09/15 - Lake Powell September Cruise

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Last year we had the pleasure of meeting Jim B. "Wild Blue" while cruising on Flaming Gorge in Utah. Jim thought we were another C-Dory, but after closer inspection he referred to our boat as a "cousin" boat. We found Jim to be a super person and we enjoyed our short visit with him. He posted a picture of our boat and described our meeting in his June 10, 2007 post.
He also gave us encouragement in joining C-Brats.

We finally got up nerve to join today and we are looking forward to the Lake Powell trip, and hopefully many more.

George & Janice
"Sea Quest"

P.S. I guess we are no longer cousins since the 23 Venture is now a C-Dory!
 
Getting some questions from folks about what works for the bass at Powell. Not much of a fisherman myself. Would Brent or maybe Tony like to give us some ideas on what would be good?
 
Chris
If you watch this site you can see what is working for the season. You can post questions and you will get good answers.
www.wayneswords.com
It is ran on the side by the lakes biologist.

PS have we set a date to meet at Oak canyon? I can just picture myself searching the lake for boats. I will probably launch at Bullfrog and go down to Oak.
 
We will be in Oak on Sept 20th...staying overnight. This will give us a good rendezvous point so everybody can catch up with the group. May be in there other nights too...it's a good hiding spot if we get weather.
 
I'm not much of a fisherman, but got really lucky last time. I was using Yamamoto chartruese hula grubs. Fishing striper boils, about anything works. Jody is right, go to Waynes Words and look at the fishing forum and there are a ton of fishermen there that can give lots of advice. Waynes Words also has a fishing report and anglers report, so you can read tons of info without actually having to even ask a question.

http://www.wayneswords.com

Tony
NA0US
 
Here is the latest fishing report from Lake Powell.

August 20, 2008
By Wayne Gustaveson
Lake Elevation: 3631
Water Temp: 78-83 F
It's beginning! The southern lake is starting to boil after a 3 week quiet spell where fishing was very tough. The northern lake has had sustained striper boils over the same period. Now it appears the whole lake will provide excellent fishing. Dark moon in August bodes well for anglers who like topwater fishing.

Yesterday there were sustained striper boils at the dam from 6 to 8 AM. Today we ran a circuit around Antelope Island to see how extensive the boiling stripers were. At 6 AM scattered stripers were seen chasing shad from Buoy 1 to the dam. A rattletrap cranked down would catch an occasional fish. But that wasn't fast enough so we raced uplake.

At Buoy 3 we joined another boat fishing the first real boil of the day. Surface lures worked great with these tightly packed fish that were jumping high out of the water Just cast into or beyond the school for multiple hook ups. This school moved rapidly from Buoy 1 to Buoy 3 in one half hour. They went down and we preceded uplake.

No striper schools were seen in Antelope Marina. Scattered fish started to pop near Buoy 9 but we could only catch an occasional fish on slowly cranked crankbaits. So we continued the circuit.

At the confluence of Warm Creel and the main channel (Buoy 12) a huge boil blew up at 7:45 AM. We caught multiple fish on surface lures and crankbaits. One boil was right in the middle of the travel lane while another one was going on shore. We had a really great time with this bunch and placed multiple fish in the cooler.

We expected all the fish to stay down after 8 AM but made a token run around Warm Creek hoping for one more school. That was a seemingly futile gesture so we headed the boat for Castle Rock Cut and home. With the Cut in sight we were detoured by the largest boil of the day. We finished filling the cooler and headed in at 9 AM.

Boils are even better between Rock Creek and San Juan. The lake from San Juan to Bullfrog is starting to boil as well. Topwater striper fishing will be the big news on the lake from now until the end of September. Most boils in the lower lake are in the channel but there will be many boils in coves as well. Most boils will happen at dusk and dawn but daytime boils will become more common with time.

Don't be surprised to catch bass in the boils with the stripers. As surface temperature drops bass will come shallow as well. September will be the best fishing month that Lake Powell has seen for many years.

