®
A
n Arizona native, Shane
Edgar has been an
outdoors enthusiast since birth. He cut his teeth with his first
competition as a tournament bass
angler at seven-years-old, winning
two national championships along
the way in junior and high school
divisions.
With 20 years of fishing experience, Edgar finds himself regularly on the water over 200 days a year, splitting time between bass tournaments, and guide trips that put him on Lake Pleasant for at least half of those fishing days. One of the favorite trips for his customers is chasing Arizona stripers with last year’s personal best of a customer weighing in at nearly 19.27. For those that want to give it a shot, here is what he shared with us about springtime striped bass at Lake Pleasant.
WB: When is the best time to target the springtime stripers?
Edgar: Lake Pleasant is my favorite place to fish for stripers in Arizona and of course each year can vary with conditions; but in general, starting about the middle of march, we start to see a pretty big push of them migrating to the northern coves – Castle Creek, Coles Bay, and Humbug Bay. When we see that big push moving up to that northern-end of the lake, we know they’re getting ready to spawn.
By the middle of April, they are getting into big groups, and they start spawning all over the northern part of the lake – any of the arms, humps, and points in the northern part.
WB: What’s the difference that we need to know, if we’re fishing in mid-March to mid-April?
Edgar: In March, you see the stripers in singles or doubles, or maybe in smaller schools up to five or so. By
mid-
April, you see them in groups of
20 or more.
I look for them both the same way, 2D or DownScan. It makes it easy to cover water and find multiple groups of stripers that
are mixed with schools of
gizzard shad. Stripers don’t
sit in one place. They cover
a lot of water; so, they’re
not like fish that you can
graph and turn around and
fish for.
Basically, when I find groups of stripers and groups of bait fish – here gizzard shad are the most important part of the equation
– I will Spot-Lock. I’m
looking for places in the
middle of a channel,
on a channel swing,
on points or anything
Spring 2025
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