Lake Powell Outfitters Guide

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Lake Powell Report

April 12, 2008

Clients John and Rob from Tucson fished with me on the 10th and 11th. The wind blew 20 mph all day on the 10 but we easily caught stripers while tied up at the dam. Most fish were in pretty good shape and we filleted 26. Another 15 or so were a little too skinny to keep.

On the 11th, we fished back in Navajo and Antelope Canyons for a mixed bag of species. Hoping for largemouth, smallmouth, crappie and stripers, we fished a variety of lures and caught smallish bass and stripers, but no crappie. Then it was back to the dam for the last 2 hours of the day and fished anchovies a short distance off the barrier line. The stripers were there and willing judging by all the other boats tied up or drifting with bent rods. John and Rob caught 10 more fish to cap off a much calmer and warmer day than the first.

Lake Powell Report
April 20, 2008

Cameron and his wife Angela from Denver caught 30+ fish on a half day trip to the dam area. The fish were caught on weightless anchovy rigs and on 1/4oz leadheads with 4" grub w/ a piece of 'chovy added. I've been using 8# flourocarbon leader for stealth. Casting out and letting the bait pendulum back to the boat was the best method by far. The fish were all over depth wise. I saw fish as shallow as 10' and as deep as 50 and everywhere in between on the finder at the same time. We didn't have to chum heavily to keep them around. All the fish were healthy enough to keep. Some of the smaller ones were returned for another day. Most filets were nice and firm with translucent meat. Fish taco time!!

Lake Powell Report

April 26-27, 2008

Mike and his dad fished 2 half days with me this weekend. We targeted largemouth and smallmouth bass with a little success. On Saturday, we fished the back of Gunsight hoping to find the fish moving up to spawn and caught a few on tubes and Hula grubs. Sunday we fished stripers in the morning in Navajo canyon,, but after 40 minutes waiting for the chum to activate the fish, it was clear they weren't showing up and we went back to bass fishing at the back of the canyon and found a few fish there. Overall it was a slow couple of days. Can't beat 'em up every time.

Lake Powell Report
April 27-28, 2008

I had 2 half day evening trips with employees and the owner of Pro Security Consultants from Albuquerque. I took Justin and Kevin out to the 3 mile area of the main channel and proceeded to load the boat. Kev and Justin along with young Michael fished the same area with another local guide Gene earlier in the day and had the same non-stop action. Between the morning and afternoon sessions, I figure the guys landed about 120 stripers. The largest went about 4 pounds in my boat. 'Chovies in 10 to 40 feet. Grubs w/ 'chovie, 1/8 oz. Carolina rigs and weightless rigs.

Day 2 was windy. We returned to the 3 mile area with 5 guys and slammed the stripers again. We decided to ease our discomfort from the waves from wind, tour boats and other boats returning to Wahweap and go tie up to the dam. I've been hearing slow reports from the dam lately so this was a gamble. It turned out to be OK. The action was there, just not as hot as its been. I didn't keep count, but I'd guess they caught about 30+. One note, when I launched at Stateline at 1:20pm the breeze was just starting and the water temp was 60.5, the wind had cooled it down to 57.5 at 5pm.

The tube jig takes a largemouth.

Fishing Lake Powell with a fishing guide

Kevin and Justin doubled up again.

Michael with a quality striper.

One of many double hook-ups

26 stripers ready for the electric knife

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Client Fishing Trip Archive 2007

Client Fishing Trip Archive 2006

Lees Ferry Archives

Lake Powell Report

May 3, 2008

Al and his friend Tom from Sun City, AZ hired me for a full day. We striper fished the 3 mile area for several hours with good success. Many of the strikes were quite light and the fish were not as aggressive as 4/27 & 28. After getting rocked from boat wakes for a while, we tried inside of Antelope and nada, zippo. After lunch we ran up into Warm Creek looking for largemouth in the shallow water. After trying both jigs, crankbaits, swim baits and spinnerbaits, we left with only one striper on the swim bait. Back to three mile and more stripers to finish off the day. Fun guys to fish with, they'll be back this fall.

Tom lands the first fish of the day.

Lake Powell Report
May 13-14, 2008

Chris and his wife Tammy joined me for 2 afternoon half day trips on 5/13 & 14. The 13th was quite breezy, but manageable. The water temp has finally risen above 62 and has tripped the aggressive switch in the fish. Chris and Tammy caught many smallmouth and largemouth on jigs and dropshot. Breaks off of 5-10 foot deep slickrock shelves and narrow reef type structure jutting off points held many fish. The 14th was tougher despite even warmer water temps than the 13th. An approaching front might have something to do with the fish being finicky. The lake is rising about 4" per day now and will soon be at the base of the brush.

