My two sons, Sean and Paul, went up to the San Juan October 23 for the day and had a blast. It has probably been a year since we all had gone out fishing on Powell. The weather was perfect and so was the fishing. We didn't catch anything really big but we caught somewhere between 80 and 90 fish, lots of 2+ pound fat largemouth like the one Sean is holding and fat smallmouth. The bite was good all day long. We left at dawn and got home at dark. We hit a few arms I've been wondering about on the way up and did real well.
We fished the back of coves and saw lots of minnows being nailed by baby largemouth and smallmouth bass. We moved out into the main channel and fished the rock slides with bushes and trees. We used smoke double tails and senkos. We fished straight down in water about 10 to 15 feet deep, let the bait hit the bottom then brought it up a couple of feet. If there was a fish close the bite was quick, 10-15 seconds, if no bite then moved it over a little ways. If we were sitting in 20 to 30 feet deep we threw close to shore and let it sink, working it back slowly and usually got a hit right away if one was there.
We saw three horses grazing next to the water. They seemed to be a long way from home. They did look healthy. On the way home between the Bridge turn-off and Dangling rope bay we started seeing individual stripers hitting the surface. We were able to hook one on top water close to the boat. I have only seen a stripers jump and thrash like this one did a few times, AMAZING! It was around 6 pounds. 
We were just hanging out in that area when Paul said, "there's a ram". I couldn't believe he could it that far away, but I am getting older and the eyes don't work like young ones. Sure enough there were quite a few big horn sheep walking around in the rocks close to shore. We pulled to the shore and Paul grabbed the camera and filmed the group for about 15 minutes. There were 2 rams and 5 females. Sean got within 50 yards of them as Paul filmed them. I've seem several females but never the males. It was a way to end the perfect day with my sons.
Kevin Campbell and I went up into Navajo Canyon on Oct. 29 and caught several smallmouth many of them were in the 2 pound range. Later that evening we went into the Warm Creek area. I caught this nice largemouth on top water. We used mostly top water that evening and earlier that day in Navajo we caught several smallies in the 2# range using Hula Grubbs, spinner baits and senkos.
The fishing has finally gotten better and I believe it is going to continue to be good and even get better especially for the bigger fish really soon. The water temp is coming down and the weather is getting cold. If you want to bundle up and brave it give me a call, just look up guides on Waynes site. Lots of good guides and lots of fish to catch, FINALLY!!
Good fishing to all,
Mike McNabb
