Harvesting SMB
- Thread starter JeffK
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Keith Stockman
Well-Known Member
Still trying to get "programmed" to kill and eat any kind of bass (other than stripers, of course), but learning to like the 10-13 SMB. Besides, it leaves more room to bring walleyes home.
RandyAustinFishing
Well-Known Member
Whatever....I know it matters. I hope we all catch the smallie of a lifetime someday. 
Powell should be able to produce more 5#s. Big smallie lives matter.
Powell should be able to produce more 5#s. Big smallie lives matter.
Meatwagon
Keeper of San Juan Secrets
Gobies, the more plentiful the food source the bigger the fish. The over abundance of smallies, walleye and stripers desemate the shad most years. I imagine that's why you don't see a lot of 6lb walleye and 20lb stripers either. I don't know if Gobies would be good for Powell though, and I am glad we have Wayne to make those decisions for us. Save some shad,keep all stripers, walleye and a limit of smallies every trip to the lake and maybe someday we will see larger average size fish.Whatever....I know it matters. I hope we all catch the smallie of a lifetime someday.
They would if they could catch them. The smaller SMB keep close to the rocky shore line and stripers roam the open waters.
The world record for SMB is 11 pounds 15 ounces - Dale Hollow Reservoir Tennessee. That being said, Lake Powell should be able to get pretty close to that. If we are going to get there, we are going to have to keep more fish. SMB and especially Stripers. Lake Powell is a great Fishery with a lot of potential. The growth of sport fish depends on the amount of forage/feed available. The forage depends on shad and crawfish hatches - water levels - fishing pressure - winter kill of forage/shad - thinning of the fish population through fishing and removing the excess fish, and other things. The only one of these we have any control over is harvesting the excess fish. It's like pruning a peach tree. If you have a peach tree you have a choice. If you prune it properly you'll get lots of nice big peaches. If you don't prune it you'll get 3 to 4 times the peaches they will just be much smaller..
PBH
Well-Known Member
Good analogy. Fisheries managers have the same decisions to make with fisheries. A fishery is basically a bucket. When filling the bucket with marbles, you have to make a decision of what size marbles you want to put in the bucket. You can have a bucket full of a lot of small marbles, a mix of small marbles, medium marbles, and some big marbles, or a few big marbles.
The important thing to remember is that once the bucket is full, you can't just add more to it. Often times we hear anglers wish to simply "add more forage". That would be great, if the bucket wasn't already full. Sometimes you have to remove some fish before you can add more forage. You can't just add more if the bucket is full.
fisheries managers have a delicate balance that they must attempt to control, depending on what anglers desires are: lots of fish vs. quality (big) fish.
The challenge with Lake Powell is that it is a VERY LARGE bucket. So as much as managers might attempt to manipulate different variables, sometimes they really have no control at all.
Managers have 4 tools available to them to manage a fishery:
1 -- rules and regulations
2 -- public relations and education
3 -- fish stocking / fish removal
4 -- habitat improvement
We see nearly each of these in play at Lake Powell. Limits on specific species (1) tie directly with fish removal (3), along with Wayne's website and continued education (2) on how to catch, keep, filet, cook, etc. stripers, walleye, and other species swimming in Powell. Habitat manipulation (4) is a pretty difficult task at Powell. How do you manipulate spawning habitat in a lake that covers 250 square miles and contains over a dozen different species of fish spawning at different times under different circumstances with ever changing water levels? You can't. So you rely on tools 1 - 3 and hope you can make a difference.
That's where education / public relations comes in to play -- and where Wayne shines as a biologist. His progress educating anglers, specifically about stripers, has been phenomenal! His website contains a plethora of information where anglers can learn and better understand the what's, why's, and how's of fish in Lake Powell. Now it's up to us to decide what we do with that information.
Edward Gerdemann
Well-Known Member
I've always suspected there are more big smallmouth in Powell than fishing success would indicate. My theory is the biggest bass spend most of their time in very deep water - 40, 50 and maybe even 70 feet (i've caught smallmouths at 70 plus feet jigging for stripers). My guess is the big boys are mostly nocturnal. I'm not aware of anyone who night fishes for smallmouths at Powell, but I suspect if people who know what they're doing tried it they'd catch more big smallmouth than are commonly caught during the day. I also suspect the biggest smallmouth mostly eat crayfish because they can get a lot more nutrition for energy expended than when chasing shad. I believe if one fished at night with heavy jigs that make a lot of noise on the rocks he or she would catch some very big smallies! 
