Fishing Forum

Just got back from three days of fun, fishing, and sun...

Some on this site may wish that they could get all other kinds of fish out of Utah but the trout and only have buckets of water for them to swim in, but guess WHAT?????

POWELL FISHING is on FIRE and with more and bigger fish then ever...Yes BIGGER and more of them...

You check out what it takes to win a tournament on any waters and then see what it takes on Powell !! Yes we do have WORD class fishing here in Utah, that bucket must have run over and made a great Lake Powell ...

Now the rest of the story...[]

On Friday we had to wait till 7:00 to get on the water to start our day of prefish on the ramp to the east is a big rock (you can see in the camera shot at Powell) I was getting my poles ready and made a cast to it and got my first fish, a great 2+ lb large mouth its going to be a great day...[sly][cool][cool]

With a short day to fish I headed south, the bass have just got on there beds in some spots and I wanted to find out where and how many ...

After a run for one hour south we came in for a landing and the game has begun, when you pre-fish you don't want to hook the bigger fish you will need for the tournament and in most tournaments a two pounder is a big fish but with bent hooks we started fishing with a dabble on the start...
We fished and looked but no fish we found was on beds.. But the fishing was great, even with trying not to hook bass we still boated over 20 bass each the smallest at 13" and about 1.0 to 1.4lb we seen some that looked to be over 5lb or more..

The first day of the tournament I ran south and with hopes of catching some of the bigger fish we seen the day of prefish ...
Sometimes thing just don't work the way you want yes I hooked big fish but then a tree or brush would jump up in the way or the fish would throw the hook back at you and yes your hooked (better then the fish was) well with lots of limits and big bass coming in and the winning weight at over 16 lb and me with just under ten, well just not a good day but still boated over 40 bass over 12" , but no fish on beds could we find...

Sunday looking great and I headed out, pulled up on a point where I lost what looked to be a five pounder the day before and there was a bed with two bass one looked to be about 2lb and the other was looking to be twice the size...I made my cast and the bigger one stood on its nose and picked up the lure and I set the hook...

after a quick fight the big girl was in the net but the hook was just on the outside of the lip, she weighed in at 6lb 14oz but I had to release her (when bed or sight fishing the hook must be in the mouth)...

(Well I have been trying to post up a picture of the fish but for the last two to three weeks I have been having trouble with not being notified of anyone that answers my posts and when I try to post pictures, WHAT IS GOING on has BFT changed anything ???? or how dose it work now...)

Well anyway I ended the day with just at 10.8 lb , just not my luck but lots of bed all over by sunday...

Any one know how Bull frog got its name??

If I can get the pictures to post you can see why...
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That sounds like a fun trip. Too bad on the weight, but that's fishing for ya. A couple of buddies and I have a trip to powell planned for this weekend. Heading down thursday night to sunday. Sounds like a cold front coming wed/thu. Do you think that will turn em off big time, or still worth the trip? We were thinking of putting in at Bullfrog and running up lake. Maybe around GoodHope. Figure a 22' pontoon won't launch too well at Hite. Will the weather push them off their beds, or should we wait a week or two? Any info would be great. Thanks
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Man you are killing me with these posts when I'm sitting in the office working. Hopefully the parts for my boat come in on Wed so I can get on the water soon!
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Nice job cliff. I enjoyed the pictures. Powell is certainly looking very good right now. It is peaking. How long do you suspect this will last?




is there a spell-check that can be enabled on this site?
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Very nice post and great pic's. I'm jealous! Thanks for taking the time to post.

I be headed there thursday now i really can't wait.... Way to go bass rods looks like funin the sun
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The Bull Frog open is this weekend with 80+ boats is said to be in it, I will be there as well...

The fishing should be great water is 58 and getting warmer all the fish are moving shallow as well..

Good Hope is a great place to go...
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Peeking???

Not sure what you mean???If you mean that Powell may be as good as it may get?? I think it can and will get better, Why I think this is the shad, this past five times I have been to Powell from the dam to Hite I have seen more shad then carp swimming past my boat...

The more food the bigger other fish we should have, and the year class sizes of the shad, + the thin fin shad are back in numbers as well...