Catfish are still prowling the shoreline around camp and bluegill are in the brush but it will be very hard to pass up the boils for the more sedate forms of fishing.
 
Help--need input from experienced cruisers!

This will be our first extended cruise. We usually take our camper and do only day cruises. Would appreciate any information on what we should expect and what to bring. Better to ask now than be sorry later.

We had planned on bringing our camper since we will be visiting family and friends in Vegas either before or after the cruise. However, the cost of camping is expensive and a waste of money if we will be sleeping on the boat. Is there a place we can park our camper while on the cruise?

George
"Sea Quest"
 
I don't remember a charge for parking your truck and trailer at Wahweap boat launch and it shouldn't make any difference if your camper were on the truck. When we went last year we just stayed in the boat in Walmart parking lots on the way down. You will have a great time at Lake Powell, its the perfect time of year to go and a nice group of people to share it with.
Make sure to bring a good cooler...and sun sceen. There is a small store at Dangling Rope that has basic replacement items and fuel and the same again at Bullfrog.
 
George,
We plan on doing the same thing. We will take the camper because we plan on going at least a week early and doing some of the Utah parks we have missed on other trips. Does anyone who has cruised Lake Powell in the fall have any input on bugs? Are any insects a problem?
 
Hi George,

There is free parking (well, you pay to get in) at Wahweap. You may want to park at the lot at the top of the hill (as opposed to along the ramp). No hook-ups, so you'll want to have your fridge empty and off in the camper.

As far as what to expect: last year in September when we were at Lake Powell, the weather was gorgeous, water temps still warm, and the traffic on the lake was reasonably light (except weekends). Expect to have a great time with the group. You will cruise from place to place, spending nights in gorgeous coves. You'll want to have ground tackle so you can either beach your boat and tie off the stern with lines to shore, or anchor in close and tie off to shore.

What to bring? Whatever you would need to be comfortable camping for a multi-day excursion. Food, water, adult beverages, clothes for warm weather, maybe a light jacket for evening. You can get ice at the marina stores (we depend on our fridge while cruising). Swim suits, sunscreen. I like to listen to my iPod at night as I drift off to sleep. We took our dinghy along at Lake Powell, but only really needed it once (to go to the Defiance cliff dwelling). Comfortable shoes for hiking. Stamps so you can send us a post card. :wink:

We did a potluck or two, so something to share for an evening meal. A bimini or some kind of shade is nice... we picked places to spend the night with a cliff to the west so we'd have shade earlier in the day.

There are pump outs scattered around the lake. Fuel is available in a few places... you'll discuss how far you're going the next day so you can plan. I always carry a fuel can - for the generator and "just in case."

Hope that helps some.

Best wishes,
Jim B.
 
We have towed the boat with an RV almost every time at Lake Powell. We usually spend the day before launch and the day we pull out at the campground at Wahwep We did not need air conditioning on the lake. We have also "camped" in the boat--and did this all of the way across the US last year. We had the air conditioner in the front window of the C Dory and this was adequate to cool the boat down at night even in campgrounds and parking lots.

We do take a "H2O" fan (from Wal Mart) or a Fantastic Breeze fan.

The only time we took a dinghy we used it to retrieve some other camper's items which had blown off from their campsite or to fish. I don't usually take a dinghy.

We do have two light stern anchors to use on the beach--some times you can find rocks, and sometimes you can pound stakes into the sand/ground--but the anchors give us versitility.

We almost always go stern to the beach.

The only insects we complained about were the PWC's--there were even some in Sept which "buzzed" us.

We do take an extra water jug, but remember you can use the lake water for cooking, washing dishes, and bathing.

We are still looking at ways of getting there this year....it is a great trip.
 
George,

If you have never been to Lake Powell, you will be awestruck. There is no way to describe the area. I'm excited to run across the group, but that's because I don't have a C-Dory and am anxious to get the opportunity to see a few of them. My boat doesn't go much more than about 7mph, so I won't be touring around with everyone, but if I find out where you all are, I'll sure hope to get there.

