July 2006

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wayne gustaveson

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July 27, 2006
By Wayne Gustaveson
Lake Elevation: 3607
Water Temp: 82-86 F
Stripers are boiling at Hite !​
Young stripers are boiling near the inflowing waters of the Colorado and San Juan Rivers. The center of surface feeding activity is from Good Hope Bay to Hite in the Colorado Arm and from Neskahi Bay to the Great Bend in the San Juan. Boil action should remain strong for the next two weeks until nights get bright in mid August. Fish size is a factor. Unprecedented survival of striped bass last year created an excess of yearlings all competing for the new shad crop. Young stripers range from 8-15 inches. Although small in size, yearlings feed voraciously making the experience rewarding for anglers who prefer surface fishing. Boils last over an hour and catches of 30 or more fish are common. Yearlings are the highest quality table fare and are the preferred target for those harvesting fish to eat. Larger adults are catchable but are trapped in the cool water 30 feet down. When yearlings are surface feeding, larger stripers are cruising below waiting for injured shad to fall. If bigger fish are desired, find a boil and drop spoons below the surface feeding activity to catch stripers up to 6 pounds. It is possible to fish boils for a while and then drop spoons for a change of pace. Catching is quick for both techniques.Boils are occurring lakewide. Frequency and duration increase with proximity to the inflowing river water, but boils could happen anywhere. Schools of adult stripers are traveling main channel walls and are easy prey for bait fishermen. Find a prominent point extending into the main channel where the dominant habitat is sheer cliff walls. The sloping point draws stripers who probe the broken rock structure looking for crayfish. Anchovy bait is readily accepted by hungry adults who are separated from shad by the warm temperature barrier.Bass are feeding around boiling stripers and can be caught on surface lures and shallow running jerk baits immediately after the boil has subsided. When no boils are present, bass are consistently found at depths of 20-30 feet. Fish plastic crayfish imitating grubs and tubes on the breaking edge of rocky structure for best results. Open water or mid channel reefs are excellent smallmouth bass habitat. Use green and brown plastic to best imitate crayfish coloration.Bluegill are very active along the brushy shoreline. Larger sunfish are often at the magical 25 foot depth with bass. It is possible to find a school of bluegill while bass fishing and then increase the sunfish catch by using pieces of live worm on small hooks.Catfishing is good on sandy beaches in the evening and after dark.
July 20, 2006
By Wayne Gustaveson
Lake Elevation: 3608
Water Temp: 81--85 F
It’s summer at Lake Powell. The surface water temperature exceeds 80 degrees. That’s great for swimming and playing in the clean, clear water but few think about fishing in these warm conditions. But fish have to eat even when it’s warm. Striped bass are still very easy to catch by just finding the right location. Park on the right spot and the supply of hungry fish seems endless. The factors to consider include food and temperature. The warm surface layer in the 80’s cools quickly to the low 70s at the thermocline which is the boundary between warm and cold water in the stratified lake. Adult stripers live below the thermocline in the cool water they need for survival. The thermocline is found from 25-30 feet depending on lake location. The wise angler puts his bait or lure at 25 feet to present it to fish looking up to the warm surface layer where food fish live. Sunfish and shad are warm water tolerant and prefer the shallows where predators are scarce. Shad numbers are not as strong as last summer making it less profitable for bass and stripers to venture into the warm water to feed. They can and do feed shallow but with the present conditions those feeding opportunities are less. Surface action has slowed accordingly. There are very few boils or slurps occurring. The San Juan may be the only exception. Richard Wisely Party from Paradise Valley, AZ caught 40 stripers in short time in Wahweap Bay near the rockslide straight east of Antelope Point Ramp. With record numbers of bass and stripers still present in the lake the best strategy is to fish anchovy bait at 25-40 feet. The only food present where adult fish live is crayfish. Competition for the tasty crustaceans is intense so not all fish are fed daily. Stripers feed in schools and will be bunched near rocky structure at least 25 feet deep. That presents a problem since most of that structure is not visible to the boater scanning the surface. A graph is important in finding structure that drops quickly from 30 to 50 feet. Stripers and bass occupy these rocky trenches in open water. Put the bait right on the steep breaking edge for best results in finding feeding fish.Some of the best striper bait fishing spots include the dam, Navajo canyon, mouth of Warm Creek, Last Chance, and Rock Creek. Fish anchovies at the terminal end of prominent points at the intersection of the main channel and the adjoining canyon.
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Mid lake striper spots include main channel canyon walls at Halls, Moki, and Buoy 99 near Hansen Creek. We waved these unknown anglers over to fish with us. They had a good time.
Perhaps the best fishing experience now is had at night under lights. Temperature, traffic, and weather are better after dark and fishing is very good near marinas and in spots where stripers were caught during daylight.
July 13, 2006
By Wayne Gustaveson
Lake Elevation: 3609
Water Temp: 77-84 F
