Powell lake records

[wormandbobber]

It looks like Wayne Gustaveson needs to update his website...my father went fishing with Wayne last week and caught a 22" lake trout, but Wayne's website doesn't list lake trout....
http://www.wayneswords.com/bigfish.htm
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[Kent]

That would be quite the catch on Lake Powell. Any ideas where it came down river from (long ways from Flaming Gorge)?
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[wormandbobber]

Wayne said it was only the second lake trout he has ever seen in the lake...chances are it came from Flaming Gorge. The question is why?
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]We all have our ambitions. Maybe the errant mack just wanted to create a stir. Some people are like that. (nothing personal)[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]On another matter, have you heard anything about Otter Creek or Minersville lately?[/#0000ff]
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[wormandbobber]

I have fished Minersville twice in the past couple of weeks and it has been good both times...the lake is full and the fish are exceptionally fat and healthy. The DWR gillnetted Minersville last week and found lots of fat healthy bows. I also fished Piute on Saturday, but did not do well. Piute is also full; my bet is that the fish numbers are not very high and the fish in the lake are just tough to catch right now with the high water and large amount of food. Otter Creek is also full of water, but should have good numbers of fish...from what I understand, the fish are not as big as the ones in Minersville or Piute, but the fishing should still be good. I haven't fished it this spring, though.
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[gshorthair]

Hey, tubedude my parents just came back from Koosharem. They said I should come down and fish the otter creek. Their neighbors have been doing really well from shore. gshorthair
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Good news on the fishin' holes down there. You're probably right about the population and food base issues. Well fed fish are tougher to catch. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I hear the Minersville phatties are really great fighters too. [/#0000ff][#0000ff]Did they do any netting surveys on the chubs in Minersville or have they pretty well eliminated them for the present?[/#0000ff]
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Otter Creek is on my target list to tube soon. Go down and check it out and then post a report.[/#0000ff]
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[wormandbobber]

The chubs are there, but they are not too thick right now...if the lake keeps water for a few years--and it should--the smallmouth will come on strong and keep the chubs in check. Before the reservoir's dam was repaired and the lake had to be drained, the chubs were pretty thick, but the smallmouth were picking off the young of the year...so, I think had the state engineers allowed the dam to go without repairs, the chub numbers would have gradually declined. Minersville was really a good smallmouth fishery...it should come back quickly.
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[jackfisher]

W&B-

Wayne himself caught a 30" anemic looking Lake Trout at Lake Powell Feb 15 of this year, kinda crazy. He caught the Lake Trout, Stripers, LMB, SMB, and a walleye all out of the same cove on a Norman suspending Little N.

The fishing at Powell is something else!
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[wormandbobber]

He must have forgot about the one he caught because he said that he had only seen two caught in Lake Powell and one of them was in a gillnet...
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[Coldfooter]

Just curious,,Where along the pond were the Mac's caught..
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[bassrods]

Back in the 70's and up to 1983 they were planting trout in lake Powell....
We was there once and watched them dump 2 trucks of trout for the next day and a half the strippers had a feast and had the trout pined to the shore...It was great stripper fishing wile the trout lasted...


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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]You got it wrong, Cliff. The STRIPPERS are in Las Vegas...not Powell.[/#0000ff]
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[bassrods]

Sorry I try to spell faster then I hunt and pick.....
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[wormandbobber]

True...in fact, Lake Powell used to grow some very large rainbows (look at Wayne's lake records) and Arizona still stalks catchable rainbows in Lake Havasu; in fact, many of the trophy striper fishermen hit the lake hard right after the hatchery truck dumps in the stripers. This is when some of the real monsters (30+ pounds) are caught...
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[jackfisher]

Wayne caught his 30" Mac in the back of the main arm of Rock Creek Canyon. I doubt he forgot it, there must have been some misunderstanding.

I quote from his report dated Feb 15, 2006

[#4040ff]One cast produced a rare sight. Instead of a striper, walleye or bass this time the fish was a lake trout (mackinaw). I have only encountered 3 lake trout in my years on the lake.

The trout was not in good shape as shad forage is scarce now in southern Lake Powell. It was close to 30 inches long and probably made the trip downstream from Utah or Colorado. I wish it could have told the whole story of its life. It would have made a better choice by staying in the cold home trout water instead of working downstream where it had striped bass and warm water with which to compete.[/#4040ff]

I attached a pic of his anemic looking 30" inch mac. Pretty crazy if you ask me!
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[hedgesd]

All those lakes are doing well and improving. If we can keep some water in Minersville and Piaute it'll start producing some big fish.
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[Old_Coot]

[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 2][#002850] I had my doubts. Thanks for the picture proof. [/#002850][/font] [/size]
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[PBH]

[reply]
If we can keep some water in Minersville ... it'll start producing some big fish.[/reply]



The Conservation Pool has been reclaimed, so draining the lake dry is no longer an issue -- even if the water users want to use more water, they can't!

But, Minersville has had other issues. If the water level gets down to the C-pool in the middle of the summer, then algea blooms are an issue (depletion of oxygen content from the water -- fish die). Another issue that has affected Minersville in the past is too much water. If the lake is full, and spring runnoff is high (we got lucky last year), and the inflow is poor quality water, and the lake begins to spill -- guess where all the fish go? Yep, out the spill way, and we lose all the fish.

I'm not trying to be pesimistic, or anything, just showing that there are other issues than can come into play. The nice thing, is that those other issues have only happened a very few times. Now that the water situation is pretty much taken care of, we should be back to where we were in the late 90's -- but it should last longer!
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