Date Received: May 5, 2000 Dan De Kruyf, Twin Falls, Idaho
Just returned from a very enjoyable and successful fishing trip to Lake Powell. We fished the upper end of the San Juan arm from just below Zahn bay up to where the water became very muddy from April 30 through May 3, 2000. The water temperature varied from 62 to 68 degrees depending on the time of day. We primarily fished for smallmouth and largemouth bass, but also caught crappie, bluegill, rockbass, stripers, walleye and catfish.

Our favorite tackle is the Yamamoto 5" split tail hula grub, with Owner bullet head hooks. In past years, there always seemed to be one color that outperformed all others. This year the fish seemed attracted to most colors including Chartreuse (lime green), Watermelon, Root Beer with Christmas flake, Blue Pearl, White, and Smoke.

We tend to fish shoreline with big boulders by casting to shore and working the bait through the rocks. We also caught a few smaller bass fishing sheer rock walls. The fish seemed to bite at all times of day, with early morning and midafternoon through evening being the most productive times.

There seemed to be a large population of smaller bass in the 6 to 12 inch range. On most days, I would say each person in the boat caught 20 to 30 fish with maybe 2 to 3 keepers.

My Dad and Brother caught 23 Bluegill on worms and bobbers in 9 feet of water in no more than two hours time.

After having fished Last Chance for the past 3 or 4 years, am now convinced that the upper San Juan arm has more productive fishing in late April through early May. Can't wait to go back next year....

Date Received: May 8, 2000 Don, Denver
Four of us did a houseboat trip for 6 days out of Bullfrog last week. We spent 2 nights in Reflection and 3 nights in the middle San Juan. We caught a gillion smallmouth in the San Juan and some largemouth but nothing over a pound and a half. We took fish shallow, deep, mid-depth, off cliff walls, off broken rock (large and small), in the shade and in the sun. In short, the bass fishing was about as fast as can be hoped for, just would have liked a few bigger fish. Didn't hit any walleyes and only 3 crappie despite spending a considerable amount of time looking for both. We fished mostly tubes and grubs. Best colors were pearl with dark flecks, chartreuse flake and smoke sparkle. The biggest problem was the heat - 95 to 100 - and no shade in that part of the San Juan during midday !!!

Date Received: June 20, 2000 -Greg Stokes
Just returned from a week up the San Juan (6/12 - 6/18), we fished mostly between Piute Canyon and Neskahi Wash. Excellent fishing for SMB, and LMB, top water bite was on at dawn and dusk using POPR's and Chug bugs, fished single/double 4" Yamamoto grubs on 1/4oz jigs in the morning and evening, along with carolina rigged reapers(color did not seem to matter). Most SMB were around 1lb, but we did catch lots of 2 to 3lb SMB and LMB with an occasional Walleye or Striper. We stopped for a day at Jacks Arch and had the same success around submerged islands and points. We lost count of the fish but had to be 75 to 100 fish per boat per day, the kids loved it.

Date Received: June 20, 2000 Mike Milburn
I fished the San Juan arm of the lake over the recent weekend with my son, Alan and my wife, Kathy. We camped near Desha Canyon and fished the main channel mid day and picked up smallmouth and largemouth in nearly equal numbers. It was better sticking to the shaded canyon walls as much as we could. In the sun, I found the bass quite deep, down to about 15-20 feet. We fished single grubs in crayfish colors on 1/4 oz. heads. I also used a 1/4 oz. Gitzit with very good success. Early mornings, before 0800, the topwater action was very good in brushy areas. I caught several largemouth in the 3 pound class. A frog colored Tiny Torpedo worked very well for me. I saw a few very brief striper boils involving 5-10 fish in the 1 ½½ to 2 pound range. They tended to move very quickly and it was hard to stay with them with the electric motor.

I caught a few stripers on the surface and a few others while fishing for the bass. Channel catfishing was excellent in the evenings right at our camp. Most of the 'cats were around 2 pounds. We even caught one bullhead and one striper while fishing for the catfish.

Sunday morning was overcast with very light rain showers. I was able to catch fish on the surface until nearly 1000.

Date Received: July 5, 2000 Sunburn Gang, Mesa AZ.
Just returned from our annual trip to Powell. We fished June 26-29 in the San Juan ( Piute Wash to Spencer Camp ). Fishing was outstanding with lots of Smallmouth, Largemouth, and a few Walleyes caught. Our best pattern for bass was 25-40 feet deep on outside structure for lots of Smallmouth. Mostly smaller fish but a few up to 2lbs . 5" Yamamoto Grubs in colors # 169 and #208 were our best baits fished on 1/4 to 1/2oz jigheads with a vertical presentation. Most of the time we added the skirt of matching color. Cut the skirts in half to save $$ and reduce the size of the bait. The color of the grub was not nearly as important as the presentation or depth. 5 nice Walleyes also fell to this combo. The fish were very healthy and busting with crayfish. Largemouth were much shallower and fewer in number than the Smallmouth. There was a decent topwater bite before the sun hit the water for Largemouth but we had to cover lots of water to get 5 or 6 bites. PopR's and the new Super Spook Jr both worked well. No surface action to report on Stripers during our stay other than a few boils from small fish. I am forwarding some photos of our kids with some of the fish they caught. If there is a better lake on which to introduce kids to fishing I don't know where it could be. It seems there is always something biting. Catfish from the back of the houseboat, the ever present Stripers, and the sheer number of Smallmouth make for a great opportunity to teach the proper techniques and a love of the outdoors to our children. Also, kudos to Mike and the folks at Pinpoint Electronics. After we found ourselves on the lake with a malfunctioning trolling motor they actually overnighted a new one to Dangling Rope Marina. See ya next year, remember to FILLET THOSE STRIPERS!

Date Received: September 26, 2000 Chuck Fulton
We took our annual late Sept houseboat trip to the upper San Juan. Parked between Piute Creek and Neskahi for four days. Enroute we found stripers in the back of main Rock Creek and the back right side of Dry Rock Creek. In the San Juan there were fish...lots... in both Piute Creek and Neskahi. Lots of shad in the back of both bays. Some of the lesser bays in between also had stripers. The Piute fish would boil for 5 minutes every morning between daylight and 6:30 then rest out in 50-70 foot water. Very catchable jigging on graphed returns. Went to Copper Canyon and beyond one morning very early. Spencer's had no serious activity...looked like lone fish at 50'...could have caught them on a down rigger..Yawn. Zahn had a good small mouth boil going but mostly little fish. Got a short 2 minute striper boil in front of Copper but that was all. Graphed lots of shad between there and Mike's but no striper schools. For now the action seems to be in Piute Creek and Neskahi. We've got lots of new striper filets for the fall table.

My friend and I fished the San Juan River Sept 21-24. We started at Mikes and worked our way south, breaking camp and moving around noon each day. We caught tons of fished daily even the 2 days the wind blew. #135 smoke Yamamoto 5" grub, chartreuse spinnerbaits, and small top water baits, worked the best for the smallies. The stripers would come in the backs of coves in the first thing in the mornings and bust shad. However there never stayed long. We did manage to catch a few nice ones and several smaller ones. It was a great trip, the sunsets were amazing, and the fishing was everything we hoped for. I have sent some pics. that I downloaded from my video camera.

While fishing in the San Juan Sept. 21st-25th the wind blew hard for better part of the trip. I tried a technique for small mouths and we caught several and a few stripers. I used a 3/4 oz. football jig head and a smoke sparkle spider jig. Dropped it down 40 to 60 feet and as it hit the bottom I would rip back up 5-6 feet and then let it fall back to the bottom, same as you do with your striper spoons. Most of the hits came on the fall (but certainly not all). This was a very productive technique for me on the two windy days that we fished and at times was the only way we could fish.

I just returned to Pa. from our Fishing trip to Lake Powell. We started out Sun 10/15 & headed for the San Juan. We camped at the mouth of the San Juan on Sun late aft. and fished the North shore of Jacks Arch. using a skirted 3" Pumpkin & Chartreuse grub on a 1/4 ounce leadhead. The first fish was a 3 lb walleye and the next 4 were 2 - 3 LB smallies. On the east shore across the river they were catching 2 LB. stripers and we were only fishing for 30 - 45 minutes.

