| LAKE POWELL FISH REPORT May 26, 2005 By Wayne Gustaveson Lake Elevation: 3577 and rising Water Temp: 70 - 75 F |
| Lake Powell is expected to rise over 6 feet over the Memorial Day weekend. Expect record runoff of 18 inches a day flooding in from all tributaries. Use caution when camping. Boats securely moored at night may be floating free by morning. Houseboat lines will have to be readjusted in the middle of the night. Do not leave tents and camps near the water edge. Lake Powell is filling once more! Summer heat melted the snow and caused a quick rise in lake surface temperature. On top of all that there is a bright full moon. Fish just have to be twitterpated with all the rapid changes. Bass are done spawning. Shad are frolicking around floating driftwood in the backs of canyons where they spawn at dawn each morning. Stripers are thinking about spawning. The fishing front is basically just plain CHAOS. Despite all this, fish can still be caught. Striped bass are active at night during the spawning season. Find a spawning school tearing up the surface near shore at dusk and they can be caught on any lure. Just get it close and they will eat it. I prefer a one-hook system after dark for safety. Try a big white jig. During the day stripers will be almost dormant. Dropping anchovies on resting schools is the best technique. Use copious amounts of chum on a regular basis to attract attention and wake the school for a noon feeding. Striper activity will increase later in the day. Deep trolling works early and late. The key is to find a resting school and then get the lure in range with downriggers or by using big diving plugs. Two big stripers, 10 and 17 pounds, were caught in Bullfrog Bay by anglers using a 1-ounce weight in front of a deep Thunderstick trolling lure. The lure was allowed to sink to the bottom on slack line. Then the boat was put in motion and the lure trolled from the bottom through the water column. The rising lure was effective for big fish where normal flat trolled lures were ignored. Smallmouth bass are very cooperative in one specific habitat. Reefs and shoals near the main channel or bay have not been impacted as dramatically by rising water as coves on the shore and in the backs of canyons. Bass have moved toward the channel. They are not in shallow water in the back of the canyon. Smallmouth are willing to hit plastic tubes and grubs in deep water surrounding open water structure. The best presentation is a short drop-shot rig with the weight on the bottom and bait up the line 6-10 inches. Toss the drop shot rig into deep water near a barely visible rock or shoal. Let it hit bottom and then wiggle the bait with gentle movements to attract attention. Green or white are preferred colors. Walleye are being caught very early in the mornings on night crawler harnesses fished patiently along the bottom in 15-30 feet of water. Fish before dawn till 9 AM to get a limit of 10 walleye. Crappie fishing is sporadic and mostly over for the year. Bluegill fishing will get better in June during the spawn. Catfish are starting to prowl the shallows and will be caught with regularity after the fast water level increase subsides. Be Safe and Enjoy the Holiday weekend on Lake Powell. |
| LAKE POWELL FISH REPORT May 19, 2005 By Wayne Gustaveson Lake Elevation: 3570 Water Temp: 62 - 70 F |
| Lake Powell has risen 15 feet this spring. Launch ramps are open and operating. Now the first hot ambient temperatures of the year will bring some big changes to fish behavior. Bass have spawned twice already but this warming will mark the final spawn of the season. The weather has been so unsettled that bass are in various stages of prespawn, postspawn, and actual spawning. That means they can be deep, shallow, or any place in between. The good news is that they can be caught just about anywhere on any lure. Little smallmouth bass are in shallows and big ones are a bit deeper. Expect good bass catching to continue for at least another two weeks. Just remember to fish the deeper structure. The water has come up over 3 feet this week. The shoreline may have been dry land only yesterday so fish places that have been wet for at least a week for best results. While soft plastic tubes and grubs may be the best all-around bass lures it is possible to catch them on virtually any lure that can be fished close to rocky structure. Bass fishing is pretty darn good right now. If they don’t bite in one spot try the next cove or point until they are found. Do not spend time fishing unproductive water. Keep moving. Stripers are impatiently waiting for hot weather to trigger spawning. Ripe males are on deep long points near the mouth of canyons. Small groups of females are in the backs of canyons looking for shad or on rocky points dredging up crayfish. The only schooling action may be when stripers chase shad in shallow murky water (less than 10 feet) near the backs of canyons. Stripers are scattered, making trolling the most consistent technique of covering a lot of water and presenting the lure to the most fish. Lures that run 12-25 feet deep are the most successful for males holding off long points and for females on the ends of rocky bluffs. Lipless vibrators (rattletraps) are good shallow water trollers for shad-chasing stripers found in shallow water in the backs of canyons and coves. Trolling the shoreline contour along the 20-40 foot strata is the most effective pattern and much better than trolling in a straight line across the bay. Trolling works best early and late. When that bite slows down use anchovies in areas where stripers were caught earlier. During the next week or two warm temperatures will trigger the striper spawn. Scattered stripers will then gather in large congregations in selected coves in each canyon and spawn on the water surface at dusk. When the sun dips below the canyon rim start trolling points and look for a congregation of ripe males. Rolling and splashing of a large group of 6-10 pound stripers is hard to miss. Find a striper-spawning cove to live the fishing trip that dreams are made of. Every cast will produce an adult fish from 4 pounds 50 pounds. The action is mainly after dark so it is necessary to be prepared to fish at night along a familiar shoreline to prevent accidents. Get familiar with the shoreline and then go back after dark to see if the big females have come in. It may be best to camp on shore near the congregation of males if possible. Use a single hook to make quick work of removing the hook after dark. I prefer a 1-ounce bucktail jig with a chartreuse plastic grub trailer. This lure has the versatility to fish deep or shallow and at varying rates of speed. It can be presented to stripers at any depth and will seldom tangle in the dark of night. Walleye are active at night along the rocky shoreline and can be caught while searching for spawning stripers. Troll shallow crankbaits or drag grubs along the bottom for a bonus walleye. This looks to be a good week for fishing. I am excited about it. |
