Lake Powell Fish Report – July 27, 2011
Lake Elevation: 3660
Water Temperature 79-83 F
By: Wayne Gustaveson
Austin Kimber
Lake Powell has leveled off at 3660 marking an increase of 50 vertical feet in the 160 mile long lake. Fish will enjoy the extra water for a long time to come. The lake surface has warmed to 80 degrees. Lake level stabilization will help fishing next month but this week fish are deep trying to avoid the warm water.
The best fishing location on the lake this week is in the mid section near Bullfrog. Stripers are boiling morning and evening and staying up long enough for anglers to catch 30 to 50 fish. Fish range in size from 14 to 24 inches. The larger fish are adults that are recovering from a tough winter when few shad were available. These fish are regaining their strength and health. All of these boil caught fish now provide good fillets. The younger fish are fast growing yearlings in excellent condition. They have the advantage of enjoying the warm water where shad are found. Larger fish have to dive down to cooler water causing a temporary separation between predator and prey. Young stripers can stay right with their prey and relentlessly pursue shad. If given the opportunity it is wise to harvest as many stripers as possible to save some shad for later in the year.
Boil fishing at Hite is just starting. It is still hit-or-miss but possible to see some great boils when they do come to the top. Colorado River current is now much smaller making Hite a worthwhile fishing destination again.
Fishing on the southern end of the lake is challenging. The run from Wahweap to West Canyon usually provides the opportunity to fish many different boils, but this morning there were none to be seen. That was disappointing so we moved in towards shore hoping to catch a bass. Later in the day we talked with other anglers near West Canyon that saw many different striper schools coming to the surface between 8 and 9 AM. We were fishing for bass at the time so cannot corroborate the report. My report says we saw no boils but we could have easily missed them on the new bigger bays and channels in the filling lake.
The day was not a total loss as we did find a pattern that worked for smallmouth bass. Let me preference this with a disclaimer that bass fishing along the shoreline is TOUGH! The pattern that works involves finding a steep, narrow “cut” (small canyon). Do not go into the cut but search in front of the cut for a submerged creek channel. Usually a narrow meandering depression can be seen on the graph. Find the edge in the 10 foot range and then follow the drop off down to a depth of 25-30 feet. Smallmouth are holding on the bottom of the old channel and will respond to single and double tail grubs. We were using smoke-sparkle color which works very well when bass are finicky. We found a number of different cut channel and caught a few bass in each one.
Catfishing is good both day and night. If only able to use one bait right now my choice would be the lowly night crawler. Get the wiggly worm down 25 feet in a submerged creek channel, crawl it along the bottom and let the fish decide who will eat the worm. It could be any bass, striper, walleye, catfish or sunfish. Even in tough conditions there are fish to be caught.