Chris takes a largemouth on a finesse worm and the ultralight rod.

Tammy lands a quality smallie on the dropshot rig.

Lake Powell Report

May 25, 2008

5 guys with a Japanese film production company fished a half-day from 11am to 3:30pm. We started in the rough channel at reliable #3. The stripers were in their usual mood and we had fast action for a couple hours. After constantly bobbing ibn the waves for 2 hours we made our way back into Wahweap Bay to fish for smallmouth. the guys caught several from a 4-12 foot drop-off across from Wahweap marina and a few near Castle Rock. All fish were relesed to fight another day.

This largemouth fell for dropshot 4" worm.

Typical striper from the channel.

Lake Powell Report
May 24, 2008

Ed and Brian fished a full day with me today for a mixed bag of species. The stripers are still going strong at buoy 3 in the main channel. The guys harvested 25 linesides here before we moved on to fish for smallmouth. Ed and Brian caught several on dropshot rigs with 4" worms across from Antelope Point and near Castle Rock.

Lake Powell Report

May 17, 2008

Clayton, Darrel and Arron fished a full day for largemouth, walleye and smallmouth as the targets. We started in Gunsight Canyon and found all 3 species on drop-offs in 10-15 feet. Hula grubs, dropshot worms and single tail grubs all took fish. Later, the mouth of Warm Creek also produced several fish.

Arron takes the first walleye of the day.

Darrel lands a scrappy smallie on a 6" plastic lizard.

Lake Powell Report
May 27, 2008

I spent a very productive with my friends from the Forgotten Canyon houseboat. They base camp about 50 miles uplake from Page in Oak Bay at the foot of Navajo Mountain. We spent the morning fishing stripers in a spot we killed 'em last year and the fish were there again. We kept a tally and the count was over 100 when we quit for lunch. After cleaning well over 40 stripers and eating brats, we went looking for smallmouth and perhaps a walleye or two. The smallies were very cooperative and they landed another 25 on grubs and dropshot rigs. The best spots were slickrock points, domes and saddles 10-20 feet deep.

Paula, with pencil at the ready to tally another fish, fights a striper.

Eric with a typical striper.

Lake Powell Report

June 1, 2008

2 Great folks from the fly fishing world fished with me on the 1st. Rick Ruhoff and his long time girlfriend Lori-Ann Murphy stopped by on their way to Montana for the summer. Rick as has been guiding saltwater fly anglers in Florida for 37 years and Lori Ann is the founder and owner of Reel Women Outfitters based in Willow Creek, Montana. I took them to Padre Bay so they could see some of the amazing rock formations Powell has to offer. We started our fishing day at the mouth of Kane Wash with hopes of finding the striper school that has put down roots there. We used the electronics to search the area with no luck. So we set up shop with some chum in hopes of bringing stripers in so we could fly fish to them. The stripers were off elsewhere but Rick did stick a nice smallie right off the bat on out first spot. Later, in a different spot in Padre Bay, both Lori-Ann and Rick caught more stripers on the same fly. We hope to have a fall trip as they leave Montana for Tucson and Florida again.

Rick lands the first smallie of the day.

Rick gets a yearling striper on a fly he uses in Florida.

Lake Powell Report

June/ July, 2008

June & July were hit and miss months. Stripers slurping larval and small shad were caught on top with small topwater lures. The small schools were only up for less than a minute and were catchable if the school surfaced near he boat. Anchovy fishing for stripers was fair early in July and got tougher as the fish broke off and started relating to the shad schools. Large and smallmouth fishing was spotty overall. The rapidly rising lake level caused the fish to scatter. As we enter August, the lake has been slowly declining for about 15 days and this will lead to better bass fishing. Topwaters and other reaction lures will work early and late in late in the day and the brush will be the place to find fish in ambush mode. In addition, midday fishing deep in the 25-35 foot range will produce some bass. Striper fishing will be spotty in the all but the inflow areas of the upper San Juan and Colorado river ends until the water starts to cool a bit.

Lake Powell Report

Sept. 6, 2008

Stephanie and her dad Pat hired me for a afternoon half day trip today. We left Stateline launch at 2 PM and made a bee line for Padre Bay and Kane Wash. With no stripers busting shad in sight, we started fishing for smallmouth and largemouth with topwater lures and drop shot rigs. Steph soon had a quality smallie on her topwater popper and a few more fish came on dropshot 4" worms and 1/2 oz jigging spoons. While in the canyon, we saw many balls of shad roaming in the narrow cuts. About 4:30, the stripers started to make their presence known by busting shad on the surface. The three of gave chase and Pat quickly hooked up with a strong fighting 2.5 pounder. A couple more came on the jigging spoons quickly reeled just under the surface. The action died shortly after and we went looking at other spots. Just before dusk, the stripers went ballistic near the main channel outside Labyrinth Canyon. There were small pods of fish busting shad everywhere.