The next morning we proceeded to Piute Canyon where we normally camp and fish from. The weather was great all week and fish were caught every day. We grubbed during the day catching 1 1/2 LB. to 3 LB smallies using the same setup as the night before but as the sun rose during the day we went to 2" grubs and 1/16 -1/8 ounce lead heads but the only colors that worked were pumpkin and chartreuse or a combination of both working the deep boulders off the points away from the sun.

The islands off Neskahi Wash were a good area for Smallies, Largemouth Big Blue Gill, & Catfish all at least 20 feet down. As the sun started to set we trolled the points around Piute and hit some good size smallies and walleye with blue chrome deep divers.

To top the evening off the stripers were holding the shad at the back of Piute. No boils, but they just kept the shad in the cove with no way to escape so all we had to do was troll with anything Blue Chrome. Deep Shad raps and Rattle Traps work extremely well so we had our limit of 3 to 5 LB. Stripers every evening if we so desired. All the fish we caught were in great shape.

A trip to Cha Canyon along the south shore proved fruitful for smallies and largemouth We had a great time and left the area in good condition returning Sat. 10/21

Take care and thanks for your help.

Took the boat to Copper Canyon yesterday (Sat.) and caught 8 stripers, 3 crappie and one 2 pound walleye. The possibly interesting part is that all of the stripers were caught in the numerous bays on the south side of the lake between Copper and Mike's in very shallow water (8 to 12') on walley divers.

Two of the stripers were over 4 lbs and probably over 5 lbs (legitimate weight). Once back to Kayenta, I dissected the stomach contents of these two fish. Both were full of medium size crawdads, one had six of these in the stomach. Apparently, these fish have learned to adapt when the shad disappear. The one with six crawfish in the stomach is the biggest striper I have seen come out of the San Juan since last November. I would guess the length at 24 to 26".

We were casting the wally divers into very shallow water, cranking them fast for several seconds to get them down to 6 or 8 feet, and then retrieving them on a stop and go action. The stripers usually hit right after the lure was stopped and then started again.

Date Received: March 16, 2001 - Chris & Debi Cross

Debi and I fished the ABA last Saturday (3/10). We again went to our recently most productive canyon (75 miles and 1 hr. 40 min. north of the marina). A Sunset is not a Ranger, even with a 225 on the transom. The water was green and 46-50 degrees. We fished vertical walls with a 20" bottom. I pitched Zippers, blades and Yamamoto plastic. #208 double tails got me two keepers. Debi, using an unnamed crankbait, fished in a style that no bass or any other fish ever saw, caught a 2 1/2 largemouth and five (5) crappie all over two pounds. Each of these resulted in a " HONEY, get the net". With a pounding heart I'm on the stern, ready with the net. This happened five times, as we went down the shoreline. The last one was Bubba. Weighed in at 2-13. I brought it back to weigh-in just because it was our largest fish. Had I known we (Debi) were going to catch five crappie, we would have invited you for dinner.

The tournament fishermen may not have reported their secrets from last weekend, but I will. The bass fishing in the stained water was good with some 3-4lb. largemouth and 16" small mouth. Smaller smallmouth can be caught in clear water along walls in 15-20' of water. The bonus over the weekend was the walleye are staging to spawn. We caught 10 in an hour, all ripe males in the 2 lbs class. A couple of females showed up in the 3+lb range. Walleye were especially active just before dark, but some showed in the early morning. Try crankbaits off gravel points in stained water. Stained water was 60 deg. clear water as low as 54. We also caught 30 or so crappie in the 11/2 to 2lb range fishing for bass and walleye. They all went back. Good fishing, Fred

We have just returned from a most rewarding fishing trip up the San Juan. There were 5 of us fishing from about 8-10AM and then again from 4-7:30PM every day, casting 2" grubs of various colors/flavors and the occasional crank bait for a change of pace. We generally stayed 20-40 yds offshore and cast into on-shore structure with slow retrieval of the grubs, playing the grubs as close to the bottom as possible, from 1' to 40' depth. One guy tried a spinner bait without any real success.

We didn't keep count of the total catch, but the boat caught from 50-100 fish per day, keeping about 5 per day. We did keep track of some of the new records for our boat this trip:

5 fish caught on 5 consecutive casts by one person,

2 walleye caught on 2 consecutive casts by one person,

2 SMB caught simultaneously on the same cast.

All major LP species caught by one person on the same day -- SMB, LMB, striper, walleye, crappie, bluegill, catfish and carp, and

4 fish on simultaneously, (the fifth person was fighting a rockfish at the time).

Since we were going for black bass, we only caught about 10 striped bass the whole time, (we kept all the stripers). The only bad news was that about half of the SMB were too small to even think of keeping, these were probably yearlings. Incidentally, we were fishing from an extensively modified patio boat that allowed plenty of room for all five of us to cast with a minimum of crossed lines.

Personally, this was my first time on LP in April, and yes, what they say about Spring fishing is true... it's great.

We were in Copper Canyon from Thursday, May 10 through Saturday May 12. With two adults and two kids we caught 18 stripers, 20 or so crappie, 15 SMB, 2 LMB, 3 walleye, 3 bluegill and 2 catfish. This was certainly the most diverse fishing trip I have had with something different coming out of the water each time.

To put this in context, we caught nearly all the fish from shore on a 30 foot stretch of Copper Canyon. Since we only had a canoe to get around and the winds were pretty strong for two days we focused on fishing from shore on this one productive area.

We discovered an interesting shore fishing method that we named "shore trolling". Fishing with plastic grubs (color didn't really seem to matter) lower your grub in the water until it disappears from view and then let out about two more feet of line. Then, swim your lure around every rock and crack on the shoreline about 3 or 4 feet out from shore. We caught all of the crappie and bass this way. The water was quite cloudy, this might not work in really clear water.

To catch the stripers, stick an anchovy on an empty jig head and go another two feet down. Swim it slower. By the way, all the stripers were caught during a two hour feeding frenzy as they trapped the shad up against this stretch of shoreline we had been fishing. When Wayne says to watch the grebes, egrets, and ravens for shad activity, pay attention! That is how we discovered what was going on.

Using this method, my six year old and nine year old caught more fish than I could lift on one stringer. For her first fishing trip ever, my six year old was especially excited to land a four pound walleye (on four pound test line).

We saw one striper with a tail that was as wide as two outstretched hands, but couldn't get it to bite.

Now, before everyone gets all excited about Copper Canyon, remember getting in is no picnic. If you own a boat, go somewhere else, there are certainly easier ways to catch fish. The drive was so long (8 1/2 hours from Provo, UT) that we will probably stick to Blue Notch and White Canyon in the future. I ruined a brand new tire on my 4x4 getting in to the lake. But, until the crowds came on Friday, we had the whole place to ourselves (not counting Rod who goes there regularly, the coyotes, wild burros, and grebes), so we did have a good time.

Thanks to Wayne and all of you for the info that made this trip possible.

Fished mainly the San Juan, Escalante and main river channel from Rincon to Oak Creek. The lake fished fair compared to most years. Lots of small smallies. Too small for bass gear so fished a lot of ultra to make it more fun. Had a good year for walleye and fairly poor for largemouth. Found the best fishing to be submerged islands as I think many fisherpeople pound the shore and avoid the islands. Requires time to find and a gps to record but well worth the effort. Best jigs were Zoom hula grubs, black head and chartreuse double tails. On calm days we went deep (35-50) along main walls that had ledges coming at least 30 yards from shore and picked them off the bottom. Shore activity was nill for most of the days with sun and no wind. Largest fish were just 2lbs for both bass and walleye.

We finished our annual pilgrimage to the San Juan 9/28/01. Fish were thick as fleas in Piute Cr, but did not graph much in Deep, a few in Spencer's and nothing in Zahn or Copper Area. We did get into boils every morning starting about 8 and lasting as much as a hour. These were in the little coves either side of Neskahi. I used our famous home made popper but had a guest who used a mid- sized skitter pop and killed 'em. I've got so many of my own I'll continue to use them but the skitter sure works...best I've seen. Any where a fish could be graphed, it could be jigged. I like, even better than before, the .75 oz Rattle Snakie in silver (Caballa's or Bass Pro have 'em). The standard white bucktail worked great too. The Piute Cr fish were not in as good a condition as the boilers (which were great). No afternoon boils. Water temp was 75-79. Overall we probably accounted for 250-300...jus' doin' our share.

