Went to Lake Powell from about 4 p.m. Tuesday, January 3, 2012, through Saturday morning, January 7, for our annual winter trip. (I believe this is our 31st year.) Dorrell Henderson, Ryan Kimball, Brent McNee, Marty Peterson, Karl Pulley, Richard Snow, Jason Willard and Richard's friend Steve all fished some time during these dates in four boats.
Weather:
Weather during the entire trip was perfect, with lows about mid to high 20s and daytime highs that had to reach the low 50s a couple of days. A light breeze blew out of Bullfrog Bay each morning. Other than that, there were variable light breezes alternating with glassy calm. Cloud cover ranged from sparse, high clouds to clear skies.
Water Conditions:
Water surface temp ranged from 50 to 53 degrees. Water was clear everywhere we fished, even in the backs of the canyons. Water level is about 14 feet higher than at the same time last year.
Catch:
In my boat for the trip we ended up keeping 25 stripers (all that we caught) up to 5 lb. and a couple of walleyes. Ryan Kimball caught a walleye on Wednesday that weighed 8 lb. 6 oz. (27 inches long, 16-5/8 inch girth). We caught and released probably 15 to 20 healthy largemouth bass in the 2 to 3 pound range. One of the other boats caught largemouth up to 5 lb. We tried for crappie in areas similar to where we have had success in the past, but didn't catch any.
Fishing:
- Wednesday - we started the morning fishing in Bullfrog Bay. We graphed fish in the same general places we caught hundreds of stripers last year, but no takers anywhere. After trying for stripers around Bullfrog we decided to head for Hanson Canyon in early afternoon. Dropped white jigging spoons on a school we saw on the graph at about 65 feet, picked up one striper, broke another off and had a few more bites, but we lost the school and that was it. After a couple of hours we headed for Moki. Ryan's first cast (with a Lucky Craft Pointer, perch color) on a rock pile in the back of the canyon produced the 8 lb. walleye -- an absolutely beautiful fish. After a few more casts we decided we needed to head back. Late in the day, the Park Service rangers at the ANS checking station went out of their way to connect us up with the lady who managed the Bullfrog post office, who also went out of her way to weigh it for us. I can't say enough about how we much we appreciated their extra effort. We also picked up a few largemouths shallow over the course of the day.
- Thursday - again fished Bullfrog for a couple of hours with nothing to show for it, then headed for Hall's Creek Bay. Spent the rest of the day fishing our way around down the west side, across the trees and back and out along the east side without even a bite. Finished the day with no fish and no bites.
- Friday - we decided to start the day in Hanson. We dropped on a school in the channel at about 60 feet deep near the back of the canyon and ended up catching a dozen or so stripers. Marty moved in next to us and both boats had some fast fishing. When the school moved on we went into the back of the canyon and started cranking with white and perch colors. We caught another dozen or so doing this, some from water 5 feet deep. These crankbait fish slammed our lures and fought hard. Marty, Richard and Steve threw cranks here also, catching stripers as well as a few walleyes. The bite tapered off about noon, and after another hour or two of searching we set out for Smith's Fork, where we picked up a largemouth and a walleye before heading back to fillet.
- Over the course of the trip and pretty much everywhere we fished for them, healthy largemouth were hitting on jigs and cranks in the shallows. Also, everywhere we went we saw lots of shad schools, and most of the fish we filleted had one or more shad in them. Every fish we saw was in great physical condition.
Afterthoughts:
- I'm wondering if a striper bite similar to what we found in Hanson Canyon could be found in other area canyons. As it turns out, we spent too much time in Bullfrog and Hall's Creek Bay and really didn't get much of a chance to explore this option.
- Out on the lake, the only thing we caught deep stripers on were white, "Brad (Cutler) special" jigging spoons, even though we fished anchovies and other spoons and lures. Maybe the big numbers of "genuine" shad in the lake made less active presentations such as anchovies and jigs less appealing. However, we only had much success with the one school anyway.
- Stealth is always important this time of year when fishing for stripers, but it seemed we had an unusual number of schools disappear after we stopped over them, even when throwing a marker and coming back with the electric.
Ryan took the attached photos.
