Need Fishing reports

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wayne gustaveson

wayne gustaveson

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This weekend is different from last week. Fishing results are changing. Please send me your fish reports if you were able to get on the lake. Did anyone catch walleye? Where did you find striper schools? Any stripers eating bait in the normal spots. Are catfish more numerous this year than last year? Are smallmouth numbers holding up?

You can easily post your own fish report by signing in to post reports and pictures. If you would rather just email your reports and pictures to me at waynegustaveson@utah.gov Thank You WG
 
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Hi Wayne. My 84 yr old Dad and left Antelope at 11 on Friday. Fished 5 hours on west side of Padre Bay gun site and cookie jar. He started with a watermelon hula grub. I started with a Ned rig Z man hot snake color. We boated over 50 fish. This by far is the best class of 1.5 -2 lb smb we have ever seen. Very few 1/2 lb fish . Fish were 5-20 ft deep. Great day. 2 lmb. Rest were smb.

Saturday We left Antelope at 7. Ran up to just below and above rock creek and fished the rocks for 6 hours of the best day ever. We only moved four times. I caught my largest smb 3.4 lb. Dad caught two lmb at 2.8 and 2.9 lbs. we boated over 100 fish! It was the best day either of us have had on LP. Both used Z man Ned rigs in various colors. It didn't matter. 1/10 and 1/8 jig heads. Both of us used 8 lb Floro line. We had multiple times a fish was on then another one or two would follow. We would drop down by the boat and hook the other fish. Too many double hook ups to count. Fish size was impressive again. We ended up catching 10-12 lmb. 1 walleye. Rest were smb. Trying to figure how soon we can get back.
 
Greetings Wayne, sent you an email with my son Marks(10) on LMB, he wanted it posted on the forum but did not know how.
We fished on friday and half day on saturday, launching from the Bullfrog ramp.

Friday we stopped in a couple of coves about two miles north of Moki, one on the west side, and one on the east. Plentiful of rock piles were visible. These areas netted on friday over 60 SMB, we kept a few medium fish for diner, most were in the 1-2 lb range, we let the smaller fish go. Most were caught on Ned rigs, the larger ones seem to like Green casting lures, nothing on dropshots. One cove had a large striper school that was fairly stationary, but they did not respond to any bait. Although we were interested in Walleye, none were caught with the methods used.

Saturday we decided to explore Moki, since we were there half a day. We again went in to some basins and let the Ultera move us along the rock piles, the kids kept eight 14-16in SMB, two fo them were 2.5 lb, we put one of those back in since it looked to have two parasites attached, we put the rest (30) back in the water, several of the larger fish look to be full of eggs, a large number of fish were small 7-9". We caught and released several 7-8" bluegill and sunfish. Again the larger fish went for the crankbait, daughter and wife had a ton of fun with Neds.

No stripers were seen in Moki, we trolled some deep divers leaving the area, but none were caught, and none were graphed. No Walleyes. The smallmouth bass are plentiful in that 7" size. Less of the 12-16" size than expected but fun was had by all. No stripers was a surprise, since last year this very time, they were plentiful at the walls of every canyon of the northern lake. Cleaning the livewell we noticed many 2" chad and lots of crawfish parts.........The fishing and fish size maybe better on the southern half??
 
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fastarget said:
Greetings Wayne, sent you an email with my son Marks(10) on LMB, he wanted it posted on the forum but did not know how.
We fished on friday and half day on saturday, launching from the Bullfrog ramp.

Friday we stopped in a couple of coves about two miles north of Moki, one on the west side, and one on the east. Plentiful of rock piles were visible. These areas netted on friday over 60 SMB, we kept a few medium fish for diner, most were in the 1-2 lb range, we let the smaller fish go. Most were caught on Ned rigs, the larger ones seem to like Green casting lures, nothing on dropshots. One cove had a large striper school that was fairly stationary, but they did not respond to any bait. Although we were interested in Walleye, none were caught with the methods used.

Saturday we decided to explore Moki, since we were there half a day. We again went in to some basins and let the Ultera move us along the rock piles, the kids kept eight 14-16in SMB, two fo them were 2.5 lb, we put one of those back in since it looked to have two parasites attached, we put the rest (30) back in the water, several of the larger fish look to be full of eggs, a large number of fish were small 7-9". We caught and released several 7-8" bluegill and sunfish. Again the larger fish went for the crankbait, daughter and wife had a ton of fun with Neds.

