This is My Favorite Time to Fish Powell

If you like fast, furious fishing action then now’s the time to take a trip to Lake Powell.

Striped bass have started to feed on the surface, where they are relatively easy to find and catch. Schools of stripers attack schools of tiny shad. Shad often leap out of the water in a frenzied attempt to escape, with stripers in hot pursuit. The intense action makes the water appear to “boil” in productive spots. Retrieve a shad-imitating lure through a boil and stripers will pound it aggressively.

You’ve got to hunt down the boils but when you find one action can be incredibly fast. It’s my favorite fishing experience. Mostly small fish are boiling now but larger fish will soon join the party. Action will get better and better during the next few weeks, peaking in late August or early September.

Study this website to learn to catch the fish. It is updated frequently and offers current, accurate information.

I fished the lake last weekend and had a great time. Here’s my report:

Small stripers were boiling up and down from the mouth of White Canyon on 7-22, mid-afternoon. We chased them for an hour and caught 10-13 inchers until our arms were tired.

We camped in a cove across and just down-lake from White. An algae bloom brought a bazillion shad into the cove. There was a large boil right in our cove just before sunset. After the stripers left we kept casting and caught several nice smallmouth (the biggest is shown in the attached photo).

A short boil occurred in our cove the next morning.

Saw a coyote twice while camped in that cove.

We launched at Hite, using the road base where the marina store was located. It was easy pushing my little fishing boat out into the channel, which was only four feet deep. Had to squeeze between brush, but that wasn't hard. Water level was approximately 3608.55. I took a look at the main Hite ramp and decided not to attempt to launch there. It was obvious people trying were getting stuck in the mud.

On 7-21 we were down at Slickrock Canyon and found smallmouth bass boiling near the brush in the back of the canyon. Caught a bunch of smallies, 7-10 inchers, and one tiny striper.

A rattlesnake tried to climb under our tent to get out of the rain while we camped near Slickrock. It buzzed when it felt us moving around. I peeked out the door it was coiled right against our tent. It was probably 3.5 feet long. It buzzed for about 10 minutes and then slithered away.

- Dave Webb