Several of us hit the lake on Friday mid day after our house boat finally arrived from dry storage. We put in at Dungeon for the night and then on to Cha Canyon. Saturdays fishing was outstanding!!! From small to good size smalllies mixed in with quite a few largemouths. The water was like glass ALL week until Wed PM.WE had between 5 to 9 people fishing. Most the bass were in 20-30 feet of water but on Wed afternoon, everything came to the shallow areas and would hit your grub as soon as it hit the water.The slow boats averaged 40-50 bass per person per day. Some of the hardier fishermen had 80-100..Most the fish were caught on leadheads and grubs with any color. Several were caught on lipless crankbaits. We fish Powell twice a year and this has been the best fishing in several trips. We departed on 10-12 and came back in on the 19th.

John and I just got back from our annual (post houseboat) camp/fish trip to the San Juan. This time it was a long boat ride instead of being able to launch at Piute Farms. We camped and fished the Piute Wash area. There are still some shad and therefore some stripers in Piute but not as many as a month ago. Neskahi had nothing. There is a small bay between the two that had ravens and we were able to get several fish on surface lures. This same bay yielded 50 or so surface fish a month ago. They stay around until there's nothing left to eat, I guess. All fish caught were in good shape.

Three of us launched at 10:00 Thursday for the 3 hour boat ride to Zahn Bay. We camped on the East side of Donkey Island (not), set up camp then started trolling in 25' of water on the North side of the island. It took about 45 seconds to get a double using white bucktail maribo, 3/4 oz jigs out 3-4 colors on leaded line. We troll at 2.5 to 3.0 mph. The graph showed fish at all levels from 10-25 feet but not in schools, just scattered around, and lots of them. We caught a striper about every 200-400 yards of trolling. The fish were all in great shape, 2-4 pounds. Definitely, two year groups of fish. Caught a few walleyes trolling in the shade. At 4:30 the next morning I was wakened by a rushing sound which was a boil in front of camp...one of those fast beach running boils... I grabbed a pole and sprinted up and down the beach fishing stripers in 18" of water, tripping over shoe laces I forgotten to tie. Trolling that morning we caught them on mono, not leaded line, the fish seemed shallower. At noon half way between Zahn and Spencer's on the south shore we found a boil that lasted 30 minutes (on and off). Caught 15-20 fish out of it and then 2 hrs later got another 10 in the same spot "blind casting" surface lures and jigging. All in all we fished one and 1/2 days (came home early 'cause of potential wind Sat) and caught 75-80 fine stripers. The fish are throughout the light green water, 20-35', on the west and north of Donkey Island. Zahn is DEFINITELY worth the trip!!

Well, as you can tell we didn't go to Hite. The "Call of the San Juan" was too great to turn down. We blasted off at 6:00 a.m. on Friday Morning, August 2nd. We had a great ride up, noticing all the new rock formations, that have grown up through the shallow water.

Our quiet trip was interrupted, by a striper boil, at the front of Piute Canyon. We scrambled to find our rods, and was able to catch around 12, before the fish disappeared. We then continued our trip to Spencer's Camp, where we found a great camping spot. We quickly unloaded our gear, and headed up to Donkey Island area. The water depth at Donkey Island is 12 feet, although we were marking fish, nothing would take our spoons. We moved around the whole bay, by Donkey Island, and finally found water, @35 ft., we also were marking lots of Shad, and what we thought were stripers, but again, we could not get them to hit anything. Wind started coming up, so we went in narrows between Donkey Island and Spencer's Camp, and continued to try to find fish, no luck. We then went into Spencer's camp, and tried to graph fish, but nothing doing.

After a "Power Nap", we once again headed up to Donkey Island (wind was now blowing around 20 mph), and we graphed, and jigged, and graphed and jigged.........nothing.

It was now @5:00 on Friday, and we decided to head down to Piute Bay, and try some old familiar spots, and see if our luck changed. We loaded up everything, and found a new camp by the mouth of Neskahi Wash. We set up camp, and started graphing out in front of Neskahi. We immediately found fish, and started jigging, and catching. Stripers were taking our jigs, just as fast as we would drop them down. These were great healthy stripers, ranging from 1 lb to 4 lbs., and great fighters. Just as sun was setting, we got a few on top water (spooks), but boils were very short and sporadic.

Saturday morning, we got up and headed back to the mouth of Neskahi, and the Stripers were already boiling. We caught several on Spooks, but it was not the consistent boils that you can load the boat, I believe Wayne calls them "Ghost" boils, were they are up for a minute, then they go back down. We fished until they quit boiling, then went for a ride looking for other boils. We found another group boiling in a small bay between Neskahi, and Piute, we caught several fish, before they went down. We then started jigging, and caught fish after fish.

Weather was overcast, and we had several small sprinkles of rain, made it real pleasant. After another power nap, and lunch, we went back out and started jigging again, and again we caught lots of fish. Saturday night, we had one small boil, but most fish caught on spoons.

Sunday morning got up, and went to mouth of Neskahi, no boils, and had a hard time finding fish to jig. Went back to other small bay, and graphed fish, and again started catching. We caught fish, until it was time to head back to Bullfrog. On the way out, we ran into one boil by the mouth of the San Juan, stopped and caught 3 or 4 each, what a way to end the trip!!!!

Weekend total @200 stripers, 12 catfish (hit jigs), and 10 Smallmouths (caught on Topwater while trying to get stripers up). We had a great time, but was fairly disappointed about area up by Donkey Island. We are not sure why we couldn't catch/find fish.

There were 2 of us fishing, the other boat decided to go to Hite. I will find out today, how they did.

A little warning.....water is lower than we have ever seen it. There is "yellow water", and rocks everywhere. Be very careful, and slow down. Especially up the San Juan, where there are no markers.

My 14 year old Daughter, her friend, my 10 year old son and I were in the upper San Juan area August 8-10 so I thought I would send you a quick fishing report.

We got to our camp spot near the downstream end of the great bend about noon on Thursday so we missed the morning fishing and tube'd and skied most of the day. The kids caught about a dozen SMB from shore while I set up camp.

We headed upstream around 6pm, saw a small boil in progress at the upstream end of the Spencer's Camp area right where the channel starts to narrow down again. We weren't rigged & ready so by the time we got the rods out and rigged we only caught 5 or 6 stripers and one Smallmouth. Headed up to Zahn bay and graphed and looked all over but no fish. Went back down to Spencer's and caught a few SMB on topwater lures before heading back to camp.

The deepest water we could find in Zahn bay was 20-25 feet. Down at Spencers camp the main channel depth is around 50 feet. Water temp was 76 to 80 degrees.

Due to teenage girls we didn't get going until around 7am Friday. I caught 2 stripers right out in front of camp in 35 feet on a Wallylure while I was waiting for the girls. Then we headed upstream. We found a pretty big boil in progress in one of the coves on the north side (left said as you look upstream) of the Spencer camp area. This time we were ready. We had around 50 stripers in the boat in about a half an hour along with quite a few smb and a couple of lmb. The kids caught most of them. It was all I could do to unhook them as fast as they could catch them. This was the first good boil any of the kids had been in and they couldn't believe how the fish went crazy chasing the shad right up on the shore. It was the first fishing trip ever for my daughter's friend. I think she is spoiled now. She thinks that's the way fishing is all the time.

We caught a few more on Wallylures after the boil ended. The speed-reeling technique seemed to work best. We had very few hits just jigging the spoons but got quite a few by reeling up as fast as we could. They nearly pull the rod out of your hand when they hit.

We looked around up in Zahn bay again but found nothing so we went back to camp. When we got there we saw splashes right next to our tent. There had obviously been a boil going on and we just hit the end of it. There were ravens all over and hundreds of shad up on the shore around our tent. We caught a few stripers and probably a dozen smb on topwater but most had moved out and it was getting hot so we quit fishing and went swimming.