The three of us took several more before it was time to race darkness back to the dock.

Lake Powell Report

Sept. 15 & 16 2008

I spent these 2 beautiful half days on the lake. One afternoon from 2 pm until dark and one fron 5:30 am until noon. The 15th was set aside for an afternoon cruise to Rainbow Bridge with a couple friends and we didn't get much fishing in. It's been a few years since I've been to the Rainbow Bridge and it never ceases to amaze me. We were one of only 4 boats there at 4:00 pm and we had the place to ourselves. The ranger on duty took us under the arch and back to the plaques commemorating the 2 Piute guides who escorted the first Anglos to see the bridge in 1909. What a great time of day to see the bridge. The entire bridge canyon was in shade while Navajo Mountain in the background was sunlit.

We did stop in Friendship cove on the way back to look for boils but saw none. I did however, see a ton of shad on the sonar and we caught a couple 2 pound stripers on jigging spoons before having to return to Page before it got too dark. While on the way back, we witnessed a most spectacular moonrise over Navajo Mountain.

On the 16th, I motored out and met my clients at the mouth of Padre Canyon at 6 am. We went looking for boiling stripers in Kane Wash and found only scattered single fish on the surface. Typical for the full moon period. The stripers feed heavily at night under the bright moon and the daytime fishing can be challenging. We did catch some smallmouth while I taught my clients how to dropshot.

Beautiful Rainbow Bridge

Chunky smallmouth

Lake Powell Report

Oct. 17, 2008

Clients Ron and Dan joined me for a full day on the lake today. Except for a short stop at the Warm Creek twin islands, a we fished most of the day in Last Chance Bay. Ron and Dan requested to fish for smallmouth and largemouth and LCB has lots of excellent spots to fish bass. I hoped to find the shad corralled in the backs of the pockets like the last time I was in here, but none were seen. We tried topwater with the fly rod and spin gear with not even a follow. Ron did get a smallie to eat a chartreuse minnow fly around lunchtime. A Rapala minnow took a couple of fish but the best method was to dropshot 4" Texas rigged worms next to the flooded trees and be patient. The fish liked the worm in their face for 20 seconds or so then they would eat it. A 4" grub and dropshot worms took several fish in Dove Canyon late in the day also. Beautiful weather and just a slight breeze.

Dan with a typical dropshot smallmouth

Lake Powell Report

October 25, 2008

I had 3 clients from Marlin Mechanical Contractors in Phoenix today. Tom, Dick, Thomas and I opted to stay local and circumnavigated Antelope Island. Stripers have been extra tough, so we fished for smallmouth and largemouth bass. Conditions were a little off having a cold front pass through a couple days ago and a 50+ boat Anglers Choice bass tournament happening. However, we found many spots to fish that had no tournament pressure. The fish were tough to catch overall; we found some on dropshot 4" worms outside brush lines and rocky points. After lunch we caught some 35 foot deep fish near Antelope Point Marina on drop shot and a couple on jigs. The best action of the day happened on a submerged island not far from the dam. Dropshot was the rig here too. Great guys and a fun day.

Lake Powell Report

November 1, 2008

Brothers Terry and Steve from Utah hired me for a full today. Great guys with lots of jokes and fishing stories. Bass fishing was even tougher than last Saturday we stayed local again and managed to find several fish with 'ole reliable dropshot. Some of the same spots from last week just didn't produce the same amount of action today. The weather was very warm for November first.

Speaking of November 1st, every year, Page holds its Balloon Ragata the first weekend of November. Friday is limited flights with members of the media, Saturday and Sunday are regular flights and Saturday night is the balloon glow and street fair in downtown Page. It's something to see.

Terry with a scrappy smallie

Ballons drift over Lake Powell National

Golf Course

Beautiful baloon glow on Saturday night

Lees Ferry & Lake Powell Report

November 8, 9 2008

John and his 14 year old son Brandon from New Jersey fly fished with me at Lees Ferry today. We had success with midges and San Juan worms fished under an indicator. Brandon stuck the first fish of the day on a black and copper midge. Dad soon followed with a fish on a tan worm. Brandon had a big fish hooked but it dove deep and got his rig snagged on the bottom. After lunch, we drift fished with 10 foot long rigs with eggs, worms and midges. The action drifting was better than wading. John and Brandon had success on the worms in several areas of the river. I bounced a big pink egg pattern on the bottom with a spinning rod while we drifted and caught several fish. Sunday, we briefly fished Lake Powell under overcast skies. John and Brandon had a plane to catch so, we only fished about 3 hours. The fish were tough but a feisty smallie hit a green jig in Gunsight Canyon.