Lake Elevation: 3656
Water Temperature 76-83 F
By: Wayne Gustaveson
The big news is all about stripers feeding on top - or not. Slurping boils are fragile. While visible everyday there are many factors that may prevent anglers from actually connecting with ever present surfacing stripers. This week it may be clouds. Here is how it works.Shad are tiny and inhabit the warm surface layers. Lake Powell has taken on more water color than usual with the huge muddy runoff coming in. Surface water is mud-colored uplake from Bullfrog and stained all the way down to Dangling Rope. Stripers are visual feeders. They look up to find shad. In these murky visibility conditions, cloudy weather reduces the number of opportunities for shad and stripers to come together on the surface.
On a normal summer morning slurping boils start as soon as there is sufficient sunlight to allow good vision. That is usually just after 6 AM (MST). On an overcast morning the first boil may be delayed until the clouds burn off and sunlight allows good hunting.
Slurping boils are subtle. It takes a trained eye and concentration to see boils at a distance. A windy morning really reduces the number of boils that happen and the boils seen by anglers. These are the challenges faced this week. The good news is that boils will be seen every day and with some luck fish will be caught. The very best location to catch surfacing stripers is from the Rincon to the mouth of the San Juan (Buoy 57-77). Here boils are large enough to see even in some wind and intense enough to persist with cloud conditions. Schools are large and fish work together to feed making it easier to see the boil location.
In the southern lake stripers are feeding in smaller groups with only a few fish involved in small slurps. Still there are some consistent areas where fish can be caught each day. There are larger groups of stripers working together in the Antelope to Navajo Canyon portion of the main channel. A good strategy is to make a run around Antelope Island looking for boils at 6-8 AM or from 5-8 PM.At Bullfrog the best boiling action has been in Halls Creek. These boils are impacted by the same vagaries of wind and clouds. From Bullfrog to Hite water is cloudy but the backs of canyons are clearer. It will be possible to find boil action upstream in canyons but the better choice is to head down lake to the Rincon and beyond.
Water is still coming up 6 inches per day. Bass fishing will improve with lake stabilization. Right now bass are catchable but only 10-15 fish larger than 10 inches are caught per trip. At most lakes in America that would be acceptable but at Powell bass fishing has a much higher standard. The best chance for larger bass is to fish the shoreline after a boil subsides or go flipping in the brush to find shallow largemouth in the trees. A bonus walleye will respond in the submerged green forest. Just be careful as the green brush is less forgiving when it comes to retrieving a lure. Go weedless for best results.
Catfishing is excellent and bait fishing for stripers is still very effective along steep canyon walls after boils go dormant for the day.