One thing to expect that many may not be ready for are a lot of weeds. Lake Powell has been quite low for 5-6 years and as it got a little lower, many beaches began to grow quite a bit of tamarask, which has become quite thick in many areas. This year the water has risen to levels not seen for 6 years, so many of the beaches have more tamarask than they have in the past.

In my case, I don't anchor my boat, I have to find some kind of beach to put the two pontoons on, then tie off to rocks or dig a couple of anchors into the beach.

I launch at Bullfrog and in all the years I've been going to Lake Powell, I've been everywhere from about mile marker 28-29 north to the bottom of Cataract Canyon. I have only been to the dam once, but that was in a ski boat and we didn't explore much on the way. Any of the marinas have free parking. There are campgrounds too, but if you're in your boat, what's the point of parking in a campground where you have to pay a daily fee?

I see that Chris plans on meeting at Oak Canyon on September 20th. In my opinion, Oak Canyon is at the center of some of the finest scenery in Lake Powell. There are many beautiful, narrow, high canyons in the immediate vicinity of Oak Canyon. Last April I spent several days there without a soul in the area. In September, it may be a little more crowded. You'll want to explore Rainbow Bridge, Forbidding Canyon, Twilight Canyon, Hidden Passage Canyon, Anasazi Canyon, Music Temple Canyon, and Reflection Canyon, which are all quite close to Oak Bay.

I don't know how long the group plans on being at Lake Powell, but if you have the opportunity and time, I highly recommend going up the San Juan. There are NO facilities up the San Juan, so you need to gas up at Dangling Rope and maybe have a couple of cans of extra gas to get you back there when you're done. A few miles up the San Juan is Nasja Canyon to the right, which is quite picturesque. I've hiked quite far up the canyon and it's beautiful, but there certainly isn't room for lots of boats in the area. After Nasja, you'll come to Cha Bay, which has Cha and Trail Canyons, both very pretty. It's a wide open area with several beaches (though I haven't been there this year with the high water.) At the east end of Cha Bay is Wilson Creek. I've hiked the slope to the west of Wilson Creek to the top of Cha Bay where there are incredible views of the entire area, with Navajo Mountain looming to the south.

Here is a view looking from the rim down into Trail Canyon:

DSCN5003.JPG


Looking a little more to the west you can see into Cha Canyon and Navajo Mountain as seen here:

DSCN5057.JPG


Past Wilson Creek is Desha Canyon. There isn't much there in the way of camping, but it's pretty. As you pass Desha, you'll come to a huge horseshoe bend. A shortcut past this bend may still be open, but in this bend are several coves and one is where I've parked several times to hike to what are known as the Peekaboo Arches. This is one of the best hikes in all of Lake Powell. If you like to hike, I have a description of how to get there here:

http://www.ferrises.com/peekaboo

This gives plenty of detail to get to the top of the Peekaboo Arches where you can look down into the San Juan from 800-900' above the lake. I may even hike up again this year.

Just before you see the arches from the water you pass Deep Canyon. Hiking up Deep Canyon is fantastic and I highly recommend it. At the mouth of Deep Canyon you can usually find lots of stripers that are catchable on anchovies dropped to about 30'.

Past Deep Canyon, you round the corner into the beginning of another very large bay called Neskahi Bay. At the head of Neskahi is Piute Canyon. There's a road into Piute Canyon from the Navajo Reservation, so you may find people fishing from the shore here. Neskahi Bay has many beaches and coves and lots of smallmouth bass and many stiper boils.

If you travel past Neskahi Bay, you'll go through the Great Bend of the San Juan which is very beautiful. It's probably my favorite part of Lake Powell, with Alcove Canyon and many coves off the main channel in various places. The water has been low for years, so we haven't be able to travel past the end of the Great Bend, but I suspect you can go a long way past the Great Bend. In years past, I have traveled another 10-20 miles past here, but it's been a long time.

