Winter Wonders on Lake Mead: Stripers, Smallies, and Cats Bite in the Desert cover art

Winter Wonders on Lake Mead: Stripers, Smallies, and Cats Bite in the Desert

Winter Wonders on Lake Mead: Stripers, Smallies, and Cats Bite in the Desert

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 This is Artificial Lure with your Lake Mead fishing report.

We don’t have tides out here in the desert, so you can forget the tide chart and focus on light, wind, and water temps. Sunrise comes in right around 7 AM with sunset near 4:35 PM, giving us a short winter window where that low light really matters. Mornings are cool and clear, afternoons mild, with light north to northeast breeze most of the day. According to recent National Park Service updates, lake level is holding in the low 1060s, so ramps at Hemenway, Callville, Temple Bar and South Cove remain usable, but expect low-water structure and long walks to the shoreline.

Fishing pressure’s light and the bite is classic early-winter Mead. Stripers are schooling up off deeper points and breaks in 40–80 feet, especially near Hemenway, Boulder Basin, and out toward the narrows. Recent reports from local boaters and marina chatter have most of the catching coming on smaller schoolie stripers with a few better fish mixed in, plus some bonus catfish and the odd largemouth off rocky shelves.

Best producers this week have been:
- For stripers: 1–2 oz jigging spoons in shad or chrome, white bucktail jigs, and ice jigs worked vertical once you mark bait. Trolling deep-diving shad cranks or umbrella rigs along the old river channel edges is also turning numbers.
- For largemouth and smallmouth: Green pumpkin or watermelon drop-shots, 3–4" finesse worms, and small football jigs dragged slow on gravel and chunk rock in 15–30 feet. On calm, sunny afternoons, a suspending jerkbait over points can surprise you.
- For catfish: Cut anchovy, sardine, or chicken liver on basic Carolina rigs in 20–40 feet around marinas and coves at night or very early.

If you’re bank fishing, Hemenway Harbor fishing pier and the Boulder Beach area near the marina are solid bets. Outdoorithm’s Boulder Beach campground notes easy access to the water and confirms that fishing is available near the Hemenway Harbor pier, and that lines up with what locals have been seeing: steady action on smaller stripers and cats soaking cut bait off the bottom.

Two hotspots to circle today:
- **Hemenway / Boulder Basin:** Watch for birds working over open water; when they start diving, run-and-gun to the school and drop spoons or toss small swimbaits. Early and late, work the rocky points with drop-shots for smallmouth.
- **South Cove / Temple Bar side:** Snoflo’s South Cove report highlights stripers, largemouth, catfish, and sunfish in this reach of the river; slow-roll Alabama rigs or deep cranks along the river channel swings, then switch to spoons once you mark tight bait balls.

Overall activity is moderate but consistent if you slow down and fish vertically. Electronics are key: find the bait in that 40–80 foot range and stay on top of it. Downsizing line to 8–12 lb fluoro and keeping presentations subtle has been making a difference in this clear winter water.

That’s it for today from Lake Mead. Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss the next report.

This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.

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This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI
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