USMC9999
04-26-2010, 10:53 AM
SMB and Striper fishing finally came alive on the Colorado River. SMB and LMB are chewing decently in the AAC.
We've been doing kayak trips for the past 4 weeks in the area of Walter's to Picacho with not much consistant success. Launch the 'yaks at Walter's and work the river down to either Taylor Lake or Picacho Camp launches where one of our trucks were stashed to portage the gear back to the start (one must have a 4x4 to get into these places). But the past 3 days (Fri - Sun) were very good in the fishing and catching departments.
SMB were plentiful and the nicer models (2-4 lbers) were also biting on the river. Mainly they were stacked up on the lee of sandbars in the river or on the lee current edges of rockpiles along some of the sheer cliffs along this stretch of the river. 3/8 oz green/white skirted colorado bladed blades, 3/8 to 1/2 oz lipless or deep diving cranks worked banging the rocks or stirring up sand/mud on the sandbars (they like firetiger colored cranks bestest). We fished Adobe and Taylor for some decent (<3 >1 lb) LMB but they really aren't turned on yet as the water temps are still not optimal for them. Blades, cranks produced as did d-shooted plastics in the lakes (it's hard to productively fish plastics in the main river in a 'yak as the current is about 4-6 knots).
Caught a few 2-3 lb striped Bass in the fast water below Imperial Dam useing 1/2 oz lipless cranks.
Yesterday hit the AAC. We could see the larger LM and SM stationed along the outer edges of the weeds but couldn't get them interested to play like we did the week before. Plenty of barely legal to not legal models of both species wanted to play so we switched to lighter gear (8lb casting set-ups) useing roadrunners (red heads with tomato core colored bodies or all white worked best) around the sluces/gates. They just didn't want to bite the lipless cranks ripped through the weeds like they did the week before.
Temps were in the low 90's with almost no wind. Water temps in the river/AAC felt cold (low 60s?) with the temps in the lakes only a few degrees higher.
The SMB are just more active right now. I actually like to catch SM more than I do LM.
It feels nice to finally be able to post a "fishing" report.:spurt:
We've been doing kayak trips for the past 4 weeks in the area of Walter's to Picacho with not much consistant success. Launch the 'yaks at Walter's and work the river down to either Taylor Lake or Picacho Camp launches where one of our trucks were stashed to portage the gear back to the start (one must have a 4x4 to get into these places). But the past 3 days (Fri - Sun) were very good in the fishing and catching departments.
SMB were plentiful and the nicer models (2-4 lbers) were also biting on the river. Mainly they were stacked up on the lee of sandbars in the river or on the lee current edges of rockpiles along some of the sheer cliffs along this stretch of the river. 3/8 oz green/white skirted colorado bladed blades, 3/8 to 1/2 oz lipless or deep diving cranks worked banging the rocks or stirring up sand/mud on the sandbars (they like firetiger colored cranks bestest). We fished Adobe and Taylor for some decent (<3 >1 lb) LMB but they really aren't turned on yet as the water temps are still not optimal for them. Blades, cranks produced as did d-shooted plastics in the lakes (it's hard to productively fish plastics in the main river in a 'yak as the current is about 4-6 knots).
Caught a few 2-3 lb striped Bass in the fast water below Imperial Dam useing 1/2 oz lipless cranks.
Yesterday hit the AAC. We could see the larger LM and SM stationed along the outer edges of the weeds but couldn't get them interested to play like we did the week before. Plenty of barely legal to not legal models of both species wanted to play so we switched to lighter gear (8lb casting set-ups) useing roadrunners (red heads with tomato core colored bodies or all white worked best) around the sluces/gates. They just didn't want to bite the lipless cranks ripped through the weeds like they did the week before.
Temps were in the low 90's with almost no wind. Water temps in the river/AAC felt cold (low 60s?) with the temps in the lakes only a few degrees higher.
The SMB are just more active right now. I actually like to catch SM more than I do LM.
It feels nice to finally be able to post a "fishing" report.:spurt: