Powell Lake and Reports

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Thursday, February 2nd, 2023

  • Report: Lake Powell - Water levels are low. Only one ramp on the lake is open. The open ramp is the Legacy Stateline Auxiliary Ramp. Water Temperature: 44 F (Wahweap Bay). Lake elevation: 3,523.45 feet on 2/1/23. No new reports likely until Spring 2023.

Wednesday, November 23rd, 2022

  • Report: At Lake Pleasant (report courtesy of Sportsman’s Warehouse), fishing has been rated as good. The water level is dropping. Water surface level was at 1,662 feet this week (58.8% of max), and water temperature was 63 degrees. Fishing for white bass and stripers is fair as they adjust to the lowered water levels. Some reports of success with largemouth bass. Best baits seem to be topwater, drop-shot jigs, Texas-rigged worms, Senkos, and swimbaits.

Friday, April 10th, 2009

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    Water Temp: 57

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fishing has been phenomenal this year so far here at Lake Powell. Water temps have cooled a bit recently but once the water heats up again the smallmouth and largemouth will be biting. Most of the fish caught to this point in tournaments and recreational fishing have been in the 2-6lb range. Looks like a great year to fish Lake Powell!
    City: Page

Friday, April 6th, 2007

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: WE ARE PLANNING A TRIP TO LAKE POWELL THE MIDDLE OF APRIL. HOW IS THE FISHING?
    City: SPARKS

Wednesday, October 5th, 2005

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    Water Temp: 64

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Muddy Temp 64

Wednesday, February 23rd, 2005

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    Water Temp: 46-47

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fishing at Hall's Crossing
    City: Monticello

    Tips: We had a great weekend at Powell. Six of us caught 178 stripers and 4 catfish. Most were 4-6 lbs. We were using silver spoons and orange colored lead headed hooks with anchovies. Fishing under the lights at night off the bottom. We couldn't get baited up fast enough. Excellent fishing weekend for all of us.

Friday, November 5th, 2004

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    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Check out our great Specials:

    Christmas Gift Certificate Special: 1-4 Anglers, buy 2 days minimum and receive $100 off the second Day. Up to a 83% savings. Certificate good for 1 years from 12-25/04. Add in your lodging. Give them a Gift they will remember. Lees Ferry or Lake Powell.

    Elevation: 3570.53
    Temperature: Sunny 60/39
    Weekend: Partly Sunny and temperatures dropping a bit. Chance of Rain by Sunday.

    LAKE POWELL The Tournament 2 weeks ago (before the storm) produced excellent catching of smallmouth bass from 1-3 lbs. Top water actin on zara spooks (small and large) early in the day then go to th drop shooting on the submerged rock piles. The silver and black fleck Yammamoto Grubs as well as chatreuse are doing great and remember the keep the hook small. A slow lateral retrieve after touching bottom is the key.

    Bill McBurney Ambassdor Guides & Outfitters, Inc.
    www.ambassadorguides.com
    800.256.7596
    Serving the area since 1979
    City: Marble Canyon

Tuesday, October 19th, 2004

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    Water Temp: Clear

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Lake Elevation: 3570.63

    Fall Fishing on Lake Powell is producing great results this year for smallmouth bass and largemouth. The top water morning and evening bite on little zara spooks and such will do the trick. Bass poppers for the fly rodder. Fish the shade lines and smooth rock with broken rock ledges 15-40 feet deep. Shad are now being pushed to the back of the coves, so this is great top water hunting with this water level. Their must be thousands of new coves!.

    After morning shade give way to the sun, you want to start drop shooting those ledges, texas style too. Good fall colors this fall are silver and black flec grubs, pumpkin, chartreuse also. For the fly rodders, go deep with a 15' to a full sink (fast) and strip a black and white shad imitation or lefty deceiver. Stripers are a crap shoot right now but as long as your tackle is ready before you leave the dock (put the zara spooks on) that way if ou catch a boil, you are ready.

    Look for the striper to top water bite to possibly pick up one or more times in the lower lake the first 2 weeks of November depending on weather.

