Fishing Report: North Central region – fall stockings have begun!

Fall trout stockings have begun.  Frances Short Pond, Dogtown Lake and Ashurst Lake were all stocked yesterday.

WILLIAMS LAKES:   

KAIBAB LAKE — We sampled the lake last Wednesday and caught a lot of largemouth bass, crappie and rainbow trout.  Fish were feeding on the surface at dusk. Fish were scattered around the whole lake with the bigger bass being caught on the upper end of the lake on the boat ramp side.  Try fishing from the cove just east of the boat ramp to find the nice largemouth. No new angler reports. Folks were catching crappie on the upper end of the lake and folks are still catching catfish.     Over 40,000 trout have been stocked in the lake this year.

CATARACT LAKE —   We sampled the lake last Thursday and caught some really nice channel catfish and quite a few largemouth bass up to 2 lbs.  We also sampled some really nice sized bluegill. Most of the catfish were concentrated along the north shore of the lake.

CITY RESERVOIR —   No new reports.I had a report a couple of weeks ago that fishing was good at City for Crappie and trout on curly tailed jigs.  The angler said one of the crappie was about 13 inches. Stocked this week.

DOGTOWN LAKE —    We electrofished the lake on 8/13 and caught some nice sized largemouth bass.  The biggest we caught was almost 3 lbs and we caught a total of 10 bass 2 lbs or larger during the sampling.  The bass were concentrated near the dam and along the north shore. I have heard reports of some nice Brown Trout being caught by anglers at Dogtown.  There haven’t been any details just pictures. Stocked this week.

SANTA FE —  Lake is open.  We electrofished the lake on 8/16. We caught a lot of 5-6 inch yellow perch and black crappie.

WHITEHORSE LAKE — We electrofished Whitehorse 8/14 and found out some of the largemouth bass stocked in March had spawned over the summer.  Most of the fish were 5-8 inches long when they were stocked All of the bass and the black crappie looked healthy and the bass were fat. The biggest bass we caught was 12 inches long and weighed over a pound   The minimum size you can keep bass in Whitehorse is 13 inches. Please release all of the bass caught this year so we can get them established. More bass will equal bigger crappie in the long run.

FLAGSTAFF LAKES:

LOWER LAKE MARY-  No  water.

UPPER LAKE MARY —  Had a report of a few nice crappie being caught near the dam.

ASHURST LAKE —  Cooler weather means better trout fishing in the area.  Try garlic PowerBait on the south west area of the lake. Stocked this week.

FRANCIS SHORT POND –  Fall trout stockings have begun on the pond.  500 trout were stocked last week with another 500 stocked this week.

KINNIKINICK LAKE — No reports.

OAK CREEK — No report. Stocked this week.

BEAVER CREEK –  Has been stocked.

WEST CLEAR CREEK-. Has been stocked.

BLUE RIDGE —  The ramp is closed for boat trailers because of low water conditions.

KNOLL LAKE — Lake is open and was stocked.

LAKE POWELL

Lake Powell Fish Report – September 3, 2018

Lake Elevation:  3596

Water temperature:  76 – 80 F

By: Wayne Gustaveson   http://www.wayneswords.com or Wayneswords.net

The air temperature is cooling down now that September is here. Water temperature is following suit. That cooling makes it easier for stripers to stay near the surface and boil on a shad school.  The surface feeding activity that was confined to the northern half of the lake is now a thing of the past. Boils are now reported from Wahweap to the Good Hope Bay.

This week expect to see some surface activity in the southern lake from Wahweap to Rainbow Bridge.  There were recent reports of boiling stripers in Ice Cream Canyon (Wahweap Bay), Padre Bay and the mouth of Rock Creek.  Generally, this means that it is possible to find surface feeding fish anywhere and at any time of day. Unfortunately, the surface action only last for a short time. Throw topwater lures into the boiling fish as long as they stay up. A good school may boil for 10-15 minutes which means you can catch 10 or more from that single event. More often they only stay up for 5 minutes or less.

Do not be discouraged when they go down quickly. Treat the surface activity as a marker buoy.  Head to the spot and watch the graph intently. These surfacing stripers are searching for shad to eat and not finding that many in the southern lake.   When they go down they are still searching for food. Find the school on the graph and drop spoons to the hungry fish and get ready for some incredible fish-catching action.  Spoons resemble shad that stripers are searching for so they respond quickly to your bait. The striper school follows any fish with a shad [or spoon] in its mouth so they will stay under the boat as long as the spoons keep dropping. The action can be as intense as fishing a surface boil.  Watch the graph for the visual effect that surface fishing offers. Unhook the fish quickly, immediately drop the spoon back down to find another hungry fish.

Spoons that work well include Kastmasters, Fle Fly, Real Image, and Colt Sniper. These long thin spoons are “slab spoons” which all work well for hungry stripers.   If the striper school is holding at 30 feet, drop the spoon to 40 feet and then reel it up through the feeding fish. If no fish hit the lure after coming up 20 feet then drop again to 40 feet.  Try to keep the spoon in the school as long as possible so the fish can see it and quickly get to it. Spooning is the best way to catch a bunch a stripers in a very short time.

Smallmouth bass are observing the feeding stripers and get very excited about their feeding behavior.  If shad, spoons, crank baits, or surface lures come near, smallmouth bass will join in on the action. Bass fishing is excellent right now as water temperature drops and stripers drive shad toward the shoreline.

Do not be surprised if walleye, largemouth bass, sunfish and bluegill are caught at the same time all the smallmouth and striper activity is occurring.  The summer boating crowds are now declining. Water and air temperature are falling. The lake is now heading to excellent fishing success such as that seen in April and May.  The best time to fish in the Fall is from September 15th to October 15th. The fun times are right around the corner. Come and join in on the fun.

Chuck Benedict is an AZGFD Aquatic Wildlife Specialist out of Flagstaff