Perfect storm jump-starts striper bite

Anglers no longer have to wait for the striped bass action to heat up at Lake Mead and Lake Mohave. Although stripers had been biting, the storm that passed through during Thanksgiving week seemed to give action a little jump-start.

Roger Williams, who trolls for stripers in his kayak, hit the water late in the afternoon Dec. 3 when the rain still was falling. While paddling his normal trolling circuit, Williams hauled in seven stripers before dark.

I heard reports that two anglers netted a handful of fish that weighed more than 20 pounds at Lake Mohave during that same storm, so I did some digging and learned the lucky anglers were lure maker Allan Cole and his friend Ryan Webb.

In his online forum at acplugs.com, Cole said anglers who passed up on fishing because of the storm were “unwise fishermen.” Cole reported he and Webb “fished hard in the hard rain,” and as a result caught nearly 30 fish that weighed 270 pounds over the course of two days. Their catch included stripers weighing 28 and 26 pounds, with two more weighing 20 pounds each.

“The fish bit because of the ‘perfect storm’ created by the incoming front and the extreme change in temps and hard rain. The stripers went nuts,” Cole wrote.

Williams was back on the water Friday and caught another mess of striped bass. He told me the “lake erupted” while he was there and said his success had come while trolling small swimbaits in the 6-inch range. Others are catching fish with live shad. Experienced anglers such as Williams pay attention to where the birds are because some species, like gulls, will eat the injured shad that feeding stripers leave behind. The stripers also will follow schools of rainbow trout as they attempt to escape from the hungry bass.

The Nevada Department of Wildlife generally plants rainbow trout in Lake Mead every Friday at the Hemenway fishing pier, Boulder Harbor and Crawdad Cove. Lake Mohave usually is stocked on Thursdays at Aztec Wash, Placer Cove and below Hoover Dam. Boulder Harbor is where Lake Mead Marina used to be. With the marina no longer there, the state wildlife commission recently voted to open the harbor area to fishing from a boat, but the paperwork to make that vote official has to be filed with the Secretary of State’s office.

Though the harbor will be open to fishing, you can expect to find some areas within the harbor that are closed to boats. They include the areas surrounding the new fishing pier and Government Dock.

* UPLAND GAME REPORT — Reader Tom Marsala e-mailed me with the results of his latest upland bird-hunting foray with the idea of saving others their time and a few dollars in gas money. His recent outings include a trip to the Elgin/Carp area northwest of the Mormon Mountains and another to Gold Butte.

While in the Elgin/Carp area, he jumped only one covey of about 20 quail and bagged three birds with the help of his dogs. At Gold Butte, he put up with the company of about 100 other people who were camping or riding their all-terrain vehicles. After 10 hours of hunting, he returned home without seeing a single bird. He saw only two other hunting parties.

Most of the hunters with whom I have spoken about quail and chukar are saying the same thing. Some are finding birds here and there, but the hunting is tough again this year, and the birds they do find are getting up well out of shooting range.

* SAFARI CLUB BANQUET — The Desert-Las Vegas Chapter of the Safari Club International will have its 22nd annual fundraising banquet Jan. 17 at the Rio. The auction will include hunts on five continents, firearms, artwork, jewelry and other items for the outdoor enthusiast.

Tickets are $100 per person, with table packages and other incentives also available. The deadline for ticket sales is Jan. 11. For tickets and information, contact Dave Small at 731-2330 or Spurlock’s Gun Shop at 564-5668.

Freelance writer Doug Nielsen is a conservation educator for the Nevada Department of Wildlife. His column is not affiliated with or endorsed by the department. Any opinions he states in his column are his own. He can be reached at doug@takinitoutside.com.