Lake Mojave/Mead report

[RiverRat77]

I went down to Vegas with my fiancee this weekend to see her folks and yesterday we went down to Lake Mojave to see about renting a slip for her dads boat. Anyway, while we were there, we found a whole mess of fish or catfish bait, depending on who you ask, hanging around the walkways, dikes, and boat docks. There was a huge swim area and a no wake zone that VERY UNFORTUNATELY, you can't fish. I guess thats a Nevada law because I had ever intention of fishing some docks while they inquired on other matters. No such luck. There were some 20 pound and up carp in that marina... I was just sick. Can you imagine?? On 8 lb test? Anyway, the best I could do is feed them some bread and candy and create a swirling suckfest on the surface... man, there were so many snouts feeding and sucking out of the water that it was almost nauseating. [] I've got tons of pics of carp from that day on the digital but no way to download them here... I also saw some largemouth around the docks but of course, nothing to fish for them with and I'm not into breaking out of state laws...although I certainly crossed or at least fudged the line today... Hee Hee. Anyway, Mojave was cool and so were the mounts of the 48 lb striper in the store.... FROM THIS YEAR!!! Pretty neat stuff. So Wendy had a great time feeding the masses of catfish bait....she even went and had her mom buy a loaf of bread so she could break it up and feed them. You could lay on your stomach on the concrete walkway and they would take bread right out of your hand... that was actually cool.... when you have a baseball sized carp mouth out of the water and you just feed the bread into the vacuum. Anyway, we were there for a couple hours and I got some awesome carp frenzy pics and some great pics of some ducks... the ducks could be hand fed also... so that was neat. Then today, we went over to Mead to check out a couple marinas. The first one we went to had a long "breakwater" type of dock that you had to cross to get out to the slips. All along these docks there were the standard carp but there were also more fish that I'd NEVER seen before... thats right, the STRIPERS were there. We had some old bread that we fed to them, and it was really cool to see the difference in feeding style. Where the carp milled around and sucked at nothing, trying to find a chunk of soggy bread, the stripers were slashing and swirling, creating organized chaos in the name of eating.... they are so gorgeous and I can very easily see how they survive and outcompete the other fish in the body of water... they are some fierce critters... well, I'll type more after dinner and a movie... I'm being summoned.... LOL. THis gets better folks... HA HA HA..... [pirate]
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[RiverRat77]

Ok, dinner and a movie are over so I'll finish my report. When we were feeding the stripers and the carp, they started coming closer and closer to eating out of my hand... Finally, I had this bright idea after holding bread between my thumb and forefinger. The stripers would come slashing up and suck onto my thumb for a sec and then swirl away. I couldnt lip the carp, because they were just too slimy and I couldnt get a good grip... The stripers were another matter.... they were coming so close, hitting the back of my knuckles, tearing up my thumb, and so finally I got the idea that I was going to try and catch one..... I don't know if this falls under the category of fishing or not...which is why I refer to it as smudging the line between feeding fish and fishing. [] The next time a striper tried to take the bread from my fingers, I just held onto it and didn't let the bread go... I guess out of frustration, the striper came back and tried a little harder. He got more of the bread but not all of it and then a smaller fish came by and sucked right up on my thumb. That was all it took... quick as could be, I just grabbed him right up, lipped him, took him out of the water and snapped a picture. LOL.... Man, that was AWESOME!!! Dont know how many people can claim they caught a striper with bread, their hand and a little patience. [cool] Anyway, it took a few more minutes but I got another one a little later. After that, I just took pictures, fed the stripers and carp and just enjoyed having fish eat out of my hand. What a rush... it made the whole trip for me. THere was one gigantic striper that probably would have gone 15 lbs or so and I was kinda worried that he would come and hit my hand... I'd imagine that would have hurt me. The other little 1-5 pounders were fun though. Those were the size that I caught. Anyway, there wasn't too much to see at that marina and it was a little windy, almost to the point of being uncomfortable so we left and kept driving around the point to the next marina. At this more protected cove style marina, there were all types of fish. There were stripers, carp and I even saw four or five catfish swimming around eating popcorn. That apparently is a huge seller for the gift shops there.... the ducks, gulls and all the fish were eating popcorn. However, for some reason, the stripers, although quite a bit bigger, were not as into eating out of your hand as they had been with bread... maybe it was the yucky oil slick the popcorn left on my hands.... don't really know. ANyway, I didn't catch any fish at this marina, but had a lot of close calls. There were some absolute monsters in this little bay too. There were lots of redheads and mallards along with a smattering of coots so for a duck hunter like me, there was lots to take pictures of besides just the fish. It was great fun and people apparently got a kick out of watching Wendy and I hand feed all the fish. Some people even had HUGE bags of popcorn brought for only feeding the ducks and fish. It was kind of a circus. Ah, what I would have given for just one day of fishing off that dock. [cool] Anyway, there was another cool thing that I saw that day. Wendy's dad saw this guy drive his car off the end of the boat ramp and then motor out into the bay.... thats right. Its not a typo.... this guy had converted this old Corvair looking car into a car/boat. He drove up and down the aisles of the marina so that everyone could get a look but he and his lady friend were having a ball. We sat and watched them motor around while eating lunch on the docks. I had a BLT and fries for lunch and being the creative fisherman that I am....[angelic] I saved some of my lunch for the fish. Sure enough, as long as I wasn't feeding them popcorn, the fish would come back and eat out of my hand. The stripers LOVE fries. It was a great time and they would come right up and snatch the fries out of my hand. I'd kinda have to "chum" a bit and then stick a piece of fry between my fingers and just dip it in the water. After a minute or so, one would come slashing by and take it out of my hand. I even had some big (10-15 lb) stripers eating fries I'd let float a couple inches from my knuckles. They sure do have some rough scales... the backs of my knuckles are all skinned up from me putting my hands down in the middle of their feeding frenzy. Its been an awesome trip, and it was cool to feed the fish.... the only downer was that I couldn't sit on the dock and fish for even a few minutes.... I loaded up all my bass gear and my best bass rod and never even took it out of the car. [unsure] Oh well, guess that wasn't the sole reason for this trip anyway.... I'll post up pics as soon as I get home tomorrow night. Hope you guys liked the story.... I'll tell you... if you're in Vegas, its worth the trip out to Lake Mead for some shark like feeding frenzies and some hand fishing... [] Its something I'll remember as long as my mind is able.
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Great stories. I'm sure your fisherman's heart was beating fast and you felt a lot of frustration.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Harkens me back to some of the visits I have made to areas where there are lots of fish but no fishing allowed. You just gotta downshift a few gears and enjoy the experience for what it is.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I heard a funny (supposedly true) story about something that happened at Big Springs, up in Island Park, Idaho. The river comes out of the mountain full tilt. It is clear and the big trout in there are protected. You can see them laying along the bottom and under the walkway bridge that goes across it. Lots of people feed the tame trout with bread and other goodies.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]As the story goes, fisheries officers noticed an old guy coming off the bridge looking suspicious. His bib overalls were making strange movements on one of his legs. Turned out that the devious old boy had let a line down inside his pants leg, hooked a fish and then pulled it up inside the pants. If it did happen, it is funny, but it could have been hazardous too...unless the guy was wearing a "cup".[/#0000ff]
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