Fast and Furious Fishing for Stripers

Some of the best fishing you’ll experience all year is happening right now at Lake Powell in southern Utah.

Wayne Gustaveson, lead aquatic biologist for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources at Lake Powell, says fishing for striped bass is hot in the Bullfrog portion of the lake right now. For example, an angler Gustaveson knows and that angler’s friend caught 100 stripers in the 2- to 3-pound range during the first week in January.


How to catch them
To find the stripers, Gustaveson recommends motoring into the back of a canyon until your fish finder shows a school of fish at a bottom depth of about 60 feet. Most stripers are now holding in that magic 60-foot depth range. Graph that zone in the back of any canyon in the Bullfrog area, and you’ll likely find a school of hungry stripers.

Once you find a school, drop a 1- to 1.5-ounce silver or shad-colored jigging spoon to the bottom. Gustaveson says the best spoon choices are Hopkins, CC Spoon or Cabelas Real Image.

If jigging doesn’t produce action, chum the water with cut anchovies. Then fix a piece of bait on a size 2 bait hook, and drop it into the school. When fish start hitting your bait and moving toward the surface, start jigging again to double your catch rate.

For more information and to stay updated on this winter’s striper bite, visit http://www.wayneswords.com/ .