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Welcome to Southwest Bass. We are very fortunate to live in one of the most beautiful places on earth where outdoor adventures are plenty. I have been fishing and hunting the Four Corners area for 25 years now and would like to share those adventures with you. I specialize in fishing North Lake Powell.Life is way too short to only fish on weekends. Call or e-mail me today so we can plan your memory of a lifetime. 970-749-2324 / elkrule@frontier.netGet your Utah Fishing License Colorado Fishing License online.Lake Powell Water Level Waynes Words Lunker Cam Want to personalize your equipment? www.dipshitzhydrographics.com
Water Temp 70-78 degrees. I started south to find a camp spot because I would be fishing with a group that will be house boating out on the lake and they would be headed to the Ice Berg area. Good thing I decided to wait until this morning to locate a campsite on the lake. If I would have took off out last night I would have just ended up back at Halls. Every nook and cranny to the Rincon had a house boat in it. With the mud line all the way to Bullfrog and the cold water also there it seemed that everyone was headed south.
Stan and Julie were on their honeymoon and had not been to Powell for a long time. They wanted to see some of the places they remembered from the past and catch some fish while doing so. I ran them into Halls Creek and began fishing waypoints from the earlier spawn in the 15-20’ depths. After casting spinner baits, crank baits, buzz baits and jerk baits all over the day before we ended up with drop shot Robo worms and Texas rigged tubes. It seemed the bass where still in the heavy brush around the areas of the spawn so it was important to not have an exposed hook. As always the tube rules the day and it didn’t matter what color.
We then ran back to a pond that produced good fish a couple
of months ago only to find it full of parked house boats.
We fished around the houseboats and Julie caught the biggest crappie she
ever caught and Stan caught the biggest small mouth he ever caught. After
putting the larger bass in the live well for pictures later on and releasing a
dozen or so smaller fish we ran north to check out the Moki wall. Not a single
boat fishing it. I graphed along the wall and found nothing around. We then ran
to the back of Hansen Creek as the wind began to really get going.
I wish the winds would go away. We found a wall with a main turn on it
and the largemouth’s were stacked on that point in the deeper brush. We had a
great day on Powell and taking a couple fishing on their honeymoon was a first
for me. What a lucky guy Stan is. Another great day on Powell. The pressure is on. 4 generations of Richardson’s that have only been wake boarding on the the lake. We would meet Friday morning in front of Ice Berg and I would pick up the first group of anglers. The 5 of us ran to the Rincon and right off the bat I knew it would be good. First cast while explaining how to flip a tube a fish hit the tube and we were on our way to one of the best fishing days I have had on Powell. The bass were not as big as earlier this spring but you would get a bite on almost every cast. The Rincon was unbelievable! All small fish were released immediately and the bigger ones put in the live well for showing off, pictures and then released.
We met 4 hours later in front of Ice Berg again and
exchanged anglers. Grandpa Bob stayed aboard as the grandkids boarded. It was
all smack talk on which group was going to catch the most fish. We ran back to
the Rincon and the bite had gotten even better. There was constant swing and
misses as the group was figuring out the bite.
Once they figured out the timing of the hook set the fish didn’t have a
chance. I was a busy guide. Landing, unhooking, re-tying one fish after another.
We were in fishing heaven. After a couple hours in the Rincon we ran back to the
last cut in Ice Berg to try and find the big largemouth. We found the fry but
could not get the big fish to bite again. On Saturday morning we were dealing with thunderstorms. We ran back to the bait in Ice Berg only to find that the fry were gone and the small bass had moved in. The water temp had fallen from 78 degrees on Wednesday to 74 degrees on Saturday. The fish definitely wanted the warmer water. After dredging the back of that canyon we ran back to the Rincon only to find 4 foot rollers with a strong wind and little fish. The morning crew of anglers spent more time drying off then hooking fish. The bite was nothing like the day before however as the day went on the bite picked up and we were able to boat some nice fish out of Slick Rock.
We left Bullfrog at 6:30 in the morning and headed south.
We got into our first canyon and started pitching drop shots at rocky points
with brush. The largemouth and small mouth bass were all in their regular spots.