Friday evening we went back up to the Spencers camp area. we fished topwaters and caught many smb and lmb (one lmb around 3 lbs) but no boils until we were about to leave at 8:30 or so and they started boiling in the next cove downstream from where they were in the morning. We fished until it was dark, probably caught around 50 stripers but didn't keep any because our limited cooler space was full from the morning boil.

Saturday morning all I had to say was let's go see if the stripers are boiling and the girls were up and in the boat. We got up to Spencers camp by 6:30 expecting to see boils all over but there was nothing so we fished topwater lures for smb and lmb. The typical 8-12" smallmouth were by every rock so it was fun but not as fun as a boil. We fished until about 9am and were ready to head back to camp when the boils finally started. Right out in the middle of the main channel at the upstream end of the Great Bend there was a boil nearly a half mile long and another one in the first cove on the north (right hand side as you look downstream) after the canyon narrows. This ended up being one of the best boils I have ever been in. They weren't even spooked when a couple of pwc's ran through them. The boil lasted for around two hours. They would slow down at times and move around a bit but we had three or four stripers on at a time for nearly two hours. I spent most of the time unhooking fish. I got a few, maybe 10 or 15, but the kids probably caught close to 100 in 2 hours between the 3 of them. We didn't keep anymore, no space in the coolers and running out of ice.

I had 6 rods rigged. Two with rattle traps, one with a super spook jr, two with a pop r's, and one with a swimming image. They all worked well when they were really boiling but the pop r seemed to outfish all others when they slowed down. It was about 2 inches long with white feathers off the back hook. I don't know if the size or the feathers made the difference but they really worked great when there were no fish boiling but we knew they were in the area. The pop r's are easier for kids to fish than zara spook type lures also. We saw two different size/age classes of shad. The ones down by our camp were close to 3 inches long but all of the ones we saw in the boils up in Spencer's were only an inch or so long.

I'm sure we could have stayed and caught many more on spoons but we were worn out and hot after they slowed down so we went back to camp and the kids played in the water while I broke camp and then we headed home.

I was on a houseboat trip from August 5-15 and camped along the San Juan River everyday. Our camping location was upriver from Piute Canyon but downriver from the Great Bend. The best fishing was along Spencers Camp walls. If you look at the walls, specifically the southern ones, there are holes everywhere in them. I believe the fish use them as garages to hang out as a haven from the sun. Regardless, we caught numerous stripers along the walls with shad lures while trolling. Hope this helps!

The dates above were my first trip to Lake Powell - even though I'm a Phoenix native (sad, but true). Spent the week on a houseboat with those more knowledgeable of the lake and the fishing conditions, and I'm sad to say the indication was this was "the worst fishing trip in 10 years" by their recollection. I wasn't so disappointed, but here are the highlights:

- Very few shad were spotted - one small school in Deep Canyon. Probably explains the next point.

- Only saw one small striper boil, that was in the Wahawheap (sp?) marina on the day of departure. Very small, but striper none the less.

- Only three striper were caught the entire trip, all on the San Juan river. Deep Canyon was the best spot, as the three striper were taken with jigs.

- Smallmouth were taken nearly everywhere - Deep Canyon, Piute bay, Oak bay, and Red Creek. Hadn't read your report, but your right on target - rocky points and shaded areas. They were hitting on Rocket Shad spinners, Husky Jerk jerkbaits, and spinner/worm combinations (a special creation of our own).

- Very few largemouth were taken, when they were it was mainly when fishing for smallmouth.

Looking forward to next years trip - hope the water levels are higher and the stripers are boiling (I caught one down deep - great experience!)

We went up to the San Juan River between 20 and 25 miles up the river and caught 8 really fat healthy stripers in a very voracious boil on Friday, 9-20. We also caught about 20 smallmouth in the area. On Saturday we went to the Rincon and caught about 30 nice smallmouth, but no stripers. Just thought we'd let you know. It was beautiful weather, as you well know, and we had a terrific time.

We just returned from our annual pilgramage to the San Juan and striper hunting. Camped in Piute Creek and fished that entire area. Tried Spencer's and Zahn twice..once early AM and once PM. There is floating debris and junk throughout the area and some "rafts" as big as a couple acres. Spencer's had only smallie action, no stripers. We trolled the right hand bank in Zahn in 25' of slime green (algea) water and caught stripers every 15 minutes or so by finding a school on the graph and marking them by a floating oil bottle or piece of drift wood. There were lots of shad in Zahn, few in Spencer's. The great Bend canyons had stripers in the mouth of each. A couple down rigger boats reported good success on the walls of the Great Bend for stripers...they also did well in Piute Cr during the day. Piute Cr had a 2 minute boil each morning at daylight then the fish were gone. Could be caught jigging if they could be found. They seemed to totally leave Piute each morning and come back sometime during the night. Lots of shad in Piute Cr...none in Neskahi. Deep had a few shad, no stripers. Total striper count...probably 75.

Week of Sept 28th - Oct. 5th

Our group headed up the lake from Wahweap Sat. Sept. 28th headed for the San Juan. We fished Piute and Neskahi for 4 days catching small mouth and stripers. Several catfish and Blue gill offered lot of fun. We also fished Cha Canyon but did not have much luck until we hit the south shore east of Cha The Small mouth were abundant and aggressive most of us fishing with a 1/8 ounce jig head and triple ripple grub. Most fish caught were down around 20 to 25 feet. We also caught several largemouth on the same setup. They were very aggressive and all the largemouth were put back unharmed; the largest being around 1 1/2 pounds.

The Piute was full of shad but we noticed no boils during any period that we fished. All of the stripers caught were done trolling with deep divers of blue and silver during dusk. Smallmouth were abundant and caught mostly on 1/8 ounce jigs with various style grubs of brown and chartreuse grubs.

A fish fry was held Wednesday night for the 10 of us with all that we had caught and fillet. What a meal and we could have eaten more. Thurs we started headed down the Lake despite the wind and rain looking for a campsite closer to Wahweap. We stopped off in Dungeon with one of the Fishing boats while the House boat was headed down the San Juan. We were lucky enough to come across a boil towards the lower end of the Canyon pushing Shad up on the Shore Line. That's all we needed !!! We started casting Top Water lures and the Stripers hit them with a vengeance. All four of us had a great time and continued to pull a few more trolling after the Boil subsided. We finally made camp in Padre Bay and found another batch of stripers in calm deep water at the back of the bay. We threw deep divers again and reeled in a few more. The following day was very slow but jigging down deep along points and the east shore produced several nice smallies; very aggressive and very dark. The following day we did our final camp at west of Castle Rock and caught some more smallies and catfish.

The weather played havoc all week as several fronts came through and the water level was fifty five lower than the last time we had made this trip in 2000 and it was interesting to see the areas we had fished before when the lake was up and the patterns that had emerged at that time in relation to the structure we could now see but all in all we had a great time as usual.

We went to Piute Cr (PC) in the San Juan on Sat Oct 19. Fished 19th and 20th in the upper part of the lake. Camped in PC. PC is still full of shad and there are a couple good sized schools of stripers there too. It was full moon. The stripers seem to be holding the shad in place as, when schooled, they are in 60' or so but there also seems to be lots of singles cruising around at 35'...probably feeding. A down rigger would work great, we did fair on leaded line. No boiling at all. Saw what had to be a boil that just happened as there was 2 ravens, a heron and a coyote all sharing 50' of beach right on the water line in the mouth of PC. Couldn't raise a taker nor graph anything...may have been a smallmouth boil.

Sunday we ran to Zahn. The large rafts of debris and junk are now beached. It will really be a mess next spring when the lake comes up---there are thousands of cords of drift wood waiting to float. Proceeded along the South shore of Zahn until the water was 15' deep and trolled in the algae slime. There were singles throughout the zone, top to bottom and 12' to 18' of water. Caught 16 fish in 2 hours but we got better toward the end when we figured out that "loud" lures are better. We started trollling rattle traps and bucktails with spinners. Lost a few but fishing was real good . Ran into a boat that said they'd encountered a quick, small boil in Spencer's. Neskahai was FULL of carp on the surface and no shad. None of the other small side bays seemed to have shad either.

