November 26, 2014

Status
Not open for further replies.

wayne gustaveson

Moderator
Staff member
natem




November 26, 2014 - Rock Creek

Striper fishing is becoming more predictable as stripers and shad have arrived at the places where they will spend the winter. The general pattern is the back of major canyons where bottom depth starts to shallow from 70 feet to 30 feet. Shad will spend the winter suspended in schools at about 50-70 feet. Stripers will lay on the bottom at about the same depth and periodically attack the shad school. As the water gets colder there will be less interaction between the two but stripers cannot allow a shad (lure) to pass through the resting school without some sort of reaction so fishing will continue to be productive all winter long.

At Rock Creek the current fishing pattern was demonstrated as we went to the back of the canyon looking for stripers. Shad were still in shallow water as the warm calm weather has allowed the water temperature to stay near 60F. Shad won’t move until the water temperature drops to the low 50s. Casting Yamamoto shad shaped worms rigged on a quarter ounce jig head steadily produced stripers from 2 to 5 pounds at depths shallower than 20 feet. Shad were hiding in the back of the canyon and stripers were guarding and periodically attacking the shallow shad schools.

Fishing was best early and then decreased as the sun got higher in the morning sky. We know that stripers were holding out deeper than 20 feet so we trolled thundersticks out into the 35-50 foot depths. The first fish hooked was a dandy that weighed almost 5 pounds. We took about 2 seconds to admire that fish and quickly deployed spoons into the school of stripers that followed the first one to the boat.

These trailing fish really liked our spoons (home made wallylure slab spoons). The wind was calm and we drifted slowly across the bay into deeper water. The drift took over an hour as we constantly caught school stripers from 2-4 pounds. We tried to keep one active spoon or hooked fish in the water at all times so the school would follow the boat. It worked out that we usually had one fish on while the other fish was being unhooked and then we changed roles from the unhooker to the catcher. Great fun!

We put 25 fish in the cooler on the first drift but had perhaps 15 more that came unbuttoned near the boat. They must of hit just a bit short and came unhooked prematurely. We spooned up another 10 by going back to the marker where the school was first found. Fishing success dropped off as the sun got higher in the sky. Best success was found from dawn to 11 AM. Cool early morning fishing results are better than “warm” fishing mid day.

Back at the Wahweap fish cleaning station we marveled at the incredible fillets from these fat, healthy fish. Fishing is still good at Lake Powell. It is necessary to use the right approach and techniques but the results are very satisfying.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top