Fishing Time: Thursday to Sunday (September 17-20)
Weather: Mostly
Sunny, breezy at times, T-90s
Moon Phase: New Moon
Location: Lake Powell
Mudline: No mudline, found slightly stained water in Red Canyon
Best Baits: mid-diving crankbaits, curly tail grub, topwater
baits
Who Went: Sean
Mitchell, Bobber John, Dunc
With Covid-19 ruining most things fun in the year 2020 we
had to cancel our spring Lake Powell trip this year. Lake Powell was closed in March and April due
to the coronavirus. I’ve never been to Lake
Powell in the Fall. I’ve done the summer
boating/ski trips, but all my fishing trips have been in the spring time, with
one exception being the dead of winter.
I was excited to see what fishing at Lake Powell would be like during
fall conditions and the colors were on full display on the drive down.
We rented a little trailer in Ticaboo and skipped the
camping this trip. It’s amazing how much
less gear you need when you leave the camping supplies at home. However, nothing beats Spring camping at Lake
Powell.
Thursday (Sept 17) – We arrived at our trailer around noon, unpacked,
rigged up our rods, and went straight to the lake.
We kept the fishing close with only a half
day of sun left and motored across Bullfrog Bay to a shoreline near Halls Creek
Marina. We caught two nice smallies on
the first two casts! I like fall fishing
already. The action stayed consistent,
but the size decreased with only a few good bass in the mix. The curly tail grub on an 1/8th oz
jig head in assorted colors was the bait of the day.
Friday (Sept 18) – We ran north up to the Good Hope Bay. We started fishing in Ticaboo
Canyon with calm winds and bass a plenty.
Again, it was tough to find fish with size, but the topwater action for
little smallmouth and largemouth kept our interest. We must have landed 20 a piece, with some
exploding out of the water to hit our topwater baits.
In the back of Ticaboo I switched to a crankbait and finally landed a fish with shoulders.
By the time we made it out of Ticaboo Canyon the wind paid us a visit
and we tried to hide in Red Canyon.
Conditions became worse as we worked the shorelines in Red, so we
turned to trolling. We found the
smallest school of stripers I have ever seen in the back of Red Canyon and Sean
was able to check this species off his list.
We couldn’t find a striper over 6-inches, and Bobber landed the smallest one I've ever seen. The lure is almost as big as the fish.
We moved up lake to the Horn in search of some bigger fish.
The wind was miserable, and we left without a bite. We motored into Scorup Canyon (a.k.a. Ultra
Canyon) to hide from the wind and try our luck for crappie. We found quite a few willing smallmouth, but
never did land a crappie. The
wind wasn’t letting up, so we headed back to the Bullfrog area and hit some
shorelines that produced the day before.
The catch rate picked up, but the wind took a toll on our sanity. We tucked our tails early and
retreated to the fish cleaning station. We filleted a good amount of fish and made a delicious fish dinner that night.
Saturday (Sept 19) – We started the morning in Bullfrog Bay
where we were having the most success.
Topwater was the ticket and my new Whopper Plopper was on fire!
We all put a bunch of fish in the boat, but
it was Sean that had the chance for his personal best. He was throwing a small crankbait and laid
into a 3-4 pound largemouth. He did
everything right, but the bass made his way to the surface and spit his lure
back towards the boat. Sean was bummed,
but we encouraged him to keep casting for another chance.
That evening we moved into the back of Halls Creek Bay. There were a lot of water skiers zipping
around and that was a bit annoying, but we found some back bays that looked
amazing. Unfortunately, looking amazing
and fishing amazing are two different things.
We caught a couple, but not what we expected with how good it
looked.
Before dark we made our way back
to the shoreline that kept producing and put some more good fish in the
boat.
Sunday (Sept 20) – Our last day and back to our honey hole. The topwater
was still producing, but I decided to try a crankbait and found some nicer
fish. Sean followed suit and got
his second chance! He made a great cast
alongside a shallow island and smacked a great bass. Sean fought it well and landed his personal
best 4-pound largemouth bass.
It was a
beauty and I’m glad he got the chance to redeem himself. We caught a few more good fish that morning , including a random channel catfish, before calling it quits and heading north back to Salt Lake City.
Conclusion:
I was impressed with fall fishing at Lake Powell. We caught way more fish than I expected. The water was warm and made it nice to jump in
and swim when you were hot. Not a fun
option in the spring when water is the upper 50s. The size of the bass seemed to be smaller
than what we usually catch in the spring, but we caught enough larger fish to
keep it interesting and Sean landed a PB.
The weather was better than most spring trips, but that also brought out
more of the ski boats to contend with, which is a bit annoying. It made for some choppy water in the main channels, but the warm sun felt good at times. We caught a lot of largemouth bass, although
the size was typically small with only a few larger ones. The smallmouth fishing
was bonkers, but the crappie were no where to be found and neither were the
walleye. We found the stripers, but the
size was pitiful.
Topwater was the highlight of the trip. To be honest I had no idea it was so
effective in the fall. You could have
used it all day long and been successful.
I was landing 2-3 fish in the mornings on topwater at the docks waiting
for Bobber to park the truck after launching the boat. Fall makes for a fun trip and I definitely look forward to doing it again.
