| April 25, 2007 By Wayne Gustaveson Lake Elevation: 3600 Water Temp: 57-66 F |
| Long awaited Spring warming is forecast for this coming weekend. Bass have been poised all month on the edge of the flat waiting for warmth that will trigger the spawn. Looks like it will finally happen. There was some largemouth bass nest building and spawning in the northern lake early in the month but the big smallmouth spawning event is still to come. Austi 
Sight-fishing for aggressive bass that have just spawned is exciting. Male bass that guard fresh eggs on the new nest will attack anything that comes close to "his nest". Aggression peaks for two days post-spawn and then tapers off each succeeding day after that. Timing the trip to coincide with actual spawning ensures a memorable trip. That will happen this weekend and beyond. Catching bass is not all that technical in these conditions. Basically anything that swims near the nest is fair game. The lure choice is then determined by confidence of the angler. Past success with a certain lure, technique or presentation should determine how to fish during the next week. If it worked before it should work even better now. For beginners perhaps the easiest and most effective bait is a weightless plastic bait like the Zoom Fluke or Yamamoto Senko. Toss the bait beyond the nest, retrieve until it is over the nest and then let it slowly descend right on the rocks. The male bass will take it on the way down or pick it up and carry it off the rocks. Catch the male bass off the nest but then release it to protect the eggs from predation. If bass are to be kept for supper, keep the females or those fish not on nests. In the bass world, males determine the survival of the next generation and females are excess fish to be harvested. Crappie will be spawning at the same time. Crappie will nest in thick cover and the male security guard will often be a very black color. Release the black fish and those caught on nests to ensure the survival of the next generation. Use small plastic or hair jigs on very light jig heads (1/16th - 1/32nd ounce). Place them about 4-feet under a bobber to present the bait at a steady depth and a slow speed which crappie prefer. Brian Walters with stripers caught at the Dam 
Striper fishing is even better in the backs of canyons around brush piles that harbor small sunfish. Both adults and juveniles are hanging out in the backs of canyons. Find them by fishing reaction baits like a lipless vibrator or jerk bait, on the shallow edge of the canyon near deep water. Cast to the shoreline much like fishing for bass. Stripers, bass and walleye are sharing the same habitat. A hooked striper is usually accompanied by 5 others trying to grab the bait from its mouth. When one striper is being played cast behind the hooked fish to catch the school mates. Jerk baits like pointers, bevy shad, and Bomber long A's work well, as do plastic grubs and tubes and spoons. Use your confidence lure. The fish will love it too. |
| April 18, 2007 By Wayne Gustaveson Lake Elevation: 3600 Water Temp: 57-66 F |
Bass spawning has begun. It is not the hoped for grand event where all fish move on the beds the same day. Instead a warming event allows a few bass to spawn in a warm cove. Then cooling moves the fish back off the beds. It warms, then cools and fish move back and forth. There are more bass beds in the northern lake, which may be a degree or two warmer than water on the south end. Very few beds are seen south of Dangling Rope.
The back of a brush lined cove is a good place to start searching for spawning bass. A sandy cove or flat in a slick rock canyon is even better. Picture a slick rock canyon. Usually in the back or in a cove there is a flat spot to park a boat. That flat has a different soil component than the slick rock. Now think about spawning. Bass need a rocky substrate to build a nest. Slick rock cannot be worked with a bass tail. Sand, clay or gravel can be fanned and rocks uncovered. Bass gravitate to that soil in an otherwise slick rock environment. So in slick rock canyons look for sand flats. Now to enhance the sand pattern it is best if there are bushes (tumbleweed) for cover and deep water access leading in. Most often the weedy extreme back of a canyon (floodplain with weeds) will be good for bass crappie and stripers this week. Yesterday I was motoring in the main channel looking for prospective hot spots. I saw a sand flat (beach) which is not all that great in itself, but in the middle of the sandy beach was a flood drainage cut with tumbleweeds collected in it. The 10-yard wide cut was pronounced and led to a rocky ravine high and dry on the ground. The cut extended through the beach and then into the lake. So I lined up on the cut and fished it some 50 yards off shore at a depth of 10-15 feet. I was not disappointed. It was loaded with stripers but that is also where the bass were. We sorted through 5 stripers to get to one bass and then did it again and again. Next we found a rocky edge where the beach joined the slick rock and fished that. Mud was washed up by boat wakes and we took 10 largemouth out of that sand/mud spot where bottom depth was 8-15 feet. Look for sand and weeds for best success this week. Wind seems to be with us this week. To fish successfully in the wind throw reaction baits instead of trying to "feel" the plastic bait on the bottom in the wind. Fish move shallower in wind and often move to windy points where the water is breaking on shore. Try spinnerbaits and jerk baits and lipless vibrators where the feel is not as important when the wind bows your line. You can troll in productive areas to keep some boat control in the wind. Don't just troll, but troll over structure like points or reefs. Then motor to the next likely structure and troll some more. 
