Lake Powell Fish Report –
September 30, 2019
Lake Elevation: 3615
Water temperature: 70-73 F
By: Wayne Gustaveson http://www.wayneswords.com or Wayneswords.net
This is an early report because I will be uplake doing electrofishing samples from Tuesday to Friday. The next report will be on time October 9th.
Conditions have not changed much for striped bass. Then have gone deep without showing much sign of boiling. The windy weekend may have had something to do with that. Continue to use the recent information, which indicates that stripers are holding in the backs of canyons and coves at a depth of 40-80 feet. One good technique is to start in the back of a canyon at a depth of 20-40 feet. Search with the graph for big shad balls. They show up as a huge ball of fish while stripers appear more often as lines of fish. Stripers are usually deeper than shad. The best fishing technique is to drop 1.5 ounce jigging spoons down to the bottom just under the striper school. One striper grabbing the spoon energizes the school. It is easy to catch many stripers in a short time. Jigging by 2-3 anglers in a boat increases the striper energy level. When one fish is hooked, more fish show up under the boat. Try to stay with the school as they congregate under the boat. Spot lock electric motors hold the boat and the fish school together and increase the catch rate. This is the best technique over the length of the lake. Hopefully, there will be more reports on stripers boiling on the surface this week. Our samples will allow us to cover the entire lake in 4 days, so we should see boils if they are present.
Smallmouth bass are really coming back out of their shell. We are getting more reports of good smallmouth fishing lakewide. Fishing in Good Hope Bay was good, but catching bass in the Escalante Arm was excellent. The best technique was to slow-troll a double-tailed plastic grub in 30 feet of water using the trolling motor. Cast toward shore and then slowly reel the lure back in. Most bass were hooked well off the bottom. A really nice 4.5-pound largemouth bass was caught on a surface lure with the first cast in the morning. Go deeper for bass, fish slowly and find where they are hanging out. Then catch some of the best smallmouth bass ever produced at Lake Powell.
We thank the threadfin shad population for over producing so many fish that all the predators are eating their fill. Change your Lake Powell attitude from the normal “catch as many fish as possible” to catch big, fat fish and take home a trophy.
This has been a very interesting year and it is not over yet. I wonder what will happen next!
September 30, 2019
Lake Elevation: 3615
Water temperature: 70-73 F
By: Wayne Gustaveson http://www.wayneswords.com or Wayneswords.net
This is an early report because I will be uplake doing electrofishing samples from Tuesday to Friday. The next report will be on time October 9th.
Conditions have not changed much for striped bass. Then have gone deep without showing much sign of boiling. The windy weekend may have had something to do with that. Continue to use the recent information, which indicates that stripers are holding in the backs of canyons and coves at a depth of 40-80 feet. One good technique is to start in the back of a canyon at a depth of 20-40 feet. Search with the graph for big shad balls. They show up as a huge ball of fish while stripers appear more often as lines of fish. Stripers are usually deeper than shad. The best fishing technique is to drop 1.5 ounce jigging spoons down to the bottom just under the striper school. One striper grabbing the spoon energizes the school. It is easy to catch many stripers in a short time. Jigging by 2-3 anglers in a boat increases the striper energy level. When one fish is hooked, more fish show up under the boat. Try to stay with the school as they congregate under the boat. Spot lock electric motors hold the boat and the fish school together and increase the catch rate. This is the best technique over the length of the lake. Hopefully, there will be more reports on stripers boiling on the surface this week. Our samples will allow us to cover the entire lake in 4 days, so we should see boils if they are present.
Smallmouth bass are really coming back out of their shell. We are getting more reports of good smallmouth fishing lakewide. Fishing in Good Hope Bay was good, but catching bass in the Escalante Arm was excellent. The best technique was to slow-troll a double-tailed plastic grub in 30 feet of water using the trolling motor. Cast toward shore and then slowly reel the lure back in. Most bass were hooked well off the bottom. A really nice 4.5-pound largemouth bass was caught on a surface lure with the first cast in the morning. Go deeper for bass, fish slowly and find where they are hanging out. Then catch some of the best smallmouth bass ever produced at Lake Powell.
We thank the threadfin shad population for over producing so many fish that all the predators are eating their fill. Change your Lake Powell attitude from the normal “catch as many fish as possible” to catch big, fat fish and take home a trophy.
This has been a very interesting year and it is not over yet. I wonder what will happen next!
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