Ed Gerdemann
Ed Gerdemann
RandyAustinFishing
Well-Known Member
I've always suspected there are more big smallmouth in Powell than fishing success would indicate. My theory is the biggest bass spend most of their time in very deep water - 40, 50 and maybe even 70 feet (i've caught smallmouths at 70 plus feet jigging for stripers). My guess is the big boys are mostly nocturnal. I'm not aware of anyone who night fishes for smallmouths at Powell, but I suspect if people who know what they're doing tried it they'd catch more big smallmouth than are commonly caught during the day. I also suspect the biggest smallmouth mostly eat crayfish because they can get a lot more nutrition for energy expended than when chasing shad. I believe if one fished at night with heavy jigs that make a lot of noise on the rocks he or she would catch some very big smallies!
Ed Gerdemann
Yep Ed, I think you are right on with the deep jig theory. Not sure about the night time smallie bite, they are very visual predators. With the warming water they will slip off deep but come back up in the evening and morning or when cloudy. I agree there has gotta be some bigger fish lurking down there, but with so many of the smaller fish, they get your bait before the big girls. I did get quite a few nice 17 and 18" fish last year in April and November. If you ever go out at night for smallies I would be interested in a report never tried for smallies at night. Hope you get a big one!
KYKevin
Keeper of San Juan Secrets
Night fishing for Bass is great, my dad would start Bass fishing in the summer an hour before dark, and would worm fish or Rapala until dark. Then he would get the JItterbug going and fish it until 2 or 3 in the mourning. You never forget the sound of a 6 lb bass crushing that JItterbug. When it is dark, your hearing go's way up. I've done a lot of night fishing at Powell, but it's usually for Striper, but I believe Powell is under fished at night for Largemouth and Smallmouth bass, It's just much easier in the day time.I've always suspected there are more big smallmouth in Powell than fishing success would indicate. My theory is the biggest bass spend most of their time in very deep water - 40, 50 and maybe even 70 feet (i've caught smallmouths at 70 plus feet jigging for stripers). My guess is the big boys are mostly nocturnal. I'm not aware of anyone who night fishes for smallmouths at Powell, but I suspect if people who know what they're doing tried it they'd catch more big smallmouth than are commonly caught during the day. I also suspect the biggest smallmouth mostly eat crayfish because they can get a lot more nutrition for energy expended than when chasing shad. I believe if one fished at night with heavy jigs that make a lot of noise on the rocks he or she would catch some very big smallies!
Ed Gerdemann
Coho975
Well-Known Member
The last few years we've been down, we have spearfished on the windy days (not for bass, as we go in May). Our non scientific observation has been that there are some nice SMB and LMB in LP. We've seen a lot of LMB over 5#, lots of nice smallies too, though none that would approach 5#. The bigger fish we've seen are always deep, >25 FOW. There will be a layer of smaller fish, and 10' or so below them will be the larger ones, of course they are not as dense. I think if your casting close to shore, many times you just cant get through the little ones. We've witnessed this with crappie, perch, and kokanee as well. If I were targeting them I'd go at least 1/2 oz jig and cast to 25 FOW and go deeper from there. My .02I've always suspected there are more big smallmouth in Powell than fishing success would indicate. My theory is the biggest bass spend most of their time in very deep water - 40, 50 and maybe even 70 feet (i've caught smallmouths at 70 plus feet jigging for stripers). My guess is the big boys are mostly nocturnal. I'm not aware of anyone who night fishes for smallmouths at Powell, but I suspect if people who know what they're doing tried it they'd catch more big smallmouth than are commonly caught during the day. I also suspect the biggest smallmouth mostly eat crayfish because they can get a lot more nutrition for energy expended than when chasing shad. I believe if one fished at night with heavy jigs that make a lot of noise on the rocks he or she would catch some very big smallies!
Ed Gerdemann
FlyRamsey7
Active Member
Amen! Let the 14"+grow!
Dungee
Keeper of San Juan Secrets
Not just at night but the evenings as well. Even Saturday night, in plum full good hope it was deathly still from about 7-dark. We were one of the only boats outs fishing during that time period, caught a lot of nice fish on top.
coachk
Active Member
That surprises me some but I guess if I think about it, Austin and I are usually alone out on the lake till dark as well. Some of our best fishing has come the last hour up to pitch black out.
Scheadhunter
Active Member
Navigating on the big lake at night is very sketchy. This last trip we were coming back into camp before it was dark or we would fish close to camp for that last hour.
coachk
Active Member
Yep that is us as well.
Watty33
Well-Known Member
I tried night fishing for bass last June and got skunked. Was really surprised. But will try again this year and go back to old school Carolina rig and rubber worm under black lights instead of throwing daytime baits.
Yearly houseboat trip coming up mid June and I'll be harvesting as recommend.
Yearly houseboat trip coming up mid June and I'll be harvesting as recommend.
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