LAKE HAVASU – The striped bass are now beginning to feed on large shallow topwater baits such as the Vixen in bone white, chartreuse shad, and shad shiner. These colors have been and continue to be the best producers on Havasu for striped bass.

Consider the elements when choosing your presentation of the baits. When selecting your lure think “Calm Waters = Quiet Baits” and ” Windy Waters = Loud Rattle Baits” The secret is to adapt to the conditions.

The Cotton Cordell Red Fin and Creek Chub Striper Strike are great for shallow water and have the ability to be mimic a wounded baitfish. This type of bait works well first thing in the morning.

If the wind picks up, use the louder baits such as the Storm Saltwater Chug Bait, the Zara Super Spook, or the Cotton Cordell Pencil Popper. Shallow water means hungry aggressive fish and the best time for this approach is before the sun rises through the first hour of the day.

The largemouth and smallmouth bass conditions are good to excellent right now. Smallmouth bass are bedding and aggressive and will strike at smaller plastic baits drop shotted wacky style or regular. Shorten the leader to about 5-6 inches and consider powder coating you drop shot lead in a color that is natural to the environment. Doing this causes the fish to hit the bait and not the drop shot lead as the bait first enters the bed. Bedded fish are very aggressive and attack instantly at the first thing that enters the nest, therefore if the lead looks like the bottom of the lake they generally notice the flashy lure and not the shiny lead. Four- and 5-inch Yamamoto grubs in pearl blue and pearl white, with the end of the tails dipped in Chartreuse dye, 4-inch Robo Worms in warmouth or June bug color with the chartreuse tail, or crawdads in white (dip the craws in chartreuse dye) and the Huddleston Craw in green/orange work well also.

The following reports were provided by Karen Coats, Sandpoint Marina:
* Jock Woods of Apple Valley CA got 30 smallmouth bass 2.5-3 pounds 6 largemouth bass up to 3.8 pounds and 12 cats up to 8 pounds; all fish were let go. He was using night crawlers and anchovies at Cattail State Park.
* Danny Leathers of Glendora CA got a 4-pound cat using night crawlers on the jetty.
* Joe Egan of San Diego CA got a 4.3-pound cat using anchovies south of Sandpoint.
* Eric Redondo of Malibu CA got 3 largemouth bass up to 5 pounds using plastics at Black Meadow.
* Craig Paliaf of Lake Havasu City got 4 stripers and 1 cat in the 2-5 pound range using anchovies on the jetty.
* Jacob Moeller of Cerritos CA got a 1.4 pound largemouth bass on the jetty using night crawlers.
* Joe Egan of San Diego CA got 3 stripers form 1 to 1.4 pounds using anchovies trolling coves.
* Danny Leathers of Glendora CA got 2 cats 2 pounds and 4 pounds using night crawlers at Blue Gill Cove.
* Rick Nelson of Prescott AZ got 3 stripers totaling 7.4 pounds using anchovies between Blue Gill Cove and the pump station.

Angler report
Where:
Lake Havasu Site Six
When:
03/14/08
Caught:
Striper
Technique:
Live shad and anchovies
Comments:
Wife and I caught six and the guy next to us snagging shad caught a stringer full of 2 pounders
Name:
Dave Torres

Where:
Lake Havasu
When:
03/12/08
Caught:
Striper
Technique:
Live shad with ¼-ounce split shot or with out weight. Also, white Rat-L-Traps worked real well.
Comments:
Site Six was hot. Fished all night with consistent good size fish. Early morning, big boys came out. Everyone on dock was catching 3- to 5-pound fish with an occasional 8 or 10 pounder. Exciting!!
Name:
Eddie Salazar

PARKER STRIP – Fishing should still be hot along the Strip with anglers doing well on smallmouth bass and largemouth bass using jerk baits and plastics, green or purple worms, and even beef hot dogs. There was also a report of an 8-pound striper on anchovies from a few weeks ago as well. Redears are grouping up in the grassy areas and should be moving to beds, if they haven’t already. Catfish are still a bit slow, but some places upriver are producing.

Important notice: Quagga mussels have been found in Lake Havasu so proper cleaning of all watercraft is critical to help prevent the spread of these invaders. Please move to the parking lot, DRAIN your live-wells and bilge where the water does not return to the lake. Drain all the water you can from your engine. Also, INSPECT your watercraft and trailer, removing any visible mussels, but also feel for any rough or gritty spots on the hull. These may be young mussels that can be hard to see.

ALAMO LAKE – Well folks, I’m happy to say things are picking up. Bass fishing is o.k. Senkos and spinnerbaits are the way to go right now. The bass are staging to spawn. They should be going on beds anytime now. I’m still holding my own throwing green/red flaked lizard and grubs in 0 to 12 feet of water. I’m going to mix it up a little just for grins and throw 2-inch grubs tonight. The only bummer about that is that I loose a lot of jig heads by getting stuck in brush. It’s one of those “gotta pay to play” deals.