| LAKE POWELL FISH REPORT May 12, 2005 By Wayne Gustaveson Lake Elevation: 3566 Water Temp: 59 - 68 F |
| The big spring flood has opened up boating access with at least one flooded concrete ramp at each marina. It must be spring. Daily temperature fluctuates from cold to hot and back to cold. Fish are confused with vacillating temps, rapidly rising water and spawning that is interrupted or placed on hold. When so many variables are tugging in different directions the only logical course of action is to hunker down. Fish will be deep but anxious to bite when the opportunity comes their way. Rapidly rising water and spring winds have reduced water clarity. There is lots of colored water, which warms quickly and concentrates fish in warm spots. Expect fish to be congregated in the backs of canyons and coves where bottom depth is 20-30 feet. Fishing in May is neat because many different species can be caught along the same shoreline with the same lure. Find the gathering spot and fishing success will follow. Start fishing at the back of the canyon. On warm days shad will spawn along the shoreline at morning’s first light which excites all predators. Cranks, jerks, white-colored soft plastic grubs and tubes, and spinner baits will entice game fish looking for shad. It may be necessary to fish the entire shoreline to find the hot spot. I tend to hop from point to point to hasten my search. When fish are caught there should be many in the same location. After shad quit spawning each morning game fish retreat to the depths. They often lurk near shad schools trying to keep them pinned in one spot. After the sun is on the water fish 20-30 feet deep. On cold days fish slowly, allowing ample opportunity for the lethargic fish to decide to eat. As the water warms fish get more active and come shallower. Warm afternoons may be the best time to fish on any spring day. Bass will be on rocky nest structure that is at least 10 feet deep. Sight-fishing for spawners is not likely. Bluegill and crappie will be around flooded brush, tumbleweed piles and mats of driftwood. Use tiny plastic grubs (1/16th ounce lead head) or beetlespins around brush piles for pan fish. Walleye will be under suspended clay trailing off a windblown shore or washed by boat wakes or wave action. Catfish will be prowling the bottom under all the other fish looking for an easy meal. Striped bass are still waiting to spawn and being kept at bay by cold spring weather. Many have moved to current and are traveling the main channel. This situation lends itself well to fishing bait. Anchovy fishing at the dam and many other historical spring gathering spots will be effective through May or until spawning occurs. If fishing is slow try using a whole anchovy on a bait hook with no weight. Cast the bait as far as possible and let it slowly settle back to the boat. When the bait settles under the boat, reel in slowly and then cast again. Never stop the bait moving. The slow swimming speed will attract stripers that might ignore non-moving suspended bait. Slow tolling with an anchovy harness may be the best technique to try under these conditions. If the water warms rapidly this weekend the long awaited striper spawn will likely occur. Troll across long prominent points at dusk. If stripers are caught stay near that spot until dark casting 1-ounce bucktail jigs with chartreuse grub trailers for a boatload of action. |
| LAKE POWELL FISH REPORT May 5, 2005 By Wayne Gustaveson Lake Elevation: 3564 Water Temp: 58 - 65 F |
Bass fishing is the best bet. Old nests from the first spawn in April are now 8 feet deeper due to rising lake levels. Fishing the shallow shoreline is not as productive as dropping a plastic tube or grub over the first ledge and letting it fall 5-15 feet. Bass are close to the deepwater edge of shallow rocky structure where nests are built. On a warm afternoon or when the wind blows they will come back on top of the rock. When the water cools due to wind or evening temperatures they drop back into deeper water.
For best results in cool weather use small baits like Berkeley power grubs, or tiny Yamamoto grubs on eighth-ounce jig heads. Toss the jig near brush or debris and let it slowly settle around limbs and branches. Find a patch of floating driftwood and debris and poke the jig under the floating mat to find fish using the floating cover for a hiding spot. When the temperature rises in the afternoon use larger baits and retrieve more quickly to catch fish. Matching the mood of the fish is important to success. Find the right speed and color to enhance the catch. When it quits working then change one of the variables until fish start to bite once more. Another great technique is to use suspending jerk baits. When water is cold, pause as long as 5-10 seconds between jerks.
These bass fishing techniques will catch many different kinds of fish during May. Expect crappie, bluegill, walleye, green sunfish, catfish and carp to be caught on the same bait in the same cove.
Striped bass are off feed now waiting to spawn. They have not quit feeding, just relaxed the relentless pursuit of shad. Being the biggest fish in town causes baitfish to run away from striper spawning concentrations. Stripers are chasing each other instead of looking for food, which causes a separation between stripers and shad. Catching requires specific methods. Stripers will eat when a food item is placed in front of them. Trolling deep-running (25-40 feet) baits in the backs of canyons is still effective. Using fire tiger or baits with a fluorescent orange belly increases success when fish are lethargic. Stripers are moving in the main channel. Trolling the intersection of the main channel and canyon mouth is productive but not fast.
With stripers prowling and not chasing shad, fishing anchovies at 40-60 feet is a good bet. Stripers have recently been caught at the dam. It is reasonable to expect that historical anchovy fishing spots will be good as long as the cold weather persists. Try the dam, power plant intake, Halls and Moki walls for bait fishing.
Best striper fishing is in the southern half of Lake Powell. Wahweap to Rock Creek is best with stripers found recently in every canyon. Muddy water extends down to Tapestry Wall in the main channel. Fishing for most species is tough upstream from Bullfrog.
Warming will change fish location and fishing success. For this week, go small for bass and deep for stripers.