Fishing Forum

Hello,

I am renting a pontoon boat and taking a group of inner-city youth fishing on Lake Mead, July 18th & 19th. We will be in Callville Bay, with the pontoon. Most, if not all of the kids I will be taking fishing will have never fished before. My main goal is to get them into the fish. I don't really care what kind, (hopefully game fish). Of course, we would be loving it if we can find a nice striper boil but I'm not holding my breath for that to happen. I am a seasoned fisherman, but that is in my home state of Wyoming, and mostly fishing rivers and streams. I have limited experience fishing lakes, but know enough to recognize fishing looking places when I see them (drop-offs, bays, points, and other structure).

If you were me, how would you proceed? Should I just stick to the banks casting jigs and lures to points, drop-offs, and structure? I will always keep my eyes and ears open to find boils, but in the meantime, I could use some direction. Any advice would be VERY welcome.
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If you start at Calville, head southwest to Las Vegas Bay, its where the river from Vegas dumps into lake mead. That area is where a lot of the stripper boils happen. Problem with renting a boat is that you're usually on the water right before the boils tend to end. They start tailing off around 8-10 am. If you're lucky, you'll see the odd one in the middle of the day, but they're rare, and they pick up again before sunset.

The Strippers are open water fish and don't sit on cover or stay in one spot like a LMB. They are always on the move. You can sit in the channel in the LV Bay and drop anchovies to try to get them, or if you're into a boil throw topwater. White lures tend to do well in the boils.

If not those, there are catfish, LMB, SMB, and blue gills as well in that part of the lake, or giant carp too. LMB fishing is tough on Mead, since it drops off so fast. You can be 20 ft from shore and its 80 ft of water below in many places. Probably a lot harder without knowing the lake, but they're everywhere too. On the plus side, you can throw deep diving cranks and not get hung up. LMB and strippers tend to like those here.

Also, watch for reefs. Don't rely on gps maps. The lake levels change too much too fast for those to be reliable. The lake is down around 5 ft since March and will continue to fall until around August, part of the seasonal flow.
Hope that helps
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