    Good Fishing,


    Bill McBurney
    www.ambassadorguides.com
    800.256.7596
    Serving Lees Ferry & Lake Powell since 1979
    City: Marble Canyon

Thursday, June 26th, 2003

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    Water Temp: 73-82

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: LAKE POWELL FISH REPORT JUNE 26, 2003By Wayne Gustaveson Lake Elevation: 3616Water Temperature: 73-82 FThe lake has reached its high point and will now slowly decline. That's good news or anglers battling muddy water at Hite where runo has made ishing extremely challenging. When the lake clears the stained water will produce a huge crop o plankton. The many shad spawned this spring will take advantage o the plankton bloom and grow quickly in size and number. Good orage conditions will prevail or the rest o the year. For this week it would be wise to ish in clear water. Bullrog/Halls boasts the best ishing or stripers and smallmouth bass. On a calm morning expect striper boils to start beore sunup and continue until about 9 AM. Surace eeding is repeated rom 6 to 9 each evening. Windy days spoil the topwater bite. The best action is ound in the moored houseboat ields at Bullrog and Halls and right in the main travel lanes as boats leave Bullrog Marina and head toward Halls. Stripers are in tight schools swimming shoulder-to-shoulder and not making much surace disturbance. They are eeding on larval shad which drit near the surace and do not swim well. Swimming and slurping in unison eeding stripers look more like a boat wake or wind rile. Investigate these strange looking surace disturbances by casting a Super Spook Jr. into the ray. You may ind more stripers than you can imagine during late June. Since the stripers do not need to swim ast to catch small shad the boil moves along at about 3 mph. Boat toward these ish in the same leisurely manner and they will stay on top. Rushing into the boil will make the ish go down only to resurace well out o casting range. Observe the school's direction o travel and idle to a point well ahead o the school. Let the boil come to you or best results. Smallmouth ishing is good lakewide but the summer pattern is well in place. Casting plastic grubs to the shallow shoreline is not eective. Bass are holding along the 25 oot contour. Park the boat in normal casting range to reach the shoreline but drop the lure straight down under the boat to ind deeper ish. Summer bass like a ree-loating, slow moving bait. The most eective presentations are the drop-shot or split shot rigs. The hook is about 18 inches rom the weight in both techniques. Drop- shot rigs have the weight on the bottom and hook tied up the line with a Palomar knot. The split shot rig is just the opposite with the bait on the bottom and the weight up the line. In both cases, let the weight touch bottom. Hold the lure in place and then wiggle it a ew times beore moving it to the next spot. When a bass picks it up, use a steady sweep as a hook set instead o quick lick o the wrist. Wahweap Bay has been slow ishing except or the deep bass rigs. Fishing improves with distance traveled uplake. The San Juan is still good near Neskahi Bay. Fish deep or bass and very early and late or boiling stripers.
    City: Page

Wednesday, October 30th, 2002

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    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: My rined which is a proessional isherman reerred me to this site. its got the lowest prices on all ishing products. wholesale prices, beats all tackle shops and even wal-mart! www.vtackle.com/store/norcalishingtackle
    City: Redding

Thursday, May 9th, 2002

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    Water Temp: 58

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: LAKE POWELL FISH REPORTMay 9, 2002 By Wayne Gustaveson Home Page: www.wayneswords.com Lake Elevation: 3645 Water Temperature: 58-64 FLake level continues to all with outlow more than doubling inlowing water. It is not as cold atnight which allows some o the heat gained during the day to be retained over night. Fish arereally enjoying the warming trend with some o the best catching o the season happening rightnow. Bass ishing is really heating up with smallmouth being taken virtually everywhere on the lake.Main channel rocks with rough edges and steep, quick drops seem to be the best habitat type. Bass are eating crayish and sot plastic grubs may be the best crustacean imitation. But don

Thursday, May 2nd, 2002

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    Water Temp: 56

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: LAKE POWELL FISH REPORTMay 2, 2002 By Wayne Gustaveson Home Page: www.wayneswords.com Lake Elevation: 3645 Water Temperature: 56-65 F
    City: Page, AZ

    Tips: Spring weather alternates between hot and calm ollowed by cold and windy. Fish reallyrespond to hot and then get blow away by windy conditions. The ish activity cycle is reallypredictable since it has be replayed 3 times in the past 3 weeks. Winds cool the lake suracetemperature to 56 and ish quit biting. Then as soon as it calms down surace temperature popsback above 60 and ish start biting all over again.

