|
~  ~
How to Fish Havasu in October
| Dear Pro Staff,
I am going to be fishing a club tournament at Lake Havasu in the month of October. I've usually done very well at the Lake during September, I get most of my fish on topwater baits in the morning. However, I catch very few fish on plastics the rest of the day. I'm not sure if I'm fishing the right color or in the right location. What are the best colors for fishing the river and/or the lake during this time of the year?
About five years ago I won club tourney at this lake as a back-seater, fishing the five-inch 136 grubs in the tules, in the Bill Williams Arm. When I've gone back in later years, as a boater, I don't do as well. Guess the shad weren't present when I was there. I love Yamamoto Baits and have been fishing them for 10 years. I usually fish the same three colors (136,177,208) depending on the time of year at all the lakes in So Cal. My confidence bait is a #208 in a 97 series on a 1/4 ounce jig fished anytime of the year on any lake. I normally fish reaction baits, with Sluggo-type baits working best for me this time of year. I'm looking forward to working the "Senkos" in the river at Havasu.
I read the article "How to Swim a Grub" in Volume 7, Number 4 and look forward to testing that theory on that lake. I also plan on ordering some "Ikas" to pitch into the tules. I truly enjoy reading your magazine, with the Return Line section being my favorite.
Richard Root |
Jerry "Bubba" Puckett says:
Check out the backwater areas in the early A.M., looking for a reaction bite. I’ve had good results in the Spring, throwing chartreuse spinnerbaits near the Bill Williams and just about anytime throwing jigs in backwaters and current breaks in the river.
Rick Clunn won one of his first major tournaments on Havasu (Red Man All-American) when he worked the river with a spinnerbait. He was working the boat up-current, retrieving the bait with the current, adjacent to the edge of the tules. Fishing that way is hard work and hard on batteries but it's in keeping with the normal order of bait movement.
Three of the top Havasu fishermen I know are flippers. One of them, Okie Vaughn, Havasu resident and long-time Ranger factory rep, just about made a living at it. He used a Gitzit, in smoke w/ red flake or one with a deep-green body w/ amber-chartreuse tails. Another favorite was a plum color. These guys flipped (and still do) the Texas rigged tube with about a 1/8th ounce sinker, on heavy line, right into the tules along the main channel and into any pocket or opening inside the first row of tules.
This method is particularly productive during the mid-day period when the bass retreat into the shade of the tules. One of the keys with the river seems to be that the bass will not typically be in the current, but will rarely be far from it. The current is their source of food so they will be in little pockets and current breaks, ready to move out and feed on anything that happens by. By the way, two of those top guys have switched to Yamamoto Craws, Ikas and Hula Grubs.
You may find it interesting to note that the 92B, the "Big Ika", was developed specifically for this Havasu-type flip bite. The longer body allows the use of a bigger hook that's better suited for this style of slug-it-out flipping. Contrasting color, two-color Hula Grubs in the larger sizes (97's and 99's) also work very well. One last note. The new color, 334, is almost a direct copy of the smoke/red flake Gitzit and is available in both Craws as well as the 97's.
I had some small success on Havasu (a long time ago) but that's not what I think you should key on. Instead, look at what beat me when I wasn't in the money. Two things kicked my butt when the bite was right (or wrong for me, actually).
First, if anything good was happening in the main channel area of the river, the flippers usually worked me over by getting kicker fish that I wasn't getting – I was good at limit fishing but those big flip fish killed me. To succeed at this you've got to "daub" your bait into about a bazillion little pockets and breaks, and flipping is the most efficient way to do that. I pitched when I should have been flippin’.
Second, 1/8th ounce darter heads, 6lb line and 4"-6" worms worked on outside flats and points for suspended fish in 20'-30' of water. That 1/8th ounce, outside stuff just about drove me crazy. This is an area where the Senko has some real possibilities. I’d suggest a 9 or 9S-series Senko, a 1/0 to 3/0 Sugoi hook, long casts and a slack-line presentation, for starters. I hope some of this will prove to be of help and thanks, particularly for the comment on the Return Line - it's my favorite part too!
~ ~ |
