for about 2-3 minutes. We used white super flukes, grubs, silver rattle traps. Early morning and late evenings produced the best striper fishing. We spent the mid-days fishing from Farley's to Good Hope in the tamarisks for bass and a few crappies. We caught bass on spinner baits, flukes, and on top water spooks and Zoom toads. Colby caught a 2-7 large mouth on a toad and pretty much fished it all day. He also caught some stripers with it. Here's a picture of one the bass he caught using the toad.

Neil and Colby Banner

After a couple of days at Hite, we packed up and went down to Bullfrog. We got into some stripers in Halls Bay and Moki but the best action was close to shore from the ferry boat ramp to just past Stanton campground and they stayed boiling longer than the ones at Hite. The stripers were not very organized and moving in big pods like you usually see. Although we did get into some of those big pods, most of them were is small groups. We caught them mostly on rattle traps and white tube jigs. Even when the boils quit, we still were able to catch fish by casting around where they were last seen and letting the lures drift a little deeper before retrieving.

The fish at bullfrog were also fatter and a bit larger than the ones at Hite.

July 21, 2009 - Dan Spitzer - Hite Boils - HOT!

We launched from Hite Friday afternoon and was it ever hot. We ended up camping on one of the sand/gravel islands south of Scorup and north of Castle Butte. By the time we had camp set up we were honestly too tired to launch the boat and fish, but, the stripers obliged and boiled off the back of the boat at camp and that started a great weekend of fishing.

We didn't really have to go far to fish. Stripers boiled every morning and evening all over the area and the only decision to make was which direction to head from our island camp - it's kinda nice when it doesn't matter. We did find that Saturday morning's wind may have covered up the sound and sight of the boils but once out in the main channel we found them boiling nonetheless. Lots of catching. I personally prefer top water fishing and a Sammy was my lure of choice. Thankfully I have several as I found myself with battered, bent and broken hooks more than once. Gloria prefers a Kastmaster spoon which gave her the advantage of picking up an occasional fish when the boils went down by casting it out and letting it sink.

The boils of longest duration were found between Two Mile and Trachyte Sunday morning. We had picked up 17 fish not far from camp that morning and then went uplake to "check out" Striper City. Between 9:30 and 11:30 we caught 49 more just past Two Mile. We had to do some chasing but the boils regularly came up in close proximity to where they had gone down.

There were shad everywhere. They would "wake" along the surface all day long from Hite to GHB.

Boat traffic was next to non-existent. We saw a couple of boats with fishing rods sticking up but only witnessed one other person fishing.

Launching and trailering at the old Hite marina ramp area was easy. There is a courtesy dock at that site.

August 7, 2009 - Jack Herrin - Good Hope Bay

My fishing buddies Dave Cole and Tarey Treasure and I arrived at Bullfrog on July 30th and loaded the houseboat when north until we found boils. We found them in the main channel in front of Red Canyon.
Put the houseboat on island between Red Canyon and the Horn. Striper's were boiling right in the main channel from Red Canyon to the Horn,
This was going to be a great trip... :) Full Moon coming and boils, boils boils...
But was it was not to last. By Saturday boil fishing got really slow, we only saw one boil just before dark.. Tried doing some night fishing and got about a zillion shad into the green light, but they were very small.. less than an inch in size . But I did catch a few and put them on a small hook. Did not catch one fish..
Where did all the boils go???
Hotwheels

Sunday we did not see any boils at all..... So tried night fishing again with some anchovies.. not even a nibble from Striper's, but the catfish were plentiful.
We decided to head back to Bullfrog on Monday morning.. Did not see any boils all the way back.
Tuesday Aug 4th was a new day and we headed south out of Bullfrog and found boils in main channel just before Lake Canyon.. there were a number of boats fishing there. The boils covered the whole channel area, but were scattered and not really boils but mostly tail slaps a few here and there but they were everywhere and very catchable.

While fishing we were checked by the friendly Fish and Game officers. I asked them why they were not fishing the boils yet... :) I see a report on Angler's corner that they did go fishing. See report by Andrew Garchar, looks like they already had.. :)
So we loaded up the cooler again.
Wednesday morning our last day of fishing we went back to main channel near Lake Canyon and only caught a few.. not very much boils going on. So we decided to go into Lake Canyon to check it out. Only got about 3/4 mile in started seeing a boil... so stopped the boat and it was like the whole little bay just started to exploded. Shad were jumping every where.. the Striper's had them trapped up against the rock walls and were slamming them. We just stayed right there in the one spot for about 2 hours and caught 40 .. this was the best of the boils we had seen. We were the only boat fishing this boil..

It was the last day fishing and the Day of the complete Full Moon,..
Our lures of choice were Sammy's and Zara Spooks.. Total for the week around 90 +
The fish length were about the same as the Striper's up north, but were not as FAT as Striper's caught down in Lake Canyon. The weight of the fish in Lake Canyon averaged 3 1/2lbs or better. The Striper's caught up North near the Horn were 2 1/2lbs to 3lbs. So seems the fish up north need to eat more Shad.. :) Maybe in a couple of weeks they will fatten up???