Fall has arrived with cool nights stealing the heat from the water surface.

Surface temperature has dropped 5 degrees this week to a delightful 72 degrees. That is a perfect temperature for bass and stripers.

The current water level is identical to last year. Fish that have been deep in the main channel will now have the opportunity to move to shallow flats along the edges of the main channel and closer to the backs of canyons.

Expect to find game fish near rooted aquatic weeds. Look for "fish grass" as the declining lake exposes weed beds that house many sunfish and shad. Predators will key on these green grass pastures as they search for feeding opportunities this fall.

Look for sandy coves lined with aquatic weeds or slick rock coves with some tumbleweed piles scattered around. Motor to the backs of the canyon and visibly search the shallows for tall aquatic weeds.

Look in water less than 10 feet deep so weeds can easily be seen from the surface. Bass are in the weeds now, but expect stripers to be working into shallower water with each passing day.

Grass beds are found in Padre Bay, Friendship Cove, Rock Creek, Dungeon Canyon, and many canyons uplake to the Rincon including the San Juan. I suspect that this pattern will work uplake from Bullfrog to Good Hope, but it won’t be as important in the northern lake where more shad are available.

In the southern lake, plastic tube jigs fished along the weed tops will be the most productive technique. In the northern lake, vertically jigging slab spoons along the bottom will provide the most action.

As water temperature declines, the success of suspending crankbaits will increase dramatically as bass and stripers move shallow.

In the southern lake, stripers are still being caught on anchovies along the main Colorado River channel, and tributary channels, and at the canyon mouths. This pattern will hold up probably into the dead of winter.

The striper population peak ensures that stripers will continue to be caught at an amazing rate. If stripers were caught at a certain location in the summer, it is highly probable that anglers could return to the same spot now and catch stripers once more as main-channel stripers are holding in the same locations they have frequented all summer.

Cool weather has slowed the catch some from the frantic pace seen in summer, but the size and quality of fish caught will now increase as the larger adults will be able to come closer to the surface to feed as they prepare for winter.

Fishing and weather are delightful. This is a good time to come to Lake Powell.

At press time, the lake elevation was 3,601, and the water temperature, 72-78F.