Lake Powell
Today’s report
Lake Powell is fishing tough today. The reservoir is 22% full, well below the usual 60% for this time of year, and rising over the last month. The DWR last stocked chub (30,100 fish) on March 31, 2023. This Afternoon's forecast: mostly sunny, 67°F.
- drawn down to ~22% of capacity — expect mudflats and long walks to the water
- calm, fishable weather
Fishing Lake Powell: what to know
Lake Powell is 186 miles of flooded canyon on the Colorado between Utah and Arizona, with the Utah side reached from Bullfrog, Halls Crossing, and Hite (as water allows). It's a bass lake first — striped bass in enormous numbers, smallmouth on every rocky point, largemouth in the brushy coves — plus walleye, crappie, channel catfish, and bluegill. The water level moves dramatically year to year and rewrites the launch ramps, so check before you tow.
Spring (April–May) puts smallmouth and largemouth on beds in the shallows and the stripers on a pre-spawn feed. Summer is the striper boil season: schools driving shad to the surface at dawn, the signature Powell experience, plus smallmouth all day on the rocks. Fall keeps the boils going into October and the walleye bite picks up. Winter is quiet but stripers school deep in the main channel and can be jigged.
Stripers: throw topwaters or spoons into boils; otherwise anchovy bait on the bottom or jig spoons over deep schools on the graph. Smallmouth: tubes and plastic worms on every rock pile. Largemouth: jigs and plastics in the brush. Stripers have no limit at Powell and anglers are asked to keep them; a Utah or Arizona license plus the reciprocal stamp covers the whole lake.
Current conditions
Stocking
Last stocked Mar 31, 2023 — chub (30,100 fish).
| Date | Species | Quantity | Avg length |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 31, 2023 | chub | 30,100 | 3.58" |
| Oct 27, 2022 | chub | 34,800 | 2.68" |
| Apr 5, 2022 | chub | 15,950 | 3.16" |
| Nov 3, 2021 | chub | 10,691 | 4.14" |
Best time to fish Lake Powell
The DWR has stocked Lake Powell 4 times over the last 1 season, and 75% of those plants landed in March, April, October — the freshest fish and the easiest bite usually follow within a week or two of a stocking.
Species
Location
Guides & shops for this water
From our independent directory — no booking relationship.
Regulations
See Fishing across state lines and reciprocal fishing permits on page 8 for license and permit requirements. See Bait on page 33 for the use of dead shad as bait in Lake Powell.
- Limit 20 smallmouth bass.
- Limit 5 largemouth bass.
- Limit 10 crappie.
- Limit 25 channel catfish.
- No limit on striped bass.
- No limit on walleye.
- Fish may be filleted at any time.
- Anglers may possess filleted fish.
- Anglers may use dead striped bass as bait.
- Chumming is allowed, but you may chum only with legal baits or dead striped bass, as specified in Utah Admin. Rule R657-13-12.
- Gaffs may be used to land striped bass only. Archery (and underwater spearfishing) are prohibited within all of the following areas:
- One-quarter mile of all existing developed areas, including shoreline campgrounds, docks, launch ramps, breakwaters and trailheads
- One-quarter mile of any structure, including any building, shed, pump-out, boat dock, breakwater, permanent harbor fixture, camper, motor home, trailer, tent or vehicle
- Rainbow Bridge National Monument
- One-quarter mile of Dangling Rope Marina, including any landor harbor- (unless the person owns, rents, leases or lawfully occupies the boat), or another boat moves into the 100-yard perimeter after the bow or spearfishing activity has commenced
Special rules from the 2026 Utah Fishing Guidebook. Statewide daily limits apply to anything not listed. Rules change — always verify in the current guidebook before you fish.