New to Striper fishing!

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MrJerryG

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Well this is kind of weird. Never thought of introducing myself to a website.
New to striper fishing and Lake Powell. In fact still planing my first trip this spring. Excited to find this forum and looking forward to digging out all the information I can find. Since I retired the 9th of Jan I have plenty of time to learn before heading out. I will be using a 18' Tracker V hull with a 65hp and a 4hp kicker for most of my fishing. I have fished trout, steelhead, coho and lots of deep sea fish in Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and Utah. Oh Ya been skunked 100s of time fishing walleye in Willard Bay
Any help or guidance mastering this is appreciated.
Jerry
 
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MrJerryG said:
Well this is kind of weird. Never thought of introducing myself to a website.
New to striper fishing and Lake Powell. In fact still planing my first trip this spring. Excited to find this forum and looking forward to digging out all the information I can find. Since I retired the 9th of Jan I have plenty of time to learn before heading out. I will be using a 18' Tracker V hull with a 65hp and a 4hp kicker for most of my fishing. I have fished trout, steelhead, coho and lots of deep sea fish in Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and Utah. Oh Ya been skunked 100s of time fishing walleye in Willard Bay
Any help or guidance mastering this is appreciated.
Jerry
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Striper fishing is a bit tough now in the cold weather. Schools are holding on the bottom from 40 to 135 feet deep. Search for them with your graph. When you find a school drop slab spoons to the bottom and jig them 18 inches up and down.
I will introduce myself to you. I am Wayne and my goal in Managing Lake Powell fisheries is to keep abundant striper populations in check by harvesting as many stripers possible. You have arrived at just the right time. Stripers are healthy and strong.
You are going to enjoy some challenging fishing in Spring 2020. I have even fished in Willard Bay :)
 
I was in the same boat (pun intended) about 13 years ago. Lake Powell is so big, and there is so much habitat that does NOT hold stripers it is intimidating! This site is a wealth of knowledge, with people who are willing to share tips and locations. I sound like a broken record on here, but since you are retired and will have a flexible schedule, plan a time frame to come to the lake, and make your trip within that time frame when the weather is warming. Cold and windy weather will shut everything down until the next warming spell of weather.

Get yourself some deep diving shad imitations in the 2.5"-3" range that dive 20 feet, shad and chartreuse colors. Troll the backs of bays, try to be moving to where the lures are occasionally bouncing bottom, then moving of deeper water. Troll around 3 mph, and watch your graph carefully, both for rocks that may eat your prop, and fish marks! My favorite spring pattern is to locates schools with trolled deep divers, then switch over to sinking lines on the fly rod. You can end up slaying more fish than you want to filet at LP....that is a good problem to have!!!

If you follow the site, by spring there should be some reports coming in to give you lots of tips on techniques and locations.

Good luck and report back whether you do well or not!
 
Not trying to give him a big head, but start with Wayne’s fishing tips. It covers just about everything. Then feel free to ask questions. Three years ago I had never even caught a striper. Thanks to this site that is changing. You are going to fall in love with this lake.
 
Lake Powell has unique underwater structure. A lakemaster chip (map of the topography of the lake) or any other map/app that allows you to adjust water level to view or underwater topography is a big help. Not only for knowing the contour you are fishing but for the “whales” that can be lurking just under the surface in a seemingly wide open area. There are many threads you can search for that info. Welcome.
 
Dorado said:
Get yourself some deep diving shad imitations in the 2.5"-3" range that dive 20 feet, shad and chartreuse colors. Troll the backs of bays, try to be moving to where the lures are occasionally bouncing bottom, then moving of deeper water. Troll around 3 mph, and watch your graph carefully, both for rocks that may eat your prop, and fish marks! My favorite spring pattern is to locates schools with trolled deep divers, then switch over to sinking lines on the fly rod. You can end up slaying more fish than you want to filet at LP....that is a good problem to have!!!
Click to expand...

Ok I definitely gotta take my fly rod now. Thanks for sharing. Any tips on flies?
 
Mostly use chartreuse over white, all white or tan over white Clouser minnow style flies (tie them a little bit more full than the classic pattern and use synthetic hair for durability). If I am fishing shallower than 10' I will use unweighted EP style flies in the same colors..
 
