Striper Fishing at Lake Mead

By Loren Brooks, Bountiful
    388 miles south on I-15, and then 22 miles east to Overton Beach Nevada, (approximately 7 hours from Bountiful, Utah,) there is a place where you can catch an extraordinary fish known as the "striper."
    Like salmon and steelhead, the striper is an anadromous fish that can live in the sea as well as in freshwater. It spawns each spring and early summer, and though it may not be an acrobatic fish like a tarpon or as powerful as a tuna, it is a tremendous battler.
    The striper can be caught by trolling or jigging in the waters of Lake Mead, Nevada. They can grow to more than 80 pounds and six feet long at full maturity. Most striped bass are caught in the range under 30 pounds. In the upper Muddy and Virgin River waters of Lake Mead, they are from 2 to 5 pounds each.
    The striper is a beautiful silvery fish marked with dark stripes, thick muscular body, and a big head. It's delicious and much in demand at seafood restaurants.
    On April 2, 1997, Lew Warner of Centerville, Utah, landed a nice 4 pound striper on a "noodle rod." The striper was a male spawner which struck hard enough to rotate Lew's balance in our "Terry ABF" boat and get his attention. Two more were landed in the same size bracket, and then it happened.
    Lew had switched to a short rod, with a Penn 209 reel, and was out about 3 colors. He was trolling at 1.8 mph with a 20 foot leader tied with a cinch knot of 12 pound strength. The anchovy was cut off just behind the gills and a needle was used to retrieve a short 24 inch leader tied with a # 4 treble hook. With the leader coming out the tail of the anchovy it enables you to draw and cinch up tight the treble hook inside the anchovy where the head use to be. Another trick is to take the leader and throw a half-hitch over the tail right at the tip. This insures the bait to remain in tack and not get pulled off by structure if the bait comes in contact with brush or other debris in the water. It also stays in tack during insignificant strikes by the schools of "puppies" one might encounter.
    As I said, then it happened. Lew received a tremendous strike and set the hook on an incredible fish that immediately took line from the star drag reel. There was no question about this being a mature striper which would not show himself but would be long remembered as "the big one that got away."
    Lew sounded the alarm and acknowledged this was a creature that was far bigger then any other fish he had encountered on Lake Mead. His smile changed to a frown as the jumbo snapped the leader where it was joined at the colors and got away. Maybe tomorrow.
    On 4/3/97 the weather was decent in the a.m. and we were able to return to the upper Muddy to look for schools of striper and that big "fella" that eluded us the night before.
    If you are one to keep score, we were tied at 4 a piece by 11:30 a.m. They were all very respectable stripers in the 2-3 & 4 pound range. Lew hooked and landed a 5 pounder, which really got tangled in the net. I unsnapped the leader, handed Lew another rod already baited in the usual manner, and then commenced working on getting the big fish in to the live well as quickly as possible.
    "I got another one," exclaimed Lew, and from that point on the captain was busy with the net, unsnapping, baiting leaders, and handing them to Lew who was quick to say, "I got anther one." He hooked and landed 5 more husky fat stripers in the next 20 minutes which may have caused a permanent smile after the big frown the night before. We never did get that "big one that got away" but with 13 stripers in the boat by 1:00 p.m. we headed for calmer water. The wind crept up on us in all that excitement and it was time to get off the lake. We were about 3 miles north of the dock.
    A long time friend, JOE THEISEN, will testify that a 17 foot "Terry ABF" is not the boat to be in when the wind comes up at Lake Mead.
    The wind continued for the next 3 days and prevented searching for that big one that got away.
    A new Ultra Classic by Eagle Electronics was installed during the trip at Overton and is highly recommended as a sonar unit for finding fish.
    My old Ultra Eagle Plus will remain on my 14 foot Whaler, but is outdated and no longer available. I was informed by Eagle Electronics they can no longer service this older model and gave me a 50% credit toward the new "Classic."