Fishing Report
May 1, 2007
3 anglers from Utah enjoyed another great day of striper and bass fishing on Lake Powell. The striper fishing was not as red-hot as in previous weeks, but we still found several spots were the fish took anchovies readily. Bass fishing was good with 5” grubs and 4” tubes in watermelon and pearl/silver.
Lake Powell Report
May 3-5, 2007
I motored up Lake Powell 92 miles to Stanton Creek to guide several members of the Atwood family for 3 days. Despite nasty wind, cold and occasional drizzle, we beat up on the stripers big-time. Day one found us just inside the mouth of Moki Canyon anchored on a rock pile using grubs with ‘chovies and Carolina rigs with circle hooks and a chunk of bait. Action was fast and we had several quadruple hook-ups. Day 2 was better weather and we decided to bass fish for a while before striper fishing again. A few bass came on hula grubs, but overall, the action was slow. I pulled up at buoy 90 where the river channel turns away from a vertical wall and the sloping slickrock begins. This spot and many others like it produce a ton of fish in the spring. Buoy 90 was no exception. We caught lots of small but good eating stripers along with a few larger ones here. After the small fish got to be old hat, we motored down to the mouth of Lake Canyon. This spot was loaded with healthy sized stripers. Despite the windy conditions, we took at least 40 fish here. Day 3 was much the same at Lake Canyon. The stripers were plenty happy and one walleye took a ‘chovie on a Carolina rig.
This was an excellent trip and I would like to thank Mel and the rest of the crew for booking me for these 3 days.
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Lake Powell Report
May 9-11, 2007
One of my best friends and very good angler, Rich Stanton drove 7 hours from Tucson to make the long journey up lake to the San Juan arm for a 3 day trip. I haven’t been to the Juan for a few years. I looked back on archived reports on WaynesWords.com and most every report from mid-May was very good. Our trip was another in that category. The further we went up the river the warmer the water temp got. The main lake temp was 64 and our camp in Piute Creek was 72 degrees. The water color had changed to a nice milky green and we later found the truly muddy water and heavy debris to be only about 8 miles up the river, or about half way up the west side of the Great Bend.
Day 1
In Piute, we found a great concentration of crappie and large bluegills in a 200 square foot pocket sheltered in front by big boulders. Neither Rich nor I took our crappie gear on this trip, but I had 2” pearl and clear grubs and 1/16 oz. heads to rig them on. This was all we needed to catch lots of panfish. We found this pattern held up everywhere in the off color water in the San Juan. This spot was only about 100 yards from camp and we fished it several times over the 3 days. Bass fishing was very good in Piute as well. Rich and I fished a variety of jigs along the broken shoreline. Most fish came from water shallower than 15 feet. Darker colors like watermelon, pumpkin and smoke sparkle were the best producers.
Day 2
Rich and I fished from Piute up to east of Neskahi wash. We had steady action with jigs, topwater, lipless cranks, senkos and jerkbaits. Rich stuck a beautiful 3lb. smallie on a weightless senko in the back of Neskahi. Shade was the key for both LMB and SMB in the morning; all the better fish came from the shady pockets. We didn’t keep count of how many fish came to the boat, but is was quite a lot. After returning to camp to have lunch in the shade, we headed further up the river. We found that flooded car-sized boulders held tons of fish that would eat jigs and dropshot worms with gusto. Stripers also lurked here and took swimming grubs whenever we saw then in within casting range.
Day 3
More huge boulder fishing for LMB and SMB and lots of crappie from sheltered pockets. We drove up into the heavy debris along the west side of the Great Bend as far as I dared. Whole trees floated everywhere and the water was chocolate. There is very little but vertical wall in this area of the river. I only managed to catch one big crappie with a rattle trap out of the mud. Just as we left the muddiest water we started to fish isolated shady talus slopes. These produced the largest LMB of the trip. Rich and I both caught several fish in the 3-4 pound range on chartreuse tubes and zipper worms. When we returned to our favorite stretch of large boulders I was fishing my 2” grub in search of smallies and hooked into what I figured was a 3 or 4 pound striper. After several minutes, the fish came shallow enough to see it was the biggest walleye I have ever hooked. It scaled at 5 pounds even.
Rich and I had a blast for these 3 days and plan to make this trip again next year.
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Lees Ferry Report
July 1-15, 2007
July 1-15, 2007
The cicada bite is on!! The fish are looking for the big terrestrial insects along the bank. Most of the trout hit the flies like a smallmouth hits a topwater and fight very well when hooked. This presentation is done from the drifting boat while I row to keep the attitude and position of the boat where I want it. In addition to dry flies, wade fishing is also productive with dry/ dropper and nymphing techniques working on most spots. Best nymphs are orange or tan scuds, tan San Juan worms and black midge patterns.
