Fishing Report: North Central region
WILLIAMS LAKES
Kaibab Lake Angler Report:
Jarried P.: My daughter and I went camping for 5 days at Kaibab — she’s a natural.
KAIBAB LAKE — Kaibab Lake is full. Fishing was excellent over the weekend with trout being caught by anglers using small lures or flies. Folks were also catching trout using worms fished under a bobber, garlic PowerBait and Zekes cheese. Crappie, bluegill and largemouth Bass are starting to bite on the upper end of the lake. Scheduled to be stocked with trout from Colorado this Friday.
CATARACT LAKE — Lake is full.
CITY RESERVOIR — Stocked with trout this week. Fishing was fair for trout over the weekend for folks fishing with garlic PowerBait. Try hot dogs or worms on the bottom to catch catfish. Folks fishing with spinners were also doing well for trout.
DOGTOWN LAKE — The lake is full. Fishing was is starting to pick up. Stocked with trout this week,
SANTA FE — The lake is full. Folks are catching lots of small crappie and yellow perch. Stocked with trout this week.
WHITEHORSE LAKE — No report. Campground is open.
FLAGSTAFF LAKES
LOWER LAKE MARY – Lower Lake Mary is about ¾ full. About 65,000 rainbow trout have been stocked in the lake so far this year but many were smaller fish. I’ve had reports from several people that the fishing is hot, especially early in the morning. Fly fishermen are catching fish on leech patterns, prince nymphs and woolly buggers, For folks who don’t fly fish try fishing the flies behind a clear casting bobber. Tie a swivel below the bobber then attach about 3 feet of line below the swivel with the fly attached to the line. Small lures are also working. For folks who like fishing with bait I would try worms under a bobber. Power bait should also work, Stocked with trout last week. One fish in the load Friday night was over 4 lbs.
UPPER LAKE MARY — We are hearing reports of folks catching good numbers of walleye trolling lures on the lake. Folks drop shotting nightcrawlers are also catching walleye. Folks are also catching northern pike and channel catfish.
ASHURST LAKE — While sampling plankton on Ashurst Monday I talked to several anglers in Kayaks who have been catching some really nice trout on lures trolled behind the boat. I would try flies or lures on the shallow end of the lake to catch the bigger trout. Bait anglers fishing worms under a bobber were catching some fish. Scheduled to be stocked with trout this week,
FRANCIS SHORT POND – If you have kids you want to catch fish Frances Short is the place to go. Folks were catching lots of bluegill on worms. Fly fishermen are catching lots of trout and crappie Folks fishing with worms or hotdogs were catching catfish. Stocked with Catfish last week.,
KINNIKINICK LAKE — The road is open. Stocked with tiger trout last week.
OAK CREEK — No report. Stocked with trout this week.
BEAVER CREEK – No report.
WEST CLEAR CREEK – No report.
BLUE RIDGE — No report.
KNOLL LAKE — No report. Stocked with trout this week.
LAKE POWELL
Lake Powell Fish Report – June 12, 2019
Lake Elevation: 3591
Water temperature: 70-75 F
By: Wayne Gustaveson http://www.wayneswords.com or Wayneswords.net
We went to Bullfrog on Monday to complete a work assignment, which was to collect 200 surface feeding striped bass. These captured fish are destined to be brood fish used to create hybrid stripers. We chose this date months ago, based on previous fish reports, which indicated slurping stripers would begin feeding on the surface during the first week of June. The report strategy worked great as we caught 100 surface feeding (slurping) stripers from dawn until 10 AM on Monday and Tuesday.
Stripers find small schools of shad (less than inch long) on the surface in areas where gizzard shad spawn. These small shad, bunch up, are surrounded and attacked by hungry stripers. The event is named “slurps” because tiny shad cannot swim fast enough to elude the attacking fish. Schooling stripers surround the shad school and leisurely gulp down as many shad as possible. Anglers observing the shad feast only see a small surface disturbance and an occasional fish head skimming the surface.
feeding stripers are prone to eat something larger than a tiny shad. If a “large shad” swims by (small rattletrap, spoon, or surface lure), the closest striper can be distracted and hit your lure. The trick is to cast just beyond the feeding school and reel the lure back through the skirmish line. Usually only one fish is caught from a slurp. Two fish is a bonus. That is not a problem because the stripers go down, regroup and come right back up under another shad school. On our trip, the wait was often less than a minute with the striper school coming up again, not very far away. We ran the big motor close enough to the slurp to get off another cast and catch another fish. This is an exciting way to catch stripers. Surprisingly the little foreheads seen sticking out of the water belonged to very healthy 2-3 pound stripers.
Slurps were found uplake as far as Moki Canyon. We did not go uplake further due to a heavy mudline with lots of floating debris. There were slurps in the main channel all day long from Moki Canyon to Rock Creek. The heaviest concentration of slurping fish were found from Annies Canyon to Rincon where another water color change occurred from murky to clear. The next giant concentration of stripers was at the mouth of the San Juan. Slurping schools were seen as far downlake as Rock Creek, Dove Canyon, and Dominguez Butte (floating restroom).
Smallmouth Bass fishing is still slower than usual with smallmouth holding on rocky habitat found a week ago, that is now over 20 feet deep. Largemouth bass are doing fine hiding in the newly submerged tumbleweeds in the backs if canyons and coves. Walleye are deeper than usual because of the fast rising water levels, but are still caught trolling.
The good news is that the Castle Rock Cut is almost 10 feet deep. Antelope Point public launch ramp will be open soon, The inflowing river water exceeds 134,000 acre feet. Perhaps the best news for anglers is that the Wahweap Fish Cleaning Station is now open.
Life is good at Lake Powell!
