LAKE POWELL FISH REPORT April 27, 2005 By Wayne Gustaveson Lake Elevation: 3560 Water Temp: 58 - 64 F |
![]() Bass are hitting spinnerbaits, plastic tubes and grubs, hard plastic suspending jerk baits and deep driving crankbaits. It’s that time when fishing the favorite bait works – no matter what your favorite might be. On a slow day caused by inclement weather, try scented plastic or stuff a live night crawler into a plastic tube jig for a bit of extra flavor. Fish slower and deeper than normal (20-25 feet) to make them bite. Less action and smaller lures catch fish when they are not actively feeding. Average smallmouth size is 1.5 pounds with lots of 2-pound fish and an occasional bigger fish showing up. Largemouth bass and crappie have shown up as well. Do not be surprised to catch a walleye while fishing for bass in any part of Lake Powell. The best fishing seems to be in the southern half of Lake Powell including the San Juan. There may be a shad overloading problem going on in the Bullfrog area. Perhaps too many shad to eat makes fishing slower. I suspect this problem to be temporary. Fishing will improve quickly during the next warm spell. Bass aggression increases with renewed spawning making bass very vulnerable to angling. Stripers are still scattered over the entire lake. Trolling deep diving shad plugs still accounts for a respectable number of 5-pound plus stripers by the end of the day. The best lures from last week include deep diving models of Husky Jerk, Deep Thunderstick, Yozuri Crystal Minnow, Rapala (metal lip), Norman DD-22, and reef runner. In high use areas (Lone Rock) it was found that a deep diving lure with a brightly colored belly (orange/red) would out-fish a shad colored lure of the same variety on some days – not always. Constantly check the graph for striper schools while trolling or casting. Stop the boat immediately over a school and drop spoons for some quick catching. Lots of stripers can be landed in short order with this technique. The best striper locations were Warm Creek, Navajo, Last Chance, Rock Creek, San Juan, Bullfrog Bay, and Canyons upstream from Good Hope Bay. Main channel water color is stained above Good Hope but side canyons (Red, White and Blue Notch) still offer clear water and good fishing. Watch for driftwood while in the main channel uplake and the back of any canyon with perennial water flowing. Launching is much better as the new concrete ramp at Wahweap Main ramp and Stateline Ramp has now been flooded by rising lake waters. The new Bullfrog ramp is a week or so away from inundation. Launching on dirt at Bullfrog main ramp is good. Halls Crossing ramp remains open with launching on concrete. |
LAKE POWELL FISH REPORT April 20, 2005 By Ron Colby Lake Elevation: 3558 Water Temp: 56 - 62 F |
Fishing this past weekend was nothing short of spectacular! Warming and rising water is triggering the spawn and fish of all species are moving shallow. The past couple of days the wind has been blowing and some cold weather has cooled things down but by Friday and Saturday temperatures are expected to get back up into the 80s warming the water again and allowing for another fantastic weekend of fishing. Stripers are being found near the backs of most canyons where the water color changes to a light green. They are holding in 40' - 50' of water. Early morning and late evening they will move shallow and can sometimes be seen chasing shad along the shore line. Keep a topwater bait ready for any breaking fish. Many of the anglers in the bass tournaments last weekend reported catching big stripers on topwater baits, Zara Spooks, Sammys and Pop-Rs. Rattle traps, shad colored cranks and soft plastics would also produce when casting to or from shore. The best method reported for producing the most fish was trolling deep diving cranks in and out of the changing water color area near the backs of the canyons. Bass, both Large Mouth and Small Mouth, are seen building nests throughout the entire lake. SMB will be out on the gravel points, sandy banks and ledges that range in depth from 6" to 12' of water. The extremely protective males will aggressively attack any crawdad and shad colored grubs and crankbaits that come by. LMB will be near the very backs of little cuts and coves that have any floating or submerged tumbleweeds or brush. Use a Senko or Texas rigged worm to entice them out of the cover. With a soft breeze putting a ripple on the water, using chartreuse and white spinner baits for both SMB and LMB will catch a few. Walleyes are being caught at random but seem to be near deep points that are 20' or deeper. If the wind creates a mudline in the water coming off of these points they will be in the area under the mudline ambushing shad and crankbaits that are pulled through. I have seen schools of Bluegill in and around the flooded tumbleweeds. They are a little spooky but calm down in a couple of seconds after a bait has been placed near them. A float with a small worm should work great for the kids. |
LAKE POWELL FISH REPORT April 13, 2005 By Ron Colby Lake Elevation: 3555 Water Temp: 54 - 62 F |
Spent most of the day Tuesday on the lake doing research and development, it was a wonderful day. Started the day using rip baits trying to catch LMB and SMB, only managed a couple early and gave up and went chasing stripers. It didn't take long to find a school in 50' of water. The spoons went down and the fish were eager to cooperate. We caught 16 BIG stripers in Wahweap near Lone Rock between 8:30 and 10:00. We then left Wahweap and headed up lake to chase bass. Warm Creek, Gunsight, Padre, West, and face all had active fish but the best bite happen after 1:00pm. The water temp had climbed to 60 and SMB were seen building nests and would attack our baits. The LMB were also becoming active but were tighter to cover but could be coaxed out using tubes, jigs, and Yamamoto Kreature baits. During the day we caught some 3lb fish but most were between 1.5 - 2 lbs. The bass are staging on the last deep points near the backs of coves or flats where they can build nests. Using Lucky Craft Bevy shad and Pointer78 in ghost and chartreuse shad we lost count of the number of fish we caught. There was a pattern to the retrieve, twitch, twitch, pause count to 3, they would hit on the pause and the longer the better. If the wind is blowing, chartreuse and white spinner baits and shad color cranks will work great. The stripers are very close to spawning and I even caught a few that had spawned. A few more days of this nice weather and it will happen. Early in the mornings look for stripers in shallows near the back of canyons, coves and pockets, listen for surface activity and you may even see a half hearted boil for the first hour of light. Mid morning move out between 25 - 50 feet of water trolling shad color deep diving crankbaits. Keep your eyes on the graph looking for schools of fish that can be spoon fed ![]() |
LAKE POWELL FISH REPORT April 6, 2005 By Wayne Gustaveson Lake Elevation: 3555 Water Temperature: 51-58 F | ||||
Cold night time temperatures and windy afternoons have kept the lake from warming significantly. With temperatures in the low 50’s the bass spawn has been delayed and stripers remained midway back in canyons. The good news is that both species will be found right where they were left last week. Stripers are holding in almost every canyon but at very specific locations. I will try to reveal the hiding place so all can find them. Stripers are on the edge of deep water usually near a shallow point or underwater hump. Shad are usually in 30 feet of water or less near the back of the canyon or bay. Begin the search by going to the back of the canyon and working out. Graph for shad schools.
Bait fishing for stripers is good at night with anchovies at Bullfrog and Wahweap Marinas under lights. Put a one-inch chunk of bait on a Ľ ounce jighead and lower to the bottom. Raise the bait in 5-foot increments until fish are found. The bite is very subtle so hold the rod for quick reaction and watch the rod tip for sign of stealthy fish. Largemouth and smallmouth bass are poised for spawning. They will not spawn until temps are above 60. That can happen quickly with 3-4 warm calm days. Right now it appears that spawning may be two weeks away but that can change rapidly. For those planning to hit the peak of the spawn I expect the last two weeks of April will be the time. Walleye fishing will get better each week with the peak in May. Crappie will spawn the same time as the bass and be found only in isolated locations. Expect spring fishing to be excellent from now till the end of May. |