The smallies at Havasu finally came in. Daryl and I hit it for 3 days and had an awesome trip sight fishing to bedded smallies averaging over 2 lbs. Saturday was really windy and we struggled finding the bass with the chop on the water. We managed to find quite a few beds but many were empty and most that had fish on them scattered as soon as we approached even fairly close. We finally figured out to cast to the bed with an egg sucking longtail simi and strip it through. We landed 5 the first day using that tactic, all in the 2-3 lb range.
The wind shortened our day but we felt good just getting the fish we did. Next am the water was much calmer and we were able to see beds from a much farther distance. We also found more fish that were locked on the beds. This allowed us to fish jig type flies right in the beds and watch them react to it….very exciting to say the least. They also didn’t want the simis that day and were eating chartreuse, whether it was a bed fish fly that I make or an Ultra foxy stripped though. Chartreuse was definitely the color of the day. Daryl banged the big fish of the trip, a fat egg laden 4 lb’r on the jig fly.
And I caught a 3 lb’r in the same cove on the same fly.
We ended up with 12 Sunday, with the average smallie going 2 1/2 lbs. Monday am greeted us with more of the same wind as Saturday so we made it a short day and headed home after we caught 4 more.
It was great to fianlly find some smallies. I have been hitting it since December. It was worth the wait and it’s just starting. The smallies will be coming in all month and the largemouth will starting soon as well. Havasu is so clear that it is especially good for this kind of fishing. Just pray for calm days!