First species you fished for at LP

Dworwood

Dworwood

Keeper of San Juan Secrets
A comment in another thread got me thinking about why I went fishing at Lake Powell for the first time? The comment by @JSJ1 mentioned trout as being the target fish in the beginning and that is what I remember hearing but the intrigue for us in the late 70's was the large mouth bass. It was the first place within our reach where we could target those fish. There was a lot of talk about Lees Ferry for big trout and Powell for big bass and we fished both of them. Water dogs were legal and it was a blast catching large mouth bass on them. There were no stripers or small mouth that I am aware of at the time in the North and I think we did catch a few trout but not many. Crappie were there and if you found them it was usually good sized fish and a lot of them. Stripers have taken the spot light and for good reason, lots of action and easy to catch for most people but LP has so much to offer with so many different kinds of fish.

SO THE QUESTION IS " WHAT WAS YOUR TARGET SPECIES THE FIRST TIME YOU FISHED LAKE POWELL" ?
I hope to hear some good fish tales. The year you started fishing there would be nice to know too. I know there are some old timers on here with some good stories to tell and I look forward to hearing some of them.
Thanks in advance!
Dave
 
As a kid in the 80's and 90's, I'd go down with my friends family and we would fish anchochovies on the bottom with special anchovy hooks for Stripers, and Uncle Josh's Pig n jig for Largemouth. Also whatevery you had handy for the catfsih. Such great memories. I took about a 25 year hiatus from the lake, and it's been such a blast in the past few years getting a boat and going down there and fishing/camping in the winter for Stripers. Lately we've been trying to get into the walleye more.
 
My first species were stripers and have stayed that way. There is no place on earth like Powell where you can easily find schools of 22-26 in stripers in the winter months. On good shad years those schools start pushing 24-28 footballs and who could ask for more other than the occasional double.
 
a couple of friends and i fished for large Rainbow Trout from shore in 1975 & 76.sometimes from the shore near a viewpoint north of wahweap.the best spot was off the pump out dock in midwinter at night.the dock had a street light on it and you could watch the big ones cruise in and check out your crawler with a small marsh mellow to lift it off the bottom.any noise or motion and they would spook.the best night's bag was 2 fish probably both 10 or 12 lb.a couple of nights we were skunked,but we would try again.one night Bob had one on that fought much different than the others and it wasn't until it was netted that we could see it was a Northern Pike.it was about the same size as the trout,maybe a little longer.had it measured the next morning 10.5 lbs.and 35"long,at the time the lake record.gave it to Stan at the lodge and he had it mounted and it
was displayed there for a few years.some of those nights were pretty chilly and it wasn't like you could do jumping jacks to keep warm!
 
Dworwood said:
A comment in another thread got me thinking about why I went fishing at Lake Powell for the first time? The comment by @JSJ1 mentioned trout as being the target fish in the beginning and that is what I remember hearing but the intrigue for us in the late 70's was the large mouth bass. It was the first place within our reach where we could target those fish. There was a lot of talk about Lees Ferry for big trout and Powell for big bass and we fished both of them. Water dogs were legal and it was a blast catching large mouth bass on them. There were no stripers or small mouth that I am aware of at the time in the North and I think we did catch a few trout but not many. Crappie were there and if you found them it was usually good sized fish and a lot of them. Stripers have taken the spot light and for good reason, lots of action and easy to catch for most people but LP has so much to offer with so many different kinds of fish.

SO THE QUESTION IS " WHAT WAS YOUR TARGET SPECIES THE FIRST TIME YOU FISHED LAKE POWELL" ?
I hope to hear some good fish tales. The year you started fishing there would be nice to know too. I know there are some old timers on here with some good stories to tell and I look forward to hearing some of them.
Thanks in advance!
Dave
Click to expand...
Our first trip to Powell was a rental houseboat in 1984. Three of us took our scuba gear and largemouth are very curious when you are under the surface with them. I'm hoping the statute of limitations is up because spearfishing for gamefish was not legal then but they were very tasty. Today it is topwater with a fly rod and several species like black dragon fly imitations.
 
Our family trips revolved around water sports so fishing was more a thing of opportunity off the back of the houseboat than actually “targeting” something.

We would catch whatever was biting. That usually meant dough balls for carp and small shiny hooks sometimes with worms for bluegill.

That evolved to trying to catch cat fish at night.

One fond memory was when all the guys went out in the boat to waterski and my sister stayed on the houseboat and fished.

When we got back every pole on the boat either had a fish on it or a tangle since she didn’t want to touch the fish and couldn’t get things untangled.
 
