Click Photo to rent a Lake Powell Houseboat, and get on a monumental Colorado River vacation.

Our weekend party boat pulled out from the Wahweap Marina fully stocked with booze, beer, bait, and soon to be baked boatswains. We were pulling a pair of wave runners and a fishing boat through the Colorado River channel. past buttes, bluffs, banks, spires, cathedrals, and towering monuments, the kind you see at the Bijou during a John Wayne/John Ford film festival.

Before pulling out of the marina we power boated over to the marina store to buy fishing licenses. There was a million dollar fish tournament going on at Lake, Powell, and we were determined to catch that rascal. We were informed that we had to have a fishing license for both Arizona and Utah, because Lake Powell shares the borders of both states. We realized that we had Utah licenses but were fishing in Arizona waters.

PADRE POINT

It took a couple of hours to motor up and around Padre Point and Padre Bay and into Labyrinth Canyon, and across the transparent state-line from Utah to Arizona. We were happy to moor in Labyrinth Canyon because a storm was brewing. "Scurvie" and his crew of motley maties buried the four anchor lines in the oxide red/orange powder sand, and then it was a round of cocktails as the Cheetos and other snacks were busted out.

	Lake Powell Resorts and Marinas offers four types of houseboats: The Discovery, The Voyager, The Adventurer, and The Explorer.

Labyrinth Canyon winds its way from Padre Bay like a boney finger, pinching the sandstone puffball canyon walls narrower and steeper. At the end of the canyon I hiked on miles of sandy trails through rivertine shrubs, dead animals, shade, sun, shade, sun, and like an English maze garden. other canyons that shoot off or into the one we are on. But which one? I would not want to be here during a flash flood. In fact, there is no trace of the earlier storms the last two days, the sand sucked every molecule into it's earthern lair. The sand is dry; we take our shoes off; the oxide pushes between our toes like old, but still warm, campfire coals. The horizon is only up and it is an infinite turquoise and cloudless. Blakely and I hear sheep bleating, so we know we are on the Navajo Indian Reservation.

Back at the houseboat the passing storms stirs the fishing into a frenzy, and poles are hung over the top and bottom decks, with every other cast snarled in someone else's line. That night we caught plenty of stripers and in the morning it was channel cats on anchovies, but the million dollar fish received a good conduct medal for not landing on our lines. Everyone was cursing their bad luck and that had to be the most reviled fish in the lake. At least we saved film. By noon everyone was getting a little sunburned so it was time for more beer and Cheetos, and by the looks of some of the crew, they could have cut back on both.

MILLION DOLLAR FISHING TOURNAMENT

There are many introduced fish species in Lake Powell, and one of them was worth one million dollars. The marina sponsored tournament, received national attention on the airwaves and television, and was expected to last all summer, or until someone snagged the true trophy fish. Needless to say, my retirement fund is still swimming around the lake, someone else's lucky lunker. Little did we know that on the very same weekend when we are busting our bait, someone catches the prize winner right off the marina dock.

I found that fishing for stripers is best at night, and best after sunset, angling off a sandstone point, or a finger of land pointing into a bay or above an underwater sandbar jutting up from the depths. Stripers love trout fingerlings up to about six inches, so anchovies or frozen shad from the marine prove great substitutes, or a 7/8-ounce Bomber Long A lure. Use a green Spanish mackeral look alike, rather than the yellow, but keep a yellow and chrome as standbys. Vary the lure color every hour or so. Because stripers are a warm water lover, they are often found in the shallows. Lake Powell stripers get to be about five pounds maximum, as opposed to larger lbs. in Lake Mead and up to 50 pound whoppers in Lake Mohave, downriver. Modify the crank actions with jerks and wiggles, but start off slow, at a snail's pace. Always set the hook immediately with stripers. Often a bump is a strike is a catch.

Fish Species in Lake Powell: Large mouth bass, small mouth bass, striper bass, green sunfish, crappie, walleye, bluegill, trout, and catfish. The striper bass, the requisite catch for the tournament prize, usually feed on schooling threadfin shad or crayfish. A new entrant in these water is tilapia, from Africa.

BEST HOUSEBOATING ANCHORAGES

Antelope Island, Bullfrog Bay, Cottonwood Canyon, Dungeon Canyon, Good Hope Bay, Gunsight Canyon, Hells Creek Bay, Oak Canyon, North Wash, Padre Bay, Red Canyon, The Rincon, and Warm Creek Bay.

	Wahweap Lodge offers family units with full kitchens; Plus RV parking.

Glen Canyon Dam was begun in 1957 as a controversial project and completed in the 1960s. It was created entirely from materials in the area. The dam rises 710 feet. The eight large turbines supply power to western communities. Below the dam is 15 miles of pristine riparian Colorado River. You can raft through Marble and Glen Canyon, with over 120 major rapids, before reaching Lake Mead.

We battened the hatches, and polished the brass and headed out the last day, with all maties wishing for another couple of wonderful days on Lake Powell. Next year I am going to use a Dupont spinner on that million dollar fish, and I will leave Scurvie and his wretched crew of misfits behind as well.

PLAN YOUR HOUSEBOATING VACATION

Houseboat rentals are collected 45 days in advance. Full rental fee will be retained unless cancellation is received in writing, 30 days prior to boarding. NO refunds or adjustments will be issued due to late arrival or early check-ins. If you are delayed call your boat rental office. Should you plan to arrive a day or two in advance, it is suggested to reserve accommodations at the Wahweap Lodge.

The company is not responsible for running time due to equipment failure, weather, illness, accidents, or changes in plans. There is a radio onboard to call in for help or extend your reservation.