Congrats on the retirement Jerry. Sorry to hear you fell victim to the urban myth of there being walleye in Willard Bay! ;) LP is an incredible fishery. There is more striper info on here than you will be able to consume before your spring trip. You can have some fantastic days walleye fishing as well. Reports should start coming in more regularly in the next couple months. If you're running a Bird', I would highly recommend a Lake Master chip if you don't already have one. The offset feature is invaluable on this lake. What part of AK are you chasing coho in? We'll be down this spring in April/May, hope to run into you.
 
Dorado said:
I was in the same boat (pun intended) about 13 years ago. Lake Powell is so big, and there is so much habitat that does NOT hold stripers it is intimidating! This site is a wealth of knowledge, with people who are willing to share tips and locations. I sound like a broken record on here, but since you are retired and will have a flexible schedule, plan a time frame to come to the lake, and make your trip within that time frame when the weather is warming. Cold and windy weather will shut everything down until the next warming spell of weather.

Get yourself some deep diving shad imitations in the 2.5"-3" range that dive 20 feet, shad and chartreuse colors. Troll the backs of bays, try to be moving to where the lures are occasionally bouncing bottom, then moving of deeper water. Troll around 3 mph, and watch your graph carefully, both for rocks that may eat your prop, and fish marks! My favorite spring pattern is to locates schools with trolled deep divers, then switch over to sinking lines on the fly rod. You can end up slaying more fish than you want to filet at LP....that is a good problem to have!!!

If you follow the site, by spring there should be some reports coming in to give you lots of tips on techniques and locations.

Good luck and report back whether you do well or not!
Click to expand...
Thanks for all the info
 
Coho975 said:
Congrats on the retirement Jerry. Sorry to hear you fell victim to the urban myth of there being walleye in Willard Bay! ;) LP is an incredible fishery. There is more striper info on here than you will be able to consume before your spring trip. You can have some fantastic days walleye fishing as well. Reports should start coming in more regularly in the next couple months. If you're running a Bird', I would highly recommend a Lake Master chip if you don't already have one. The offset feature is invaluable on this lake. What part of AK are you chasing coho in? We'll be down this spring in April/May, hope to run into you.
Click to expand...
I grew up mostly in Oregon and fished Coho on the Sandy, Wilson, and from New Port and Walport Bays. When the boy and I go to Alaska we hit the deep sea fishing with Angler's choice out of Juneau
 
MrJerryG said:
Well this is kind of weird. Never thought of introducing myself to a website.
New to striper fishing and Lake Powell. In fact still planing my first trip this spring. Excited to find this forum and looking forward to digging out all the information I can find. Since I retired the 9th of Jan I have plenty of time to learn before heading out. I will be using a 18' Tracker V hull with a 65hp and a 4hp kicker for most of my fishing. I have fished trout, steelhead, coho and lots of deep sea fish in Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and Utah. Oh Ya been skunked 100s of time fishing walleye in Willard Bay
Any help or guidance mastering this is appreciated.
Jerry
Click to expand...
Welcome to the site! You are going to fall in love with Lake Powell, it's one of the few things in this world that never disappoints! It's always great to see my friends/family's reaction to our trip that has never gone before and hear them say that it was one if not THE best fishing trip they've ever been on!

We have had really good success using a 1/4 ounce jig head, plain metal or color along with a Kalin's pumpkin spice 3-4" grub baited with a small cut of anchovie. We usually cut off the head and tail and have 3 cuts for the body. We keep them in a small cooler with ice packed on them to try and maintain a frozen bait. The chovies are best to apply frozen and baiting thru the head will make them stay on the hook even better.

We usually graph for schools and like to find them holding on an under water cliff in water under 50 feet if possible with access to a deep water drop off. We have had great luck in the South Lake around Wahweap casting 50-60 feet to the wall of the cliffs and clicking the bail. We let the bait drop down along the cliff and hold the line waiting for that old familiar Striper YANK!

I took my Father on his first trip to Powell back in 2013 and he thought I was pulling his leg about all of the fish we would catch, many times over 100 fish in a day between the four of us on a boat. I made him a believer on his very FIRST cast as he reeled in a fat 3.5 lb Striper. I will always remember how excited he was, "Brian, you weren't lying!! I thought you were full of crap!!" We caught well over 300 fish over that 3 day trip.

Thank you Wayne for your site and for helping me make some unbelievable memories that will last a lifetime!!

Brian
 
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