I could go on and on, if you haven't been to Lake Powell there are incredible sites to see. Past the San Juan is the Escalante, which has many beautiful areas. Here's a shot looking up the main channel just below the Escalante. There are some nice coves in the area.

DSCN5129.JPG


You can spend a lifetime at Lake Powell, so if this is your first time, you'll want to come back again and again.

A few weeks ago I spent a week fishing with friends in "Striper City" which is near the bay between White Canyon and Trachyte Canyon about mile marker 134-135. It's a long way from Wahweap, but we caught about 200-300 stripers in a week. It was great fun.

I need to quit writing, I'm just getting excited at getting back to the lake and seeing the San Juan and meeting some C-Dory folks. If you see this boat:

340_Oak_Bay_DSCN5872.JPG


that's us camped in Oak Bay last April. Sometimes I have some blue sunscreen shades snapped to the side of the boat. The funny looking antenna is my 40 meter ham radio antenna.

All these pictures are at much lower lake level. The water is at least 30 feet higher than what you see.

If you know anybody looking for a small houseboat, mine's for sale. I want to buy a C-Dory!

http://www.ferrises.com

Tony Ferris
NA0US
 
Oh boy oh boy oh boy!

We may or may not have a functional windlass, but it doesn't sound like that is a big deal. We will have a couple of hundred feet of line, and a couple of extra anchors on-board. I assume we can nose into the beach and tie off, or put a small anchor out and stern tie, whatever?

We are also likely not to have a functional Wallas, but I guess we will NOT need cabin heat (!) and we do most of our cooking on a Coleman Fold-n-Go anyway. Sounds like some kind of cooling is more important than heating! ("Air conditioning" is a foreign concept on the damp, cool Upper Left Coast!)

I also assume we can take on fresh water at the various marinas? We are getting good at water conservation, we got through a week in the Gulf Islands on 20 gallons washing dishes in salt water! Plus lake water in the sunshower should take care of all of our bathing needs! But I always worry about having enough fresh water - maybe it is irrational, I don't know. Got to have water for that cappuccino in the Mukka Express!

How about provisioning? Do you try to take what you need for (say) two weeks, or do you buy stuff at the marina stores? Ice for sure, you can't have a decent G&T or martini without it!

I will bring a fishing pole - I suppose I will need to get a Utah fishing license, and can get that when I arrive?

Fuel - how many miles are we likely to cover? We just cruised Daydream 165 nautical miles in the Canadian Gulf Islands for a week on 31 gallons of gas at about 6 knots. That is 5.3 nautical miles per gallon or 6.1 statute miles per gallon - so I assume with a 100 gallon tank on the CD25, we can gas up in Page and never need to buy fuel on the lake during the two week cruise...will have generator and dinghy gas, but probably no "contingency" gas for Daydream. I would be interested to hear how many miles per day we are planning on covering - I sure like 6 knots but of course there are limits on how far it is reasonable to expect to go at 6 knots!

Tony - I will have my 2m rig programmed for Navajo Mountain! Is there a net or anything, some particular time of day that it would be best to be monitoring? I doubt if I will have it on all the time...although maybe I should?

We are SO ready for this!



 
Pat,

To answer your question about Navajo Mtn, it is basically a very quiet repeater. You'll seldom here anyone using it. However, since I was last there, I believe that Wayne (W7WAC) the trustee, may have joined up with another group and linked the repeater elsewhere. Not sure. I do know Wayne has the capability to link it to IRLP if he wants to. I should write him and email and ask him the status. If I get an answer, I'll let you know. I usually monitor marine channel 16 and the 146.96 repeater, each on separate radios any time I'm on my boat. The boat is the "No Guarantees" and the ham call is NA0US.

September on Lake Powell is fantastic. Probably the best month of the year. The days can be hot, but the nights are usually cool. The water is still warm enough to swim. I'd be surprised if you need air conditioning, but you never know.