Thursday, April 25th, 2002

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    Water Temp: 57

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: LAKE POWELL FISH REPORTApril 25, 2002 By Wayne Gustaveson Home Page: www.wayneswords.com Lake Elevation: 3646 Water Temperature: 56-65 F
    City: Phoenix

Thursday, March 28th, 2002

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    Water Temp: 50

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: LAKE POWELL FISH REPORTMarch 28, 2002 By Wayne Gustaveson Home Page: www.wayneswords.com Lake Elevation: 3647.9 Water Temperature: 50-57 FLake surace temperature clicked up another notch to 50 irst thing in the morning. Later in theday in the back o the canyon where water is cloudy the warmest water may be as high as 57. Surace temperature tests a thin, transient water layer and the best indicator o how ish mayrespond is the cold 50 degree mark. More warming is needed to move cold-blooded ish rom theslow category into a moderate activity category. But that warming is coming and here is what toexpect this week. Largemouth bass need 55 degree water and smallmouth 60 degrees beore turning on. Bothspecies will move to the warmest water possible. Follow the thermometer to ind bass. Once that55-plus degree water is ound look or cover. Largemouth bass will bask in shallow water near orin a bush while smallmouth will be anywhere they can ind broken rock near a deep water escaperoute. Seeing bass does not insure catching. Bass move shallow to warm their body and then eatater the metabolism increases. Basking ish need security and will oten be in a conined space. I a boulder-sized rock is seen near a steep cli ace it may be more productive to cast betweenthe rock and the cli ace instead o in ront o a rock. For early season bass probe cracks withplastic jigs, cast behind a bush hugging a wall, roll a spinner bait through cover to ind a willingbass.Walleye are nearing the end o their spawning period and will soon resume normal eedingactivity. Mid April will provide better walleye catching opportunities. Striped bass eel the temperature increase and respond by moving to current. There has been asteady improvement in striper catch rate at the dam and power plant intake. Most anglers cancatch a ew ish (less than 10) while dunking bait near the dam or driting the wall near the intakeupstream rom Antelope Point ramp. Catching is very spotty. A moving striper school willprovide a lurry o quick catches, then action dies as the school moves to another location. Patient waiting is demanded or success. No certain time o day has proven to better thananother. School movement is random and catching is just as sporadic. Overall ishing is still slow but more warming happens each day bringing good ishing that muchcloser.
    City: Phoenix

Thursday, November 22nd, 2001

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    Water Temp: 59

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: LAKE POWELL FISH REPORTNovember 22, 2001 By Wayne Gustaveson Home Page: www.wayneswords.com Lake Elevation: 3660 Water Temperature: 57- 61 FWater temperatures have slipped into the 50's marking the end o good smallmouth ishing or theyear. Bass can still be caught but ishing is tougher. Striped bass will now go deep and travel lessactually making them easier to ind and thereore, catch. These conditions will prevail or theremainder o November and December. This will be the last regular ish report or the year. Updates will be given as new inormation is obtained and disseminated on the Wayneswords.comwebsite. Look there or winter ishing updates, speciically the Anglers Corner and Bulletin boardpages. Striped bass continue to move but are easy to discern on electronics. They are seen as anelliptical dense mass usually just o the bottom. Winter eeding grounds will have numerousschools in the same proximity detectable or 100 yards or more. Stripers ound less than 60 eetdeep are easiest to catch but as winter settles in stripers may be seen at 100 eet or more. Fishwith spoons, jigs or anchovy bait while maintaining position directly over the school. Mark thelocation with a loating marker and chum to draw ish o the bottom and to excite the school. Ahooked ish oten draws the rest o the school o the bottom and causes a quick lurry o activity. Let the irst hooked ish swim deep making sure there is another bait in the water beore the irstish is landed. All canyons rom Good Hope Bay to Hite and Zahn Bay to Copper Canyon oer good potentialor catching wintering striped bass. In the remainder o the lake, graph the backs o canyonswhere bottom depth is 50-70 eet or resting schools. Warm Creek, Gunsight and Padre areconsistent winter striped bass producers. Once detected a striper school has to be