Crappie fishing has turned on for the most part. Anglers are reporting catches of 15 to 20 daily. It’s the same old spring routine. Roadrunner jigs with a minnow trailer in the upper end of the lake, trolling in 19 to 25 foot of water. You want to get an early start because the winds have been picking up daily around noon. Once the winds pick up the crappie bite turns off. No good reports on shore fishing. No reports on cat fishing. The lake level is at 1,126 with releases of 40 cfs.

Starting next Monday there going to do a 2,000 cfs release for a day. That’s guaranteed to mess up the fishing for a few days. Fish & Wildlife likes to do mini floods so they can monitor there cottonwood trees down river. They like to do this during the spring when the cottonwoods drop there seeds. The mini floods help the seeds take root and reproduce baby cottonwoods. Besides the effect on fishing, lake level, and boat ramps, they do this during spawning season. Anyway, that’s as far as I’m going with this or I’ll get so honked off I’ll throw the keyboard out the window. The bright side of this, if you see a bright side, is that the fish are not on beds yet. So, when they start the release it will confused the fish and who knows when they will spawn. I gotta go fishing and cheer my self up. That’s all I got.

Angler report:

Where:
Alamo Lake
When:
04/05/08
Caught:
10-pound catfish
Technique:
hot dogs
Comments:
water level was up… slow crappie fishing, but caught one catfish
Name:
Brian

Where:
Alamo Lake
When:
03/30/08
Caught:
Largemouth Bass, Crappie
Technique:
We caught the majority of the bass on a 4-inch worm Texas-rigged with an 1/8-ounce weight. We also caught two fish on a shad colored crankbait and six bass on a Pop-R
Comments:
I have to say when I read the report last week that said Alamo would be releasing water starting Monday I was pretty bummed, since we were getting there Sunday night. When we arrived Sunday the wind was an easy 30 mph, but we decided to go out anyway. We got on the water at around 5:30 p.m. I started fishing crankbaits while my partner threw the plastic worm. After she caught two fish in the first 20 minutes to my zero, I grabbed my worm. Ten minutes later I had my first fish weighing about 3 ½ pounds. Sunday evening we ended up with about eight fish, and just as many lost thanks to the wind, and all were on worms. Monday morning we awoke to calm winds, so I started with a topwater for about 45 minutes with no success. I went back to the worm and immediately started getting hit. For the whole day we ended up with about 40 largemouth between the two of us, and one 13-inch crappie that hammered our Power Worm. Our main technique was fishing in about 10-15 feet of water on and in the vicinity of points. I was not catching any up shallow. The bite was very subtle and the fish did not seem very aggressive at all. I did manage five fish on topwater in the last 30 minutes of daylight Monday night, which made my day. All and all it was a good trip, we just had to work a little harder for the fish than usual. Depending on the time of day water temp was between 60 to 64 degrees.
Name:
Frank VanLuvanee

Where:

Alamo Lake
When:
03/21/08
Caught:
50 + Largemouth
Technique:
Working crankbaits (with rattle) along the shoreline. Casting into the reeds and retrieving it slowly, bouncing it off of as much structure as possible. The lures used were black on top, orange on the bottom, and chartreuse in the middle, with double red treble hooks
Comments:
All fishing was done from a bass boat. There were two of us fishing, we fished for three hours on Thurs night and caught 27 largemouth. We fished for four hours on Friday morning and caught another 26 largemouth between the two of us. All slot fish about 1-3 pounds. We didn’t see any bass on beds but they are close, We saw at least 20 large females cruising the shallows not interested in any lure with any presentation.
Name:
Doug Ebel

Where:
Lake Alamo
When:
03/13/08
Caught:
Bass
Technique:
Slow retrieve. Spinner bait
Comments:
Over the course of 3 days the 2 of us caught 30 to 40 bass. 3 were overs with one weighing 6 pounds. One of the best trips to Alamo in years.
Name:
Chris Massahos

SPRING OUTLOOK:

ALAMO LAKE – The lake elevation continues to be good. Largemouth bass are present in all sizes and fishing is expected to be good to excellent throughout the spring. It looks like most of the bass are in the protected slot with a fair number over the slot. Exactly what is going on with the crappie is unknown. The bite has not developed as usual but we anticipate fishing to be fair to good throughout the spring. Channel catfish will be good to excellent this spring and throughout the summer. There are other fish present such as bluegill, redear sunfish and carp that are a lot of fun to catch. All types of bait should work. As the weather warms a shift from slowly working plastics in deeper water to crank baits, spinner baits, and top-water lures for bass. For channel catfish any of the prepared catfish baits as well as chicken livers, shrimp, and anything else you can think of should work.

Both of the boat ramps are useable at this time and the store at the lake is still closed so you need to bring everything with you. If you run short of anything you might be able to pick it up at the Wayside Inn or in Wenden. The certified scale that was located at the store is now located at the Alamo State Park Office and the park office also has live bait for the crappie fishermen.

