desert lakes
BaSS techNIques
by mIKe folKestaD
Story & Photos
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’m excited. it’s fall again and the heat of sum- mer is over and the winter is on its way in the desert areas of the west. i will be talking about the fall transition in the western desert pertaining to lake Mead, lake Mojave and lake Havasu. With daytime temperatures and wa- ter temperatures dropping, the bass will be more comfortable and active in the lower water tempera- tures of fall to winter. Consequently, the bass will be feeding more and bulking up for the long winter when everything slows down. With shorter days and cooler nights, the crisp mornings and water temperatures dropping, generally the shad schools move more shallow and closer to the shore for longer durations of time during morning hours before moving out. They move in during the night when the water cools and stay shallower and closer to shore for longer periods of time following their food source, the plankton. Just as the shad follow their food source, the bass will be sure to follow the shad. Schools of largemouth and smallmouth bass will have discontinued their suspended summer pattern following the shad schools in open water. The bass will become more catchable as they move into the shallows chasing the shad which are the main forage base in the desert lakes. don’t forget crawdads in all the rocky areas that have football size or smaller rocks. The smallmouth and largemouth love these areas. Jigs will become a great lure during this time of year for the crawdad feeders. topwater, jerk baits, cranks, worms, jigs, buzzbaits, Senkos, grubs, dart heads, swimbaits, and everything will work this time of year, you will just have to break it down and find a pattern that will work for you.
our clear water lakes of the desert cool quicker than our stained water lakes such as the Calif. delta and Clear lake which hold the heat longer; but the storm fronts in the north parts of the west have larger temperature drops from the 70’s and 50’s in the day time and nights of 40’s to 60’s which drops the water temperature much quicker in the northern part of the west, When the water temp reaches the low 50’s, which it can be in dec., the bite becomes really, really tough and you need to slow down and fish deeper down in the 25-ft or deeper range with jigs and dropshots. You need to watch out for shallow schools of shad in the morning and get some aggressive active fish in the morning. electronics are very important for looking for bait balls that will tell you what depth they are in. Generally in desert lakes they are in 25- to 30-feet and on deep ledges or points. Consequently, this makes the western desert lakes easier to pattern for a longer duration of time. The fronts in the desert lakes this time of year do not have as great a temperature change, so the water cools down more gradual making the patterning of largemouth and smallmouth bass more consistent. at the river of lake Havasu, you should find the largemouth and smallmouth bass next to the current. look for eddies, current breaks, and deeper water areas. in the main lake bays on the desert lakes look for bays that have some depth and secondary channels coming into them with cover such as grass beds and brush. look for the shad, baitfish, or bluegill. even though you don’t see any bass, they will be there. They know where their food supply is holding.
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