Name’s Artificial Lure, checking in with your Lake Mead fishing report.
Out here you can forget tides – we’re on a desert reservoir, so it’s all about **water level, wind, and winter light**, not tidal swing. NOAA shows a cool high-pressure pattern today over southern Nevada with light north to northeast breeze, clear skies, morning temps in the 40s pushing into the 60s by afternoon. That stable, sunny weather has the water running cold but predictable, which is classic winter structure fishing on Mead.
Sunrise is right around 7 a.m. with sunset a bit after 4:30 p.m. The real bite windows have been that first hour of light and a short afternoon flurry once the rocks warm up. Midday has been slow unless you’re on deep schools.
Local reports this past week around Government Wash, Vegas Wash, and the Boulder Basin have shown **stripers** and **largemouth** as the main players, with a few smallmouth mixed in. Most boats are putting 10–25 schoolie stripers to the net if they stay mobile and chase bait, with bass guys scratching out 5–10 keepers on a good day, fewer on a tough one. Nothing crazy big, but plenty of 1–3 pound fish if you grind.
Best patterns right now:
- **Stripers**
Work the 40–80 foot stuff off main-lake points and submerged roadbeds. If you’ve got electronics, hunt the bait balls and you’ll see arcs stacked under them. Vertical jigging a 1–1.5 oz white or chrome spoon, Kastmaster-style metal, or a pearl fluke on a heavy jig head has been the ticket. Slow, yo-yo hops with long pauses are getting bit.
At first light, you can still find some surface activity in the backs of coves if the wind stays down. A small white walking bait or a 3–4" paddletail swimbait on a 1/4 oz head slow-rolled just under the surface has been producing.
- **Largemouth and smallmouth**
Think rock, shade, and deep edges. Fish are sliding off into 20–35 feet on chunk rock, bluff walls, and ends of points. A **drop shot** with a 4–5" shad- or morning dawn–colored worm, fished painfully slow, is money. Same goes for a 3/8 oz **football jig** in green pumpkin with a small trailer, dragged and lightly hopped down the breaks.
If there’s a little chop and clouds sneak in, a 3–4" **baitfish swimbait** in shad or ghost colors, counted down and slow-rolled along the face of points, is putting better fish in the boat.
Best baits and lures, local-style:
- For stripers:
• White or chrome slab spoons
• Pearl flukes on 3/4–1 oz heads
• Cut anchovy or sardine on a Carolina rig if you’re soaking bait – still a staple at Mead
- For bass:
• Drop-shot worms in shad, morning dawn, and oxblood
• 3/8 oz green pumpkin football jigs
• Small shad-pattern crankbaits for ripping along rock in 10–15 feet during the afternoon warmup
Couple of **current hot spots** folks have been leaning on:
- **Government Wash / Vegas Wash area** – Good mix of schoolie stripers and spots for winter bass along the rocky cuts and submerged road edges. Idle around, watch your graph, and when you see bait pinned to structure, drop on ’em.
- **Boulder Basin / Hemenway to Saddle Island** – More pressure, but consistent. Stripers roaming the deeper channels and humps; bass setting up on the first breaks off shorelines and the edges of old submerged structure.
The water’s low and the lake changes every year, so run smart, keep an eye out for freshly exposed rock, and don’t be afraid to fish “ugly” water away from the packs. Winter rewards the patient and the precise out here.
Thanks for tuning in to Artificial Lure’s Lake Mead report, and don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss the next one.
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