LAKE HAVASU & TOPOCK GORGE — Largemouth bass, as well as smallmouth bass are expected to be good to excellent this spring. The size will range from 13 inches and up with an occasional fish greater than 5 pounds. Striped bass will continue to be excellent for small fish (12-18 inches) with occasional fish over 3 pounds. The lake is also full of smaller striper that will make it challenging to catch the larger fish. Channel catfish as well as bluegill and redear sunfish will be good to excellent. Flathead catfish fishing should be fair at the lower end of the lake (Bill Williams River Arm) through the spring. Sizes of flathead catfish can reach as high as 40 pounds. When fishing for them select the interior points in the coves and the areas where artificial structure has been placed.

The warmer weather causes the bite to increase making crankbaits and topwater lures a good choice. Also, spinner baits, jigs, cut fish, live shad, etc. should work depending on the species you are looking for.

Take precautions to make sure your boat and equipment is clean before leaving the water to make sure you don’t spread quagga mussels to other water by accident.

COLORADO RIVER (PARKER STRIP AREA) — It is expected to be good to excellent for smallmouth bass with fish over two pounds this spring. In addition, redear sunfish should also be good to excellent in the pound plus sizes. Channel and flathead catfish fishing will be fair to good in this section of the Colorado River as the weather warms up.

Take precautions to make sure your boat and equipment is clean before leaving the water to make sure you don’t spread quagga mussels to other water by accident.

COLORADO RIVER (BETWEEN PALO VERDE DIVERSION DAM AND WALTER’S CAMP) — This area should be fair for both smallmouth bass (in the channel) up river from the I-10 Bridge and largemouth bass (in the backwaters) throughout the entire area. Channel and flathead catfish are always fair to good in this section of the Colorado River. Most of the flathead catfish will be in the 2 to 5 pound size range with an occasional fish over 40 pounds. The time for fishing for both species of catfish will be late spring and throughout the summer. Generally speaking, when fishing for catfish the hotter the weather the better the fishing.

This section of the Colorado River all the way down to Yuma is where invasive species known as Giant Salvinia is located as well as quagga mussels. If using a boat make, sure the boat, live wells, engines, and trailer is clean before leaving the area. The last thing that we want to have happen is the movement of invasive species to other waters.

COLORADO RIVER (BETWEEN WALTER’S CAMP AND PICACHO STATE PARK) — This section of the Colorado River is relatively remote and can only be accessed by boat from either end. Fishing is expected to be good to excellent for flathead catfish with sizes over 40 pounds. The best time will be late spring and on into the summer (the hotter the better). The various backwaters will be good for largemouth bass and other sunfish (bluegill & redear). Other species available in the main river are smallmouth bass, channel catfish, and striped bass.

This section of the Colorado River all the way down to Yuma is where invasive species known as Giant Salvinia is located as well as quagga mussels. If using a boat make, sure the boat, live wells, engines, and trailer is clean before leaving the area. The last thing that we want to have happen is the movement of invasive species to other waters.

COLORADO RIVER (BETWEEN PICACHO STATE PARK AND IMPERIAL DAM) –
This area is expected to be good to excellent for largemouth bass, channel catfish, and flathead catfish. Bass and channel catfish in excess of 5 pounds are present along with flathead catfish as large as 40 pounds. Other sunfish such as bluegill and redear are also present in the various backwaters as well as an occasional striped bass will be caught in the backwaters and main river channel.

This section of the Colorado River all the way down to Yuma is where invasive species known as Giant Salvinia is located as well as quagga mussels. If using a boat make, sure the boat, live wells, engines, and trailer is clean before leaving the area. The last thing that we want to have happen is the movement of invasive species to other waters.

COLORADO RIVER (BETWEEN LAGUNA AND MORELOS DAMS) — This area will be good for largemouth bass and flathead catfish. Bass in excess of 5 pounds is common and flathead catfish over 20 pounds is a good bet. In this area accessibility to the river is dependent on the amount of water being released. Usually shallow draft boats are a must. The lower end has had some dredging work done and the larger boat will be able to get on the river in that area.

This section of the Colorado River all the way down to Yuma is where invasive species known as Giant Salvinia is located as well as quagga mussels. If using a boat make, sure the boat, live wells, engines, and trailer is clean before leaving the area. The last thing that we want to have happen is the movement of invasive species to other waters.

With the increase in border issues and illegal activity on the lower end of this area I would away from that area (Pilot Knob to Morelos Dam).

REGIONAL HOT SPOTS:

Alamo Lake will be the hot spot for Largemouth bass and channel catfish. Since there appears to be more fish in the lake at the present time I recommend keeping as many of the smaller bass as you can legally possess in order to try and reduce the population a little. Next choice would be Lake Havasu for striped bass, Parker Strip for smallmouth bass and redear sunfish, and the Colorado River below Walter’s Camp for flathead catfish.

If you need any additional information or additional don’t hesitate to contact the Yuma Regional office at (928) 341-4051 and I will be happy to accommodate you.