Shad are steadily moving from the backs of canyons to open bays to feed on abundant plankton in the open water. Shad are still tiny in most bays so the only attention comes from the smaller game fish. Yearling stripers are schooled and ready to feed on top. But shad numbers are not strong enough to allow unlimited feeding. The result is quick surface bursts usually lasting less than a minute. With such short duration it is difficult to get to the feeding fish before they go down. Luckily they come back up numerous times. With patience and good guessing on where to position the boat a good number of the 12-15 inch fish can be caught. The most consistent spot is buoy 113 in the main channel near Sevenmile Canyon. The San Juan is good one day and off the next. Stripers are feeding on small shad so small lures are required to get a strike. Most lures cast into the small boil will get hit the first time the fish see it. The second cast may be ignored entirely. It is more productive to seek new schools of fish often than to chase one school as long as possible. A better approach is to work a broad section of lake casting to many different schools. Return to the first school after half an hour and retrace the path finding each school once more. Good lure choices are clear top water baits with a feather on the rear hook. Sammies, Jumpin Minnows, Superspook Jrs, or small poppers fill the bill. Shallow runners like X-raps and Bevy Shad are excellent choices since fish are usually going down as the boat gets in casting range. Kastmasters and small Wallylure spoons are also effective. It is wise to have 3 rods rigged with these baits in case a striper school stays up for more than a minute. Put the first fish in the boat and cast another rod before unhooking the first fish to efficiently work the boil.On July 12, boils were scattered in Wahweap Bay from the south marina breakwater to Lone Rock. Best time of day was 7-9 AM and 6-8 PM. This same pattern will hold lakewide. Under full moon, early morning fishing is not as good as evening. Fish get more active as the day progresses and continue to feed in the moonlight. Night fishing is good under fish attracting lights.Stripers are still being caught on anchovy bait on the steep canyon walls lakewide. Fish at 30 feet or deeper for best success. Moki wall near Bullfrog is producing some good catches of stripers. Glen Canyon dam and the mouth of Warm Creek are still good in the southern lake. Bass are found in pockets of brush that contain shad or sunfish. Topwater baits work great when one of these hot pockets is discovered. Look for shad in the brush uplake and sunfish in the brush downlake to find a bass honey hole. Bass tend to be in brushy pockets close to the main channel rather than in the back of the canyon on the shallow floodplain. The brushy floodplains look better but fishing is better in the isolated pockets.Catfishing is excellent at dusk near your camp.
July 6, 2006
By Wayne Gustaveson
Lake Elevation: 3609
Water Temp: 77-83 F
Lake Powell registered a net lake elevation gain of 4-feet from 2005 to 2006. That’s perfect for fish. Brush growing along the shoreline was flooded to provide valuable fish habitat but it was not lost. Trees growing at an elevation of 3610-3615 will drink valuable moisture from the lake this summer and grow much taller. A similar 5-foot raise in lake elevation next year will cover healthy trees on the shoreline and provide even more fish habitat in the future. As the lake declines over summer annual plants will colonize the shoreline. Tumbleweeds will provide great winter habitat as they blow into the lake and collect in favored coves pushed by the prevailing wind.
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Rick Larsen shows off a smallmouth bass caught at the mouth of Last Chance.The most important cover is the aquatic weeds (spiny naiad) that have quickly sprouted as the lake flooded seeds dropped last year when the lake retreated. The small net gain in lake elevation means these weeds are growing in the depth zone where sunlight is still strong. These dense weed beds will provide habitat needed to protect and prolong the life of shad and sunfish which are the main forage in Lake Powell.Bass are living with sunfish and shad in those weed beds on flats 15-20 feet deep. Slowly swim a watermelon tube or grub through the weeds to find the larger predator sized bass. Smaller bass are on the rocky shoreline but the big ones are in “grass” and in submerged tumbleweed piles.There are a few slurp-boils in the northern lake but there is not much surface feeding going on south of Rainbow Bridge. Stripers are still waiting for shad along deep canyon walls on the cold side of the thermocline at 25 feet. Bait fishing is good just about any place there is a steep canyon wall and water depth is 25 to 40 feet. Long shallow flats are not good for stripers who must be close to food and cold water at the same time. Schools are stationary so 2 or 3 spots must be fished before the school is found. Once ignited the school keeps going as long as the anchovy chum keeps falling. Alternate between a chunk of bait with no weight when fish are shallow and a heavy jig head to get the bait down quickly when stripers are deep. These deep stripers in cool water are separated from shad, especially in the southern lake. They must be harvested to keep the entire population healthy. Fillet the fat ones and recycle the thin ones. Take lots of ice in the fish cooler to keep the good ones in prime condition until they can be filleted. Catfishing is great on sand beaches at night and any place anchovy chum has been deposited during the day. Sunfish are very abundant. Lack of shad in the southern lake allowed sunfish to survive in big numbers. Think green when choosing a color to fish with this summer.
 
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