Page 1 of 1

Big Numbers in Las Vegas

PostPosted: Thu Aug 03, 2006 5:27 pm
by Stan Wright
If catching large numbers of fish is important to you , then Las Vegas is the place to go.

I figured that since the fish would be running between 1 and 5 pounds, a light 5 wt fly rod with floating line would be fun. I caught fish, lots of fish, but those stripers really put up a struggle, wore me out. Next trip I'll take Capt. Marks advice and bring my 8 wt rods with sinking tip and full sinking line. The locally made white streamer fly that imitates the shad stripers feed on was just too big and bulky for a 5 wt outfit. ( He only provides spinning and baitcasting gear, so if your a fly fisherman you need to bring your own tackle. Capt. Mark will be more than happy to provide a list of recommended flys and tackle.)

We met Capt. Mark (Adventure In Angling) at 4:45 AM on a "cool" 105 degree July morning , jumped in the boat, and headed out for some stripe bass action. Lake Mead has hundreds of small coves. In the first light of dawn we could hear, then see, the stripers chasing shad on the glassy surface. The water boiled with fish all around the boat. We each grabbed a rod and cast to the feeding fish. Hookup. A triple. Over the next two hours it was non stop action. We lost count of the triple hookups. It was common for at least two of us to be fighting fish at the same time.

How many fish did we catch? I have no idea. The limit on Lake Mead is 20 stripers per person per day. We caught more than that in the first two hours. Cleaning and packaging your fish is included. Since we were staying in a hotel we released all our fish. We also stopped to take pictures, rest, and drink lots of water. With all the hot fishing action, we hardly noticed the hot weather. LOL

Capt. Mark suggested I return when the weather is a little cooler and the schooling fish are in the 6 to 12 pound range. Can you imagine catching over 100+ fish that big? No wonder Capt. Mark says if you don't catch....you don't pay.

Aloha,
Stan