My first trip to Lake Powell occurred in 2016 with guide Bill McBurney. Bill certainly knew the lake. He asked me what fish I wanted to focus on. I told him Smallmouth. He laughed and said "Why would anyone want to catch a Smallmouth when they can catch a Striper?"...well, because I had never caught a Striper, that's why. But, I took his advice. He trolled at high speed while he looked for Stripers on a 4 inch screen. I was dubious but trusted his judgement. He casted out 5-6 inch plugs for trolling which surprised me. It was even more of a surprise that we caught several nice Smallmouth on those big plugs before we caught our first Stripers, also on those big plugs. But, he was also looking at that 4 inch screen constantly and I wondered why. But, he finally found what he was looking for, a school of Stripers. Yes, it looked to be a thousand fish. Bill proceeded to anchor against a wall outside of Rock Creek Canyon. My brother and I proceeded to catch 50 Stripers each. It was an awesome experience and hooked me on Striper fishing forever. Bill didn't give us his best equipment on purpose. I asked him why. He told me that he only gives out his best equipment to clients on their second trip. OK, fair enough. Since that trip, I've personally caught thousands of Stripers at Lake Powell and that's no exaggeration. I've released 95% of them. I only keep what we can eat in a meal. I don't ascribe to wantonly killing Stripers to keep the population down. I learned from Bill early on to hunt Stripers. I did it initially trolling but now I use electronics to hunt them. I might spend hours without a fish or bite, but eventually, I find them every time, and ultimately have great success. Lake Powell is an existentialistic experience, not just for the fishing, but for the sheer immersion in a natural environment that you can't experience anywhere else. You all know what I'm talking about...:)
 
I think it was '74 or '75 when we were camped in Bullfrog and went to the marina (I was 14 or 15). I saw a plastic unrigged lizard fishing lure for sale that we thought would work because there were so many lizards on the rocks around the lake. We bought several of the lizards and took them across from the marina towards what would later become a pass through between Bullfrog Bay and Halls Creek Bay. We motored our wooden boat with a 35hp Johnson up in a crevice in the sandstone south of the pass and dropped the lizards down with a hook and a weight. The wind slowly pushed us out of the crevice and on several passes we caught many huge largemouth bass and crappie. Several of the largemouth were over 5 pounds and a few of the crappie are still the biggest I've ever seen in person.
 
These stories bring back memories from days long gone but the memories stay with us, at least we hope they do!
Thanks to you who have responded. The big LM are what I remember about those early trips, the remoteness, lack of services and no one else fishing! The scary trips up the canyons without modern mapping added to the excitement! So many close calls with whales and the unknown. Those who experienced those days know what I’m talking about.
 
Late 60’s, dam, no chain then, 8pm, dam starts making power, 60’ down with corn, might be 10 boats, all rods bend, unlimited fishing for hours, 10 2# rainbows, limit at that time. All out of a 12 foot Sears boat with 7.5 hp Elgine motor. Simplicity at its best.
Lots of “big large mouths up lake on water dogs”
 
Neil said:
Late 60’s, dam, no chain then, 8pm, dam starts making power, 60’ down with corn, might be 10 boats, all rods bend, unlimited fishing for hours, 10 2# rainbows, limit at that time. All out of a 12 foot Sears boat with 7.5 hp Elgine motor. Simplicity at its best.
Lots of “big large mouths up lake on water dogs”
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Wow Neil, great post & nostalgia! Couple O' questions.....when did you start going to the lake?.....and how long were limits in place? Assume the limits were there to allow the fish to get to a sustainable 'occupancy'? :unsure:

Of course had to find this...... :love: :love:

Screen Shot 2026-09-15 at 6.46.14 AM.png
 
Dworwood said:
These stories bring back memories from days long gone but the memories stay with us, at least we hope they do!
Thanks to you who have responded. The big LM are what I remember about those early trips, the remoteness, lack of services and no one else fishing! The scary trips up the canyons without modern mapping added to the excitement! So many close calls with whales and the unknown. Those who experienced those days know what I’m talking about.
Click to expand...
Hell yeah I rememeber this, there wasnt much for sonar and no GPS, so my buddys dad would put me and my buddy on the bow of thier 26foot Four Winns and WE were the sonar and GPS looking for rocks! I will never forget that.
 
Cookie said:
I was a kid, I targeted whatever would take my piece of Cheese. I caught trout, bluegill and catfish, this was in the mid 1980's.

Fast forward to today, mostly Striper
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Good job Dave, you’ve really opened up the proverbial can of worms with that question. First trip was in “82” and went to Iceberg for the week courtesy of Schindler Elevator in Denver. Employee trip but the boss was my buddy. Caught crappie in the trees below the landlocked lake, had a blast until we ran out of 40 cases of beer. Didn’t want 3.2 in Utah so we made the trip to Wahweap, yes from Iceberg, for real beer at $24.00/case. I’m now here for my first trip with my boat since I broke my leg in Feb. and realized just how much I missed this place. I’ll be back in 2 or 3 weeks with Goldie and then it hunting season. I’ll be BACK. Sq. P.S. It pisses me off that they turned off the water to the trees in “B” loop to conserve water, they won’t make it thru the winter. Rant over
 
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