Western Outdoor Times - Times Spent Outdoors: Priceless!

Lake Powell Report (6/23/21)

Lake Powell is dropping. Inflowing water today is 10,000 Acre Feet less than outflow. The parched Southwest really needs Monsoon rain to fall this summer. Be careful when traveling on the lake. Stay in the middle of the main channel to ensure a safe trip.

Stripers Still Hitting Bait

Stripers are still hitting bait in the normal spots like Buoy 25 Cove and Wall, Rincon, and Moki Canyon.

On my weekly fishing trip, we saw fewer slurping stripers in the channel between Wahweap and Navajo Canyon than in the previous week. This time we went to the back of Navajo Canyon looking for slurps. We did find about five quick slurps near the very back of the canyon and caught one fish per slurp. I think we just had an off day since lakewide reports of slurps were very positive.

Good Reports

Good reports came from Last Chance to Rock Creek, Bullfrog to Rincon with slurps lasting all day long. Further north the fishing was even better. Best lures were Ned rigs (with TRD), Zara Spooks and other small top water lures, and clear plastic grubs on a lead head jig.

The type of lure may not be as important as the approach to the slurping school. Stripers search for a shallow shad pod, line up shoulder-to-shoulder and rush through the pod, eating as many shad as possible. They are only on the surface for about 30 seconds before they dive, re-group and search for another pod. Best results happen when the striper school comes up a second time while still in casting range.

Smallmouth Bass

Since stripers were not as energetic as expected, we switched over to smallmouth bass. Navajo Canyon is long and narrow with an occasional narrow slot canyon just wide enough for the boat to enter, or a longer side canyon with rocky structure. The best pattern was to cast to shady rock piles along the edge of the canyon or the back of a slot canyon with deep rocky structure.

We targeted bass between 5 and 25 feet with Ned rigs, tube baits and plastic grubs. The best lure was a double bait with a dark Ned rig on the end of the line with a weightless tube bait tied on 2 feet above the Ned rig. Bass really liked this presentation.

Smallmouth bass were common in very narrow shady slots where rocky structure was visible in 10-15 feet of water. Plastic baits worked very well as we moved from one rocky slot cove to the next one. If there was a rock pile in the back, smallmouth were present.

Largemouth Caught

The double bait performed well in the back of a 50-foot wide, by 100-yard long, narrow canyon with steep walls, a few rock piles and old dead trees sticking up. The double bait sank to the bottom and was gulped by a 2-pound largemouth bass. On the next cast, another largemouth hit the Ned Rig. Shortly thereafter, a 5-pound largemouth bass ate the tube bait. That was very exciting!

The best time to fish is early morning before the main channel rush-hour traffic arrives.

At press time, lake elevation was 3561 and water temperature was 77-83F.