Lake Powell Report
July 24, 2007
Steve from Tucson and his grandson James from Mesa fished yesterday on Lees Ferry and today on Powell. We launched at 5:30 with plans of getting some topwater action from small and largemouth bass, but they weren’t interested in the areas we tried. So, we made stripers our focus. After trying a couple other areas first, we ended up at the power plant intake. The action was steady for several hours. Steve and James had several doubles and lots of fun. They harvested 22 fish.
Let Kevin Campbell customize your trip on Lake Powell
Lees Ferry Report
August 3-25, 2007
August 3-25, 2007
The Ferry continues to impress. The rainbows are in beautiful shape and average 14" with several up to 18" seen every day by our guide staff. I had a spin fishing day on the 17th and the fish took ¼ oz. black and gold Panther Martin spinners very well as well as marabou jigs. 2 fish of 18"+ took the spinner up by the dam. Fly fishing is still good while wading and drifting. Deep nymphing and swinging wooly buggers are both working well. The cicada bite is pretty much over.
Lees Ferry Report
September 1-7
River flows have dropped to a much lower level compared to summer levels. This provides better access to large areas of cobble bars and sight fishing opportunities. Many fish are quite shallow and catchable if proper stealth is employed. Dry / dropper techniques will prevail for the next few weeks. On the 1st and 2nd, 2 anglers who caught several fish shallow on beadhead midge and shrimp patterns. I had a spin fishing trip on the 5th. Panther martin spinners and Rapalas accounted for the majority of the fish. The fish averaged about 14" and are in great shape.
Lake Powell Report
September 2007
September 2007
The peak of the topwater season is upon us. The bays and channel will have fish on the surface most every day until 8 or 9 AM. After the surface action is over, stripers can be taken on vertically jigged spoons, anchovies or trolling. Bass fishing for large and smallmouth will progressively get better as the water gradually cools.
Lake Powell Report
March 2008
I've been hearing many reports from friends and other guides about improving fishing on Lake Powell.
This is prime time for largemouth. My neighbor and his son have caught several quality fish up to 3.5 lbs. The stripers will be getting happier as the weather stabilizes and warms. The smallies and walleyes have been biting crankbaits well this winter for a postal buddy of mine. This weekend will be picture-perfect. I can't wait to get out myself.
Lees Ferry Report
March 22, 2008
March 22, 2008
Not as crowded as I thought it would be with the beautiful stable weather on a Saturday.
The spring spawn is on in a big way. The high water 2 weeks ago loosened the gravel up and the fish went right back to spawning. I spin fished today with 3 clients and most of the fish we caught were on gravel bottom. The sandy areas only produced a few fish. The lower river is still a little off-color but the bottom can still be seen at 20 feet. Drifting big egg flies was the ticket. Many colors worked, but shrimp pink was the best by far. Between the 4 of us fishing I figure we landed about 50-60 fish with 6 17-19 inches. Most of the fish are in beautiful shape. Some are lean from spawning, but that's normal. The males are in full color with scarlet cheeks and stripes.
What Color!
19.5" Rainbow in spawning colors.
P.O. Box 4661
Page, AZ 86040
Lees Ferry Report
June/ July 2008
The cicada season is upon Lees Ferry. Every summer the big insects hatch out and the trout love to munch them. I've made a few trips this month to fly fish this hatch with great success. While guiding on the Ferry the past 11 years, this has always been my favorite time of year.
South Fork Colorado
July 22-27
I made my yearly pilgrimage to South Fork July 22-27 to fly fish the Rio Grande and surrounding waters for trout. I stayed with my bud and former Lees Ferry guide Tyson Warren and his wife Elaine. Tyson guides for Wolf Creek Anglers. Ty took the 24th off to float the Rio Grande with me and his step son Brad. Brad used to guide the Ferry also and worked for Wolf Creek until he bought a restaurant in South Fork last summer. We floated through town and did very well pulling streamers and nymphing with dry/ dropper rigs or indicators.
On the 25th, I waded a section of the Rio several miles upriver of town with great success. Of the 8 fish I landed in this section, one was 19.5" and another was 20.5", both rainbows. The others were colorful browns to 16".
Ty introduced me to a local school teacher and part-time guide Tom Tichy. Tom and another Wolf Creek guide, Devon and I fished a marathon 10 hour float from above the old mining town of Creede to Wagon Wheel Gap. We had a blast fishing mostly streamers due to the off-color water from the previous nights rain in the area. We traded the rowing chores every 3 hooked fish, what's called "baseball". We traded many, many times that day. Browns to 17" and rainbows to 19" occupied our rods frequently.
Fishing the Rio Grande near Creede, CO
Hooked up
Nice fish eats one of my cutsom tied flies
My bud Brad
19.5" rainbow