Large fish can't elude hook of an old pro

LAKE POWELL — About the only thing that's predictable about Lake Powell is that it's unpredictable.

Take fishing this year. Last year was supposed to be the best year for hooking fish in decades. Which, of course, it was. There were days when it was impossible to keep fish off hooks.

There were lots of fish, and all were fat and healthy from dining on threadfin shad, and not averse at all to taking a shad-lookalike on a hook.

It marked the second year in a row that the lake's most popular catches, which would include the entire bass family — striped, smallmouth and largemouth — along with crappie and walleye, had plenty to eat.

Who could ever have predicted, after the shad were hit so hard last year, that they would come back in such huge numbers for a third consecutive year?

During the entire 1990s, there were only two good feeding years for the predators. During the other eight, the fish went hungry.

A lot of factors play into high shad productivity, and right now all are favorable. Which means that if there is another good year, look for fishing to be better and the fish to be bigger.

The last time I saw striped bass as big as they were last week, some tipping the scales at close to eight pounds, was back when the lake was filling and fish numbers were increasing in the early 1980s.

I fished with an old pro named Dick Gasaway out of Colorado, who probably knew the lake better than anyone. I remember powering downlake in his high-speed bass boat when he'd suddenly pull up on the throttle, swing hard toward shore and report that there was a ledge just below the cliff that held fish. He was never wrong.

He did this time and time again, with no mile markers, no signs and no distinguishing marks. He just knew.

To me, one rock wall looked the same as the one around the corner. But, the ones Gasaway picked had ledges hidden beneath the surface and fish, which in those days were stripers and largemouth, nearby.

He asked on that first trip what fish and what size I was after for the story. I told him big fish, species didn't matter.

He pulled into a bay, found his spot and in five casts had five striped bass, all around eight pounds, jammed in the live well on the boat.

"OK," I said, sending out the challenge, "now catch a big largemouth."