[size 1]I just got back from a 3.5 day trip to Lake Powell. I stayed in the Bullfrog area. I for one was not impressed with the fishing this year (by Lake Powell standards). It was the poorest fishing I have seen in five consecutive years visiting Lake Powell in the month of May. Not just quantity, but size. We fished HARD for the striped bass and did manage to catch them, but have never had to work so hard for them. The people that we talked with (at the Halls and Bullfrog marinas, the gas stations in the area, the fish cleaning station, and the fuel dock) had not heard of anyone doing well for stripers this year. We were unable to find any fish in schools large enough and/or concentrated enough to jig or anchovy fish for. We had sucess trolling using a GPS to mark and track the schools as they moved. We fished from Knowles Canyon to Halls Canyon. We only caught stripers in Bullfrog Bay and the back of Halls. The stripers in Bullfrog only averaged about 10 to 14 inches with a few larger ones. The ones in Halls were bigger, but we had to troll through a forest of submerged trees to get at them. It was a good way to 'use up' some of my older lures. The weather and the camping was great. Don't get me wrong, I was just a little dissappointed after all the hype about how great the fishing was going to be this year. It really was the worst fishing I have seen in the last five years. That said, here are trip results:
101 fish total, 10 Walleyes, 4 Catfish, 4 Smallmouths, the remainder Stripers. 33 fish on Sunday evening and Monday, 41 on Tuesday, and 27 on Wednesday.
The fish pictures posted are of my best fishing buddy, fish picture model, and wife. [/size]
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Nice buckets of fish and it sounds like you ran ito the same situation I did two weeks ago there, although we concentrated on the smallies and found it hit and miss too.
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Great report! Great pictures! I love Lake Powell--my favorite place to fish. Where did you camp? Where did you catch the walleye? I usually fish in the Hite area because there seems to be more walleye in that area. However, this year it appears that there is no Hite area. What lures did you use to catch the walleye?
Lloyd
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]Great report! Thanks for sharing. [font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]I too heard reports of 3-4lb fish average by the bucket full. [/size][/font]Looks like it's still worth getting down there and knocking down a few stripers. Where was your camping site located?[/size][/font]
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Dang! I wish I could complain about ONLY 101 fish in 1 trip. Lately I'm more in the neighborhood of 1 fish in 101 trips.
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Full moon was on the 4th, and striper fishing is always slow during full moon periods.
Lake Powell fishes different than in years past, as you have to adjust to fish that aren't starved (which has been the case for many years now).
I'm looking forward to when they start boiling!!
Wow you still caught a ton of fish!And it sounds like you had a great time.Did you chum for stripers or did you just troll for them?I havnt been to powell in 3 years! I really want to go this year hopefully around the fall.I used an ocean tactic for chumming the strippers when i was there and it worked awesome!My daughter and my nephew caught about 90% of the fish i was to busy unhooking them and baiting the hooks.I didnt chum pieces of the anchovies into the water because that only feeds them then they go away! I used a chum bag and boy did they stick around !They folow they chum slick and since there is no food around for them to eat only the smelll they come right to the boat and hang around for a long time.It seems they jusy kept coming and we kept catching them .We ended up with 4 coolers worth of stripers .
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We camped in Moki Canyon. There were very few camping spots there, but they were good spots with lots of privacy. The Walleyes came out of the back of Halls canyon and in the open water in Bullfrog bay over 30 to 50 feet of water. We caught stripers on Walleye Divers, Rattle Traps, and most of all Shad Raps; all black and silver. The walleye were caught on Shad Raps and Walleye Divers in the evening and after dark. The 2 inch Shad Raps were the most effective. The planer boards also helped, especially when searching for the schools. We tried chumming and jigging anchovies several times without any luck. We sat on Moki wall from 8 to 10 pm Monday night and only had one bite which ended up breaking our line. I'll have to try your method OCEAN. Can you reuse the chum bag throughout the day as you move? What kind of bag do you use? Do you put the anchovies in the bag whole or do you crush or grind them?
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click on the link below it goes into chum buckets a little
[url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/articles/fishing/saltwater/georgescorner_fish_tales_shipwrecks.html"]http://www.bigfishtackle.com/articles/fishing/saltwater/georgescorner_fish_tales_shipwrecks.html[/url]
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101 fish and your complaining. That's like crying over spilled milk but worse since you were fishing.
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going to have to try one of them chum baskets at powell.
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I'm headed down to Powell for 4-5 days of fishing on Wednesday a.m. Will hit the Bullfrog area north with high expectations, wind permit. Full report when I return. Any suggestions anyone?
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You can reuse the bag forever.I had one that lasted me 4 years.I mashed the anchovies and put them in the bag and the parts that floated out were so small they couldnt eat them.That keeps them hanging around for food .They can smaell it all around them but theres nothing to really eat but your bait [
].We had them hang around for hours i think some came and left then more would come and do the same.
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This is a popular way to fish make the fish find you! Drift fishing is a very effective way to get into fish.They follow the chum slick right to your boat.
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What kind of bag did you use?? Sounds like fun great idea thanks!!
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Its a bag made out of nylon with with tiny holes .And you tie it to your boat all saltwater retailers carry it.Just ask for a chum bag and they will know what you want.
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I thought your pictures looked a little familiar. I haven't camped at Moki Canyon since the water went down--a great place to camp! Thanks for the details about your fishing experiences. Great report!
Lloyd
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great fish.....I don't know how 101 fish in a couple of days can be bad. I guess I need to get down to Powell and try myself.
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