Summer
Lake Powell Report
June- August 2012
Topwater and spooning for stripers is the name of the game in the hot part of the summer for me. I’ve taken a few trips on the lake and stayed close to Page. I start out looking for splashes from stripers chasing shad and throw a topwater of some type in the area. Most of these fish have been yearlings and in the 16 inch range but still fun. The bigger fish in the 3-5 pound range are deeper and will usually take a jigging spoon. I keep a close eye on my sonar and when I find a school, I put down the topater and quickly pick up the spoon rod and drop it to the feeding stripers.
Lees Ferry Report
Guide Trip
July 27th, 2012
Rainbow trout fishing is excellent! Summer means cicadas at the Ferry. These big bugs are a nice change of pace for the trout which normally feed on much smaller aquatic food sources. I have been out many times this Summer and the fishing has been excellent. As of my trip on the 22nd, it looks like the cicada bite might be winding down a bit. The wade fishing was excellent however. Randy and Jeff from Scottsdale fish with me on the 22nd and the wade fishing was very good. Dry/ dropper fishing was very good in riffles and shallow nymphing (4-6 feet) was excellent in the deeper runs just below the rifles. Just before lunch, we did some drifting with long heavy nymphing rigs below the dam. This produced the biggest fish of the day on scuds and worms. After lunch we fished the cicada dries to select banks and drew some nice strikes from several aggressive trout. A great day on the river once again.
Lake Powell Report
Guide Trips
June-July, 2012
Lake Powell has a been a bit of a fickle creature recently. Some very good days mixed with some ok days. The stripers are boiling on most days especially very early in the morning. Recent monsoon rains are helping out greatly with cloudy skies in the mornings. This prolongs the boils greatly. On sunny days, the boils are mostly done except in shady areas along high cliffs by 7am. The trolling for walleye remains fairly good with mid-depth crankbaits. Smallmouth are often caught with the walleye off the flooded tree tops. Jig fishing is always a consistient way to put fish in the boat this time of year. Single tail Yamamoto grubs are a favorite. Broken rock, especially with scattered bursh is a good place to find smallmouth and the occasional walleye. The trusty dropshot rig is a go-to method to provide good action from smallmouth.