Striped Bass Fishing Fun on Lake Powell with Sebile's new
Lures for 2010

Date: |
8/22/09 |
Tackle type: |
Lures |
Manufacturer: |
Sebile |
Reviewer: |
Bassdozer |
Introduction:
What do a
trio of guys who work in the fishing business do for fun? We just can't help it.
We confess. We love to go fishing more than anything else! Armed with Sebile's
newest baits from ICAST we head to Rock Creek Canyon on Lake Powell in Utah for
some Striped Bass fishing fun.

Russ lips one on Sebile's Fast
Cast jig.
This time we
shot forty-two miles up lake in the cool dimness of false dawn, itching to reach
a hotspot nestled in the back of Rock Creek Canyon on Lake Powell in Utah. Fish
had bitten well there on Thursday, when a lot (approx. 50 stripers) were
deep-jigged off bottom. We were disappointed there on Friday morning, when
"only" 8 to 10 stripers obliged us.

Bassdozer hoists another on
Sebile's flashy blue sardine color Fast Cast jig
On Saturday,
the wind blew them off their feed. So with two "off" mornings in a row, as we
sped back up there on Sunday morning, I just knew (I hoped) that they'd be ready
to go wild in the windless conditions on Sunday morning - and they did!

Capt. Jay had much success by
"walking the dog" with Sebile's Slim Stick topwater bait in White Lady color.
Patrick
Sebile, a Frenchman who has relocated himself and his lure company to Palmer
Lake, Colorado supplied us with some of his newest lures and we had the job of
field-testing them for him. Patrick Sebile is among the angling elite with many
records to his name, and all that experience goes into the design of his lures.

Patrick Sebile demonstrates
effectiveness of his new Fast Cast long distance casting jig in Holo Greenie
(D9) color.
Also joining
us was Captain Jay Withers, a saltwater charter captain sharpie from Port
Charlotte, Florida. We hit stripers and smallmouth on Sebile's new lures, which
will be available in late 2009 or early 2010. After this trip I'm here to tell
you, you need to try them too!

Patrick Sebile and Russ Bassdozer
chuckle gleefully over a double whammy of bent rods and hard-fighting stripers!
The hit list
from our day out included:
New Fast Cast Jig.
An ideal choice for distance casting, speed reeling and jigging bottom in deep
water.

New Vibrato
Jig.
I can only describe the Vibrato as a wacky jig, with the line tied to the center
of the long, slim metal jig's body, and a treble dangles off each end of the
bait. On the fall, it flutters like a wacky worm, and when you lift it, it
paddles hard, vibrating side-to-side with a throbbing resistance felt in the rod
tip. There's really nothing else quite like it

New Spin
Shad #1.
We fished the smallest of the Spin Shad sizes from anywhere just below the
surface to sixty feet deep, and caught stripers non-stop with it. The Spin Shad
was also the most productive lure for smallmouth on this trip.

New
Crankster SR (Shallow Runner).
We didn't use this a lot, but when we did, stripers and smallies were all over
it!

Slim Stick
and Splasher Topwater Baits.
These aren't new (although many anglers have yet to try them) - but it was too
much fun for us not to toss them for stripers and smallies on top!
New Magic
Swimmer Soft and new Stick Shadd Soft.
We Carolina-rigged and dropshot these new soft lures, having success with
smallmouth - but that's another story. Let's take it back to the big striper
blitz right now...

Russ and Jay wax victorious again!
So there we
were - battling schoolie-sized landlocked striped bass. At times on every cast
all three of us were reeling them in - reveling in the world-famous beauty of
the scenic southwest desert impoundment, Lake Powell.

After stripers schools had broken
up the shad schools and pushed the remaining shad up against offshore reefs or
deep cliff walls, then schools of smallmouth would come out to clean up on the
left-over shad. That was when Captain Jay Withers, saltwater expert from Port
Charlotte, Florida, would pop up a little smallmouth on the side with a Sebile
Splasher topwater lure.
As the sun
and temperature climbed quickly and uncomfortably, the stripers retired for the
day to parts unknown. After the striper action subsided, we did try largemouth
and smallmouth fishing, which was slow, but the poor cooperation from the black
and brown bass didn't dampen our delight or tarnish our shared memories of
catching the plentiful striped bass that were breaking the surface in an early
morning feeding frenzy. At times they surrounded us in all directions for
magical moments that didn't want to end. The barrages of feeding stripers
everywhere were amplified and echoed off the cliff walls, seeming all the louder
in contrast to the stillness of early morning.

When the stripers schools took
breaks (which didn't last long) to let the dispersed shad regroup back into
schools before charging them again, that's when smallmouth would come out from
the nearby reefs, points and walls and blast anything that moved, including a
blue chrome Sebile Crankster SR (Shallow Runner) fat crankbait waddled along the
surface with a stop-and-go retrieve. Swim the Crankster SR barely below the
surface for several feet and then let it pop to the top during pauses in the
retrieve, which is when smallies love to smash it.
Differences Between Freshwater
and Saltwater Stripers:
People often ask if there are differences in the quality of the fight, the
coloration, body tone, or if stripers taste different from fresh or saltwater.
No, there really is no difference that I have observed. One thing though, is
that freshwater stripers fixate or predate heavily on pelagic (meaning open
water baitfish) in large impoundments like Powell. They do not normally pursue
bottom fish, mollusks, panfish, crayfish for example, unless pelagic baitfish
(like shad) become so scarce or inaccessible that the freshwater stripers really
have no other choice but to scavenge for anything else they can find, which
doesn't happen that often. Fortunately, they can usually find shad, shad and
more shad. It's their mainstay on Powell.

A good time was had by all!
In contrast,
in saltwater, it seems there is such a multitude and variety of bait available
to striped bass, that they tend to feed on whatever's most plentiful at any
given moment, which may vary widely. What this means to an angler, is that
saltwater striped bass will often hit a wider variety of lures, especially
colors that match whatever fodder's most prevalent at the moment. Sometimes that
may be red-hued sand eels, golden yellow baby pollack, amber brown squid,
black-striped mackerel, sheening butterfish, black eels, blue herring, not to
mention shrimp, clams, crabs, worms, bottom fish (baby blackfish, porgies,
flatfish) snapper blues, hordes of young-of-year weakfish and so much more. Now,
it’s true that day in and day out (including night fishing for stripers), odds
are you can't beat a white color lure for saltwater stripers - but since the
menu is so varied in saltwater, other colors seem to be of more importance in
the salt to match the almost endless menu in the seas. Conversely, since the
menu is so limited in freshwater impoundments like Powell, basically to shad,
the importance of a white color lure is absolutely essential, such as the Sebile
White Lady (Q2) color in freshwater. Certainly have fun trying other colors, but
white really is the "go to" color for freshwater stripers, plus shad-imitating
silver-sided colors like Sebile's Holo Greenie (D9) and Natural Shiner (O) for
instance.
With a action packed day filled
with plenty of action that really put Sebile's lures to the test we finally head
home, this was one of those great experiences on Lake Powell and truly a
memorable and rewarding trip for Patrick, Jay and I!

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