BOAT ANGLER
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itting smack bang in the middle of the Nevada Desert, Las Vegas has two huge demands. The first is power (and lots of it for those insane lights!). The second is water to supply the millions of thirsty tourists and residents alike. Both demands are fulfilled by the Hoover Dam which tames the flow of the Colorado River and provides hydroelectric power across the region. The damming of the river resulted in the formation of Lake Mead, America’s largest man-made freshwater lake, a vast cobalt blue oasis with over 700 miles of shoreline and dozens of species of fish. Freshwater, yes, but by an unusual quirk of biology, there’s a fantastic chance for the visiting angler to catch striped bass. Like so many bass anglers, I have long dreamt of fishing for these famous migratory saltwater game fish on the northeast Atlantic coast of the US. But the legendary striper runs of Cape Cod and Montauk Bay are generally the preserve of specialist angling trips and are rarely compatible with a general holiday abroad.
Words and photography by JOE WALKER
FIFTEEN MILLION What is not widely known here about stripers though, is that, unlike our bass, they return to freshwater to spawn. Like salmon, their physiology is capable of adapting to freshwater, allowing them to enter the rivers to breed before returning to the open sea again. In the case of Lake Mead, stripers were in fact introduced during the 1950s to provide sports fisherman with a worthy target species in the vast waterway. It was supposed that the stripers would not breed and would need restocking annually but, remarkably, over time they adapted to a permanent freshwater existence. Now, Lake Mead has an astonishing population of 15 million breeding stripers, and the beauty of this is that the serene, bleak, wilderness of Lake Mead is only 26 miles from the neon-riddled chaos of Las Vegas. For a visiting angler seeking a break from the in-your-face, relentless fun of Sin City, it truly is something you should not miss. So how do you go about it? Well, firstly it’s imperative you get a day permit for the lake, and a Colorado River license stamp. Cost is minimal
VIVA BASS VEGAS
and both are available from the huge Bass Pro store south of the strip in Vegas – worth a trip in its own right!
NO FISH, NO PAY Then, crucially, you need a guide – this is not a safe DIY location. I fished with Mark Edison, owner/operator of Adventure In Angling. Mark runs a slick operation on a well-equipped skiff-style boat. With his great experience, Mark confidently operates a ‘no fish, no pay’ policy; something he has only ever had to cough-up on twice in his 15 years as a guide. Effective methods include hard and soft lure fishing, fly fishing and drifting live bait. On my day out with Mark, the sounder showed the Threadfin Shad that the bass feed on were sitting well down in 30-40ft of water. So, for me, it was a case of employing the same tactics as I would drifting live sandeel over the Shambles Bank off Weymouth, but using super-light rods, 8lb mono, perhaps a mere three-quarters of an ounce of lead on a Carolina rig, and a small 3-4 inch Shad lightly
Filling the livebait tank
Joe Walker takes a break from the Las Vegas blackjack tables and takes a gamble on catching a striped bass – in the Nevada Desert 62
062-065 Desert Bass.indd 62
SEA ANGLER ISSUE 607
17/02/2022 13:17
