Water temperature dropped to 52 today with cold weather in Page. That is just about normal for this time of year. It may drop down to 48 F if the cold weather continues for the rest of December. Regardless, 48-52 on the surface does not have any impact on the striper population. They are in DEEP water.
We fished Warm Creek on Tuesday. On the way back to the main arm I noticed my school of over 100 grebes out in deep water. In my last report, I said to watch for grebes to find stripers and shad. So we stopped, saw a line of fish on the bottom and dropped spoons. It took a long time for our 1.5 ounce spoons to get to the bottom in 130 feet of water. (If I had it to do over again, I would have used a bigger 2 ounce or larger spoon). I felt a bit lost with my spoon on the bottom and the fish school separated from the bottom by 10, 20 or 40 feet. I let the spoon hit bottom to get my bearings and then speed reeled up to different depths and then jigged the spoon again. After about 15-20 minutes of spooning I caught fat striper just as I paused speed reeling. It was another fat 3 pound fish. After 15 more minutes my fishing partner caught a nice 4 pound fish. Our third partner tried anchovies but I am not sure the chum ever reached bottom at that depth and no fish took interest in his bait on the bottom.
This fishing was too slow so we went to the back of the canyon where small stripers were active last week. We trolled in 20-40 foot without any sign of fish on the graph. Then we went to 70 feet and saw a few shad schools but no obvious stripers. No luck trolling or spooning. The next stop was back at the grebe congregation. I caught one more 3-pound fish on a deep spoon. Fishing was slow.
We will try again after Christmas and report when stripers become active again. I guess I should feel better knowing the stripers I caught were in the deepest water I have ever fished in Lake Powell. My previous deepest catch was at 100 feet.
We fished Warm Creek on Tuesday. On the way back to the main arm I noticed my school of over 100 grebes out in deep water. In my last report, I said to watch for grebes to find stripers and shad. So we stopped, saw a line of fish on the bottom and dropped spoons. It took a long time for our 1.5 ounce spoons to get to the bottom in 130 feet of water. (If I had it to do over again, I would have used a bigger 2 ounce or larger spoon). I felt a bit lost with my spoon on the bottom and the fish school separated from the bottom by 10, 20 or 40 feet. I let the spoon hit bottom to get my bearings and then speed reeled up to different depths and then jigged the spoon again. After about 15-20 minutes of spooning I caught fat striper just as I paused speed reeling. It was another fat 3 pound fish. After 15 more minutes my fishing partner caught a nice 4 pound fish. Our third partner tried anchovies but I am not sure the chum ever reached bottom at that depth and no fish took interest in his bait on the bottom.
This fishing was too slow so we went to the back of the canyon where small stripers were active last week. We trolled in 20-40 foot without any sign of fish on the graph. Then we went to 70 feet and saw a few shad schools but no obvious stripers. No luck trolling or spooning. The next stop was back at the grebe congregation. I caught one more 3-pound fish on a deep spoon. Fishing was slow.
We will try again after Christmas and report when stripers become active again. I guess I should feel better knowing the stripers I caught were in the deepest water I have ever fished in Lake Powell. My previous deepest catch was at 100 feet.
