Lake Powell Fish Report - September 26, 2011
Lake Elevation: 3653
Water Temperature 74-78 F
By: Wayne Gustaveson
The report is early since I will be sampling on the lake all week without time to write. But more importantly a breakthrough in fishing success has been discovered. The only consistent way to catch fish lake wide now is on fast moving crank baits.
There are still no striper boils to speak of –perhaps one or two in a week –but bass will cooperate with the proper incentive. In open water or bays a good strategy is to troll rattletraps (lipless crank baits) along the brushy shore line. When a bass is caught stop and throw cranks into the tree tops at that location. Use a crank that ticks the tree tops without hanging up in deeper branches.
In canyons bass are staged in the backs of bays on large brush flats. They are attacking shad early in the morning from six until ten and then again from four until dark. Shad colored crank baits ripped over the tops of sunken trees on just about any flat will draw extremely aggressive strikes.
Shad colored cranks in many varieties will work. Use your favorite bait to find the right depth and right retrieval speed until bass can consistently be caught. Good reports are now starting to come from Padre Bay and the San Juan but they are all about crank baits with virtually no success from other types of terminal tackle.
Stripers are not yet boiling. Deep trolling at 60-80 feet with leaded line or down riggers has worked well midlake near Annies canyon while trolling near Wahweap has slowed down to a crawl. Some stripers have been caught in the backs of the canyons swimming and feeding with bass.
Catfishing is good at night and bluegills can be caught in the tree tops on live worms. Fishing success is improving now. We are looking for it to get much better in the next few weeks.
