Fishing Time: April 16-20
Weather: First two and a half days was rain and cold, the rest were sunny, clear, T-60s
Moon Phase: New Moon
Location: Lake Powell - Red Canyon area
Water Temps: First 3 days was 58 deg, last two days were 60 in the morning and 65 in the afternoon
Water Level: 3,591 ft amsl
Best Baits: Bass - jig/trailer, Walleye - trolling crankbaits in 15 fow, and drifting jigs over submerged structure, Striped Bass - trolling crankbaits 12-15 feet deep in main channel, Crappie - marabou jig under a bobber near rocky structure
Who Went: Rick Everson, John Bobber Schuler, Dunc
After our decision to skip our Spring Lake Powell trip last
year we were eager to get down there again and chase some largemouth
and smallmouth bass. Unfortunately this
report is coming two months after we went, so I don't recall the day by day
recap, but will instead give an overall report of what we experienced after 4
days of fishing and camping at Lake
Powell this spring.
It’s been a strange year for precipitation with an extremely
warm winter and extremely low snowpack/runoff.
The lake reflected this as the mud lines were as funky as I have ever
seen them. There really weren’t any
defining mud lines, but more of a gradual murkiness that started at the mouth
of Ticaboo canyon and slowly became muddier the further north you went. The “good stain” as we like to call it didn’t
seem to be there. The Red Canyon area, where
we have always done well for bass in the past, was slightly murky and sight
fishing was not possible, which totally bummed us out.
The lake is low again this year so we launched at Bullfrog
and headed north and camped in Scorup Canyon.
The drive up was eventful and should have been our omen for the entire
trip. I couldn’t get the boat to plane
and we spent over an hour shifting camping gear trying to get it to plane. Later I would realize that my boat was full
of water after heavy rain storms the previous weekend and my leaking skylight
in my garage! Finally we got the boat to
plane and were just about to enter Scorup Canyon when I found a submerged
island going 30 mph. It did a number on
my prop and scared us to death, but luckily no serious damage was done. I had a spare prop on board, so disaster was
avoided, but I was extremely wary the rest of the trip. Later on I would slam another rock with my
front thruster motor. Not our best trip
for avoiding under water structure.
A storm came in the first day, which was expected in the
forecast, but we didn’t plan on it staying for two more days. It was supposed to move right through, but
instead seemed to get stuck right over the lake and stayed for two days. The rain came and didn’t stop. The wind also picked up and made it hard to
enjoy the campfire. We found an overhang
on the other side of our camp and built a fire underneath to get out of the
elements. This was probably the best
part of the trip. We spent two nights
there, listening to music and talking around the camp fire tucked underneath the overhang away from
the wind and rain.
My boat was a mud pit from getting in and out from the muddy
shore. Our tent leaked and soaked our
clothes and sleeping pads, but through it all we toughed it out and continued
to fish. The bass bite was tough, but we
were able to pull in some smallmouth and a few largemouth. We also found a few nice crappie to fill the
void.
When the rain finally stopped we were left with sunshine and
cool post storm breezes. This is what
totally shutdown the bass bite. We did
much better for bass in the rain then we did after the storm had passed. It was like they completely disappeared from
the shallows. We tried fishing deeper
and still couldn’t find them. Before
long we found ourselves trolling for stripers, which for us, is a last
option. It was fun though, and we did
find them. They were all healthy 3-5
pound stripers that fought hard.
The last two days was a combo of trolling for stripers and
walleye as well as drifting jigs over submerged ridges and islands for
walleye. The walleye were out in full
force and we were able to catch a bunch.
None with much size, but we did find a few that made for some nice fillets. We kept a bunch to eat for dinner one night and
that was one of the highlights of the trip.
We never did find any specific patterns for bass because we
just plain couldn’t find them consistently. The walleye seemed to be everywhere with
Ticaboo canyon and a submerged island off the mouth of Red Canyon producing the
most consistently. The stripers were all
caught trolling the main channel from the mouth of Red Canyon all the way up to
the Horn. Any diving crankbait 12-15 ft
deep caught stripers. The weather didn't cooperate, but it's still Lake Powell and the camping was fun and the fishing was still good. I leave you with our best catch of the trip...
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