Jerk baits like this Suspending Bomber Long A are working well for bass and stripers. I have slow trolled this bait over points with a pumping motion and found great success for smaller stripers that are feeding on plankton. |
| April 11, 2007 By Wayne Gustaveson Lake Elevation: 3599 Water Temp: 53-66 F |
While waiting for the bass spawn, the prespawn pattern is not bad. Warming draws all fish to the shallow edge of the channel where sunlight is warming the sand and rock. ALL FISH are using the same warm water spot. There will be a mixed bag of bass, stripers, crappie and walleye all sharing the warmth. Find a sunny exposure with shallow water next to a deep travel route. There must be a few tumbleweeds, tamarisk or aquatic weeds to provide the comforting shelter fish crave. Find a brushy warm spot and the fishing is beyond belief. Daniel Wray with his personal best largemouth caught from shore near Bullfrog main ramp. Stripers are still numerous and very hungry. Cast to weeds/brush with jerk baits, spinner baits, tubes, grubs or weightless senkos. Cover lots of ground because fish are bunched in small isolated areas. Fishing sandy points in mostly slick rock canyons is very productive Locate striper schools to find the other species. Catching one fish will likely lead to grappling with many more willing fish. Sort through stripers on almost every cast to find an occasional big bass, walleye, or crappie. 
Near Bullfrog, try Lake and Moki Canyons, Halls and Bullfrog Bays. In the upper lake Good Hope to Trachyte Canyon is probably the best fishing on the lake. The upper San Juan is always special. Next week will be as good as it gets in the spring, if the weather warms as forecast. I hope you can make it. Ron Colby gave 87 stripers a ride home from Rock Creek |
| April 4, 2007 By Wayne Gustaveson Lake Elevation: 3599 Water Temp: 56-66 F |
| Warming is now more gradual and timely than the warm spell encountered in March. Each morning the temperature climbs another notch toward the magical 60 degree mark that ushers in the glory of spring fishing at Lake Powell. If the thermometer reads 58 in the morning bass will be biting by afternoon. If the morning reading is 64 then bass will spawn. As I write this the temperature reading is 57. I am going fishing anyway. While waiting for bass to start the spring feeding frenzy, fish can be readily caught with soft plastic tubes and grubs fished slowly along the bottom. Largemouth from 3-7 pounds are still active and waiting. Fishing for big green bass during March was more productive than during any similar period during this decade. That great fishing will be supplemented by a similar occurrence of big bronze smallmouth later this month. This peak in big bass production results from the big forage years from 2002 to 2005. Enjoy the reward of that production by spending some time on each fishing trip pursuing bass. While bass fishing is better in the afternoon and evening when water reaches its warmest point, stripers are hitting in fits and spurts all day long. There is consistent catching at the historic spots along the main channel. At any time of day there will be active stripers biting in one of the following locations. The dam has striper schools moving in and out and along both canyon walls. Patience will be rewarded with a school of moving fish coming under your boat. They are not bashful about eating once they get in range. If your arrival at the dam is in between schools then try Buoy 1 at the intersection of Wahweap Creek and Main channel. From there the next stop is the mouth of Antelope canyon and the first corner inside the canyon. From there, move uplake past Antelope marina to the Power Plant Intake area where moving current attracts stripers. The intake is under the chain link fence on the canyon rim on the right hand side of the channel when headed upstream. Buoy 9, a bit further upstream marks a good rockslide and a cove that are very good striper holding spots. At any location lots of chumming with finely cut anchovies followed by a chunk of bait on a jig head, Carolina rig, or with no weight at all will entice hungry stripers into your boat. My favorite fishing strategy this week is to fish the backs of the canyons for whatever I can catch. Use a tube, grub or jerk bait to fish the shore and rock structure for whatever bites. Bass, stripers, walleye, crappie and sunfish will be encountered along the way. I have small baits for panfish and big baits for stripers and bass all hooked up and ready on a variety of rods. When a pod of active fish is detected just pick up the correct rod and catch fish. It is exciting fishing. I prefer Rock Creek and Last Chance for fast fishing in the spring. |