| September 29, 2005 By Wayne Gustaveson Lake Elevation: 3601 Water Temp: 73-76 F |
| The pilot light has gone out. Stripers have quit boiling. An ember smolders near the heart of the lake at the confluence of the San Juan. A few rapidly moving stripers are still boiling in the morning from buoy 63 to 52 but it is very quiet outside of those boundaries. It is time to quit chasing and go fishing once more – darn it! Stripers have gone deep temporarily. For the next few days use the graph extensively. Locate deep schools of baitfish or stripers. Use spoons, anchovies, slow trolling or down riggers to get the bait down 30-50 feet. Spooning may be the best bet as schools are not at all stationary. Find a school and drop spoons immediately before the fish move on. I expect boils to erupt again in the near future. Surface action is not over for the year. But until the unknown factor holding most of the fish mouths closed changes, the best thing to do is fish deep. Bass are suffering from the same closed-mouth behavior as stripers. Success has dropped off dramatically in both the far north and far south ends of the lake. Again the heartland is the place to go to catch bass. The mouth of the San Juan Arm seems immune to whatever is happening elsewhere. Catfish are still prowling and providing some fun on sandy beaches each evening. Small stripers are biting on anchovy bait at the dam and the Wahweap and Antelope Point public fish docks. Fishing success is better after dark than during the day. I think stripers will start boiling near shore soon. Look on shore for birds and stripers in the backs of coves. |
| September 22, 2005 By Wayne Gustaveson Lake Elevation: 3602 Water Temp: 73-75 F |
| Bright nights have shifted striper boiling action from morning to evening. Stripers are still prowling and eating each morning but the action must be seen on the graph or discerned by logic to locate schools. Inquiring eyes still keep close tabs on fish movements so a graph is not absolutely essential. Ravens, blue herons and coyotes really stay close to stripers, feeding on shad that leap out of the lake to avoid the striped marauders. After the boil has subsided birds roost in large groups near the site of the last blowup. While cruising looking for stripers, pay attention to bird location and even fresh white wash on rocks close to shore. Drop spoons or troll in deep water (60 feet) near roosting birds to find resting or cruising stripers. Be aware of subtle signs that alert wise anglers to potential striper holding spots. Seeing more than one great blue heron in an area is uncommon. If 10 herons are perched on a rock island at morning’s first light it is highly likely that a school of stripers is nearby. Boils are less frequent but still seen briefly in the morning and more often at evening. Cast surface lures when fish break the surface. Increase your catch by using spoons after the boil subsides. Just a couple of fish breaking the surface marks the location of many fish resting or feeding near the bottom. Sharp breaks along the 30-60 foot bottom contour are likely striper ambush spots. Drop the spoon to the bottom. Jig it 5 times then reel it briskly back to the surface. Pause 2-3 times on the way up. Chasing stripers will often eat the bait as it stops. Speed reeling is the most effective technique this week for catching a big cooler full of stripers. Use silver and/or shad imitating spoons like Hopkins, Kastmaster, Wally lures shad minnow, and Cabelas … It is more important to be in the right place at the right time than to have the right lure. All of this class of jigging spoons will work when dropped on a hungry school of stripers. Do not go small. Spoons in the 1-2 ounce size are better than smaller ones that take more time to get down to a rapidly moving school of stripers. With gizzard shad becoming more abundant, stripers are not going to turn down a spoon that is a full 6 inches long. Best locations this week are Gunsight to Rainbow Bridge, the San Juan arm, Escalante mouth and main channel, Bullfrog/Halls, and Good Hope Bay. Bass fishing continues to improve each week with lots of 1-2 pound bass caught on main channel rocks with soft plastic grubs and senkos. The biggest bass are taking topwater baits early and late while feeding with the stripers on the surface. If you want a big bass use surface lures around shad schools. |
| September 15, 2005 By Wayne Gustaveson Lake Elevation: 3602 Water Temp: 74-77 F |
| Fishing is quite similar to last week. Striped bass have found spots where shad are abundant so they have dug in and refused to move on. In fact, the good spots are getting better as more stripers congregate in the shad killing fields. Rock creek, in the lower lake continues to be the center of feeding activity. Stripers hit the surface in loose bunches as the dawn brightens. Then as the sun peaks over the canyon wall the boils start. Some days the boil is in the back of the canyon. Other days it is in the main channel. On windy mornings there are no boils at all. Gulls, herons and ravens are near boiling stripers that happen anywhere near shore. The best lures for Rock Creek stripers are the full-size Jumpin Minnow, Kinami Jay Walkers and Bass Pro Lazereye Walker. The general boil progression begins in shallow water and then moves toward the main channel as stripers herd shad. For now, shad seem to feel more secure in open water with no cover to provide an ambush point for stripers. In some lake areas shad have been herded into shallow water where they found cover in aquatic weeds. These shad hide in the weeds to avoid the striper onslaught. More and more shad will move on shore in the near future and boils will be found more often in coves. But for this week look toward the channel for best success. There is some splashing going on in shallow water in the back of the canyons. Most of those very scattered splashes are smallmouth bass enjoying a shad meal. Cast the same striper surface lures to catch a bunch of bass in a hurry. From the San Juan mouth upstream to Good Hope, striper boils are still main channel and still very quick. “Tracking” the boil worked well last week. Stripers boil, go down and then resurface. Determine the direction of travel and then idle the boat in that general direction. If luck is with you, the boil will come up in casting range allowing one or two fish to be caught. Unhook the fish, idle in the same direction and then be in position again once the fish resurface. It was reported last week that boils could be tracked for miles in this manner with many fish caught from multiple quick boils. Morning and evening twilight are still the best times for long lasting boils. But quick boils in open water are continuing until mid morning and sometimes all day long. Best baits are the same full size surface lures but the Storm Wild Eye swim baits are working just as well in the quick boils. Smallmouth fishing is good for anyone that gets tired of chasing stripers. Use soft plastic grubs on main channel rocks, reefs and points. Twenty-five feet is still the best depth for the bigger bass. |
