Fishin' 04-29-2016

[wolfs4evr]

No one else fishing anymore? What a ghost town out there...

Friday was it! The calm between the storms. Guessing everyone was spooked with the current weather systems rolling in. I had the entire lake to myself. Never saw another fisherman or even heard a boat motor until 3:30 or so coming back in at the end of the day.

Launched in jeans and a sweatshirt but both were gone before 3 casts were made. Couldn't of asked for a nicer day. Water temp was 64 at launch and 69 by the later afternoon. Winds were 0 to maybe 2 the entire day. The lake has dropped nearly 4 feet since the last time I made it out the beginning of April. Bummer... Not a lot of LMB habitat in the coves since the lake is going down so fast nothing has a chance to grow in them.

16 landed. 13 SMBs, 1 LMB and a couple Stripers. Lots of Stripers out there... Couldn't take it and had to tie on a topwater for a few casts. One must of been auditioning for the next Jaws movie. lol The best topwater strike ever. Sure wish I had that one captured in a video. Caught 3 SMBs off beds/guard duty. Saw several LMBs on guard duty but waaaay too spooky. Get anything near them/the bed and they swam away at the speed of lightning...

The ramp all to myself at sunrise.



High humidity, temp changes from the road to the lake and a boat with windows isn't ideal sometimes... Had to stand up the first 10-15 minutes until the windows cleared up.





Topwater/wake bait.



Texas rigged Senko.



SK 5XD crank.



Drop shot.



Tom
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[BigE]

[cool]Way to go. I was out there also in my kayak. I launched from government wash. The water was very cloudy in vegas wash. It looked like a rootbeer float at times with all the foam and debris. I paddled/trolled to sunset overlook for one striper. Then over towards crawdad and tried to coax largemouth from their beds but no luck.
Its nice to hear someone had some luck.
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[wolfs4evr]

With the recent winds and rain I was EXTREMELY surprised how clean the lake was north of Callville.. 20-30 feet of visibility/essentially unlimited. Lots of sage brush floating everywhere but other than that one couldn't tell there was any crappy weather around. First time I've had a chance to go out in nearly a month. I was going one way or another!

Tom
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[Lunkyluke]

Very nice report! Sounds like you got that lake figured out. My son and I went cat fishing at crawdad last weekend and caught one but had a few break me off on the rocks ( had to light of line). So can the three bass species be caught from shore using ratl traps and plastics? It was rocky and the water dropped off quickly.
I'm new to lake mead so any pointers are appreciated! I should have a boat by summer so I'm looking forward to getting after it and learning the lake
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[wolfs4evr]

Mead/Mohave can be the most frustrating lakes to fish. Especially from shore. We tried it on/off for several years from shore.

With that said you can catch all 3 species from shore. Rocky/gravel/quick drop offs/near open water, etc is prime for SMBs. The Stripers can be found in coves but not shallow. I rarely catch them in anything less than 20 feet and rarely near any form of a shoreline. LMBs are best found around any growth. Weeds, trees, etc.

A boat is key on Mead to really enjoy it/fishing. I have rarely been on the lake and not covered ~30 miles or so. Good spots are typically not close together. Covering ground is what we/I do verse methodically work one spot inch by inch. This past Friday I covered 50 miles in the boat for what was caught. The trip before 40 miles... The old saying of 90% of the fish are in 10% of the lake IMO doesn't apply to Mead/Mohave. It is much worse!

Tom
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[wolfs4evr]

Pretty boring... Cruising through the narrows Friday at sunrise.

[url "https://youtu.be/_IlP-MnpiV0"]https://youtu.be/_IlP-MnpiV0[/url]

Tom
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[wolfs4evr]

Lunkyluke, did you just move to Vegas? I just noticed/looked at your profile/location that says SLC. I'm in on your favorite fishing spot. Love the Berry and chasing the Kokes. Did it last year for the first time for a solid week and doing it again this year as soon as school gets out. Starvation isn't bad either for decent sized Bows one after another (the Walleye catching kicked my butt the last time there). Going to break out the fly rods a little more this time on the Berry and Starvation if I decided to hit both in the same trip. I was so determined to catch/learn Kokanee Salmon techniques that the fly rods never got broke out last time. Same on Starvation... Determed to catch some eye's so didn't break out the fly rods.

Tom
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[Greg84]

Hey wolf, how long were you out there that day? If more or less all day, how many of those fish were caught mid day? I don't have a huge amount of luck between 10 am -4pm'ish, just wondering if the bite overall slows for LMB/SMB or if that's primarily a (lack of) skill issue lol
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[wolfs4evr]

"Normally" I don't do well LMB/SMB wise in the later part of the day. (Call it 1000-1600 as you mentioned.)

Sometimes it just comes down to finding them. No matter the time of day. If they are not there one isn't going to catch. Talent may/may not play a part. It is finding them...

The first two SMBs were within the first 10 casts. It was dead for a while after that as I continued to search and cover ground. I caught the most say between 1000 and 1400 or so. But again location, location, location. I got into a spot that held quite a few and just really worked it knowing they were there.

I launched at sunrise and came back around ~1530 or so (Callville ramp).

Tom
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[StarsnStripers]

Hey Wolfs, Great report as always.
Hows the walk to and from the parking lot over at calville? I havent been there in years. Usually just keep driving up to echo but thinking about launching there and hitting up bonelli bay area.
Thanks
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[wolfs4evr]

One of two reasons why I am not a fan of Callville. But since the low water ramp/parking lot is being utilized it isn't bad. Only a "little" winded making the hike to the parking lot. lol

Not the most friendly spot when busy and being a lone boater. If the floating dock is being hogged not much one can do but wait for a spot to tie up to make the trek to the parking lot. Once when the water was higher and the other/main ramp was being used I had to tie off on the walkway to the marina, go get the truck and make the trek back to the boat. Too many people using up the ramp dock and I got tired of waiting. That was years ago. Thus I didn't launch from Callville for years after that trip.

Tournaments... We both launch at the same time thus if you show up at Callville at your usual time and didn't know there was a tournament one might not be a happy camper since they launch about that same time. If a big tourny the lower lot could get used up. It is a whole different world if one had to make the trek to the upper parking lot to park...

One has to figure there is a tourny like 6 out of 7 weekends darn near so keeping track of them is a pain.

I am highly hesitant to launch out of Callville on a weekend even though I do my darnest to keep track of tourney's and where they are launching from. This last trip was a Friday. No issues/concerns there.

The distance to where you want to go fishing isn't that much different launching from Echo. (Actually if I remember right it is closer to Echo than Callville.)

I had just pressure washed the trailer the week before and wasn't feeling the dirt road to Echo...

Tom
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[StarsnStripers]

Thanks Tom
The reason im looking to go that route is my fishing partner has never been through the narrows. Thought it would be cool to show him. Do you know if there is a tourney this weekend out of calville?
Thanks again
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[wolfs4evr]

The only one I show is outa Temple Bar this Saturday. But my list has many holes. 75% correct maybe. Too many different clubs to try to find calendars of.

Tom
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[Greg84]

Thanks for the reply. That tournament at Temple Bar is going to be a nightmare. You can only launch a real boat on one side of the ramp lol. Just went there 2 weeks ago and the right side was a steady roughly 3 ft deep no matter how far you reversed the truck. It actually seemed to get shallower the further back you put the truck. Eventually gave up and launched from the other side.
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