Spring fishign remains hot for smallmouth bass. Walleye fishing is good and getting better and striper fishing is on the verge of becoming excellent. That's a summary of the new fishing report by DWR biologist Wayne Gustaveson. You can see the full report here. Below are excerpts:

Bass have mostly pulled off the nests as fry have hatched following a good spawn in mid April.  But males still guard the swimming fry for a time and are in close proximity to the nest.  Bass are seen cruising in shallow water rather than guarding each nest. But it’s not over.  Soon guarding males will abandon swimming fry and reoccupy the nest. They spawn again and start the process over again.  The difference this year is that anglers will be able to see nests in May that are usually covered by murky runoff.  Males will now randomly spawn and guard nests depending on where they are in their individual nesting/spawning cycle.  The end result will be visible bass which are very aggressive on nests shortly after eggs are deposited but slacking off in aggressiveness a day or two after the event.   Crappie follow a similar pattern but their second spawn is weaker than large and smallmouth bass.

Walleye fishing improves each day...

Male stripers have been ready to spawn since early April but females are still holding off, hence the inconsistency of striper fishing right now.  Once in place males don’t move much and are often dormant during the day.  They can be found by trolling and casting near points.  Spawning will not occur until females are stimulated to spawn by rapidly rising water temperature and increased inflow near a flowing tributary.  Historically, the earliest spawn has come near May 10 and has been delayed as late as June 10.  Finding a spawning striper school is the only thing better than fishing a boil.  The only problem is that it all happens at night.  

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RexFly.com has posted good information and a couple of videos showing how they catch crappie and smallmouth bass at Lake Powell fishing minnow-immitation patterns using a fly rod. You can see the videos and read the information on this post on www.wayneswords.com. We have embedded one of the videos below. They have 2 videos on their original post and it is worth clicking to see the other one.

Smallmouth and largemouth fishing is now very good at Lake Powell when the water warms between storm fronts. Bass are looking for nesting sites and spawning is expected as early as next week. Anglers cruise shorelines looking for big fish and then cast to them - for exciting sight-fishing action. Wayne Gustaveson expects very good action to continue into May. Here's a quote:

The good news about early warming and small runoff is that sight fishing for cruising and nesting bass may be prolonged into May. Bass nests made this week may still be visible and only a foot or two deeper during May. Bass fishing will be good enough that all anglers will be successful. So remember to release largemouth bass and male smallmouth bass that are guarding nests. It is fine to keep smallmouth bass 12 inches and smaller.

Stripers are so fat, they are not expected to make their normal spring move in large numbers toward the dam. They can be caught in the backs of canyons and along the side of the main channel.

Read Wayne's full fishing report.

The warm spring has seasonal changes occurring a week or two earlier than normal. To hit the best fishing, I'm moving my Powell trip to the last week of April. I still have room in the boat if anyone is interested.

- Dave Webb

Ice is now pulling back at Scofield. Ice-off fishing should be good there this weekend and early next week.

Strawberry ice-off may start later next week, still too early to know for sure. Watch for updates.

Many streams are now running high and a little muddy, but are still fishable. The best stream fishing now will be on protected stretches below dams:

Green River

Provo below Jordanelle and below Deer Creek

Weber between the dams

Ogden below Pineview

Huntington below Electric Lake

Lake Powell is now heating up for stripers, smallmouth, largemouth and other species. Peak spring action will probably occur late April and early May. I'm planning to head down the fist weekend in May. I still have room in the boat if anyone ways to come.

Flaming Gorge and many small reservoirs now offer good trout fishing.

I fished the stream below Joes Valley yesterday and did well using nymphs, catching small browns and cutts. The water was very low, very clear and very cold. Not much insect action.

We had planed to fish Joes from my little inflatable boat, but the wind was strong and gusty and we didn't dare launch.

Wayne Gustaveson predicts this will be the year of the Big Fish at Lake Powell.

The photo at right shows a 28 pounder caught by Rich Cromwell Halls Creek Bay. Wayne gives this account:

 "A bass angler was bouncing tube jigs on the bottom at 40 feet near the Halls boat ramp when a 28-pound striper inhaled the bait.  He landed the trophy and now leads the parade with the largest striper caught this year.  This fish is larger than the 5-10 pound fish that are being caught in the southern lake.  There will be many more “big fish,”  5 pounds and better, caught as spring progresses."

Wayne is the DWR biologist heading the fishing program at Lake Powell. He writes a weekly fishing report giving excellent, timely tips for catching all species at Powell. 

See Wayne's report here.

Stripers are now active on the upper end of Lake Powell. www.wayneswords.com offers the best fishing info for the lake. Wayne Gustaveson is the Utah DWR project leader for the lake and he updates fishing conditions weekly from March through October. His site also has a buletin board where readers post good information.

Here's the latest post:

"Just came home from one of the best trips ever. Located a few small schools on the high spots in striper city from 35-40 ft. Also caught a dozen walleye while jigging a kastmaster. Then I found a really large school in 55 ft in the mouth of trachyte on the west side. The school was so large it was 25ft thick. When a striper was brought up the whole school followed. As soon as I could get the spoon over the side you could catch another at less than fifteen ft. by myself I caught 42 and one walleye in just over an hour. I had to just drive off and leave them. It would be a great place to take kids. Most of the time you did not even have to jig your spoon. There is a small rock island and the school was located straight towards white canyon from that island. Also caught a few crappie just north of Farley canyon."