| September 8, 2005 By Wayne Gustaveson Lake Elevation: 3602 Water Temp: 78-81 F |
| The quest to keep up with rapidly moving stripers continues. Surface feeding is still the best game in town. Boils are seen each morning and evening along the expanse of Lake Powell. Last week there was a one-day surface eruption in Wahweap Bay near the gravel pile. Those fish have moved on. There is still some activity in Padre Bay randomly spaced throughout the day. The big news is ROCK CREEK. Boils were biggest and best in Main Rock with good action found in Dry Rock and Middle rock as well. There is never a guarantee that stripers will boil in the same place the next day. But the last boil is a good starting point. If you make the trip to Rock Creek and find calm water where boils ought to be,start looking in nearby coves along the main channel. While most feeding activity to date has been found in open water of the main channel, the feeding transition period from open water to coves has begun. There will be more boils seen in coves as the month progresses. Shad are larger and more mobile. Stripers have more difficulty catching these bigger fish. They must work harder to trap them and often require a second barrier. Shad trapped against a cliff wall and the waters surface are easier prey! Expect more boils against cliff walls, tire breakwaters, and rocky shorelines. In the middle of the lake the San Juan was quiet last week. I am sure that wont last long, but for now, the mouth of the San Juan at Jacks Arch is still churning with very quick boils. These fish are not very catchable except at morning and evening twilight. The better spot is at Buoy 69A in the main channel. Boils here were staying up long enough to catch some fish. Bullfrog/Halls was very busy with Holiday traffic. Boils were there but competition with other boaters and first time fishermen made it difficult to catch fish. The boils went down with all the traffic but expect them to come back up with the calmer, gentler fishing pressure now that the summer season has ended. The lake now belongs to anglers once more. If you are trying to fish striper boils for the first time pay attention to where others park around the edge of the action instead of driving to the center of the boil. Driving over fish puts them down and no one catches any. Stop one cast away from the action and fish from there. Bullfrog to Good Hope is much like most parts of the lake, with boils being less frequent. That means there is usually a huge boil that comes up once a day and stays up for an hour. Find this boil and the trip is a success. Surprisingly there have been many large boils near midday over the entire lake. The biggest and best boils have been from 11-2 pm. There is no way to predict when or where they will occur. You just have to be out there enjoying the grandeur of the lake and stumble into the big event. |
| September 1, 2005 By Wayne Gustaveson Lake Elevation: 3602 Water Temp: 78-82 F |
| Last weeks forecast of lower lake weekend boils was blown away with a thunderstorm on Saturday. Seems the weather does have a big impact on boils. Expect boils to continue lakewide through September. Plan your fall trip for a good weather period to increase the chances of finding boils. Daily schedule for striper boils: At first light shad schools rejoin after spending the night in loose formation. This joining attracts stripers who start chasing schools about 30 minutes after first light. Shad schools are large until stripers blast them the first time. The first volley may last 10 minutes to an hour depending on shad numbers. Stripers are most vulnerable to anglers during this phase. Shad scatter into smaller bunches as they flee in all directions after the first onslaught. Stripers are schooled tight and surround a small bunch of shad. It takes only seconds for stripers to eat or scatter the small shad bunch. Surface commotion is so quick that it is difficult to get in position to cast. Stripers are catchable if they are on the surface. Once they head down they ignore most offerings. The quick burst period lasts for 2 hours. Midday shad and stripers regroup. There may be a random large boil with lasting duration or it may remain quiet. The evening action picks up again two hours before dark with longer boils and good aggression as both shad and stripers respond to the evening twilight feeding period. Best locations to find boils: Bullfrog Bay is again the center of boiling action all day long. The center of the bay near the Bullfrog boat ramp is best for 4-pound fish while boils of 2-pound fish are bigger and better north of the Bullfrog Buoy field. Halls Creek is just as good. Main Channel from Lake Canyon to Annies is still good morning and evening but not midday. Good Hope is improving morning and evening with some limited action in the channel towards Bullfrog. Main channel from San Juan to Cottonwood has constant quick boils but stripers are only catchable morning and evening. San Juan from Cha to Piute is very good. Padre to Rock Creek main channel has randomly timed big boils. This may be the best spot for quality fish but it lacks consistency. Find a boil here and jig spoons on the 60 foot bottom after the boil to add lots of meaty stripers to the cooler. Stripers move off the flat an hour after the boil subsides. Smallmouth fishing is good midlake and on the San Juan but slow in many other lake areas. Fish main channel rocky shelves and terraces for best results. |