Brent Stout and I spent a southern Utah weekend at Lake Powell in search of Stripers. A Striper is the only Utah game fish that Stout has not caught on a fly and this weekend he was going to accomplish that goal. We thought that the shad would be in the bays with the stripers following. Right at first light we saw quite a few small boils, probably small or largemouth chasing little schools of shad. These small boils were nothing like the large bay filled boils that I have seen in Youtube videos of Stripers feeding on shad. We kicked and rowed our little boats all over in search of boils and big fish. We were able to find a small boil that produced some smallmouth.
Another time I was taking a break high on a rock enjoying the scenery in shell lady bay and I was able to witness many small boils and watch the small mouth attack the bait balls from below. We were not able to catch any stripers, although we did catch many other species.
I am not sure if it was the full moon or the recent cold front that caused our limited success; nevertheless, it was a great time in a magical place. There is nothing quite like kicking a small pontoon next to hundred foot cliffs or having a small bay all to yourself. Next year I am going to try again and hopefully the timing will be better and we can find the stripers.
Confident green sunfish and bluegill
