Two gullible fish made their way to my table
STATE # 15 - NEVADA APRIL 2018 - LAKE MEAD
SPECIES CAUGHT - Striped Bass
It seems almost everyone I know that goes to Nevada goes to see the bright lights of Las Vegas. There is more to this state than that although most of the land is truly barren. Many I have visited with about the Silver State have went to close-by Hoover Dam from their Las Vegas trip to see this massive manmade wonder. There is another wonder right beside and above it now, the Mike O’Callaghen - Pat Tillman Bridge is the second tallest bridge in the United States. Below, against and north northeast of it is Lake Mead. Running through it and turning its electricity producing turbines is the Colorado River.
These natural and man-made wonders that are joined together, along with others around the state makes Las Vegas and all its casinos in my opinion unnecessary to enjoy Nevada especially if you are on a road trip just passing through. And they don’t build those casinos in Sin City for the profit of customers. Read the odds of each game. They are almost as bad as the odds I had for catching fish by starting a fishing excursion at 11:30 a.m., which I knew better.
I would have my weakest day of fishing from a guided trip in this lake. That takes only a few words to describe but the beauty of the other stuff takes many. Those things and my wife Billie Jo being on this trip made up for this unfamiliar weak fishing day.
As part of a five state road trip (TX, NM, AZ, NV, UT) she agreed to every excursion, hike, stuff off the beaten path -everything except fishing. This 15-day road trip, 10 of which I had her company on had so many fun stops, marvelous natural things to see, and cool restaurants, I refused to allow the small catch to weigh down my trip.
Boulder City was our first topical place of Nevada interest after leaving AZ and the Grand Canyon. This was our second time to see Hoover Dam and Lake Mead.
I think of Waylon’s verse in Highwayman every time I hear the name of this little city including the line “a place called Boulder on the wild Colorado.”
I recommend to anyone travelling here to tour this awesome dam that offers several tours most every day.
The tour itself is typical in design and somewhat predictable of American sightseeing tours but the subjects are so absolutely awesome with 4 wonders (river, lake, dam-power plant, bridge) at the same juncture I could do it again.
After taking that dam tour on the 4th, I was ready to catch some dang fish on the 5th. I met my guide Mark at the Boulder City Boat Launch Marina.
It was a slow day on the beautiful Lake Mead but I did manage to catch my first two Stripers (Striped Bass) here. The time of day lessened my odds at winning the bite of any more than that pair. This would be the first time I would start fishing at or around lunch time. I found the positive of this boat trip and extracted a limited amount of history and lake facts from my guide from California as he drove me around this gorgeous lake.
I pointed at the high point of the watermark on the canyon wall that marked the spot for when the lake is full, that level last seen in 1983 according to Wikipedia. I asked him how high is that. He replied, “that is about 135 feet from the water level.” It was hard for me to fathom how this lake could be that pretty while being 135 feet low. He explained how the lake level primarily depended on snow melt-off in the Colorado River Basin. Other things depend on that snow including Lake Powell almost the same size and upriver from Lake Mead. I simply marveled at the breathtaking beauty of the lake.
This reservoir has a depth of over 530 feet of water at it’s deepest place and is the largest in the U.S. by volume capacity when full. It has water so clear I could see a fish swimming at the bottom only assisting my eyes with my glasses in a spot where the water was 41’ deep. Another detail of fishing became clear at this time that I already knew very well. Go fishing early or go fishing late. Don’t go at noon. No gripes overall because of a wonderful road trip here and this was the first of 15 states to not have big numbers.
Seeing Hoover Dam from the lake was a spectacular view with that big bridge towering above it in the background. This was my fifth time to travel through or to Nevada.
As I recommended the things of issue around this lake including fishing, I do not recommend starting a trip at 11:30 and consider myself lucky to have caught anything. I improved that suntan I was working on and got more of a lake view roaming around in the boat in search of the only two fish gullible enough to bite in their time off.
Three of a kind just wasn’t in the cards on this day, or in the lake. I found out several days later just how good eating these striped bass are. Two on the table was better than breaking even.
If I see fit to give Nevada another chance to win me over for a decent showing of a nice catch of fish, I will probably do it somewhere else upstate for the sake of different. If so I may want to see a turquoise mine that my friend Joe F Harrison III from Atlanta, Texas owns. In his words it is in the middle of nowhere.
I hear that term or cliche’ all the time, but in Joe’s case I think it’s spot on after looking at the location on the map. I hope you hit the mother lode of turquoise Joe.
Well, I got in the game with mine boating two Stripers in Lake Mead while Fishing America and then we were off to Utah.