Kayak Fishing on the Colorado River

We’ve had a pretty good run of favorable weather and good kayak fishing on the Colorado River for the past few weeks, but the winter desert wind has made it’s appearance with a week of 15-20 mph wind nearly every day with at least another week of strong winds in the forecast. With the COVID pandemic worsening, we are not anxious to go into town at all, so we are hanging out in the desert until the wind dies down, catching up on computer work and going for a few bike rides.

Before the wind came up, we did manage to sneak out before the wind picked up, usually in the late morning, and get a bit more of some good kayak fishing for largemouth bass. The fishing at night as been as good as during the day. It’s too bad it’s windy because we are missing a week or more of night fishing with the full moon. I didn’t catch any big fish, but did catch a few decent fish before sunrise.

Colorado River largemouth bass caught by watermanatwork.com kayak fisherman Ron Barbish

By the time the sun began to rise in the eastern desert hills, I had already caught a few nice largemouth bass on a day where the wind was predicted to be marginal for kayak fishing. We took a gamble, especially since the fishing had been so good, and it paid off.

Kayak fishing on the Colorado River before sunrise

Largemouth bass are not the only fish in the Colorado River. This aggressive sunfish hit a plastic worm that’s only a couple inches smaller than him.

An aggressive Colorado River sunfish caught by watermanatwork.com kayak fisherman Ron Barbish

The Colorado River fish live in these backwater patches of reeds and bushes. The reeds float on top of the water, providing plenty of cover for the fish. We can only hope to catch the fish at the edges of these reeds. A kayak can get into these patches of reeds, but the water is shallow and the fish are easily spooked.

Backwater reeds in the Colorado River provide fish with cover

Conditions were good until the wind picked up. The fishing seemed to be tapering off somewhat, but we still caught a few nice, hard fighting largemouth bass.

Kayak fishing for largemouth bass on the Colorado River with watermanatwork.com

All we can do now is look at the photos and videos from a few weeks of great kayak fishing on the Colorado River and hope the windy conditions go away quickly so we can get back out there.

Sunrise over the Colorado River 11-23-20

We have all our camera gear back online again and we are ready to go so check back soon for more kayak fishing action!

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