New Report from North End

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going shore camping with the fam tomorrow thru Monday down blu notch and hoping to catch some walleye and anything else that wants to play.
 
fished saturday got skunked, caught 2 on sunday and took off as we were getting a wind advisory, glad we left when we did.
 
fishfry said:
fished saturday got skunked, caught 2 on sunday and took off as we were getting a wind advisory, glad we left when we did.
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Glad you got out of the water before the big winds hit. We had high winds and big white caps here at Wahweap with some snow flurries but nothing sticking on the ground. I don't know about springtime fishing the north lake because I spend all my time down south. On either end of the lake I suggest pulling out until this storm front passes over.
 
mussel infestation is in full force and is very depressing. Could not believe the volume of these critters, they are on every square inch of any surface they can cling on. It sounded like you were walking on crunchy snow.
 
fishfry said:
mussel infestation is in full force and is very depressing. Could not believe the volume of these critters, they are on every square inch of any surface they can cling on. It sounded like you were walking on crunchy snow.
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Many more visitors will know that this year. When the lake rises 20 feet in the summer months the massive mussel infestation is hidden underwater. Most boaters at the lake from June to August have no real concept of the magnitude of mussels living in the lake. As the lake declines, more mussels are seen. I get a very small sense of satisfaction because those mussels that come out of the water will die and not reproduce. There are just so many in the depths of the lake that it is incomprehensible to imagine how many are really out there and what impact that might have on the lake and the fish.

The only hopeful prospects are that fisheries in the lower Colorado River reservoirs (that have had mussels for 5 more years than Lake Powell) still have good fisheries. I see warm water having some impact on mussel numbers in shallow water in the summer. We are still trying to understand the full impact of mussels in Lake Powell.
 
My daughters were worrying about it and I could over hear them talking about a solution. They know the lake water level is declining and saw the mussels and that they died when they were out of the water so they came up with the solution to drain the lake to kill the mussels and then clean it up before filling it. I loved listening to them come up with a solution but only if it was that easy. Also this needed to be done before our June family trip,lol
 
We also fished Friday and Saturday and only caught 3 strippers and one walleye all trolling. no luck with jigging. I did catch this stick that was loaded with mussels and was amazed how many mussels are showing now the water has lowered.
Mussels.jpg
 
Be careful when trolling because if you bottom bounce, the mussels can quickly just cut your line. The solution is to use a trolling lure that floats but dives deep due to a diving lip so if it breaks off, the lure can come back to the surface for you to find and use again. I have recovered a diving lure a couple of times while trolling shallow for walleye and stripers.
 
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wayne gustaveson said:
Be careful when trolling because if you bottom bounce, the mussels can quickly just cut your line. The solution is to use a trolling lure that floats but dives deep due to a ding lip so if it breaks off, the lure can come back to the surface for you to find and use again. I have recovered a diving lure a couple of times while trolling shallow for walleye and stripers.
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Along those lines, no pun intended, what type of lures do you recommend for trolling with when after walleyes?
 
I have had good luck trolling in the past with a wally diver but recently I have used bottom bouncers with a night crawler harness or a regular plastic bass jig tipped with a piece of night crawler
 
This is close to what we caught the stripers and walleye with while trolling. Another note is if you stop the boat to bring in a fish the lure will float up and hook on your downrigger line.
crankbait-300x221.jpg
 
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Not always > I would buy 3 different colors and then try them each day. You will find that shad colors work better in most situations and bright colors work better when fishing is tough.
 
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