The water level at Powell right now is perfect for the rocky points and brush
lines. Water temp was mid 50’s and clear. After testing several different baits and lures, Ole reliable
seemed to work the bass over the best. Texas rigged tubes in green pumpkin /
black flake, smoke and black flake or root beer / black flack were taking it to
the bass. Once my client got the feel of the bite, which I described as a thump, the bass were in trouble. We hit all of the canyons south of Bullfrog and we found the same wherever we fished. Pitch the tube to shallow brush and chunk rock and it was almost automatic that a bass would pick up the bait. We were not able to find any larger fish but the 1-2 pounders were everywhere. Another awesome day on Lake Powell.
I picked up 2 clients at the Halls launch ramp and the
other 3 at the Bullfrog launch ramp. We headed south to the first canyon only to
find that Utah State b ass tournament had started this morning and bass boats
were everywhere. We had a couple of tournament anglers and some bank fisherman
to compete with but that did not slow us down. We started putting fish in the
boat instantly. Texas rigged tubes and drop shot slim baby Senko’s were the
ticket. The bass were still cruising everywhere and all we had to do is troll
along the brush lines see the bass flip a tube and BANG! Spirits were good as we passed the tournament anglers who
had no fish and we already had released a limit of 1-2 pounders. After a couple
of hours in that canyon we ran back to the main lake points where I saw the beds
and the fish were everywhere. If
there was a bass on a bed spotted at least 3 tubes were falling somewhere
nearby. Site fishing was fun to say the least. We then ran further south to another cut on the main lake
and again every fish was visible and my clients were catching one after another.
Then it finally happened. We were pitching tubes on a point near a small bay and
we got our first walleye of the season. You could bet we drug the bottom of that
area clean of any other walleye that may have been in the area but no more were
to be caught. Late in the afternoon we decided to try and troll some deep diving crank baits in an area we had graphed some stripers in but we could not get any of them to cooperate. The weather was beautiful, the company was great and the fishing was awesome. I can’t stop bragging about Powell.
My team partner and friend Chris and I will be pre-fishing
for the Bullfrog Open bass tournament this coming weekend. The weather has been
nasty the last couple of days and we are looking forward to another warm up this
weekend. The passing fronts earlier in the week I am sure shut down any bedding
bass not to mention the bite we had last weekend but it should get better as the
weekend comes. We headed south this morning to scout the areas I had been
seeing the bedding bass. We were looking for the big ones for the tournament
this weekend and we were hoping they would be moving back up after the weather
had passed. We were not seeing the bass we saw last weekend but the fishing was
still pretty steady and It was the first day after the front. We ended up in the Escalante and found lots of fish in the
back of a cut with another fishing boat. It was loaded with small mouth and
walleye. It sounded like the two other anglers had been there for a while
loading up on small mouth. We saw them catch about a 4 pounder. Man, we could
sure use that one in the tournament. Tomorrow
we will pre-fish close to Bullfrog. We would start in Halls Creek today to find the big ones.
Chris was on the water on Wednesday during the heavy wind storm but was able to
find some protected water with some big large mouths on beds. We worked our way
through that area only to find vacant beds. We were hoping that the passing
front had just knocked the fish off until the water started to warm again. This
could be a good thing since so many anglers were pre-fishing and not finding the
fish like we had seen since last weekend. We saw literally dozens and dozens of beds. Some had little
fish on them most of them were empty. We then went to an area that Chris had
caught some nicer fish in and saw some beds. We found some good large mouths on
beds and one of them was 6-8 pounds. If we could catch that one fish in the
tournament it would be huge. We were pretty sure that as many boats as we seen
going in and out of the area that someone else had to of seen that fish so all
we could do is hope for and early draw tonight at the meeting. Unfortunately we
were boat number 43 out of 70. Chances
were slim and none that we could get to that fish before another team of anglers
got to her. Tubes, jerk baits, crank baits, creature baits and
Senko’s would be tied on for the big day tomorrow. At 6:30 am, 70 boats launched from the Bullfrog launch
ramp. We raced to the spot where the big fish was and we could not believe that
we were the first ones to her and she was still there. We threw everything but
the kitchen sink to her and she would just turn and swim off. We even would
leave a bait in her bed and wait for her to return just to see the bait and
leave. 2 hours later we gave up on her and went fishing our spots in Halls
Creek. We picked small bass of the beds until we got our limit and
then went cruising for bigger fish. We culled those five out for some slightly
larger fish and then we went to a ledge I had found while pre-fishing clients
last weekend. There were several beds on top of the ledge and we could see bass
boats going in and out of the area and thought that they had been picked clean.
