Water temperatures have been holding in the high 50s, bumping up into the low 60s during the afternoons, especially in the shallow back coves. Sunrise is now around 7:15 AM with sunset stretching to about 6:30 PM, so we’re finally gaining daylight. We’ve had several windy days and a wet weather system push through recently, which caused some unstable air and water temperatures, but looking ahead at the forecast, things appear to be trending warmer and more consistent. With longer days, a warming pattern, and the next full moon approaching on March 3rd, we should start to see more fish pushing shallow. Bass and redear are beginning to show signs of movement, although the redear bite hasn’t fully turned on yet. I personally haven’t dedicated a lot of time to hunting them down just yet, but I have received reports of anglers finding redear in the 5–10 foot range around rocky points. That bite should improve quickly as temperatures stabilize. Striped bass fishing has been decent overall, especially on the south end of the lake, where quality fish have been coming primarily on live shad. The north end has been tougher in my opinion, but live shad has still been the key to getting bites when fish are present. Trolling for stripers is still producing, but it’s been inconsistent and very dependent on timing and conditions. I’ve shifted gears a bit recently and started targeting smallmouth and largemouth bass in roughly 30 feet of water using live shad, and that approach has been producing solid results. We’ve been seeing quality fish hitting the deck consistently, which has been a fun change of pace while waiting for other seasonal bites to turn on. I plan to give this warming weather pattern another week or two to fully settle in, and then I’ll start doing some catfish scouting trips to get ready for flathead season. Once I’m confident the bite is on, I’ll be opening up our trophy flathead trips again.

Lake Havasu continues to fish like winter, with water temperatures holding steady in the mid-50s and days slowly starting to get longer. While conditions haven’t changed drastically temperature-wise, the biggest shift over the last few weeks has been in how we’re targeting stripers. We’ve started throwing the cast net for shad and incorporating live bait into the program, which has made a big difference on certain days. My live shad setup has been simple and effective: 30 lb braid to a 24-inch 15 lb fluorocarbon leader, rigged with a small circle hook and as little weight as possible depending on the depth the fish are holding. Boils are still popping up periodically, and when they do, it’s been game on. During those moments, I’m still throwing Rapala CrushCity swimbaits on a 1 oz jig head. In several of the same coves where stripers have pushed shad shallow, we’ve also caught a surprising number of both smallmouth and largemouth bass mixed in with the stripers, all feeding aggressively on the same baitfish. Fishing over this stretch has been a true mix of highs and lows. The good days have been unforgettable, with fast action and aggressive fish that make winter fishing worth every cold morning. On the flip side, the tough days have been grind-it-out kind of days. Even when you’re marking shad and stripers stacked together, it doesn’t always mean the bite is on, which is just part of winter fishing on Havasu. I only have a few open dates left for February

Lake Havasu has officially shifted into winter fishing mode, with sunrise now around 7:45 AM and the sun setting close to 5:45 PM. The weather has been all over the place, with wind, more wind, and even a little rain mixed in, but that’s been great news for the lake. All of that weather has pushed water temperatures down into the mid-50s, which is exactly where striped bass thrive this time of year. This temperature range is a sweet spot for stripers because it allows them to feed aggressively without burning too much energy, while shad also group up tightly in the cooler, oxygen-rich water, making them easier to hunt. The biggest change over the last couple of weeks has been the consistency of striper boils on the north end of the lake. I honestly haven’t had much reason to run south because the action up north has been that good. Find the birds and you’ll find the stripers. The boils have been lasting most of the day instead of just short windows, and some of our best fishing has happened on windy days. We’ve also been seeing better quality fish, with stripers regularly ranging from 2 to 6 pounds, and most of them are fat and full of shad. To stay on these roaming schools, I’ve adjusted my trolling program to match the conditions. When the birds are working, I’m typically running one of three lures: a ¾-ounce Cotton Cordell silver jig with a feathered treble hook, a white Fluke on a ¼-ounce Pulse jig head, or a Rapala CrushCity Mayor swimbait in shad color on a ¾-ounce Dobyns extra-long shank jig head. I’m pulling these baits on leadcore line, usually letting out three to four colors, and trolling between 2.5 and 3 miles per hour to keep the lures right in the strike zone. We even wrapped up one charter recently by throwing those Rapala CrushCity swimbaits up shallow after the stripers pushed shad into tight water and pinned them for an all-out feeding frenzy. It was a bad day to be a shad. If you want to experience this winter striper bite while it’s peaking shoot me a message