Utah Fishing Reports

The photo above shows one of the stripers we caught at Lake Powell last weekend. See my report.

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Lake Powell
I enjoyed a great trip to Lake Powell last weekend. Weather was perfect - hot and dry. We divided our time between wake boarding, tubing, cliff jumping and fishing. See my fishing report. I also have these fishing photos from the trip, and these photos showing the kids playing.

We camped in a cove across the lake from Knolls Canyon and caught lots of smallmouth right there. Could have caught more but wanted to target stripers. We cruised around looking for boils and saw 3 but they were small and gone before we had a chance to fish them. The graph showed groups of fish down 30-40 feet and so we targeted them trolling with downriggers. Caught a bunch on Shad Rap Rapallas.

Trolling was very effective. The only problems we had was keeping the small bass and walleye away. Almost every time we trolled over a hump, a little fish wold grab the hook but not trip the downrigger. If 20 minutes went by and we didn't catch a striper, we would check our lines and find that we were dragging small fish. We learned to watch the angle of the downrigger cable. If the angle changed, we popped our line up and reeled in a small fish.

Next Up
I've camped 1-2 nights a week for the last month, so I'm staying close to home this weekend. I may do a day trip up into the Uintas, if I can find a time between thunderstorms.

I'm hoping to fish Flaming George toward the end of the month, or the first week in September. I want to catch some kokanee and try for a big lake trout. Now is a great time for both goals. I'd like to get photos of kokanee starting to color up. (There are special regs for the koks - you can't keep any kokanee from Sept 10 through Nov 30.)

Bass Regulations
DWR is considering simplifying bass fishing regulations and reducing the bag limit as described below. They are seeking public input on the plan. More details.
- A limit of six bass, with no size restrictions, at most of Utah's bass waters.
- Five reservoirs (Jordanelle, Quail Creek, Sand Hollow, Gunlock and Huntington North) would also have a six-bass limit. But only one bass in that six-bass limit could be longer than 12 inches.

Biologists would also like to simplify the bass limits at Lake Powell and Flaming
Gorge. But they need to do additional work with biologists in Arizona and Wyoming before recommending a plan.

- Dave

Thunderstorms are affecting recreation, sometimes creating dangerous conditions. It looks like Thursday and Friday will be very nice but evening storms could be back Saturday and Sunday. Watch the weather and take care when you go out.

We've survived the hottest part of summer. Nights are noticeable longer now, kids are going back to school and fall is just around the corner. Early fall is actually my favorite time to head outdoors. Temperatures are very nice, crowds are down and fishing improves for most species. Here's looking for a long, mild fall.

The Uinta Mountains continue to provide very good fishing. Expect rain every day, and be prepared for cool temperatures. It can hail and snow in the Uintas any day of the year. Conditions in the mountains should stay good through September, and maybe longer. Some years winter-like storms hit in early October. The high country starts to shut down in mid or late October.

Fly fishing remains good on our trout streams. Hoppers, ants and beetles will be productive during the coming weeks, but there will also be some PMDs and caddis. Fish can be fickle during late-summer. Talk to the guys in the fly shops to learn about productive patterns.

Strawberry, Scofield, Flaming Gorge, Fish Lake and many other trout waters continue to fish very well - better than normal for this time of year. Normally, trout go deep during the hottest part of summer. Many fish are being caught in shallow areas, particularly during early morning and late evening. During the day, the best action comes trolling or fishing bait in deep water.

Lake Powell was fun and productive last weekend - I enjoyed a great trip. See my report.

Lake Powell fishing is good now but a downturn is expected. Shad numbers are diminishing and that spells trouble for the lake's huge population of predator fish. Traditionally, the lake has followed a boom and bust cycle. Small threadfin shad were the primary forage fish and big, feeding all of the lake's predators. Striped bass and other predators would do well while shad numbers held up. But the predators would literally eat themselves out of house and home, causing shad numbers to crash. That in turn caused the predators to crash and then the cycle would repeat itself.

With the accidental introduction of gizzard shad, many hoped the forage fish could stay ahead of the predators. That was the case for several years and fishing has been great. But DWR biologist Wayne Gustaveson says the cycle is continuing: "It really hurt me to write the fish report this morning. All signs point to a food shortage. Shad numbers have crashed and predators are at a peak in population numbers. This is not good. It was inevitable but I wanted the glory days to last just a little bit longer." See Wayne's fishing report.

Powell's predators are in prime condition right now and fishing is good. They will grow hungry over the winter and fishing may be very good next spring, albeit the fish will not be quite so fat. After that, the predators may grown skinny until the cycle repeats.

Utah Wildlife News
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