However, everyone we saw fishing that area was fishing the point out in front of
our ledge so when we got there we culled out 5 smaller fish for 5 better ones.
I actually had caught and lost one small mouth 4 times before catching
her on the 5th time she bit. At 4pm that afternoon we headed to our 4:15 weigh-in with our 5 best fish and we came up about 6 pounds short of the lead with a ten pound sack. We now desperately need that big female we can’t get to bite. Today we will be boat 26 out and we are headed straight to
the back of Halls Creek to try and find some big largemouth and then we would
try the big female on the bed later in the day. We were the first boat to the area we wanted to fish and we
started putting fish in the boat instantly. I finally hooked about a 3 pound
small mouth on the tube which was bigger than all the fish we caught the day
before. The Chris hooked a bigger largemouth on a Yamamoto Flappin Hawg when
another boat showed up and started fishing the same area. Then Chris hit another
big largemouth off of a tree and we had 3 nice fish and one small fish early.
We managed our limit by 9am but we had 2 small fish we had to cull. We
started running and gunning all of our areas with beds and finally culled out
our smallest fish with a much better one but we still needed to cull that fish.
Mid day the bite had really died and we could not find any of our larger bedding
fish. We then went back to an area where Chris had seen a big largemouth and we
found her there but again could not get her to bite.
It was hard to believe that the smallmouth bass would bite anything even
near the bed but a largemouth would not even touch it or look at it. It was getting late in the day so we decided to fish some
areas that we have not fished but looked like they might hold some bed fish on
the gravel points. We got into one cut that was choked with brush and it had a
couple of tumbleweeds floating in the middle of the creek bottom. Chris threw
his flappi’n hawg into the tumbleweeds and BANG a really nice largemouth hit
and fell off the hook as I swung the net under him and got him in the boat. This
was a good upgrade as we culled out our smallest fish. We had a 3:15 weigh-in time today and after all was said and done we had almost 13.5 pounds that day with a total over the 2 days of 24.18 pounds. Hopefully a top 20 finish out of 70 teams.
Lake Powell Fishing Report 10/1 – 10/5 Thursday I got on the water at about 2:30pm. Because it was late I would only run to Halls Creek. I was on the water before safe light and headed south. The
moon was bright so I was able to get a good head start on the day. The boat ride was incredible. I pulled into the first
canyon I wanted to fish only to pull up on a striper boil in the shallow brush
next to a houseboat. Zara spook,
SMACK! Again and again and again. Ok let’s try a tube. ZOWIE! Largemouth after
smallmouth after largemouth. Oh boy
is this great! After a few hours of chasing schools of largemouth,
smallmouth and stripers I was off to another spot.
When I got there it was the same. It was mostly schools of largemouth and
smallmouth chasing the shad in this cut. I started flipping a tube into shallow
brush where shad were being chased and it was largemouth after smallmouth after
largemouth. I then ran into Ice Berg clear to the back only to find
nowhere near the shad I had found in the other canyons and the fish I caught
were small. But Ice Berg is always worth a look. It is one of the most beautiful
canyons on the lake. I will fish the previous spots with my clients tomorrow. Zara spooks, buzz baits, drop shot senko and Texas rigged
tubes ruled the day and the fish. Most bass were 1-2lb with a few larger and the
stripers were 3-6lbs and fat. Everything is fat and still feeding. Saturday This was a fishing trip to remember. Four long time friends on Lake Powell, and we were catching. After the 1.5 days of pre-fish, I had a plan. We would start south towards the Rincon.