After watching the weather for weeks, we finally decided to "go for it", and take our chances up the San Juan. We launched Saturday morning, at Bullfrog (side note: ramp is very, very shallow. Room for 2 boats to launch, very hard to load and unload. They are attempting to widen, but not much that can be done. This will be a BIG problem on busy weekends). Temperature was 38 degrees as we started up lake. We took our time, and reached our campsite at @8:30. Another boat, with 2 friends had been there since Friday, and set-up camp, in Spencer's Camp area. We talked to them, and were surprised to hear that they were catching lots of walleyes.

We fished hard the rest of Saturday, and had "hot" and "cold" fishing. We would pull into a spot, and catch fish as fast as you could throw out, then go a 1/2 hour or longer without a bite. Water depth was @20ft, and water temp was 62 in the morning, going to 68 in the afternoon. Water was very murky, with visibility @6".

Sunday, our friends had to get back, but we stayed and fished. Fishing was a little slower than on Saturday, but was still great. Bass were on the small size, but the occasional walleye, striper and crappie made the variety exciting.

Monday, we moved camp down to Piute Canyon bay, and thought that we might find some bigger bass. We did find more bass, but we could not catch anything over 1 1/2 pounds. Water was a lot more clear, temperature was 4 to 5 degrees colder, than up lake. Here is a list of Fish caught, by 2 of us:

Smallmouth - 60

Largemouth - 10

Walleye - 9

Stripers - 8 (they are in great shape)

Crappie - 6

Bluegill - 2

Carp - 1 (caught in the mouth on Rattle Trap).

Catfish - 1 (caught in mouth on grub).

Gizzard Shad - 1 (I hope I don't go to prison for this one). I foul hooked a 7" one, up above Spencer's Camp. It was released.

We fished with Grubs, Gitzits, and Crankbaits. We enjoyed the great scenery, and beautiful weather.

Cruised out of Piute looking for boils in Neskahi Bay. Ran all the way to the uplake cliff wall and saw no surface action. Retraced our steps and stopped near the mouth of Neskahi and started blind casting. Caught a couple of stripers on jumpin’ minnow in shallow fairly open water. I think stripers were grouping in the open and moving on shore to find shad.

Saw a little disturbance near shore and cast the jumpin minnow. Immediately rewarded with a striper. Caught about 5 right on the shoreline at mouth of Neskahi. Saw single stripers feeding in open back toward the north east wall. Drove to area where splashes were seen and blind casting produced a couple more stripers. When those stripers failed to come up we motored further uplake. Saw a circular disturbance in open water that looked like yearling stripers eating larval shad. It was a very slow moving boil. Our fist casts were ignored as small stripers often do with large plugs. But then a 3-pound fish hit. I think maybe a few big ones were feeding with the little fish. I can’t prove that because every striper we caught from this and 5 other similar boils was 2-3 pounds. Ghost boils often sound as soon as a boat approaches. These were no exception. They popped up only to sound as we drew near. We were tired of chasing these when we heard a loud boil near shore. A quick search produced splashes right on shore against the further most upstream wall of Neskahi Bay. The shad were trapped in a cove and the stripers worked them over for an hour while we worked on the stripers. We were down to just catching a few stragglers when it was time to leave.

We returned to our camp in Piute Canyon. After filleting fish for an hour a boil started in the opposite cove. We finished filleting and half an hour later stripers were still working the shore. I sent Mark and Jeff Walker over to defend our campsite. They caught and released about 20 stripers while I took pictures. Another boat came into Piute. We left the boiling stripers and asked the new anglers if they would like to catch stripers. We pointed out the fish to the new group and then broke camp and came home. A very great trip. Handled over 100 stripers in one morning. Very nice.

I just got back from Powell and had a excellent time on the water. After reading your report for the last two weeks I took your advice and went down to the San Juan. We started fishing in Cha Canyon and only caught 10 smallmouths and 1 largemouth. After about 2 hours we needed to find a camp spot to get all of our gear off the boats to go search for the STRIPERS. We went down Wilson creek and couldn't find a sandy beach for the tents so we decided to fish and only caught one smallmouth bass. We ended up headed further up lake to Deep canyon where we found the best camping spot on Lake Powell. Once we unloaded the boats we decided to head up to Puite Canyon per your report and didn't get a single bite. Then I remember that Neskahi Bay was on your list of places to fish. Once we pulled into the bay it was about 11:00am or so and decided to troll since we didn't see any surface action.

The trolling set up that we used was PENN trolling reels which has LEAD line on them with a 2ft leader followed by a BLUE/Silver Rapala. These poles started to go off within 15 minutes of trolling with 20-24 inch STRIPER attached. In addition, to the trolling BOILS started to occur about every way you turned your head. Once we reached these boils there were about 100 Stripers in each boil and decided to throw 1/2 ounce Rattle Traps in to them which did the job. The only bad thing about this part was that we only had one net on each boat which caused a problem. Out of the three poles that we trolled with we had the most success with Rapala's which had blue on the top and silver on the bottom. Over the 3 days that we were there we probably fished a total of 18 hours and caught about 50 Stripers, 20 smallmouth, 3 large mouth, 2 cats and 1 20 inch Walleye. I would strongly suggest anyone that wants to fish for Striper to head to Neskahi Bay and fish the same setups that we had. In addition, if anyone has any questions please let me know. I've attached some photos of the fish we decided to keep.

Fished San Juan arm friday afternoon June 27 til Sun Morn. the 29th. Started seeing slurps just upstream Deep Canyon through Piute Canyon area and up about as far as Neskahi Wash. These were predominantly on the South side of the main channel sporadically all day long. In the evening Piute Canyon was full of 5-7 different small to large schools roving through the canyon. They were mostly slurping, but as the activity progressed past 7PM the intensity slowly increased as if they knew they only had minutes left to shop before a moonless night would keep them from feeding til morning. The last 30 minutes they all moved just outside Piute mouth and began to smash shad and any lure that touched the water.

Lessons learned:

1. Fish very aware of the location of the boat during the day. Approach cautiously and throw out as far past or ahead of the school as you can.

2. Larger schools brought greater success. Smaller schools usually just caused frustration because you couldn't get close to.

3. Put the boat upwind of them and hope you drift into them with minimal trolling motor use.

4. Seemed to want something swimming fast (reaction bite) or something small on top. Super spook jr., small crippled herring spoon, small norman crank bait, rattle trap and small poppers 1 1/4" long including hook all had limited success. If you have a rod and reel that can make that small popper sail a long way, I think you could catch the most slurps with it. It touches down with out a big splash, makes a little noise and easily sulrped in with the larva. Just tough to get out there. Must be up wind. I had a 8 ft. noodle pole that did the trick. Second best was the green rattle traps with orange belly.

5. plan to be on the water 6:30PM to dark. At this time still keep trying top water as well as swimming (rattletraps and cranks). Sometimes they only wanted one, not the other. As things progressed though it seemed we didn't even want to get a finger close to the water for fear of getting it bit off.

6. fish light line: my 6 or 8 lb florocarbon outfished 10lb test 5 :1.

7. Don't get too beat up during the day that you are too tired to fish the evening. Show time was 6:30 pm each nite for us. We would have all our other fish cleaned, dinner done and be rested and ready to go for the fireworks on the water that was well under way 7PM til dark. Be sure to stay for the grand finale and have all the poles rigged and ready for it.

8. Take a deep breath before casting into the big boils and maybe avoid a boil fever tangle.

9. Piute seems to be ground zero.

10. Safety first always, don't let a fish make you stupid.

11. Pretty soon all we will have to hold on to is memories of the fun stuff we did with our kids, so make plenty of memories.

Thanks for all your reports for which I credit every Striper I have caught. Thanks again Wayne!

We persist in our efforts to figure out how to catch Lake Powell walleye, our favorite eating fish, and it paid off on June 28. At 5:15 a.m., my wife and I hit a rocky point in San Juan where we had found walleye in the past. By 10 a.m. we have landed six in the 17-18 inch range. The following day, we caught plenty of bass, but not a single walleye. Still, it was better than a mid-May trip near Face Canyon when following a full-moon we caught just one walleye in two days. We trolled in the rocks from 10-30 feet deep with bottom bouncers rigged with home-made worm harnesses. The one with a silver spinner seemed more effective than the one with the yellow spinner.

