I started working at Lake Powell in 1975 and became the Project Leader in 1978. It seems like yesterday. My responsibilities included fish sampling, fish population dynamics, food habits, growth rates, physical condition, catch rates, and providing information to anglers on how to catch fish at Lake Powell.
When Striped Bass were introduced into Lake Powell in 1974, they were expected to run up to the Colorado River to spawn where the eggs would have a poor survival rate. In 1978, while fishing one spring morning near the dam, I found millions of eggs floating on the surface from Buoy 3 to the dam. We took some eggs to our lab, put them under the microscope, and determined that they were striped bass eggs. My whole life changed as it was now my job to understand how to manage an overwhelming population of striped bass. Stripers and I have been close friends since that day of discovery. Instead of being an uncommon trophy fish, stripers would now be the dominant species in Lake Powell.
It took a while, but I finally convinced the Salt Lake staff that the skinny youngster who was the biologist down at Lake Powell was now managing a completely different fishery than was expected. Instead of a trophy fishery with a 2-fish limit, the striper population was overwhelming and had to be kept in balance by unlimited harvest. It took a decade of scrutiny before the striped bass limit was completely removed and the angler harvest became unlimited.
Largemouth bass were the predominant fish species until 1980 when the lake filled and then began to fluctuate. Declining water levels reduced shoreline vegetation and reduced brushy habitat. Without brush, largemouth bass were no longer spawning successfully and declined in number. I suggested to the Salt Lake staff that smallmouth bass could rehabilitate the bass fishery because they spawned in rocky habitat which was abundant in the lake. Smallmouth bass would fit in very well and provide a great bass fishery in years when largemouth numbers were scarce.
I was given approval to raise smallmouth at the defunct hatchery where stripers had been raised in the 1970’s. The smallmouth were to be stocked in three different reservoirs in Utah.
There was a hiccup when an inadequate number of smallmouth bass were produced the first year in 1982. There were only 10,000 fish and that was not enough to stock 3 different Utah reservoirs. We drained the pond, loaded all the fish into a fish truck, drove up the hill, and loaded them onto a plane which took the fish to the first- priority reservoir. An hour later we discovered that a few fish had escaped from the holding net. I had about 800 fish left in the pond. With no means of communication from the hatchery to the Salt Lake office (no office, no phones, and no other means of communication), I made the choice to stock the survivors in Lake Powell (which was the third-priority lake) so I dropped them off as I was driving home from the hatchery. I found out later we did not yet have the authorization to stock those fish in Lake Powell. Whoops!
Today, striped bass and smallmouth bass dominate the Lake Powell fishery with occasional strong productive years for largemouth bass and crappie and a persistent walleye population.
Somehow, 45 years have slipped away and now it is time to relinquish my supervision of Lake Powell fish. I will retire on June 30, 2021. There is a retirement party planned on July 9th from 5-8 PM at the Picnic area near the Wahweap Fish Cleaning Station. All are invited to stop by and swap fish stories.
I am totally addicted to Lake Powell fishing so I cannot give up on my weekly fishing trips to the lake. During retirement, I plan on providing fish reports as often as possible. I may miss a few reports when my wife makes me go on vacation. More importantly, I will keep the website going so that all who come to Lake Powell will have an idea of where to start fishing and all those leaving LP can share their fishing information on the website for others to see. This process of sharing fishing information has been extremely important in managing the Lake Powell fishery for a very long time.
I have been extremely fortunate to hold the job as Lake Powell Project Leader. I thank the Utah Division of Wildlife and my supervisors for putting up with me for over four decades. I have really enjoyed helping you have successful fishing trips on the lake. Keep looking for me!! I will be out there and we may cross wakes again on the lake.
Wayne Gustaveson
Utah Division of Wildlife Resources - Lake Powell Project Leader