Thursday, April 14, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

IN THE OUTDOORS: Area lakes give anglers good options

Fisherman Will Osteen displays a large striper caught near the Las Vegas Marina on March 31. Photo by Craig L. Moran.

Stripers offer anglers a fly-fishing alternative.

For those of us who fly-fish, Southern Nevada sometimes can be a rather frustrating place to live. Not because there aren't places to ply our craft, but because significant travel time is usually required to reach the more desirable fly-fishing destinations.

After all, most fly-anglers are looking to cast their hand-tied offerings to lunker trout lurking in the depths of cold-water fisheries, and there aren't too many of those in close proximity to the Las Vegas Valley.

As a rule, whether you are looking at Nevada, Utah or Arizona fisheries, you're facing a minimum drive time of at least three hours.

And with the price of gasoline, lengthy travel requirements could put a serious damper on your fishing exploits. Or, if you are willing to try something different, Lake Mead and Lake Mohave might provide closer alternatives.

Quit laughing. Craig Moran, a Review-Journal photographer, and his friend, Will Osteen, recently enjoyed a rather successful morning of fly-fishing on Lake Mead. In about six hours, the duo hooked seven stripers and one largemouth bass.

OK, so they didn't catch their limits of either fish; everything they did catch was taken on a fly-rod. Not bad for an experiment.

I asked Osteen, a retail manager at Las Vegas Flyfishing, what had prompted him to go after stripers with his fly rod.

"We get calls all the time from people who are coming to visit Las Vegas and want to know where they can fly-fish close to town. So I decided to give it a try," he said.

Osteen teamed with Mark Edison, a guide with Adventures in Angling, to learn more about the striped bass in Lake Mead and where to look for them.

"It's a different type of fly-fishing," Osteen said. "You have to know how to manage a heavy fly-line. Ideally, you want to use an eight- or nine-weight rod with a sinking-head line. You will catch the bigger fish down below the surface."

On the fishing excursion mentioned above, Moran and Osteen used a custom-tied streamer that's a combination of two patterns -- Clouser Half & Half and a Deceiver. The fly was tied on a number-one hook with a monofilament weed guard to keep it from getting hooked on the brush.

Perhaps the biggest difference between fly-fishing for trout and fly-fishing for stripers is the speed of your retrieve. With stripers, you will want to let the fly settle where the fish are, then strip the fly in as fast as possible to trigger a strike, Osteen said.

Speaking of the difference between stripers and trout, Moran said: "You're not going to see them fly out of the water. The stripers shake their head pretty hard, but they're more like a weight on the end of the line. And unlike trout, you don't have to worry about your presentation. The technique is all in the stripping."

Because of the size of Lake Mead, Osteen said anglers will be limited as to what they can do with a float tube. He also said a full-size boat or pontoon boat may be the better option. He also said a fish finder can be a real advantage so you know where and how deep the fish are.

Another close-to-town fly-fishing alternative is Lake Mohave. A couple of years ago, I launched my float tube in a cove just north of Cottonwood Cove in search of some bluegill or green sunfish. I tied on an olive-colored nymph and began working the edge of the brush along the shoreline.

In the back corner of the cove, a thick tree trunk thrust up from the water's depths and leaned over toward the bank. Stands of brush, inundated with water formed a perfect pocket where fish could hide in the shade beneath the tree's outstretched limbs. Here it was cool and there was sure to be plenty of tasty morsels on which a hungry fish could feast.

I cast my fly into that shady pocket and gave it a few seconds to sink before I began stripping the fly-line in.

On about my third or fourth strip, a largemouth bass shot out from his hiding place along the tree's trunk and smacked the nymph. He pulled hard on my line and adrenaline surged through my veins. "What a hoot!" I said out loud.

I caught two bass that day and both went about 2 pounds. They weren't huge, and I wasn't standing waist deep in a trophy trout stream, but I had fun nonetheless.

• EVERSTART TOURNAMENT UPDATE -- The Wal-Mart FLW EverStart Series Bass Tournament returned to Lake Mead last weekend. Winner of the four-day event was Thanh Le, a pro from El Cajon, Calif., who finished with a final-round catch of 10 fish weighing 19 pounds, 2 ounces. Le took home a fully loaded Ranger bass boat with his choice of a Yamaha or Evinrude outboard motor, plus $8,400 in cash. Pro Tom Klinger of Boulder City finished second, one ounce behind Le.

Le said he caught most of his fish in five to 10 feet of water while fishing a tube in the grassy cuts.

Doug Nielsen is a freelance writer, a member of Western Outdoor Writers and a former Nevada game warden. His "In the Outdoors" column is published Thursdays. He can be reached at DougNielsen@att.net.