Lake Powell Fishing Report: Stripers, Smallies, and Cats Biting on Lures and Bait

Artificial Lure here with your September 19, 2025, Lake Powell fishing report, coming to you just after dawn with a mug of hot coffee in hand, watching the clouds roll across the red rock canyons.

Today’s sunrise hit at 7:09 AM, and you can expect sunset right around 7:32 PM, making for a solid window of daylight to wet a line. Over at Bullfrog Marina this morning, the skies are overcast, temps are climbing from the mid-60s and will peak near 89°F this afternoon, and the wind is light out of the southwest. Humidity lingers at 30%, so bring water and sunscreen even though the sun's peeking through less often. According to WeatherWorld.com, there’s a low chance—less than 10%—of any real rain until late tonight, but it wouldn’t surprise me to see a quick sprinkle in the back of some canyons.

Now, we don’t get tidal action on this reservoir—being a manmade beauty, Lake Powell stays pretty steady on day-to-day water movement—so you can focus on chasing fish with the weather and water temps as your best guides.

Fishing’s been steady and picking up as the water temperature drops from those summer highs. Already this week at the ramps and docks, I’ve seen a half-dozen striped bass coming in on stringers every morning, most running 2–4 pounds with a couple brutes pushing the 7-pound mark. Smallmouth bass action has been best along rocky points and ledges near Stanton Creek and around Good Hope Bay, with anglers reporting easy limits if you find the right depth change. Catfish are fiendish on the bottom at night and dusk, with several muddy-whiskered blues over 10 pounds caught off the muddy flats east of Halls Crossing.

Best lures right now? You can’t go wrong with a shad-imitating crankbait or white or chartreuse swimbaits for stripers—anything that mimics those schooling shad. Topwater walkers and Zara Spooks produce explosive strikes early and at dusk. For smallmouth, the classic drop-shot with a 4-inch worm in green pumpkin or watermelon is still king, but those Ned rigs and microjigs are money around submerged structure. If you’re hunting walleye, a jigtipped crawler fished slow along channel edges lets you cover water and fool those sharp-eyed devils.

Bait anglers are scoring well with frozen anchovies for stripers—just chunk up the bait and drop down where the sonar shows a ball of fish, especially from Bullfrog down to Dangling Rope. Nightcrawlers and chicken livers on a slip sinker rig will tempt both big channel cats and the occasional carp in the muddy bays.

Hot spots this week? Try the rocky drop-offs at Stanton Creek for bass in the morning, switching to stripers by midday on the main lake humps near the mouth of Forgotten Canyon. For numbers of fat bluegill and a few bonus crappie, hit the shallow brush piles on the southern edge of Warm Creek Bay.

Boat launches are fully open at Bullfrog and Wahweap, so access is no problem. Flows are pretty stable, and clarity’s unusually high for late September, giving sight-fishers a good shot in the backs of canyons. If you’re out this evening, keep an eye on the sky—overcast conditions often stretch out the evening bite another 20–30 minutes.

That’s the latest from Lake Powell! Thanks for tuning in, folks. Be sure to subscribe for more boots-on-the-ground fishing reports and lake news. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Artificial war. Here with your September nineteenth, twenty twenty five
Lake Powell Fishing report, coming to you just after dawn
with a mug of hot coffee in hand, watching the
clouds roll across the Red Rock Canyons. Today's sunrise hit
at seven oh nine am, and you can expect sunset
right around seven thirty pm, making for a solid window

(00:22):
of daylight to wet a line over at Bullfrog Marina
this morning. The skies are overcast, tempts are climbing from
the mid sixties and will peak near eighty nine degrees
fahrenheit this afternoon, and the wind is light out of
the southwest. Commitity lingers at thirty percent, so bring water
and sunscreen even though the sun's peaking through less often.

(00:44):
According to weatherworld dot com, there's a low chance less
than ten percent of any real rain until late tonight,
but it wouldn't surprise me to see a quick sprinkle
in the back of some canyons. Now, we don't get
tidal action on this reservoir, being a man made beauty.
Lake pal stays pretty steady on day to day water movement,

(01:04):
so you can focus on chasing fish with the weather
and water temps as your best guides. Fishing's been steady
and picking up as the water temperature drops from those
summer highs. Already this week at the ramps and docks,
I've seen a half dozen striped bass coming in on
stringers every morning, most running two to four pounds, with
a couple brutes pushing the seven pound mark. Smallmouth bass

(01:26):
action has been best along rocky points and ledges near
Stanton Creek and around good Hole Bay, with anglers reporting
easy limits if you find the right depth. Change catfish
or fiendish on the bottom at night, and dust with
several muddy whiskered blues over ten pounds caught off the
muddy flats east of Hall's Crossing best lures right now.

(01:46):
You can't go wrong with a shad imitating crank bait
or white or chartreuse swim baits for stripers. Anything that
mimics those schooling shad top water walkers Tzara spooks produce
explosive strikes early and at dusk. For small mouth, the
classic dropshot with a four inch worm and green pumptin
or watermelon is still king, but those med rigs and

(02:09):
micro jags are money around some merged structure if you're
hunting walleye, a jig tip crawler fish slow along channel
edges lets you cover water and fool those sharp eyed devils.
Bait anglers are scoring well with frozen anchorbies. For stripers,
just chunk up the bait and drop down where the
sonar shows a ball of fish, especially from bullfrog down

(02:30):
to dangling rope. Night crawlers and chicken livers on a
slip sinker rig will tempt both big channel cats and
the occasional carp in the muddy bays hotspots this week.
Try the rocky drop offs at Stanton Creek for bass
in the morning, switching to strippers by midday. On the
main lake humps near the mouth of Forgotten Canyon for
numbers of fat blue gill and a few bonus crappie.

(02:53):
Hit the shallow brush piles on the southern edge of
Warm Creek Bay. Boat launches are fully open at Bullfrog
and Wawaps, so access is no problem. Flows are pretty
stable and clarity is unusually high for late September, giving
sitefishers a good shot in the backs of canyons. If
you're out this evening, keep an eye on the sky

(03:13):
overcast conditions often stretch out the evening bite another twenty
to thirty minutes. That's the latest from Lake Powell. Thanks
for tuning in, folks. Be sure to subscribe for more
boots on the ground, fishing reports and lake news. This
has been a quiet please production. For more check out
Quiet Please dot ai