We hit the Lake Sunday June 29th and stayed until Saturday July 5th. What a great trip. Saw the boils right away heading down the channel from Bullfrog bay all the way to the San Juan. We camped in the San Juan at the mouth of the bay where Cha Canyon is. Fished the boils every morning in the inlet to Cha Canyon, Fish were shy but we would position the boat so the boil was heading right to us and we tore them up! Most productive bait for us was a white “Zoom Fluke” with “kastmasters” also working well. The Fluke also worked well for both large and smallmouth. The nice thing about the Zoom Fluke was only having one hook to remove instead of a treble hook. When the fish would push the shad into a small cove the boil would last much longer. Fish caught were anywhere from 2 ¾ pounds up to our largest at 4 ¼ . Spent 2 night fishing under a green light in 35’ to 50’ of water off the first point on the north side of the bay and did very well fishing with anchovies. Had lots of small shad under the light and caught fish till 3 in the morning. The night fishing wasn’t fast and furious but was very steady. Very cool seeing them on the fish finder and sometimes seeing them come up for the bait. Friday we headed back up lake and chased boils all the way to Bullfrog bay. These fish would sound quickly if approached with the big motor and my trolling motor batteries were dead so we would approach fast and kill the motor and glide into casting distance. Kastmasters and rattle traps worked best for this tactic as long casts were required. If you have time to get to Powell( Bullfrog) you can’t miss on the fishing, go have some fun!!

The Kelley family made the trip up to San Juan with camping on our minds. As you can remember last month we stopped at Cha Canyon gas and newbie worry stopped me from going further.

And we did not see any boils then you said next bay up Neskahi Wash was it. So this trip I called you before going and you said take more gas and get to Neskahi and if no boils head up river as the water was clearing and they shad would be there!

We arrived at Antelope 8:45 Friday am Trailer had broken the winch mount but I always use secondary staps just in case.

Loaded boat and headed for San Juan stopped at Dangling rope top off tank 55 gal of gas and we are ready.

11:30 in Neskahi wash found great little camp spot set up tent in Piute Canyon area and every thing went fishing in the Canyon that is the wash. Smallies were very willing to hit grubs. Mark large balls of bait fish no striper were found here all weekend even at 4 am. Friday night the Storm came in at 17:45 Pm Did I mention it was Jill and I 16 Anniversary during cooking of steaks the wind blows over the tent breaking a pole, sand every where made shelter on boat with tarp and bungee cords had sand seasoned steaks and small bottle of wine, Thunder and lighting for almost 1 hour then wind most of the night.

Wake up from bad nights sleep at 7:00 am thinking man we missed the stripers so back to the wash for a quick look nothing. Then Jill said lets go upstream as Wayne said so off we went. In channel before Great Bend we are cruising along when my navigator and look out (Jill) points to small splashes . We stop and troll near them long cast with Jumpin Minnow and wham fish on then the entire channel for 100 yards side to side starts to explode! Stripers everywhere all four of us using Minnows or Spooks proceeded to land 45 fish in the hour long boil keep 30 after that I told everybody release them as I had to clean them all !!!

We did loose two lures but I had 8 onboard so told Jill tie on another one! After Cleaning the 30 fish we cruised further up stream until Spensers camp by fish map and GPS. water changed color here and was only 26 ft deep. No activity that we could see. That afternoon decided to move camp to wash beach that was protected by hills I Magivered the poll and tent was good as new. We are all sound asleep 11:45 bam storm comes back rain and wind so back to the boat shelter wind did not quit till 3 am. Sunday up at 5:00 Jill and I fix camp and get ready to go fishing. Go back to same spot were they started Sat. 6:15 till 7:45 ghost boil or two nothing yet. Sun burns through clouds and then it started again but only lasted 15 min but we pulled 10 more then boom shut down 8:00 all finished back to camp clean fish and eat pancakes. Ski some more what great flat areas to ski! Back to Dangling rope with about 5 gal to spare so next time more fuel! Back to Antelope to Wal-Mart for trucker tie downs for boat remembering trailer is Broke! Jack-N-box then down the hill.

Side note had a 3 hour detour due to Rollover near Black Canyon City traffic backed up to Cordes Junction get off Prescott exit and take long way home through Yarnell and Wickenburg. DPS had I-17 shutdown for 5 hours.

Thanks again for all the information you provide the trip was the best fishing one even when we landed the 100 via chovie this trip was better. Boils are the greatest fishing experience for the whole family!

We found stripers boiling for the first two hours of daylight near Wilson Creek on the San Juan. We chased singles around for an hour at the mouth of Wilson but wished we had been downlake one mile where we eventually found a big school. They stayed up well and we caught a bunch before they finally finished feeding and went down for the morning. They seem to be running up and down lake chasing shad at many different locations. We didn't see any stripers at Piute or Neskahi.

Our trip uplake was rewarded with overcast skies and light rain. We followed on the heels of a thunderstorm which we saw only as waterfalls off the side of the canyon. It was an awesome sight.

Rincon was the first stop. First order of business was to fish for smallmouth and look for stripers before dark. Rincon was where I determined that smallmouth were not going to grow without help. A few years ago we caught an endless number of bass here but they were all a short 9 inches. There was no girth to the scrawny fish. They fought ably for their size but it was an overmatch without ultra light tackle.

I was thrilled when my first bass was a 12 inch fish. Georg Blommer was tossing a white sparkle hula grub which was the ticket. I was fishless until putting on a daiquiri grub with a mismatched copper skirt. Once we offered shad colors, bass hit very well on the outside edges of reefs and points. I favor shallow islands on points extended. A small rocky rise on the ends of the many points at the Rincon always hold bass. We caught maybe a dozen bass in the last evening hour.

We took this fine pair of bass from the inside of a skeleton back ridge off shore from the rocky points. We cast at the same time and pulled in two nice bass.

I spent some fine moments remembering how we got from 35 small bass to 12 bigger bass in the same stretch of shoreline. Fisheries are like that. They will produce a certain total weight of fish. You can have it in too many little ones or fewer big ones. We choose to go bigger and this is what we got. I like it. Very satisfying.

After working most of the night electrofishing the shallow shoreline I got up early the next morning to find some stripers. There were no high expectations since the bright moon was with us all night long. I wondered if I could get uplake far enough to find some action. At the mouth of Iceberg I saw the first splash. Ten fish were spitting right in front of me. Closer examination showed perhaps 10 separate schools working from Iceberg all the way to the next corner leading to Slick Rock.

I tried the bone colored jumpin' minnow which had been waiting patiently for work. I have not been in boils for a very long time. It worked! Each time stripers came up close enough they ate the minnow. I tried a Kastmaster to see if it worked. Answer was YES! I raced back to camp got the rest of the crew up and we returned in time to catch a few more. We got one boil right on the corner directly opposite from the Rincon mountain. This may be the furthest downlake extent of the boils as far as my reports go. Boils ceased or rather wind picked up around 8:30 am. So we broke camp and headed to San Juan.

The wind persisted all day and most of the night. We saw no stripers and bass fishing was tough at Piute/Neskahi Bay. The same daiquiri grub worked - just not as often. I targeted the same points/islands and caught bass that were a bit smaller than those at Rincon.

My experience this week is that the Colorado Arm of Powell continues to be much better fishing than the San Juan. Head to Halls and Bullfrog and go either up or downstream.

We entered the San Juan on the 21st at noon to see scattered splashes along the South wall of the main channel. Sent out a scout boat (with me in it, of course). First cast was a sassy 4-5# striper. I think we could have stayed there all day but caught 12-15 and headed to Piaute Cr...but not before a huge 2 minute boil from the school celebrating our departure.

The Piute area turned out to be a different matter. For the next few days there was only one large boil and it lasted 2 minutes. There were lots of little shad rushes to the beach and all the fish you wanted to catch. Piute and the next bay up on the south side had zillions of shad. Neskahai and above had very little. Went to Zahn one morning early and was blocked at the entrance by a shore-to-shore log and debris jam 50 yds deep. Fished Spencer's and there's lots of fish there but no surface action. Caught 3-4 fish per hour trolling in 25' of water. Nothing in the Great Bend.

