April Showers Bring Pre-Spawn Females
(Howard Duo Dunks Saturday; Dozer & Cyphers Run Away with Sunday)
Story by Russ Bassdozer
April 3-4, 2004 - Lake Powell, Arizona

EVENT 2 - APRIL THIRD

It was a rumble of Southwest desert titans above Lake Powell as lightning, thunder, strong gusts, hard rain and hail hurled down on the 20 teams who competed out of Wahweap Saturday.

Father and son Randy and Danny Howard powered into first place Saturday April 3rd with 11.97. They had the day's big fish too. Running on their wake was the strong team of John Pensis and Matt Rosenberg with 11.49 pounds for second place. Rosenberg credited the use of 10 lb test for their success. The young bucks, brothers Brandon and Preston Hammond hammered third place shut with 11.04.

Special thanks to angler Rick Thornsley of the Flagstaff RV Service Center in Flagstaff, Arizona who sponsored the April 3, 2004 event.

Also thanks to angler Melanie McBride who helped perform check-in of boats returning to weigh-in and taking some nice photos of all the anglers on Saturday.

No Powell tournament would be complete without thanking Mike Stickler of Stix Bait & Tackle in Page, Arizona. Mike kindly let us use his store for sign-up, registration and our pre-tournament meeting on Friday evening.

PARTY AT THE DAM BAR & GRILLE!

Tournament directors Allen Bratton and Colleen Hepworth hosted a party and held the awards ceremony for the anglers at the Dam Bar & Grille (http://www.damplaza.com/dambargrille.htm) in Page, Arizona.

Angler's Choice Four Corners New Mexico Division tournament directors Barry Stanley and Homer Pirkey came down for the fine fishing and went home with a truckload of raffle items they won at the party.

Everyone had a great time!

EVENT 3 - APRIL FOURTH

Special thanks to angler Dennis Cole of Lighthouse Flooring Inc. in Sedona Arizona who sponsored the April 3, 2004 event. My team partner Rick Thornsley and I have gotten so much out of fishing this trail, we felt it was only fair to give something back to it, says Dennis.

We were in good company Sunday since Angler's Choice Colorado River (Mead/Mohave) Division tournament directors Vern Price and Jason Billamier made the drive down from Vegas to partake in Sunday's event.

First place winners Russ Bassdozer and Jamie Cyphers had 10.70 pounds of smallmouth. Brothers Brandon and Preston Hammond once again walked the walk to the winners circle with 10.44 pounds for second place, using reaction baits. Steve Chadwick and Mark Roberts claimed third place with 10.42 pounds crediting baits such as Flukes and topwater for part of their success.

Sunday's big bass trophy, a beautiful plaque, went to Allen Bratton and Colleen Hepworth with a 3.40 bucketmouth. From prefish, they knew where this big largemouth was already. So they did not sight fish it but they did know where to throw to get it, says Allen. This is their second big fish trophy this season. Allen and Colleen won big fish two weeks earlier for a 3.32 bucketmouth.

"We hit eight creek heads with incoming water uplake," says Sunday's first place winners Russ Bassdozer and Jamie Cyphers. At the first creek head, we limited in twenty minutes. Four squeakers and one chunk. The second creek head was fished already as another team was in there. The third fresh creek head, we culled out all the squeakers. The fourth creek head had a huge, I mean huge, huge spawning flat with two creeks running out, one down each side of it. The flat was a huge sand point, just a great wide peninsula extending way, way out with a creek coming out each side, and deep water (30 foot) access on all sides of the peninsula. It was more like a wide flat delta than a point, with broken off stump stems of brush roots littered everywhere. Ripe males, many that looked haggard with worn tails (a sure sign of nest-sweeping), were staking out territories for making nests all up on the brush stump beds. Gravid females with stretched bellies were patrolling the deeper perimeter of the peninsula. Back behind the peninsula, where the two side creeks converged, a deep ledge cut behind beneath the peninsula, and the bigger grade of females in the overall area were tucked tight under this ledge.

"It was a wide-open bite. We culled four limits of two-pound clones by ten o'clock," says Jamie, "which was when we left the unbelievable hot bite there. It was almost every cast, but it was not going to win it for us."

"By this time, we caught about eighty bass so far," adds Bassdozer who says, "We did not need any more of these many clones. They were a decent grade of fish but we left them to hunt for one kicker to win it for us."

The fifth creek head was unfished. We culled into our second biggest weigher of the day there. The sixth creek head area, a very big area with numerous side creeks flowing in the back mile, has a reputation for kicker fish, but it was fished hard for weeks by many anglers. We had almost no bites there but we burned two hours just trying for one kicker. The seventh creek head was fished already as another team was in there. The eighth creek head was unfished. There are a series of sand flat points and sand reefs with brush stumps down one side of this creek. The sand side was staked out by eager smaller males. The other deeper side had no sand, just slick rock. Bulging roe-laden lady smallmouth were staging on the slick rock side, where we culled into our largest and third largest weighers of the day. Cyphers slung a spinnerbait Sunday. There was no reason to try anything else says Cyphers. Bassdozer caught all his bass on a lipless rattling crankbait Sunday.

Bassdozer and Cyphers won two-day overall weight with 21.54 for two days (10.84 Saturday plus 10.70 Sunday). On Saturday, the Bassdozer half of the team fished alone and he did not fish past the Wahweap marina. "I limited on smallmouth by 6:30 including my largest and fifth largest weighers. Every time I even wondered whether to head uplake, a hard hail or thunder squall would keep me in Wahweap. Several hail storms and icy cold downpours came through by noon, and the better grade of bass would not hit my lipless rattling bait any longer. After noon, the weighers would not come off the walls to chase, so I flipped a 1/2 oz rubber skirted jig and grub trailer. I had to kiss the walls with it to get my 2nd, 3rd and 4th largest weighers, which were largemouth.

In Saturday and Sunday event pairs, a chronic problem becomes evident, says Bassdozer. Teams appear to deplete all their water on Saturday, leaving nowhere else for them to go Sunday. So staying in Wahweap on Saturday was key for Bassdozer and Cyphers to win on Sunday since their uplake spots remained unfished until Sunday.

EVENT 4 - JUNE SIXTH

With the full moon being June 3rd, our fourth event of the season on June 6th may still hit some of the late spawners on the beds. It is likely that some bass that have already spawned will still be guarding fry by June 6th. Expect that if there's going to be any slight rise in the lake level from spring runoff, it should be near peak snowmelt inflow then. If any rise does happen, you can expect monster bass may move up almost instantly overnight into any old brush or new growth that gets flooded if lake levels are on the rise during the tournament on June 6th.

A WORD ABOUT OUR SPONSORS

Support the anglers who sponsor us:
Jamie Cyphers of Bradshaw Chevrolet, Cedar City, Utah - Sponsor of March 13, 2004 event
Rick Thornsley of the Flagstaff RV Service Center, Flagstaff, Arizona - Sponsor of April 3, 2004 event
Dennis Cole of Lighthouse Flooring Inc., Sedona Arizona - Sponsor of April 4, 2004 event

Please support our other fine sponsors also:
Stix Bait & Tackle in Page, Arizona; Trojan Batteries; Red Bull Energy Drink (http://www.redbull.com ); Dam Bar & Grille in Page, Arizona (http://www.damplaza.com/dambargrille.htm); Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits - Page, Arizona (http://www.baits.com); Mojo Lures (http://www.mojolures.com); Pepper Jigs (http://www.pepperjigs.com).

Lake Powell Division
Tournament Director: Allen Bratton
Phone: (435) 586-3097
Email: abelectric@infowest.com