Havasu….Incredible Havasu

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I decided to hit Havasu this past week.  The bass/striper bug has been pulling on me for awhile now.  I was waiting for delivery of a rod repair on Tuesday and UPS is always late at my place so I planned to hit the road early Wed am and be at Havasu at first light.  Rod showed up a day early so I hit the road Tuesday morning with the snow just starting to fall at my place.  By the time I hit Snowflake it was pretty black in my rear view mirror.  Didn’t mind that at all.  They were calling for some wind at the lake but I went any way because it’s about a 50/50 chance they’ll be right.  This time they were.   The only water I could fish was at Site Six because it is shielded from North winds.  The past couple years it hasn’t been that good because most of the shad have been down south at the Bill Williams.  I went south just to check and it was unfishable…rollers coming in that you could surf.  The water at Site Six was beautiful as usual and I caught about a dozen smaller stripers (1-1.5 lbs) with a couple 2.5 lbr’s in the mix and a decent lmb of about 3.5 lbs.  Surprising because there were no shad to be found there.  No idea what the fish were doing in there except maybe looking for a fly to eat…voila!

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Next day was calm in the morning so I hit the south end and found more shad and birds than I have ever seen there.  It looked like the ocean.  I have been hitting Havasu for 12 years now and a good day for me is 4-5 fish, usually lmb’s with the odd striper.  My fish finder lit up with huge balls of shad and lotttts of big fish.  At first I thought it was new structure they had placed as I am not really that good on electronics but I went through one of the balls and actually snagged a 5″ shad.

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I fished for about 4 hours and never hooked up.  Fishing is MADDENING at times. I was fishing 5″ Helmet Heads in shad colors and maybe should have downsized.  The wind got me about 11 so I went and ate and then hit the river for the rest of the afternoon.  Blanked there too…..in some of the most gorgeous water I’ve fished?  At this point I’m ready to pack it in, take the long way home and hit the valley lakes.  I called Joe and told him the bad news as he was planning to join me Friday evening.  Plan was for him to work til noon anyway so I hit the Bill Williams again Friday morning before I was to leave for the valley…..and the birds were there again and the fish wanted to play.  Turns out there are tons of smallish stripers this year at Havasu…the 1 lb variety.  This is why I was getting short struck so much earlier.  I’m not much for counting fish but I must have landed about 40-50 of them with several 2.5 to 4 lbr’s in the mix.  What a difference a day makes.  I still had a lot of short strikes but most of these fish were inhaling the fly.

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I called Joe and told him change of plans….get over here.  Saturday am the gulls were there again and so were the fish.  We didn’t catch as many as the day before but landed at least 35 between us and some bigger fish came in as well.

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The big girl (at the top) went 12 lbs.  The pic doesn’t do her justice, really as she was incredibly fat.  I also had one just take me for everything….three strong runs and bam…she was gone.  Next morning we hit it and the birds weren’t around like the previous days.  The bite wasn’t as good either.  We fished til 11 and had a dozen between us…all the 1 lb variety.  I think the shad are going to be there for a long time as this is where they have been the past three seasons now so fishing should stay strong.  You just have to be there at the right time when the big ones want to play…..and I plan to be there.