Lake Powell continues to rise. Main ramp at Wahweap is now open for launching all boats. The old Stateline Ramp is open for launching kayaks. Stateline Auxiliary Ramp is the launch ramp closest to the parking area for parking trucks and boat trailers. The rising water rushing downstream from the inflowing rivers allows the lake to rise about 1 foot per day. That is great news for those hoping to launch at Lake Powell.

The bad news is that the massive amount of water flowing into the lake makes the northern lake extremely muddy. Silt and debris are overwhelming, making it difficult to travel in the northern lake. Many boat props have been damaged when floating wood is hit by the prop. Fishing is slow because of the lack of visibility in the water. The good news is that the lower lake has clearer visibility and less debris in the water. It is still possible to hit random floating wood in the lower lake, but it is not nearly as bad as found in the upper lake.

Fishing for surface-feeding stripers in the lower third of Lake Powell is challenging and exciting. Threadfin shad larvae are extremely abundant, and stripers pursue them constantly. Shad schools are feeding on plankton near the surface, and striper schools are close by looking for shad. Stripers surround the shad school, drive shad to the surface and then eat as many as possible before the shad school disappears. Anglers need to be alert and watching for the stripers to hit the surface and quickly eat as many small shad as possible. These surface-feeding events are extremely quick, often less than 1 minute. Stripers can be seen chasing shad on the surface, surrounding the school and then eating as many shad as possible in a very short time. Stripers are only visible on the surface for about 1 minute, but after the school leaves the surface, they often resurface in the same area two or three more times. I call these quick feeding events “slurps.”

When slurps are actively occurring, it is possible to catch the surfacing stripers because the slurp events continue all morning long. We saw slurps from the mouth of Warm Creek all the way to Last Chance and Rock Creek. Padre Bay was very busy with slurps from dawn to 11 a.m. Our best lures were rattletraps, plastic grubs that looked like shad, and other lures that look like adult shad. Stripers schools attacking tiny shad can be quickly distracted by a lure that looks like an adult shad instead of the tiny shad larvae that are less than half an inch long. A rattletrap swimming past actively feeding stripers was very hard for stripers to ignore.

The hard part when fishing in slurps is getting close enough to the striper school to cast the small lures far enough to reach the quickly moving striper school. Stripers hit the shad schools quickly, then dive, search and hit another shad school in close vicinity and then go down deep and move on to find the next shad cluster. Today we saw stripers come to the surface often, but we only got in proper casting range about once in every five surface events that we witnessed. Stripers ranged from 14 inches to 3 pounds. When in range and with the lure properly cast, we caught about two stripers from every third to fifth striper surfacing event. Slurp fishing requires fast boat movement, and quick and accurate casts, while catching only an occasional striper. It is intense and rewarding at the end of the day when 20 or more stripers are quickly taken off the hook and stowed in the fish cooler. Boiling striper schools will take over in July when shad are larger. Right now, search for quick surface action and then follow the striper school to its next feeding event. It is challenging but it is also very fun.

A YouTube video from last year can be found at: youtube]gB4YePcqy3A