One morning Deep had a good boil going in the very back as did Piute two mornings, and for that matter, most any time--in 6' or less of water. Saw friends who fished the week in Cha and found lots of small mouth boils but no stripers. They reported hearing of a large boil in "Hard Rock" but I don't know where that is and suspect it is Nasja. We fished, unsuccessfully, there and the mouth of the San Juan enroute to Wahweap and found a small boil in Hidden Passage. Overall, lots of good fishing and catching. Ravens were the key to where the stripers were or had been recently. Often as many as 6-10 right on the shore would point the location of action.

Chuck

PS there were smallies everywhere and in every striper boil. Good shape and fiesty.

Subject: Fishing San Juan

My husband and I were on the lake Oct.7th-14th. We spent the majority of our time in Piute Farm bay. Got blown out a few days but fished 5 full days. Didn't find the Stripers hanging on their old steep-deep walls (Great Bend or Wilson Creek) where we've caught them in the past with anchovies. We found them searching the bay of Piute Cyn looking for the schools of shad. We tried casting shorelines and only caught a few very small Smallmouth. But, when trolling shorelines in 30ft-40ft. water we picked up several Smallmouth that were 10"-13". We threw them back, only kept the 14" and larger, 2 of them very healthy fat ones. But, we found that the Walleye would hit off rocky points that stuck out into deep water, caught 2, 15" & 17", nice and fat. But, our best results with trolling were the Stripers. We'd see the ghost boils, cast into the area with Cast Masters and white Crank Baits. We pulled out 3.5 - 4lb fat healthy ones and then trolled through them with white and bright yellow-orange crankbaits after they quit hitting our lures, watching the school on the graph.

When heading back to Wahweap on the 14th we saw boils in the mouth of Last Chance right in the traffic lane around Gregory Butte/Camel Rock side. Cast a few times, then they'd go down. Trolled and picked up a big 4.5lb Striper 21"!

Also, saw boils in the No-Wake zone near the dam, and just outside the breakwater at the Wahweap Marina. Didn't have time to chase them down that day.

All our Stripers were 20-22inches, total caught 22. Nice change from the past few years. No limit on them has really improved the quality of the fish caught. Didn't see a skinny one the whole trip! Kept every one that we caught and got some really nice fillets this year!

Decided to get serious. Drove to another canyon and started fishing sliders and grubs. yeah, sliders. they are easy to fish and work very well. my partner loves them – he introduced the slider to Bass Man. I’m more comfortable with grubs, so I fished grubs. And, we started catching fish. We caught lots of nice smallmouth over the rest of the weekend, mostly 13-15”. 15” smallies go about a pound right now. Considering the bite, this was a perfect opportunity to work on the drop shot technique - we did not. We stayed with dark colors – smoke w/copper (Yamamoto), smoke w/black & purple (Yamamoto), smoke w/blue (Yamamoto), smoke hologram (Kalin & slider).

Temperatures were 58 in the morning and heading for 62+ on the first day until the wind came up. Remember the calm, clear trip. Not! The wind blew & blew & howled & blew & well…it was spring at Powell… Water temp stayed 58-59 all day every day after that. Occasionally tried crankbaits and finally caught 1 fish. But, the plastic worked. Not furious, but steady all day long. Caught about 80 fish total – 99% smallmouth, 1 crappie, 3 walleye, and 4 stripers.

Bass Man & Gold Cup found stripers hanging around a new ‘island’ in Red Canyon, it’s just at the current water level, but we could not get a bite trolling or chumming an anchovie on a hook. Tried the John Pauly but I don’t think we rigged the anchovie right. Seemed like the circle was too tight. Will try again in May. Did troll up some small stripers in Blue Notch, again thanks to Bass Man.

Dirty water was already to Castle Butte when we got there. On the way out there was a line just at the last corner of Good Hope, buoy 119. The canyons were a little dirty but not bad. They may not stay good for long. Considering that the runoff just started would expect the dirty water to reach at least as far as last year.

Red Canyon is very dangerous – lots of humps just under the surface. Blue Notch is almost gone – cannot get behind Castle Butte any more – pretty soon you’ll only be able to look in from Red Canyon. Saw vehicles drive in from Blue Notch and get all the way to Red Canyon, though most of Red Canyon is a cliff so they parked on top and walked down. One adventurous soul ventured onto a point that sticks out into the mouth of Red Canyon. There is no place to launch any kind of boat that we saw.

I fished Lake Powell on March 31 and April 1. I fished the main channel just below Good Hope Bay. I caught 12 really nice walleye and about 50 smallmouth bass and 3 stripers. The walleye and bass were caught on 1/4 oz single tail grubs in the pumpkinseed color. I caught the stripers trolling a shad rap on mono line (not deep).

Weather during that period was overcast with light winds. It's as good as I have ever done on the walleye. They seemed to be very willing to bite and I found most of them at about 12 to 16 feet on broken rocky structure.

I hope to get back down there later this week.

Got back last Sat. night from Powell. We were there for 2 weeks. The weather and the fishin was great. The smallies were on the beds everywhere, they seem to be bigger on the average than past years. We used grubs mostly and a few other plastics. We parked the house boat near outlet of San Jaun on the Colo. River, like we do every year for 15 years. The stripers were big, fat and hungry. My buddies used anchovies, I used a crankbait. In an hour, 7 of us caught over 60 stripers, ranging from 2 lbs. to 8 lbs. I caught 31 of the stripers using a crankbait, they were attacking the crank on every cast and this went on for a week at this spot. We found then just inside the San Juan river, the north east side just passed Jacks Arch cove, 2 points come out and the area is loaded with stripers. We found them by crusin around slowly near shallow points with a sharp drop off on one side. It didn't matter what time of day, the crankbait nailed them. I used a Viva crankbait in the shad with green back, and rattles. The stripers were straighting out the treble hooks, so I went one size larger with no problems. We tried all different kinds of cranks and spinnerbaits but they would just knock them. Even with the water down 117 ft. it's still Lake Powell !! The boat ramp at Bull Frog was no problem. We had a Great Time!!

San Juan report 5-28 to 5-31

Kelli, a friend and I made the drive down Thursday night. Launched the boat by 6 am (ramp was already crowded). After a stop @ dangling rope off to the san Juan river. We set up camp just past cha canyon. It was windy Friday afternoon so we didn't fish that much. got up very early Saturday started trolling in deep canyon, no luck

went to piute, no luck. Off to plan B now im just looking for signs of life drove all around no birds, no boils, no shad, no stripers. After I finish scratching my head. I grab the spinning gear and proceeded to catch a bunch of largemouth and smallmouth with the occasional walleye,catfish,bluegill. Still determined to find stripers woke up early Sunday drove to the mouth looking for birds or boils. nothing . started trolling and picked up 2 4 #'s. I thought I was on to something but didn't get any more the rest of the morning. After that I concluded that the stripers left for some reason.

the water looked to be rising 6 inches a day. Anyway enough of my striper pain and off to catch feisty bass the rest of the trip. I went through 3 bags of "gulp" grubs up there. Those things work great even caught some real nice catfish on them. It was real good fishing for bass the whole trip. I think I caught more largemouth than smallies and Kelli caught 3 2-3# walleyes. The best thing about the san Juan is the tranquility, It was a holiday weekend and I saw maybe 5 boats a day. All in all it was a great trip and the quiet, no wake, bass fishing was awesome.

We traveled to the San Juan today. What a beautiful calm morning. Started fishing for bass along the shade line of the narrow main channel downstream from Piute Canyon. Caught a few smallmouth and largemouth on soft plastic grubs but fishing was not nearly as fast as I had hoped. There was no real pattern with only random bass caught. One would deep and the next shallow. Some were in under mudlines while others were in clear water. I have to attribute the mediocre bass fishing to the full moon. I expected it to improve in the afternoon.

We did see one striper slurp in the channel but they went down too quickly to get a cast off. The rest of the morning was more of the same. We stopped for lunch and found tiny young-of-year shad schooled up feeding on top. It was a huge school and surprisingly catfish were milling around trying to eat a few. It seemed that catfish were very active and possibly in a spawning mode. Look for shallow prowling catfish this week. They can be caught sight fishing with bait when they behave in this manner. Just put the bait on a shallow spot as they swim around in the same area time after time. They will eventually eat it.