Our first stop would be the back of the canyon where I found the striper boil the morning before and as a guide you couldn’t ask for a better start to the day. I stopped the boat and picked up a spinning rod with a drop shot senko. I showed them how to flip the bait out towards the bank using the rod tip so four anglers are not casting sharp hooks overhand and told them to let it sink to the bottom once the bait was in the water. As I am showing this to them a fish hits the bait so I set the hook and ask an angler to hold the rod for me and reel. WHAM! Largemouth #1 was in the boat. At around 11am we headed for the Rincon and stop #2. When
we got there fish were busting on shad everywhere and it was hammer time. We
realized after about a dozen bass that the drop shot senko was out catching the
tube. We pulled up on a beach to eat lunch and re-rigged all spinning gear to
the drop shot. If you put on a robo
worm, nothing. If you put on a lizard, maybe one fish.
If you put on the senko, BANG! 20-30 more bass later with many doubles and a triple it was 2:30pm and time to head in. The day was warm with a slight breeze. Good friends with great commentary all day. The fishing and catching was one of the best I ever had on Lake Powell. It was perfect. Sunday Blown off the lake. Last night the winds came up howling. High wind advisory, 25-35 with 45mph gusts. It was every bit of all that all night and all day today clear into early evening. Bummer! I picked up Mike and his wife Kathy at the Bullfrog launch
ramp. They had flown from Saint Louis to Vegas and rented a vehicle to see the
west. Welcome to the most beautiful, desolate place on earth.
I would stick to the same plan as Saturday and head south. The winds were gone and it was going to be another great day as long as yesterday’s winds didn’t blow the fish out.
Another awesome day on Lake Powell. Capt. Brian T. Myers www.swbass.com
I had clients coming in for a houseboat trip that would take them south to the Escalante. I began scouting out old haunts from years way past in the Rincon. WOW! I have not fished Powell for what seems like a dozen years when the water was up this high. I began in the north cut of the Rincon with a buzzbait over the flooded salt cedars where rocky points fell off into deeper water. I caught several 1-2 pound small mouths and I was amazed at the amount of shad in this cut. I have never seen the shad like it is now. For the past few years the shad population in areas that I have fished has exploded.
I started back north to another area we refer to as the pockets off of the main channel. I found several 1-2 pound small mouths and large mouths on crank baits. I spied another cut across the channel that looked interesting so I ran across and on the first cast caught a 2 pound small mouth that had about 30 in the school with him when I brought him to the boat. As I moved towards the back of the cut I could see a large ball of shad that the school was feeding on. It was like watching the Blue Planet on Discovery channel. The water was so clear and you could see bass from 4 inches to 2 pounds feeding and chasing the bait onto the bank. I went to a drop shot senko and a Texas rigged tube and I was catching bass on every cast no matter where I would cast the bait. This would be client spot #1. I then headed back to Iceberg and ran clear to the back where every cut was full of shad in the flooded salt cedars. I could see some good large mouths cruising but was unable to get them to eat anything I served up. I was able to catch several 8-10 inch large mouths on spinner baits. Next stop was Slick Rock. I fished a hump in the middle that came up to 12 feet and had several bites on the tube. There was a lot of traffic in there so I went to the back and found the same 8-10 inch large mouths on spinner baits. As I was leaving Slick Rock a striper boil on the front point erupted and I caught several 3-5 pound stripers on a zara spook.
I then ran to the very back of Halls where the main creek came in looking for some big largemouth. The creek channel went back about a half of a mile and was wall to wall shad. I flipped jigs into cover on the banks, I through spinner baits but could not find any takers. With all the bait fish and heavy cover it is hard to even no where to start to find the bigger fish. The grebes in the back of Halls all had their babies with them and there was a pair of Osprey in the back that was also fishing. That night before at the Halls RV Park I shared some information with some other anglers staying there and they said that the striper boils had been slow up north but on the way back they found a good boil in the middle of the day at Tapestry wall. So I headed north to check it out. Once I got there I was graphing huge schools of stripers on bait in about 60 feet of water. I thought this would be a good time to try out the downrigger. After about 20 minutes of trolling I saw a pontoon boat pull up on point where Tapestry wall goes into Warm Creek. Then I saw them run back into Warm Creek. I pulled up the rigger and ran back to find the stripers boiling on the shady side of the channel. I picked up the Zara spook and went to spanking the stripers again for about an hour on every cast. The stripers were all fat 3-6 pounders and I wore myself out again.
