Spoons for Striper fishing

Status
Not open for further replies.
wayne gustaveson

wayne gustaveson

Moderator
Staff member
Here is a variety of spoons that we used to catch lots of stripers in the southern lake this week. Many different kinds of spoons will work. The key is to find a school of shad/stripers:

Go to the back of any major canyon on Lake Powell. Graph from 100 to 25 feet in the back of the canyon. Grebes are still hanging out in the Southern lake and consistently hover over shad schools. If found, use them for a reference to start graphing. Look for striper schools on the graph. If a school appears drop spoons immediately while the boat driver stops the boat and backs up over the school. Let the spoons hit bottom and then work them up and down hoping to get one fish to hit. That one hit triggers a response in the rest of the school. Then all of the school looks for something to eat. Game On!

Fishing success was better this week than on our last trip. We caught 8 fish a week ago and 60 this week. It seems warming and calm water is the best weather to venture out. Spooning should be the prime fishing technique until the water warms into the 50s and 60s. It is still at 46-50 this week. Good Luck!


0.jpgunnamed.jpgunnamed.jpgunnamed.jpgunnamed.jpgunnamed.jpgunnamed.jpg
 
Garry said:
Wayne when do the stripers move out to main lake ?
Click to expand...

USUALLY late February or early March. However this is an unusual year. Take a look at this fish:

unnamed.jpg

His stomach is hanging over the edge of the board. I thought he was full of shad, but I got that wrong. His stomach is distended because of the huge reproductive organs inside. These fat adult fish are ALL going to spawn this year. Normally we have thin fish that do not mature. Only a few large females and some small precocious males spawn while the rest of the population does not mature. These thinner fish head to the channel and end up at the Dam or Moki Wall or other spots that have provided good spring time bait fishing in previous years.

I am sorry to report that most of these fat adults will NOT move to the channel in the spring of 2020. I know that is hard to believe, but I have seen it happen before. I can't remember specifically which year but stripers were fat and healthy. I only knew of 2 stripers that were caught at the dam in that spring season. (I remember because I was working with Aramark to weigh the biggest stringer of fish and award prizes. No prizes were awarded that year since no fish were caught in the normal spots.)

What will actually happen is yet to be determined! No fish caught on bait is a possibility. If stripers stay in the backs of the canyons, some will be caught trolling and spooning in February and March. In late April and May the spawning fish will be DORMANT in the daytime. They will be actively spawning on the surface after dark and will be so aggressive that you can catch as many as you want, IF you find a spawning school. I am sure that some of these huge spawning schools will show up (in the canyons - not the dam) the first week or two of May depending on water temperature.

Do not be discouraged. I am going to watch these schooling fish on a weekly basis and report what I find. It will be a very interesting spring season. That is for sure!
 
Last edited:
Garry said:
Wayne , we will be fishing in GH March 22-30 . Any advice would be great.
Click to expand...

Good Hope in March would be prespawn and active stripers will be catchable during the day in the back of smaller side canyons while trolling, casting and spooning. You will need a graph and will spend a lot of time searching the bottom for schools which will be very rewarding when you find one. You can also go up to the mudline near Trachyte and troll and cast there for shallow fish. I think you will do very well if the weather cooperates.
 
wayne gustaveson said:
Good Hope in March would be prespawn and active stripers will be catchable during the day in the back of smaller side canyons while trolling, casting and spooning. You will need a graph and will spend a lot of time searching the bottom for schools which will be very rewarding when you find one. You can also go up to the mudline near Trachyte and troll and cast there for shallow fish. I think you will do very well if the weather cooperates.
Click to expand...
Thanks
 
Wayne , all the stripers and smallmouth were caught trolling ,this is great I've read you only use lucky craft pointers so i bought one 15.99 cool so the first morning i tied my new lure on and away i went ,100 yards bam strike i fought the fish along time it, stayed deep for a long time finely it came up fighting all the way, smacked it's head on my kayak several times i couldn't get a hold of it, finely i had to net the fish . when it all calmed down the fish (a 21 incher) broke the tail right off my brand new lure, the tail wasn't even there any more ,next time i will buy 2 . 35 feet was avg and as shallow as 20 . saw lots of schools of stripers and shad and spooned jigged bait fished no hits only 1 cat fish on ned rig 30 to 40 feet deep . it was one of my better trips not another soul in sight for 2 weeks . it just needs to warm up , the ovaries in the stripers were full to bursting and full of shad .
 
last wild human said:
Wayne , all the stripers and smallmouth were caught trolling ,this is great I've read you only use lucky craft pointers so i bought one 15.99 cool so the first morning i tied my new lure on and away i went ,100 yards bam strike i fought the fish along time it, stayed deep for a long time finely it came up fighting all the way, smacked it's head on my kayak several times i couldn't get a hold of it, finely i had to net the fish . when it all calmed down the fish (a 21 incher) broke the tail right off my brand new lure, the tail wasn't even there any more ,next time i will buy 2 . 35 feet was avg and as shallow as 20 . saw lots of schools of stripers and shad and spooned jigged bait fished no hits only 1 cat fish on ned rig 30 to 40 feet deep . it was one of my better trips not another soul in sight for 2 weeks . it just needs to warm up , the ovaries in the stripers were full to bursting and full of shad .
Click to expand...
LWH
If you could have found a lure that was just a little more expensive you might have got two fish out of it.
 
Duckeye said:
LWH
If you could have found a lure that was just a little more expensive you might have got two fish out of it.
Click to expand...
Literally have probably 80 Lucky's in my possession. They work on EVERYTHING ! Troll em, jerk em, suspend em... We were trolling 30' water last year smacking 13-15" crappie, stripers of course and walleye. Then hit the banks for lg mouth and sm mouth. I float the rivers here in Colorado and slay trout (big trout) and then it is Navajo res slamming northern pike. Best lure on the planet way worth the money !
 
last wild human said:
Wayne , all the stripers and smallmouth were caught trolling ,this is great I've read you only use lucky craft pointers so i bought one 15.99 cool so the first morning i tied my new lure on and away i went ,100 yards bam strike i fought the fish along time it, stayed deep for a long time finely it came up fighting all the way, smacked it's head on my kayak several times i couldn't get a hold of it, finely i had to net the fish . when it all calmed down the fish (a 21 incher) broke the tail right off my brand new lure, the tail wasn't even there any more ,next time i will buy 2 . 35 feet was avg and as shallow as 20 . saw lots of schools of stripers and shad and spooned jigged bait fished no hits only 1 cat fish on ned rig 30 to 40 feet deep . it was one of my better trips not another soul in sight for 2 weeks . it just needs to warm up , the ovaries in the stripers were full to bursting and full of shad .
Click to expand...

Glad you caught the first fish so quickly trolling a Lucky Craft. I am really sorry the hook broke off. That does not happen often. But these fish are big and tough. I am sure it is easier to land one from my flat bottom boat than your kayak. Don't give up. Buy more Lucky Craft and hopefully the bad experience will not be duplicated. You will catch a lot more fish in 2020.
 
the broken lure was just a surprise,my patience is what was damaged i have none for fish that won't bite, Wayne when you find the place that sells patience let me know. these fish have put on a lot of weight makes them strong ,the fillets were twice the size i was getting last year, walleye were in short supply as were crappie , flicker shad purple -flicker minnows shad - Berkeley frenzy deep diver fire tiger Norman deep n chartreuse ? all trolled 100 to 150 feet behind. by march the temps will start to climb and i think it's going to be one of those years , bring it on 2020.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top