I'm pretty sure you can get water at any of the marinas. Only problem, there aren't very many of them. I seldom buy anything at any marina. I bring everything I need for as long as I'm going, but I've never been out for more than two weeks. I have a friend who used to use either a kayak or sea cycle (pedal powered pontoon boat) and he'd go out for four weeks at a time, taking 1 gallon of water. He goes to the middle of the channel, fills his jug, then goes back to shore and runs it through a filter. He's graduated to a 12' inflatible now.

Fishing licenses are expensive for out of state. You can buy a one week license for something like $30-35. A season license is $70. Kind of a rip off, but it's the only two options. You can buy them online here:

https://secure.utah.gov/hflo2/hflo

As far as fuel goes, you can only buy fuel at Page, Dangling Rope, or Halls Crossing/Bullfrog. That's it. I always take all my gas with me because I don't like paying marina prices. It's usually at least $1 higher than a gas station. I have no clue where your group will go, so can't tell you how much you'll cover. The lake is about 140 miles long, the San Juan arm is 40-50 miles long, and the Escalante arm is about 15-20 miles long. You can put a lot of miles on the boat just cruising up and down all the canyons too. Ice is also available at the marinas.

I never read the question from anyone but if you want to use a cellphone, as long as you're in the southern end of the lake and see Navajo Mountain, you should have coverage. If you're north of Bullfrog, there are many hotspots, but you need to know where they are. Uplake from Moki Canyon, near Knowles and Cedar Canyons around mile 110, then north of Good Hope Bay as far as "The Horn" at about mile 128 is the last place a cell phone will work on the north end of the lake. Same for the ham repeater on Navajo Mtn.

I have a potential customer for my boat that I'm going to meet on the 19th, so I'm excited. I sure enjoy my boat, but if I sell it, it will be time for me to become a C-Dory owner, so wish me luck!

Tony
NA0US
 
Pat
Probably need to buy the Utah license at Cabelas in Lehi on the way down or online. I don't think they will sell one in Arizona, just reciprocating stamps. The water in the marinas tastes nasty. So I would use the tank for drinking and the lake for everything else. There is a pretty good supply of lake water this year. If you want to use the marinas water bring one of those rv water filters should get rid of most of the taste.
 
Pat...looking back through my logs...I see that a week on Powell usually has amounted to between 300 and 400 miles. There is fuel at mile 40 and again at mile 95. These mileages are measured from the dam. There are lots of side trips which can really pile up the miles. For example...last trip I explored the San Juan River arm which took me 35 miles from the main channel. With 35 miles for the return trip that turned into a 70 mile side trip. There are hundreds of canyons like this to explore...so the miles can add up. Or not. Sometimes you find a spot you just don't want to leave...so you stay put for a day or two.
I would plan on major provisioning in Page before we leave Wahweap. The little stores at the marinas have very little in the way of provisions...maybe milk...bread...eggs...hot dogs...ice. Potable water is available at the marinas...and lake water is great for everything accept drinking. There are floating dump stations in several locations around the lake to keep the sanitary facilities aboard in working order...unless of course you have one of those new fangled composting things...in which case you don't need a dump station.(Sure hope those things don't catch on).
About the weather...it will be perfect weather for most of the trip. However, this time of year can bring the first of the frontal systems. It could get a little chilly...and it could rain. Won't be frigid...and it won't rain for long...but you should have stuff to stay warm just in case. At the same time...you will want to have your water toys along because you will likely want to spend some time in the lake as well as on it!
 
A good 5 minute rolling boil would be fine. Chlorine is not effective against Cryptosporidium...so better than nothing...but I wouldn't chance it unless necessary. If you find that you must use lake water to drink....gather it in a container...let it settle...decant...and boil for 5 minutes. Now there are some people that can drink lake water and worse and never be bothered...it will kill others.
Millions of people depend on Powell water for drinking...but they have the benefit of treatment, disinfection and monitoring.
 
I read in one of the Lake Powell links that you need to put barriers on your ropes going to shore to stop mice and rats? Is this normally a problem?
 
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