We then ran south to the original client spot #1 where all the bass were. The school of shad was still there and the bass were in trouble. After watching bass feed on the bait ball and catching numerous small mouths we ran across to the pockets and my client hooked up on a crank bait with about a 1 pound largemouth that had 5 bigger small mouth’s trying to take the crank bait out its mouth. You just can’t make this stuff up when everyone in the boat is also seeing it. We then ran to the Rincon and worked the area in the middle of the day with a buzz bait and pulled a few of the smallmouth I was catching a couple days earlier. Then the super bonus of the day happened. We were just fishing, minding our own business when a B1B Stealth bomber dropped out from over the cliff above us and buzzed the inside of the Rincon all the way south down the lake and went supersonic straight up out of the canyon. That woke up the neighborhood. I love those guys! Capt. Brian T. Myers www.swbass.com
I am officially permitted to guide on Navajo Lake. I went out last Friday to pre-fish for a club tournament. Lot's of pike taking my bait but did manage to find a 5lb largemouth that I will try and catch on Saturday. Launched at 6:30am and drew partner Mike. We ran to where I found the big largemouth yesterday to find a pontoon boat camped right on the spot. We woke up the campers bouncing jigs off the pontoon boat hoping the fish would still be in the area nesting but only could scrounge up a small pike and a short largemouth. Ran some other haunts in the area and managed a keeper smallmouth. Ran to a main lake point where we doubled on 2 keeper smallmouth's. On the next pass in the same area Mike hooked a toad smallie. 4.35lbs. Now we have 4 in the live well with a kicker. The wind was now howling and the pike were biting me off every 5th cast. Frustrating to say the least re-rigging in the wind. Ran back to another bank inside the cut where we started and BANG! Another toad smallmouth to complete the limit. BANG! In 20 minutes we culled all of our small fish and I figured we had about 13-14 pounds.
We ran back to see if that big largemouth was there and
nothing. We decided to end the day on the main lake and could only come up with
fish to small. Except for this big pike I did manage to hook in the lip and get
to the boat. After weigh in we had won the tournament and Mikes smallmouth was
the biggest he has ever caught and biggest of the tourament. The fishing on Navajo is already AWESOME! The water is coming up and pushing 60 degrees. All we need now is the wind to go away and the fishing day's will be excellent. The Spring bite is on! Snow, rain, mud and wind can make for a bad day on the lake but wait for those few days that are calm, warm and beautiful and Lake Powell is awesome.
I was on the lake last week getting ready for the first clients of the season and 3 of the four days were spectacular. I started by running south from the Halls launch ramp and started hitting the many fishing holes I have found over the years and they were loaded with bass. |
BETA
SITE
Lake
Powell, Aug 18-20
I then
began scouting the Rincon area seeking striper boils but they never
materialized. I then ran further south to an area a friend took me too when I
first started bass fishing. We call it the shady wall because you can keep out
of the sun until early afternoon. It has lots of big chunk rock and usually held
all species of fish. I caught several smallies on drop shot senko’s and crank
baits and got to watch a pair of Peregrine Falcons hunt what looked like canyon
wrens.
I then
ran into Lake Canyon and found the same with the largemouth bass in the very
back. The shad in the backs of these canyons is just unbelievable. It reminded
me of the the lakes in TX and OK.
The
next day and ran into Halls Creek and started working a wall I usually catch
nice small mouth’s on with a tube. I caught a couple of small fish and a blue
gill. As I worked my way to the back of the cut I could only scrounge up 6-10
inch small mouth. Then I heard this noise and looked out to the front where the
cut met the main channel in Halls and it was one of the largest striper boils I
have ever seen. I ran to the boil, picked up a zara spook and went to spanking
4-6 pound stripers on every cast for an hour and a half. I literally wore myself
out. This boil was over water that was 30-50 feet deep and the sonar was just
covered with bait and stripers. One of the boats from shore came out next to me
with a fly rod but I never saw them hook up. The zara spook was hooked up every
cast into the boil. This will be new client spot #1.
The next
morning I would pick my clients up at 5:30am. I was hoping the striper boil in
Halls would return.
Mike
with our 2 big fish.
