Tips to catch stripers and catfish while night fishing on Lake Mead

May 18, 2024

The temperatures in Mohave County the past few weeks have been brutal! Temperatures in the triple digits have been common, and pose a serious health risk for both man and beast alike.

Even at night, while striper fishing at Lake Mead, it has been uncomfortable if there isn’t a breeze. But that doesn’t mean that the fish have stopped biting. While the rising water temperatures (surface temperature up to 92 degrees) has caused the bite to slow down, anglers who get on the water at or near sundown are still catching a lot of fish.

Recently, while fishing with a couple of anglers who brought up their pontoon boat, we had one heck of a night. In five hours, Taylor Hommertzheim, Wyatt Webb and I caught 207 fish.

And here is how we did it.

Each of us used frozen anchovies that were cut up into 1- and 2-inch pieces and kept under about 5 lbs. of dry ice. I think it is critical to keep anchovies frozen, as when they thaw out, it takes just one little nibble and the bait is gone.

The lake water is very warm now, and the minute the bait hits the water, it starts to soften; but if they’re frozen, the centers will still be firm and it is much harder for the fish to take off.

I buy anchovies locally at Wal-Mart though they can also be found at Bashas.

As to dry ice, there are just three places in town that you might find it on any given day. Bashas, Smith’s and Linde Gas on Northern Avenue may have some when you are getting ready to go on a trip. I suggest you call them first to see what they have. The dry ice must be wrapped tightly in newspaper and sealed with duct tape.

If no dry ice is available, you can use block ice that you can cover with ice cream grade rock salt. It’s not the best, but will work in a pinch and it’s better than nothing.

As to terminal tackle here is how and what I rig up when fishing out of a boat over deep water.

The line on your reel is very important. It has to be fresh. Use 8-10-12- pound test mono or fluorocarbon.

You can also use braid; but it has to be very thin. I recently tried Power Pro braid, 20-pound test. It has the diameter of 6-pound test mono. Braid doesn’t stretch and you don’t have to set the hook as hard as you do with mono or fluorocarbon.

When spooled on spinning reels, it goes on without a hitch, casts effortlessly and doesn’t readily tangle.

That’s the good news. The bad news is, if braid wraps around itself or on mono or fluoro, you’re going to have a tough time getting it untangled. A good knife is always good to have around when using braid.

My preferred rig is this. I first put on a 3/16 oz. lead sliding sinker on the line. Behind the sinker I put on a large orange/red bead. Then I attach a double barrel #5 brass swivel with a Palomar knot. On the bottom of the swivel, I pinch the end of an Eagle Claw snelled # 1/0 baitholder hook and pull it through the loop to attach.

You’re going to find that sometimes, despite your best effort, both stripers and channel cats will swallow the hook. When you are trying to get the hooks out, often times the hook will break.

Rather than re-tying the entire rig, you just clip off the snell on the broken hook, and replace with a new snelled hook. Much faster and easier.

Another thing I do is to use clamp on 12-volt bench lights on the rails of my boat. I always paint the last 12 inches of my poles white, and by using LED white light bulbs in the bench lights, I can see the bites, even the tiny ones, very well.

I also am a firm believer of using large submersible lights that attract zooplankton and phytoplankton, which is the base for the fishery at Lake Mead. I call it setting up the Lake Mead buffet.

The submersible lights I use are manufactured by HydroGlow. They are 4 feet long and have over 600 bright green LED bulbs in them. They are 12-volt and don’t pull much “juice” out of your batteries. But other lights will work.

I hang them so the top end of the light is four feet under the water.

These lights will not only pull in plankton, but small minnows as well, and with that set up, here come the stripers and catfish.

I’m aware there are other ways to rig up poles when night time striper fishing. Jay Chan, who I think is the best bait striper fisherman I know, uses a jig head. However, in my years of fishing experience, this set up has worked the best for me.

Another thing, I always carry lots and lots of cubed ice on the boat. When a fish is caught, they go straight onto the ice. When a layer of fish is reached, we put ice on top of them and continue on. We never have had any bad or mushy fish. To do otherwise, to me, is wanton waste.

This is how I do it, and while I’m not saying it’s the only way to do a night time trip, I’ll just say it has worked for me for many, many years.