Lake Powell Fish Report - June 15, 2011
Lake Elevation: 3635
Water Temperature 67-73 F
By: Wayne Gustaveson 
My weekly fishing report trip was extremely informative. It began by trying to duplicate some great fishing reports for striper schools from the Rock Creek area. The dawn trip from Wahweap to Rock Creek was magical with ultra calm water, clear warm water and glowing red rocks basking in the sun's first light. Turned out that was the only redeeming factor as we found no willing fish of any species in main Rock Creek. The first fish was caught about 9:30 AM when a walleye took a dropshot senko at 30 feet. Shortly there after a nice striper was caught trolling in the back of Dry Rock Creek. This morning lull was a mystery to me until last night when the huge full moon came up, reminding me that fish prowl at night during the full moon and take the next morning off. Fishing success increases throughout the day and peaks in the evening. Sometimes we have to remind ourselves that fishing expertise is trumped by more important events (like full moon or weather fronts) happening in the fish world. There was some great fishing that occurred in predawn hours but I only learned about that after the fact. 
At first light yesterday the first striper boils of the year were seen in Navajo Canyon. The big event occurred at the back of the canyon in muddy water where bottom depth was 15-20 feet. A second boil event was later seen about noon near the big sand dune in clear water. Stripers were caught on surface lures, spoons and rattletraps in both surface feeding events. Boil season is now open for business and will happen sporadically lakewide for the rest of the summer. For now look in the backs of canyons at dusk, middday and dawn where most shad spawning occurs and small shad are present in large numbers. Both boils and slurps were seen with large fish caught in both events on spoons and rattletraps fished under the surface action. 
On my return from the non event in Rock Creek we found fishing success gradually improved as we got closer to Wahweap. As moon effect lessened fish were more eager to respond. Smallmouth bass yearlings were holding on deep water edges on open water reefs. Bass were consistently found on the main channel side of the reef and absent from the side closer to shore. 
Our fishing prowess improved dramatically as we arrived at the power plant intake. A bit of chum ignited a school and many stripers were caught in short order in shallow water. My best technique in this situation was to use a circle hook with no weight allowing the bait to sink to 12-15 feet before the next fish hit.
Moved on to Buoy 3 and found stripers catchable but at a much slower rate than at the intake. Fish were deeper here and the short shanked jig head with a small grub tipped with anchovy bait was very effective. The big difference between the two spots was the condition of fish. Many fish caught at the intake were thin with only an occasional fat fish. It seemed that the last month of constant catching has removed most of the thin fish from Buoy 3 while many remain in spots less popular. Boat traffic made holding position near the intake difficult while Buoy 3 was a calm experience except for one tour boat wake. We finished up at Buoy 1 by chumming a few chunks of bait and catching another 6 fish in short order.
Our trip was typical. We went out expecting a certain outcome and came back with a report much different than expected. There are always fish to catch on this beautiful lake. On some days it just takes longer to find them.
