Lake Powell - Photos from the Early Years
- Thread starter JFRCalifornia
- Start date
Mildog
Well-Known Member
This was one of the first trips we targeted walleye, got quite a few!
Lost of nice LMB, pre SMB.
Also this striper was the first striper I ever caught, it was a month or so later that spring. I got into a school upstream of the dirty devil bridge a ways, I caught about 15 in a row my
Buddy couldnāt catch one to save his life that day lol
This was before stripers were commonly caught (it was spring of 1979) I knew Don Andriano Utah fisheries chief at the time, he came in the store a bit and also hunted at same duck club I hunted. He was surprised and said that there should not be stripers of thst size up there, or something to that effect . I had to show him pictures when I got them developed (lol) to get him to believe me!
For the younger crowd we used to use a camera and film not phone!
@waynegustaveson could add to this, but from his book Don was skeptical that the stripers would spawn in great numbers or be that successful. Wayne had to show him first hand.
From my knowledge Don was a ātroutā guy.
Great memories! My long lost photo album was located as well as a box of photos, so Iāve been going through them, plan to put them into albums where they will be seen instead of ālost ā in a box
@wayne gustaveson
Attachments
Last edited:
Dungee
Keeper of San Juan Secrets
This was one of the first trips we targeted walleye, got quite a few!
Lost of nice LMB, pre SMB.
Also this striper was the first striper I ever caught, it was a month or so later that spring. I got into a school upstream of the dirty devil bridge a ways, I caught about 15 in a row my
Buddy couldnāt catch one to save his life that day lol
This was before stripers were commonly caught (it was spring of 1979) I knew Don Andriano Utah fisheries chief at the time, he came in the store a bit and also hunted at same duck club I hunted. He was surprised and said that there should not be stripers of thst size up there, or something to that effect . I had to show him pictures when I got them developed (lol) to get him to believe me!
For the younger crowd we used to use a camera and film not phone!
@waynegustaveson could add to this, but from his book Don was skeptical that the stripers would spawn in great numbers or be that successful. Don had to show him first hand.
From my knowledge Don was a ātroutā guy.
Great memories! My long lost photo album was located as well as a box of photos, so Iāve been going through them, plan to put them into albums where they will be seen instead of ālost ā in a box
Canāt believe you caught all those without side imaging @Mildog
Mildog
Well-Known Member
Crazy the āprimitiveā fish finders we had if we even had one on some trips!! And we still caught fish!! Lots of them!!
Hereās and interesting tidbit from that trip. We were doing a lot of vertical spooning with Kastmasters targeting walleye and LMB and action was good. Mostly 25 to 40 feet deep got a walleye as I recall at 50. We also accidentally got quite a few carp and even saw carp feeding on shad. They would follow the school and pick one off every now and then. Water was cold and the shad were very lethargic and I think some were even dying due to cold water temps. Might have been one reason spooning was so good then. ( it still works today) just not many try it. Well back to the fish finders, might have been a flasher I was getting some marks off a ledge in one area 90 feet deep.
I dropped my spoon down, I could barely feel it at that depth after a few minutes I got a take and reeled in a crappie!! Only crappie of the trip and the deepest Iāve ever caught crappie!! We kept trying for ever nothing more! Iāve caught stripers that deep on a spoon, but not
Much else that deep at Powell.
Iāve always thought crappie go deep most of the year and we catch them when they move up in the spring and again in the fall in the magic 60-70 degree temp range.
Fun memories!
Great Lake!!
Hereās and interesting tidbit from that trip. We were doing a lot of vertical spooning with Kastmasters targeting walleye and LMB and action was good. Mostly 25 to 40 feet deep got a walleye as I recall at 50. We also accidentally got quite a few carp and even saw carp feeding on shad. They would follow the school and pick one off every now and then. Water was cold and the shad were very lethargic and I think some were even dying due to cold water temps. Might have been one reason spooning was so good then. ( it still works today) just not many try it. Well back to the fish finders, might have been a flasher I was getting some marks off a ledge in one area 90 feet deep.
I dropped my spoon down, I could barely feel it at that depth after a few minutes I got a take and reeled in a crappie!! Only crappie of the trip and the deepest Iāve ever caught crappie!! We kept trying for ever nothing more! Iāve caught stripers that deep on a spoon, but not
Much else that deep at Powell.
Iāve always thought crappie go deep most of the year and we catch them when they move up in the spring and again in the fall in the magic 60-70 degree temp range.
Fun memories!
Great Lake!!
Last edited:
thebigcanoe
Well-Known Member
JFRCalifornia
Keeper of San Juan Secrets
Here's an aerial of Rainbow Bridge taken in summer 1980 when Lake Powell first reached full pool... This appeared in the December 1980 issue of National Geographic.
Rainbowbridge
Keeper of San Juan Secrets
Is it just moi, or doesn't she look better with water under her?
What do you folks think?
What do you folks think?
Bill Sampson
Keeper of San Juan Secrets
Definitely better with water under it.Is it just moi, or doesn't she look better with water under her?
What do you folks think?
Marina Bum
Escalante-Class Member
Thanks JFR, cool pic. What is the white manmade thing behind it? It looks like a boat wreck if I zoom in?
Rainbowbridge
Keeper of San Juan Secrets
Yup, was there also and you're right, we never thought it could/wouldWe were there the day it hit the full pool mark. Not an easy trip to forget. It was around my birthday and I got bit by a rattle snake, luckily it was a dry bite.
We just assumed that once the lake hit full pool it always be close to that elevation.
go where it has.Glad you were ok after your bite. I was bit by a rattlesnake too......so I divorced her.......
What fangs!
Jan Hertzen
Well-Known Member
I was there in '79 when it was almost full.
Trix
Keeper of San Juan Secrets
There are 110 year old cots back there somewhere, remains of the Teddy Roosevelt visit. We hiked back there many years ago. I doubt the structures sort of reflecting in the aerial shot are that debris, but maybe.
JFRCalifornia
Keeper of San Juan Secrets
Here's Dungeon Canyon in the summer of 1963, before the canyon completely filled with the rising water of Lake Powell... At that point, it still looked like a Dungeon...
JFRCalifornia
Keeper of San Juan Secrets
This is the new bridge across Glen Canyon, under construction in 1958ā¦
Marina Bum
Escalante-Class Member
To me that's looking South from where about the Dam is now, Page to your left and the visitors center up on the rim to the right. Cool picture
Marina Bum
Escalante-Class Member
If you zoom in and look right in the center of the canyon wall below the arch you can see the hole for the construction tunnel where they pushed a lot of the tailings out as the dug, fresh tailings below.
Last edited:
JFRCalifornia
Keeper of San Juan Secrets
Here's Gregory Natural Bridge in Fiftymile Canyon, taken August 6, 1964. The lake level at the time was 3487, about 90 feet lower than today, and maybe a little over 30 feet lower than its lowest point from a couple of years ago.
Last edited:
Rainbowbridge
Keeper of San Juan Secrets
So Cool that pic is in color.....thanks JFR, for postin'..... 
JFRCalifornia
Keeper of San Juan Secrets
This is the mouth of Halls Creek in 1962, looking downstream along the Colorado River, about a year before Lake Powell began to fill...