Thursday, November 15th, 2001

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    Water Temp: 62

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: LAKE POWELL FISH REPORTNovember 15, 2001 By Wayne Gustaveson Home Page: www.wayneswords.com Lake Elevation: 3661 Water Temperature: 60-63 FSampled ish populations with gill nets this week in the San Juan. We ound striped bass insurprisingly great condition but in small numbers. Physical condition o striped bass exceeded thatound at any other location on the lake. Gill nets do not discriminate between strong and weakish - they catch all that swim by. The ration o at to thin ish in Piute Canyon and bay was 8 atto 2 thin. There was a report o boiling stripers last weekend and a large school o stripers in Piute Canyondelighting anchovy isherman parked on shore. But when we were there the school o ish hadmoved out. That may account or the high ratio o healthy ish. Stripers continue to move in andout o canyons over the entire lake. They are extremely easy to catch when the large school isound but impossible to catch i the school is not in your canyon. Plan on making lots o quickshort stops when searching, graphing and spooning or the striper school in the mid and upperlake areas (Rainbow Bridge to Hite).At Warm Creek, Gunsight and Padre and Dry Rock stripers remain in the backs o the canyonswhere bottom depth is 50-70 eet. They were suspended about 20 eet o the bottom last weekbut are now ound right on the bottom. Use anchovy chum to lit and separate the school romthe bottom and then use bait, spoons or white jigs to catch the recently activated schoolingstripers. I the school returns to the bottom then use more chum to bring them up once more. There are occasional days when lower lake ish are dormant but on most days good catches arestill the norm. The most predictable striper catching will be done at Wahweap this week. Smallmouth bass were active on rocky points in the San Juan arm. Hopping rom point to pointusing sot plastic jigs was a good way to pinpoint areas where bass were congregated. It wascommon to ish our points and catch only one or no ish only to ind the ith point harboredmany aggressive bass and sunish. Most ish were 15-20 eet deep. Pay attention to directionalexposure o the point when trying to duplicate a good catch. Bass are aligning themselves to takeadvantage o the moving sun and remain in the warmest position possible. That prime locationcan be predicted by paying attention to detail and used to the angler

Thursday, November 8th, 2001

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    Water Temp: 63

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report:  By Wayne Gustaveson Home Page: www.wayneswords.com Lake Elevation: 3661 Water Temperature: 61-63 FLingering warm weather has let ish trapped in the transition between all and winter. Bothsmallmouth bass and stripers remain active but neither are providing consistent action or anglers. Fishing now is similar to early spring where storm ronts slow ishing only to have it heat up againa short time later. Gradually declining water temperatures have changed smallmouth eeding behavior and the waythey attack lures. Sot plastic baits that are always the avored bait are more eective now iaccompanied by an attractant lash. It seems sluggish bass are more curious about movement ithe bait swims steadily. Spinner baits, (saety pin and in-line spinners) especially in the smallersizes were more eective in Good Hope Bay than plain sot plastic jigs with breezy wind rilingthe water. Dead calm periods made ishing tough with all baits. There were short periods, usuallyin the aternoon, when standard sot plastic grubs worked well. When bass are reacting normally,ish jigs in a bottom-hopping retrieve. I there is no response to the hopping retrieve then swimthe bait very slowly along the bottom. Bass are eating both crayish and other ish. Thoseselecting crayish will respond to the hopping motion while those looking or a ish meal willpreer a steadily swimming bait. Striped bass are migrating in and out o canyons. They remain in a canyon or a day or two andthen move on. When located the school will likely be laying on the bottom and be diicult todetect on electronics. In Good Hope shad size was large. There were no 2-3 inch shad ound.Many 5-7 inch shad were evenly dispersed around Red Canyon and Blue Notch. Most shad weretoo big or small stripers to eat and certainly too elusive or thin stripers to catch. A marked distinction was ound among stripers with a small number that were quick, at andstrong. These stripers were able to boil and catch any shad. They responded to surace lures andreaction spoons jigged quickly o the bottom. Small boils were seen at irst light on somemornings. Ater that at ish were grouped at 50-70 eet near shad holding locations. They weredetectable on the graph but would not always respond.The remaining stripers were not as healthy and unable to catch big shad. These stripers could becaught on bait particularly at night. For eective night ishing, anchor the boat (ore and at) in70-80 eet o water at dusk and place a light in or above the water to attract plankton and inallyshad. When shad come, stripers will ollow. This may take an hour but it is a unique andinteresting experience to watch plankton and shad gather in response to the light. Fish bait underthe shad or quick ishing. Keep all stripers caught but only illet those that appear normal. Anobviously skinny ish is not good table are and should be recycled. Downlake stripers are still located in Warm Creek, Gunsight and Dry Rock Creek and providegood catches on anchovy bait most days.
    City: Page, AZ