Water is said to come up 20' to 30' more then last year, and the average size of bass both stripers and all are bigger and in better shape over all....

The other fish are all coming back in numbers and size as well from the small to the bigger ones...
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Tube baits in browns and greens are working...
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Cliff -- I wasn't trying to get in an argument with you, but you seem to like to argue...


Yes, peaking. Powell, as even you know, has been down for the last few years. It is now moving in an upward direction with fish size, numbers, and quality (as you've said yourself) moving in an upward direction. This will continue until it hits the peak (or, the maximum carrying capacity), at which point it will no longer continue to go up. At that point, it will go down. Thus, my statement "Powell is peaking". It is moving up towards it's maximum carrying capacity.

As you've also mentioned, there are more shad (more food) and higher water levels. So, you've increased your carrying capacity (size of bucket) which has resulted in a sharp rise in quality growth of all fish (this is good!). However, it cannot and will not continue like this forever. It will max out.

Fishing is very good right now. Nobody is trying to claim otherwise. I am excited for Powell, just like you. I would like to know your opinion of how long do you suspect this will last? (honest question -- I want to know your opinion, as a respected angler that spends a bunch of time on the water, how long do you think it will last?)




(glad I have my super-secret mojo decoder ring handy...)
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Nice Post Bassrods! I have gone every year in the Spring for at least 20 years, and I agree that the amount and size of fish has been increasing lately, helped by amount of forage, and also the increasing water level.

Have to enjoy it now. Some of the best Largemouth and Crappie fishing I have seen.

Tight lines.
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I think it will last until the shad die off...

But who can see into the future, as long as the we have the bigger shad as brood stock, or the lake is drained, or from over fishing it should last for years...

With any lake if you have food for the fish to eat and water to swim in they do great...

But with out food no amount of water will help...
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I used to fish it back in the 70's most week ends in the spring. At that time the large mouth ruled the lake. Stripers were not introduced until the late 70's. At that time 4- 6lb bucket mouths were the norm. We did'nt consider them large until they were over 5 or 6 lbs. I hope to see it come back that way. I'm headed down in a week or so!!!
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my dad tells me stories like that one. Catching loads of largemouths. They were all the size of the nice stripers that are caught now. He fished, but probably water skied more than anything in the 70's
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[quote bassrods]

With any lake if you have food for the fish to eat and water to swim in they do great...

But with out food no amount of water will help...[/quote]

How do you keep the food chain going? In a lake dominated by predators, how do the prey continue to sustain at high enough levels to keep up with the predators? Especially a predator like striped bass that reproduce out of control?


Without water, no amount of food will help...
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I can't see the picture of the 7lber?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
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During the low water years brush and grass has grown in the back of many bays and canyons. As the water rises it submerges this brush and grass providing shad and other small fish a hiding place. Fishing should remain good as long as the nursery for the baitfish is intact, Once the grasses and smaller brush are either very deep of rot away the bait fish nursery is less productive.. Talking about pool size at Powell is not an issue, even in low water years there is one hell of a lot of water, but not productive water for the most part. The stipers may be cruising deep but they depend on the fish reared in the more productive bays and canyons. Its just my opinion but as long as water is rising and new brush and grass are flooded powell should produce. When it starts to drop the fishing should fall off also
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[quote fish_fear_me2]During the low water years brush and grass has grown in the back of many bays and canyons. As the water rises it submerges this brush and grass providing shad and other small fish a hiding place. [/quote]

80% of the replies on this post summed up by this statment.

either way im ehading down there this weekend and have tried many times to drink myself into a coma so i can sleep until saturday, unfortunatly that pesky dang thing called work keeps bugging me.

nice report, like the pics, now you have me shaking like a hamster in a san francisco pet shop with anticipation...... for the trip
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The shad is two of the food sores carp is another then you have the young of each of all the other fish in the lake, in the past the thin fin shad was the main food but they stayed small and all sizes could be eating so there was almost none left...Now look at the Gizzard shad, some are over 20" long and lay more eggs + they are almost too big for all to get eating up by anything but the biggest Stripers...

As long as the Gizzard shad last the fishing should be great...
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fish fear me -- BINGO. Nice comments.

Cliff -- I need to borrow your decoder ring again....
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