After months of relentless desert wind that prevented any kayak fishing, the watermanatwork.com kayak fishing crew is back on the water. Hard to believe this is the first kayak fishing trip of the 2023 fishing season. In the past few desert fishing seasons, we have seen dramatic weather changes that have had a major impact on fishing.
The critically low water Colorado River levels that killed the fishing earlier have stabilized somewhat after the extreme winter storms that pummelled the west coast restored snow and water to the dwindling Colorado River system. The major issue has been the wind. The desert is not a calm place, but there has been significantly more wind here the past few years, especially this year. Periods of calm or low wind are few and far between. Wind events of 25 mph or higher are more frequent and more prolonged.
With the kayak fishing season coming to an end with hardly anything to show for it, we have to grab every opportunity to get out on the water. The wind can go from dead calm to 20 mph in thirty minutes so you can’t just hope for the best.
We finally got out on the water at 0400 on the last day of March. It wasn’t calm, but less than 5 mph, which is about as good as we can hope for. The water level in this part of the river was as high as it had been for a few years. The moon had just set as we paddled out under starlight, which is enough to see where you’re going. After sitting for months, all the gear was working and before long the first largemouth bass of the 2023 kayak fishing season was in the boat.
The fishing overall was pretty good. I caught a couple nice fish, similar to the one in the photo above and about a half dozen smaller fish, so plenty of kayak fishing action. The wind would be coming up about 0900, but for a couple hours it was the perfect kayak fishing spot again.
We are hoping the wind gives us another shot tomorrow. It was too windy this morning, that’s why this blog post is LIVE from the Sonoran Desert, using my Android phone and Bluetooth keyboard.
Tomorrow morning is the last chance for more kayaking fishing before another week of non-stop wind. Anybody who thinks climate change is not happening needs to step outside. Stay tuned to see what the Kayak Fishing Gods have in store.