9-26-14

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wayne gustaveson

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As we cruised uplake on Monday it was pleasing to see one quick boil in the main channel between West and Friendship Cove. It was over before I could even turn the boat in hopes of getting close enough for a cast. Perhaps stripers were just taunting us and wanted to get our hopes up. From then on we saw no more boils.

There was not much time to fish as the electrofishing survey occurred at sundown and traveling between stations consumed about 4 hours per day. Free time was mid afternoon when air temperature exceeded 90 degrees making lake temperature over 80 degrees. This is not the best time to fish because fish are most active at twilight. We learned more about fish populations and not as much about how and where to catch fish on rod and reel. The quick report on fish populations is that smallmouth, largemouth, stripers, bluegill, catfish and sunfish all had great spawns and good survival of young. More detail will happen after we analyze data.

We did learn some fish facts.

1. On an early morning run from Good Hope Bay to Trachyte we found single individual fish hitting the surface. Some of these splashes were massive as water soared over two feet in the air. If close enough the splash it was possible to catch a striper on a spoon or a jig. Spoons can be worked down through the water column and they retrieved up again trying to find that feeding fish. Stripers are looking for an easy meal so when they are on the prowl they can be caught near their splash. But the chances are better of catching a fish within one minute of the splash.

2. On the return down lake we trolled across the flat on the downstream side of Castle Butte. A fat 3 pound striper hit the shad rap. We turned to retrace the trolling course when we were distracted by 5 fish splashing frantically on the shoreline. Quick casts proved that these fish were smallmouth bass feeding aggressively on shad in the brush line. I was surprised because the splashes were huge and striper-like.

3. Over the length of the lake in the evening shad come to the surface and feed on top. Schools of 100 to 1000 shad cover the main channel during the last hour of daylight. Surface temperature is over 80 degrees which is uncomfortable for stripers that have attained larger size. I think shad are in a protected sauna with striper lurking below ready to feed when shad return to the depths.

4. In one cove in Good Hope Bay we saw small fish boiling. We downsized to small pointers and found these fish were again not stripers but 6-10 inch largemouth bass. Later while sampling we found a record high number of largemouth at this sampling station. Bass survival was tremendous in 2014. There is a grand population growing up for next year.

Finally fish are small but fat and healthy. There are huge numbers of shad and record high numbers of bass, stripers, catfish, and sunfish which are the only ones vulnerable to this survey. The future of fishing in Lake Powell is in the excellent to superb range for the next 3 years.
 
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