Thursday, November 1st, 2001

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    Water Temp: 62

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: LAKE POWELL FISH REPORTNovember 1, 2001 By Wayne Gustaveson Home Page: www.wayneswords.com Lake Elevation: 3662 Water Temperature: 62-64 F
    City: Page, AZ

    Tips: It

Thursday, October 25th, 2001

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    Water Temp: 64

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: LAKE POWELL FISH REPORTOctober 25, 2001 By Wayne Gustaveson Home Page: www.wayneswords.com Lake Elevation: 3662 Water Temperature: 64-67 F ****** WARM CREEK HOT FOR STRIPERS****** Water temperature is 64 degrees which is the preerred temperature or striped bass. I stripers could choose any comort zone this would be it. They are proving that in Warm Creek right now.Starting at the mouth o Crosby Canyon stripers are present in many large and scattered schools.Most ish are graphed near the bottom but many are mid depth and some are shallow. Schoolsare easy to detect on electronics due to wide separation rom the bottom. Schools stretch romthe shoreline opposite Crosby Canyon to Wagon Box Draw (next canyon upstream on the right). They are ound at bottom depth beginning at 70 eet and continue all they way to bottom depth o48 eet. It is possible to anchor just about anywhere in this area, chum and catch stripers in largenumbers. Those without a ish inder can catch ish by inding the mouth o Crosby Canyon and proceedingdirectly east to the opposite shore where a long sandy point protrudes into Warm Creek. Anchorapproximately 100 yards o the sandy point, chum and catch ish. There should be other boats inthe area so it will be possible to locate hot spots and schools by watching other boats. Fish can becaught on the bottom but it is aster once the irst ish is caught to just throw a 30-40 oot castand let the bait swing back under the boat. Hold it there or a ew minutes and then reel veryslowly to keep the line tight making it easier to detect bites. Remember to use a low visibility,small diameter leader to prevent line shy stripers rom avoiding your bait. Striper ishing has slowed at Hite due to a loating algae bloom that has clouded the water. Motor downstream until the algae disappears beore ishing. Algae should be gone in a week ortwo. Bullrog has some stripers hitting in the very back o Bullrog Bay and Halls Creek. Thestriper ishing is still good near Piute Canyon on the San Juan. Wahweap is the place to be orstriper ishing this week. Warm Creek, Gunsight, Padre and Dry Rock Creek are excellent striperspots. Smallmouth bass ishing is still good in clear water. Bass are not as active as they were a weekago and ishing will continue to slow with dropping water temperature. Bass anglers can still indcooperative bass as long as temperatures are in the 60's. They are still hitting topwater lures earlyin the morning and tubes, grubs and spoons during the day. Target main channel rocky structureespecially where two habitat types join. Large bays like Good Hope, Rincon, and Neskahi may bethe very best smallmouth ishing spots. Bonus walleye, catish and bluegill will be encountered while ishing or stripers and smallmouth.
    City: Page, AZ

Wednesday, October 10th, 2001

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    Water Temp: 72

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: LAKE POWELL FISH REPORTOctober 11, 2001 By Wayne Gustaveson Home Page: www.wayneswords.com Lake Elevation: 3663 Water Temperature: 71 - 74 FA major weather change with cool night time temperatures has caused lake surace temperaturesto begin the quick slide into winter. The next two weeks will be the magic time when watertemperatures will be in the 60's. Black bass are stimulated by the temperature drop to eat as muchas possible beore cold weather shuts down their metabolism. Stripers will continue to eed muchlonger than bass. Expect striper ishing to remain good through December. Smallmouth bass will behave much like they do in the springtime. They will be ound on the deepend o the same rocky points, shoals and rees. Plastic grubs and tubes will be the bait o choice. Bounce the grubs on the bottom at 15-30 eet or best results. I bouncing doesn