Joe Wilson
Well-Known Member
Arrived early afternoon on the 17th, spent the afternoon shuffling everything to camp at Stanton Creek and didn't get out to fish. Friday I spent the morning cruising around checking my normal spots with no luck finding schooling striper. Finally around 1pm, located a small school just uplake from the amphitheater just up past Moki at the broken/chunk rock (roughly 100 yards past the amphitheater). I was able to stay on the school for about an hour and picked up 25, with a mix of casting and speed reeling my homemade walleye assasin baits on a 3/8-1/2 oz jig head before the school dispersed. Of the 25, all but 5 were healthy but smaller fish than years past. All the fish that I filleted were full of shad sized about 1" to 1-1/2" with many of them spitting shad out when I got them to the boat. Went back to camp (Stanton Creek) and saw a small 5-10 minute boil on the Bullfrog Bay side about 50 yards off of the 2nd point in from the main channel but was sitting in camp and did not make it out to fish it but talked with a couple boats that tried and were not able to pick anything up from it.
Saturday took some friends sightseeing and didn't start fishing till about noon and had no luck locating a school at the rocks by the amphitheater but did pick up 3 before trying to move on to greener pastures. Tried the "island" up and across from Moki with no luck, before cruising into Moki and trying a couple of their usual hangouts with no luck. We marked some fish about 4 turns in where the island is and picked up a eater sized smallmouth but nothing else. Word of caution here, do not try to cross between the island and shore, go around as it is less than a foot deep. In the daylight it is easy to see the bridge trying to come out, but in flat light you cannot see it. We were able to stop a house boat and a wake boat from ruining their trips by getting hung up on it. Went back to camp and hung out where I saw the boil the night before and hung out until 7:15pm but they never showed up and we never found the school.
Sunday we went back to the rocks past Moki and were able to pick up 34 between 2 people fishing with only 2 skinny fish in the group. While we were on the school at the rocks, we had a small boil pop up the lasted about 5 minutes but lots of single splashes throughout the afternoon. If you were quick to hit the splash, it was about a 90% hook-up rate. When we were on the school, they did not care what you threw at them, if it was in range they were gonna hit it. We spent the day on both sides of the amphitheater, just following the surface action. Got back to camp and filleted the fish and dumped the scraps off the point we were camped on and tried for catfish afterwards as the guy I was fishing with had never caught one before. He caught 3 yellow bullhead and I got 1 20" channel cat in about an hour of fishing.
Monday we tried the same spot with less success. We were not able to locate the school so we cruised up to Tapestry ('cause its a must for a first time visitor) and I took them into Warm springs, Cedar, Forgotten, Knowels and Hansen sightseeing and didn't really try, but definitely kept an eye on the graph and never saw a school to fish. Headed back to camp and filleted another 20 fish for the day. He tried catfishing again after dark but in a different spot hoping to catch a channel cat with no luck. Again we only fished until about 11pm.
Tuesday morning first thing he was able to catch a small channel cat before we broke camp to head out. He was able to catch 4 new fish he had never caught before and didn't even get into several of the popular species that people tend to target at Powell. He is definitely hooked now, hahaha
Most of the striper were caught on my homemade walleye assasin clones with either a 3/8 or 1/2 oz jighead. The striper were caught on a mix of top water and speed reeling through the water column. Water temps were between 78-80 degrees and the schools seemed to be hanging out in 40-60 feet of water near a sharp drop. They were fairly aggressive when located with most fish being smaller than years past, but healthy. Only saw 4 floating fish all weekend and only one was a striper, 2 were channel cats and one was a carp.
Saturday took some friends sightseeing and didn't start fishing till about noon and had no luck locating a school at the rocks by the amphitheater but did pick up 3 before trying to move on to greener pastures. Tried the "island" up and across from Moki with no luck, before cruising into Moki and trying a couple of their usual hangouts with no luck. We marked some fish about 4 turns in where the island is and picked up a eater sized smallmouth but nothing else. Word of caution here, do not try to cross between the island and shore, go around as it is less than a foot deep. In the daylight it is easy to see the bridge trying to come out, but in flat light you cannot see it. We were able to stop a house boat and a wake boat from ruining their trips by getting hung up on it. Went back to camp and hung out where I saw the boil the night before and hung out until 7:15pm but they never showed up and we never found the school.
Sunday we went back to the rocks past Moki and were able to pick up 34 between 2 people fishing with only 2 skinny fish in the group. While we were on the school at the rocks, we had a small boil pop up the lasted about 5 minutes but lots of single splashes throughout the afternoon. If you were quick to hit the splash, it was about a 90% hook-up rate. When we were on the school, they did not care what you threw at them, if it was in range they were gonna hit it. We spent the day on both sides of the amphitheater, just following the surface action. Got back to camp and filleted the fish and dumped the scraps off the point we were camped on and tried for catfish afterwards as the guy I was fishing with had never caught one before. He caught 3 yellow bullhead and I got 1 20" channel cat in about an hour of fishing.
Monday we tried the same spot with less success. We were not able to locate the school so we cruised up to Tapestry ('cause its a must for a first time visitor) and I took them into Warm springs, Cedar, Forgotten, Knowels and Hansen sightseeing and didn't really try, but definitely kept an eye on the graph and never saw a school to fish. Headed back to camp and filleted another 20 fish for the day. He tried catfishing again after dark but in a different spot hoping to catch a channel cat with no luck. Again we only fished until about 11pm.
Tuesday morning first thing he was able to catch a small channel cat before we broke camp to head out. He was able to catch 4 new fish he had never caught before and didn't even get into several of the popular species that people tend to target at Powell. He is definitely hooked now, hahaha
Most of the striper were caught on my homemade walleye assasin clones with either a 3/8 or 1/2 oz jighead. The striper were caught on a mix of top water and speed reeling through the water column. Water temps were between 78-80 degrees and the schools seemed to be hanging out in 40-60 feet of water near a sharp drop. They were fairly aggressive when located with most fish being smaller than years past, but healthy. Only saw 4 floating fish all weekend and only one was a striper, 2 were channel cats and one was a carp.
