Every time I venture away from home I always try to investigate into some fishing waters. This time around was Lake Mead. Lake Mead is the largest reservoir in the United States by maximum water capacity. The lake was formed when the Colorado River was dammed in 1936. In recent years the water levels have dropped dramatically due to the fact it is a main water supply for Nevada,Arizona,parts of California, and Utah. Just recently before I made the trip out though the water level had risen 10 feet due to heavy rains and snowfalls in the area, which turned the fish on and supplied an early hatch of stripped bass.
A few weeks before leaving town a friend of mine and I did some research on fishing guides on our set out destination. We happened to come across FishFinders Guide Service. Our Captain for the day was Capt. Kevin Durham a retired pit boss from one of the big Vegas casino's. I have been on many guided trips before all over the country, but I do have to say that this trip and guide was the best guided trip I had ever been on.
After we had dropped the 23' Ranger in the water and pushed away from the dock, Kevin started telling us a little history and a few landmarks along the lake. Shortly after he proceeded to tell us how we where going to fish, why we where going to fish where we where, and why it worked so effectively. I have been on guided trips before where you pull up to a spot, and the guide hands you a rod and says start fishing. No explanation on why we are fishing where we are. I think this is a quality many guides will over look. Maybe it is just me cause I am a fishy guy, but I thought it was a unique part of our trip that the guide explained these aspects.
Because it was late winter in Vegas the air temp only rose to about 63 degrees that day, with surface water temps hitting 60 degrees. The targeted species was Stripped Bass. Because of the warmer surface temps there was defiantly a feeding frenzy going on as we pulled up to our spot for the day. We were set-up with some ultra light spinning rods, with a drop weight and circle hooks that would hunker on a piece of frozen anchovy. As Kevin had explained to us at the beginning of our trip, we would be using a center chunk of frozen anchovy that would contain mostly guts in the center. Reason being is that the center gut portion was like the cream filling of a twinkie. The fish just went nuts for it! So we got baited up and dropped the lines in the water. The main key to this was to be roughly 2 feet off the bottom slowly rising the bait a foot or so higher and then slowly lowering causing a reaction bite on the downfall. Also after we had some fish in our zone, Kevin the guide would chum more frozen anchovy and corn over the sides of the boat to A. keep the fish around and B. start a commotion in the water of a feeding frenzy to bring more fish into our area. This tactic of chumming worked awesome! There was also a point where we had a fish on a rod and the guide said he was going to hold the rod and leave the fish on there and that it should trigger more fish to bite. He was right on with this assumption. Before we knew it all 4 rods had a fish on it. It was incredible that Kevin had tried all these things out and knew exactly what was going to happen and when. Like I mentioned before this was one of the best guided trips I have ever been on. All together we caught 25 fish roughly, all Striped Bass and 2 Catfish. It was defiantly a great day on the water. If your ever heading to the Vegas area and you want to get away from the casino's and the lighted strip give Capt. Kevin a call @ (702)499-7942 or visit them online at http://www.lakemeadfishfinders.com It will be well worth the $300 for a half day trip!
Body of Water: Lake Mead
Closest Town: Henderson,NV
Air Temp: 63
Surface Water Temp: 60
Sky Conditions: Partly Cloudy
Bait: Frozen Anchovy on Circle Hooks
Targeted Species: Stripped Bass
Fish Caught: 25 + 2 Catfish
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