Captain Mike's Lake Mead Fishing Reports and News

“Is there any water in Lake Mead?”

As the drought in the Southwestern U.S. lingers, this is a question I get on almost a daily basis.
The simple answer is: “yes.”

Lake Mead is the largest reservoir, by water volume, in the United States. At this time, it’s 50% full. This is a staggering amount of water. The lake is currently 480 feet deep, and has 500 miles of shoreline available for fishing.

When lake levels drop dramatically, the answer to fishing is easy. The fish simply move to new areas. They don’t disappear, they don’t quit eating, they just move, and the savvy angler moves with them. The more difficult question is – where are they moving to?

Lake bottom contours and structure have to be re-learned. Areas that were 150 feet deep may now only be 50 feet deep. Peaks, valleys and humps you only glanced at on your depth finder four years ago, now become critical habitat. Islands appear to grow out of the water, and main channel migration routes have changed. Quality electronics and the ability to interpret the signals become a necessity. But seasonal catch methods remain the same.

It’s summertime in the desert and the heat is on at Lake Mead. The yearly shad spawn was over two months ago and the fry are now growing to a size stripers like. Every year in July, the Stripers come to the surface, chasing the fry. As the shad grow, so does the action, until it reaches feeding frenzy stage, causing the water in the feeding areas to appear to “boil.” This kind of action will continue through the Fall until approximately the first of November.

When the water begins to cool in mid-September and October, we can add another method to our fishing arsenal. When the bait and fish are not visible on the surface, they can still be located using electronics. Once large schools of bait combined with fish are found, jigging spoons can produce fast action and poles bent in half taking 3-5 pound fish from water sometimes over 160 feet deep. This is not the style of jigging most anglers envision for Bass or Walleye. Since the water is deep and the action is fast, this style requires weights from 2-4 ounces, line up to 20 pounds and a medium-heavy-to-heavy action rod.

When the bite is on, the fishing is fast, hard and produces fantastic results. It can completely exhaust you. As Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger might say, “This is not a girly-man’s sport.”

All fishermen, by nature, are optimists. Every time you throw your line in the water, you expect to catch the biggest fish in the lake. The glass that is Lake Mead is half-full, and the fish have only half the glass to hide in, making some of the best fishing for schooling-size stripers in the United States.

Don’t just visit Vegas – FishVegas !!