Tiny shad soon came into play as we headed back into the channel for more fishing at 1 pm. The first striper slurp came into view in the narrow channel downstream from Piute Canyon. Stripers appeared to be 12-inch yearlings by the surface disturbance. Rattletraps and wallylures soon proved the stripers to be 2.5 to 4 pounds. They looked smaller because they were working methodically with only the top of their heads out of the water as they ate slow swimming shad. The slurps were up and down quickly but 1 or 2 nice fat stripers could be caught out of most groups.

We found more slurps in Neskahi Bay. Sometimes there were 3 small boils up at the same time. We then saw a sight I have never before witnessed. A large flock of grebes appeared to be actively feeding on shad. Then as we got closer it looked like stripers were boiling. As we pulled into range we confirmed that stripers were driving shad to the surface and grebes were eating shad as they surfaced. What a circus! I have never seen a grebe boil - let alone a shad-striper-grebe boil.

We saw a few slurps early. Best slurps were between 1-3 pm. Then a lull. When the evening shadow fell across the canyon the slurps popped up again. We saw activity as far up as the end of Neskahi Bay (just before the water got muddy) and as far downstream as Bald Rock Canyon. There are a lot of small shad in this stretch of canyon. Slurps are tight with stripers swimming close together taking advantage of the poor swimming shad. Stripers were staying up long enough to be catchable. The San Juan is definitely worth the trip if you like chasing slurps.

From San Juan- Jun 29-Jul 1

We ran to the SJ from Antelope Pt on Tue morning. Went straight to Piute Creek and set up camp in the back. We always do our recon via trolling and caught the first and only striper( caught trolling) in Piute within 1 minute. Piute was full of fish and shad. That evening there were three boils in Piute that were real boils, not the traveling slurpers. The next morning Piute was dead but the slurpers were working all over the main bay. They were somewhat boat shy but not bad and very responsive to top water--in fact, I couldn't get them to hit a white bucktail jig.

That night Piute had another good boil series just before dark. Thursday morning the upper portion of the big bay had as many as 5 slurper boils going at any time. Think we got 20-25 fish in an hour and a half.

Ran into Dreamweaver as we headed home and he reported getting into a big boil in the main channel just before the big bay at Piute Creek and took several from it. As we started the turn out of the main channel into Dangling (for ice cream) there was a slurper boil that covered a couple thousand square feet and we got as close as 50' feet from it. There must have been a thousand fish in it--shoulder to shoulder moving at trolling speed---fascinating!!

All our San Juan fish were healthy and aggressive. The water going into that bay is slightly stained. We went to the Great Bend and the water got progressively more stained but not too bad but was starting to pick up some debris. Talked to a couple small mouth fishermen who were disappointed in the SJ small mouth...we only caught a couple, all small. All- in -all, SJ is as good as it's ever been.

HotWheels Fishing Report.

My friends the Wilson Brothers, Bryce and Eric and new guy Eddie had a great time last Weekend July 2cd to the 5th. We wanted to get away from the crowds so we headed to the San Juan. But on the way down we hit slurps in main channel at Iceberg and Rincon area. The new guy(to striper boils) got the first hook up, but lost it at the boat. But the excitement was on. We tried top water spook jr’s and sammies but could not get any more hits. I think that was because of the “boil fever” , just could not get the cast in front of the boil at the right time, then the action stopped. So we headed on down and setup camp in Piute Canyon. What a beautiful place. But we could not find any slurps or boils in this area. That night the moon was full and it lit up the whole canyon with a deep red, what a sight this was.

Next day we headed up to dangling rope to get gas and check out main channel for more boils. We did find some at the mouth of Rock Creek, but again could not get hooked up, boils did not stay up very long and it was later in the morning.

The second night we decide to fish the bay area of Piute before the full moon came up. Tied up off a rock island and hung out the lantern and also a green light on Wilson brother’s boat in 60 to 80 foot of water. It only took about 5 mins before we had hundreds of tiny little shad under the lights. The new guy again got the first hook up( what’s up with that) and reeled in a nice 3lb striper using a small chuck of anchovy about 60 ft down. Then it got hot, we caught 7 more stripers 2 to 4lb in the next hour, before the wind blew us off our spot and the full moon came up. So we came back to the beach where we were camped and also caught a dozen or so catfish.

Next morning packed up and headed back up main channel. We had to stop and Rincon because of all the slurps and boils we were seeing. Bryce hooked up right away on spook jr, and Eric got out his fly rod. This was what we had been looking for. Eric hooked up right away also on the fly rod, boy did he have fun getting that striper in the boat. Me and the new guy(Eddie) in my boat hooked up on spook jr and a Sammie. But soon the striper’s would not hit the top water lures??, even when we got right into the boil, but Eric was still getting hits on the fly rod. So Eddie and I tied on jig heads with chartreuse grubs and that was what worked the best anytime we could make the case into the boil. 17 striper’s from 3 to 6lb for a total from around 10am to 2pm Slurps were staying up much longer this time.

I got the biggest of the day, looked to be about 6lb. Here are a few pictures of our trip. We are coming back down 1st week of August. There is nothing like “boil fever” J

Can wait to go again… HotWheels….

Ed and I whacked the stripers yesterday in the San Juan. We were extra lucky to be in the right place at the right time. We snuck into the cove they were boiling in with the trolling motor on low as it would go. We got about 11 of them. chasing in open water was a waste of time. They are very sensitive to any kind of motor noise close to them.

What a day we also caught quite a few small mouth.

We just finished a one week houseboat trip on Lake Powell. We fished 4 mornings for bass and three nights for catfish from the back of the houseboat with nightcrawlers.

We caught 92 fish.....19 catfish, 22 smallmouth, 6 largemouth and 45 stripers. The stripers were caught from boils at Anton Bay in the San Juan and also from the river about 1/2 mile above Anton (Neskahi) bay. In addition we caught stripers from boils in the mail channel at bouys numbered 57, 68, 77, 114 as well as just inside the mouth of the Escalante River. The stripers were caught on white or silver Rattle-Raps.

It seems that this year the stripers were not staying up as long as they did in past years. The size was good, however......most were 3-4 lbs with an occasional 6-7 lbs.

We appreciate your fishing report....keep up the good work,

I'VE ENJOYED YOUR SITE, SO I THOUGHT I WOULD SHARE OUR LAST TRIP TO POWELL WITH YOU. FRI.7/30 & 31 WE PUT IN AT WAHWEAP (1HR WAIT TO GET IN).

WE WENT TO TO MARKER "63". THIS IS JUST ABOVE THE SAN JUAN ARM. WE HAD A SMALL BOIL THAT AFTERNOON. FISHED ALL NIGHT, HAD SHAD UNDER US ALL NIGHT ( AND YOUR RIGHT THEY WENT COUNTER CLOCK WISE ALL NIGHT, NEVER PAID ATTENTION TO THAT UNTIL I SAW IT ON YOUR SITE). NO STRIPERS ALL NIGHT - JUST SHAD AND 2 CATFISH.

BUT SATURDAY MORNING ABOUT 6AM THE BOILS STARTED IN THE COVE RIGHT ON THE 63 MARKER. WE HAD BOILS ALL OVER THIS COVE, SOMETIMES LARGE. WE HAD 2 KIDS WITH US SO WE DIDN'T CATCH NEARLY AS MANY AS WE COULD HAVE. WE DID TAKE 10 - ALL WERE ABOUT 5lbs. THE BOILS WENT FROM ABOUT 6AM TO ABOUT 9 AM. IT WAS A BLAST, THERE WAS NOT ONE OTHER BOAT AROUND US.

I DON'T MIND PIN POINTING WHERE WE WERE BECAUSE I WON'T BE BACK THIS SUMMER, NOT UNTIL FALL. IT WAS A 2 HOUR WAIT TO GET OUR BOAT OUT OF THE WATER. IT'S CRAZY AT THAT MARINA. THE NARROWS CHANNEL IS LIKE RIDING IN A TIDAL WAVE WITH ALL THE BOATS IN THE CHANNEL.

HAVEN'T BEEN IN BOILS SINCE LAKE MEAD USED TO BE GOOD - IT WAS FUN