Powell March Striper Boils?
By Don Allphin
March 20, 2005
When Kim Wootton and Jason Warren, both bass fishing buddies of mine, reported on their recent trip to Lake Powell, I was expecting a story of cold water, lethargic bass, and deep, lazy stripers. Instead they spoke of active bass, 55-degree water and even some very active shallow stripers.
“We pulled into the mouth of a canyon,” says Wootton, a dominant tournament angler on Lake Powell, “and got into a huge striper boil. We were excited because some really big smallmouth bass were feeding on the shad right along with the stripers. We looked at our temperature gauge and it said 55 degrees. It was a neat sight to see.”
Our mild and wet winter has allowed the baitfish to stay shallow for most of the past several months which means that the stripers that are generally in very deep water in March are actually roaming the backs of canyons feeding on the very ample shad population.
I took the opportunity to see Lake Powell for myself over the past two weeks and I have to agree with Wootton’s assessment, it was a neat sight to see. In the backs of several canyons in the Bullfrog area including Hall’s, Moki, and Slick Rock I found huge schools of stripers resting in less than 30 feet of water, surrounded by enormous schools of shad. The stripers seemed to be resting for most of the day but then, as if following a script, they came to the surface and put on quite a show. I was not particularly fishing for stripers but couldn’t help catching a few in the neighborhood of 5 to 7 pounds.
A 15- to 20-pound striper snapped off my favorite spinnerbait after slamming it in less than two feet of water. Because it was a totally unexpected attack, when that fish hit my bait I’m certain my heart skipped a beat or two.
Now is the time to plan a trip to Powell. The Defiance Lodge is open for business, and it promises to be a banner year for all types of fishing. I found plenty of walleye willing to take chartreuse grubs in 32 feet of water, stripers willing to take anything white that smelled like an anchovy, and large and smallmouth bass (getting ready to spawn) thrilled to latch on to shad-imitating crankbaits. On calm afternoons, the open bays warm up and water temperatures try hard to reach 60, but on average the north part of the lake is currently around 54 degrees at midday.”
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