Fishing At Lake Mead

The techniques for catching Striper at Lake Mead, Nevada, and Lake Powell, Utah are interesting to compare. Every fisherman has his own tricks for hooking these predators who seem to always be hungry.

Dinnertime for a Striper is the big mystery. A dinner bell at ten, two & four sometimes requires what is on the menu. If we knew when the Striper wanted to dine on a shad, an Anchovy, or a “wiggle wart” lure, we could spend more time with these fighters and satisfy the fish and the fisherman.

Or if you reviewed the Solunar Calendar printed in the magazine, “IN-FISHERMAN” for the best fishing time on October 26, 2009 it was 6:33 am to 8:33 am. If you asked Doctor Sebago to consult his Casio watch, which predicts the best time to fish, based on the moon and the longitude and latitude programmed within the watch, the best time to fish for October 26, 2009 was at 3:45 am; 9:45am; 4:00 pm; and 10:10 pm.

As you can see, someone thinks they know when the fish are hungry, but not necessarily the fisherman, nor what is the “blue ribbon” dinner plate that would interest the Striper.

With the water at an all time low at Lake Mead, Nevada, and at an all time high in Lake Powell, that may also be a factor in when to go fishing and catch the Striper.

Boyd Brown, Bob Nevin and I traveled to Echo Bay at 7:15 am from Overton, Nevada. Considering highway construction and a distance of about 25 miles to the boat ramp, it put us on the water at 8:15 am.

We noted that Dan Grens, of Overton, Nevada, (a very successful striper fisherman) had his truck and boat trailer already parked in the lot next to the ramp, and was probably fishing the Overton arm near marker #18.

We tried the eastern shore near marker #12 for about 30 minutes without any success in marking large schools of fish. We rigged for trolling with an anchovy. We use lead line, and thread an anchovy, pulling it by it’s tail. We have found that if you have no success in 30 minutes, you need to move and try something different.

It’s about six miles up to Marker #18 which is about six miles south of the Overton Beach Marina. By this time it’s 8:45 am. Considering all of these “Best Time Charts” we figured any fish caught before 10:50 am was a bonus fish.

Grens recognized my boat, and waved us over to his location. He said he was jigging with a spoon, and had seven fish in the locker.

I have found that it is well to take several rods and reels on the 20 foot Fiberform, just in case there is a need for switching to other techniques. We quickly switched rods and went to jigging with a spoon for the striper. It was fantastic. We caught 26 nice striper in the next 60 minutes. They were BONUS FISH, alright, and we loved it.

“Get them while you can,” because the striper fish is famous for shutting down. That’s exactly what happened. For the next two hours we threw the book at them, trolling, jigging , changing speeds, changing depths, offering different colors, including an orange peel, and red gelatin with negative results. It was over. We happily cleaned the 26 striper, and headed back to Echo Bay. Dan Grens caught 23 Striper and also called it a day.

In comparing the experiences of fisherman at Lake Powell, they also found the spoon as a favorite lure. They use lead line, and use a Carolina rig for baiting with an anchovy when trolling for the striper. Early morning fishing and night fishing is the most successful time to catch striper at Lake Powell. The Division of Wild Life Resources, for Utah, highly recommends keeping all stripers caught regardless of their size. In fact it is a violation to throw back any striper over three pounds. In other words, there is no limit and the lake is over populated with Striper.

In my opinion fishermen in Lake Mead should keep all the striper they catch regardless of the size. Shad is the main source of food for the Striper. Most of the fish we caught on October 26, 2009 were between 13 and 18 inches.