No stripers were seen in Moki, we trolled some deep divers leaving the area, but none were caught, and none were graphed. No Walleyes. The smallmouth bass are plentiful in that 7" size. Less of the 12-16" size than expected but fun was had by all. No stripers was a surprise, since last year this very time, they were plentiful at the walls of every canyon of the northern lake. The fishing and fish size maybe better on the southern half??
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"How to preserve our Largemouth Bass Population" by Mark Feghali

Our Largemouth bass populations have been decreasing by hundreds each year. 10% of the world's population try to preserve our largemouth bass habitat while 90% of the worlds habitat don’t even care that they are destroying some of the coolest fish alive. One of the many people I know that are trying to preserve our largemouth bass is Wayne Gustaveson. He is the lead biologist for Utah's fish and game. Let’s all give a big shoutout to Wayne. While some people only care about building houses and cities and don’t even know what they are destroying. Especially the people who are dumping their ballast tanks full of mussels and are contaminating the beautiful lakes we love and are making more work people like Wayne Gustaveson who are actually try not to let that happen. There are 3 ways we can preserve our largemouth bass. 1. Is to not use as much water so plants can grow and not get submerged so largemouth bass have more habitat to spawn. 2. Is to not keep largemouth bass so the can start to produce more fry. 3. DO NOT put any waste into the water that can kill plants and take away largemouth bass territory and spawning grounds.

Largemouth bass are extremely important to our ecosystem. They help keep the bluegill and smallmouth bass populations under control so the lake does not run out of forage. Remember do not keep any largemouth bass so they can start to regenerate more and make more largemouth bass. Let's give another shoutout to Wayne and keeping our sacred Lake Powell thriving.
This is the big one:

If you catch any fish on beds return them to the water immediately. Take a quick photo and return them back to their beds exactly where you caught them!!!
 
Murph McBride said:
Tried down by the Dam with anchovies for about an hour or so. No Action !!
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Thank You! I have been putting out the word that I thought bait fishing would be slow in the channel based on my research and spawning possibilities. Sometimes you have to ask the fish as well. I am sorry your fishing was slow but it confirms my thoughts that fishing for stripers now is better early morning in the shade while trolling or casting small lures.
 
Hi Wayne,

Posted in the Blue Notch thread but will add here. We fished mostly around Red Canyon, the water was still surprisingly clear, with water temps from 67-75 degrees (didnt use the fish finder much but that's what I saw when I did). This is the first trip ever that we could not catch fish trolling, for some reason. We usually catch some of most every species on KVD 5XD plugs that dive around 20 feet. We also usually catch a lot of walleye, and they were few and far between. No stripers. Lots of catfish, both on jigs and bait on the bottom.

The fishing was good all day, but crazy good in the afternoon and evening for large and smallmouth bass, lots of quality fish over 2 pounds, with a few largemouth in the 3-4 pound range. We had the best luck on 1/5 ounce mushroom jigs with TRD TubeZ baits, and great evening fishing with topwater lures. All the bass were in great condition, some of the largemouth looked like they had already spawned. The smallmouth we kept had not. The great bass fishing probably had something to do with the lack of pressure, some of the obvious great bass fishing spots did not get fished all day by anyone else. Normally we camp and fish nearby and will watch bass boat after bass boat buzz in and hit those spots all day long...
 
North Lake May 8 & 9, 2020 - targeted smallmouth from Bullfrog to Knowles. Water was typically clear to perfectly murky. No mud yet but it is coming soon. On my way home to CO I notice The Green and Colorado Rivers muddy as can be. Smallmouth bite was GREAT when you found them. Most 1.25 - 2 lbs. - occasional 3 lb but out of 56 landed only two at 3 lbs. For perspective - we were two people 10 hours total fishing time combined Friday and Saturday. Since this is just us two talking......... we only count what we land / touch. My sweet wife was "releasing" A LOT before they were in hand;) :unsure:. She did however catch her first top-water smb. The jig bite was pretty soft. Lots of ned rigs and soft plastics. Clear with black flakes worked well. However, when they were "On" they would hit anything. Not a lot of dinks but significantly more than the same time last year. The same spots last year produced lots of Largemouth but not this time - only two small LMB's. We didn't really target LMB's as our goal was a fish fry of smaller smallmouths (which was delicious by the way). Beds were few to none in the areas we fished. Oh, BTW, the fish cops were nice, the mussel team and ramp attendants friendly as can be. Fish On! - rc
 
We fished the 9th-10th and 11th in Rock Creek and Last Chance. Caught 50, 51 and 53 each day all smallies except for one LM and one walleye. I caught a 2.90 a 2.80 and a 2.76 plus quite a few over 2 pounds. Just about died Sunday when the storm hit and the waves in the channel were crashing into the bass boat. Had the bottom full of water and the bilge going. Turned around and found a cove to shelter in and stripped down and put on some raingear I had. Then the wind died a bit and 3 miles toward Wahweap I spun the hub on my prop. Had a spare and got it changed. Two 70+ year olds were worn out
 
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