Colorado River Report: Stripers Boiling, Bass Biting, Cats Prowling - Outdoor Fishing Podcast Ep.

This is Artificial Lure with your Saturday, October 25th, Colorado River fishing report for the Las Vegas area. We’ve had a brisk autumn start in the desert, with air temps at dawn hovering in the mid-60s, warming up into the 80s by midafternoon. The skies are clear, barometric pressure steady, and humidity low—classic Nevada fall fishing weather. Sunrise hit at 6:55 AM this morning, and sunset drops the curtain at 5:54 PM, so you’ve got a nice long bite window, especially for those golden early and late hours fish love around here. Water flows have stabilized after heavy fall rains upstream earlier this month, as reported by the Western Water Assessment in their coverage of the flooding that hit parts of Colorado just before mid-October. Reservoirs like Lake Mead, feeding the stretch below Hoover Dam, are holding steady, with surface level measured yesterday at around 1,057.7 feet above sea level—right where we like to see it, with no sudden jumps to spook fish or wash out their normal patterns. The water clarity is decent in the main channel, slightly stained in backwaters. Now let's talk bite: Stripers are hot right now, folks. Several anglers working the Willow Beach stretch have reported early morning boils, with schools of 2-3 pound fish busting shad right on the surface. Even a couple of double-digit linesides were landed this week. The best action has been on white or chrome pencil poppers at first light, but after the sun hits the water, switch to jigging spoons or 4-inch swimbaits in shad patterns. Live shad, if you can net them, are pulling in bigger fish, but plastics are getting plenty of love. Smallmouth and largemouth bass are cruising the rocky points and inside bends. A few chunky smallies up to 3 pounds were reported caught near Cottonwood Cove and the edges of Big Bend by folks dragging watermelon tubes or working natural-colored Ned rigs. Crayfish-colored crankbaits bounced off rock faces are a top choice as the water cools. Catfish are still going strong at night, especially below the tailrace and in deeper eddies closer to Laughlin. Stink baits and cut mackerel are your tickets for some hefty channel cats and the occasional blue. Trout plants continued at Willow Beach this week, and those rainbows are biting aggressively in the chilly outflow. Drift garlic PowerBait or small gold Kastmasters just off the bottom, especially near the marina or along the accessible bank sections. Several limits were pulled again this week by shore anglers. Hot spots worth checking today: - The upper Willow Beach stretch and the cove by the Willow marina, where stripers and trout are staging together. - Powerline Cove and Telephone Cove, which have been giving up mixed bags of smallmouths and channel cats. Bait shop buzz says the best overall bets are live shad for stripers, Ned and tube jigs for bass, cut baits at night for cats, and classic gold or silver spoons for trout. That’s your Colorado River report, brought to you straight fro This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI.