It’s been a long, hot summer of no kayak fishing but we are back on the water fishing for largemouth bass on the Colorado River. Back in the day, we would be fishing for salmon and steelhead on the Columbia River, but that’s just a memory now. From everything I heard, the salmon fishing has been tough. Not many fish, plenty of desperate salmon fishermen, expensive gasoline and pay to park/launch nearly everywhere now. A sad story all the way around.
That’s another world from where we are sweltering under the relentless desert southwest sun while we are kayak fishing for largemouth bass. It has been a summer of record heat. Hopefully, the 100°F daytime temps are just about over. Last year was cooler and windier than average, record heat this summer, who knows what’s coming next?
With good kayak fishing conditions upon arrival in the desert, we got the fishing gear together and hurried out on the river check out the situation. Still an hour before sunrise, it was about 75°. I could tell the water level was low while launching the kayak. There was some milfoil on the surface, hard to tell how much in the dark.
With the conditions a bit on the tough side, I was stoked to catch a really nice bass for the first fish of the season.
Shortly after releasing the first largemouth bass of the year, the sun began to rise over the low desert hills and the temperature quickly began to climb.
In the morning sun, we could see that the river was full of milfoil. Not all of the river, just the good fishing spots.
We caught a few more small bass, but with the milfoil, low water and a 100° day coming up, we paddled back to the launch before it got too hot.
Since the conditions on this section of the river were not great, we decided to look at another spot. We don’t fish here that much, but it’s an easy launch and paddle, ideal for the first kayak trips of the season.
We started off early due to wind and heat coming in the late morning. We didn’t get any bites for the first hour of fishing. I was wondering if we made the right call when, just before sunrise, I got a hookup with a nice largemouth bass.
This was the biggest bass I’d ever caught in this section of the river, so our luck turned around pretty quickly.
We caught several smaller bass and had some short hits just before sunrise as the temperature once again headed past the 100° mark.
The kayak fishing action continued through the morning. Mostly smaller fish with a couple nicer ones, all good fighters.
The water level in this part of the river is down as well, the “bathtub ring” and cracking river mud exposed in the blazing desert sun.
The fishing remained good, plenty of kayak fishing action.
As the temperature again hit 100°, after seven hours of paddling and fishing, we were baked and wearily paddled back to the launch beach.
We beached the kayaks at a spot that is usually knee to waist deep water.
A good day and a really good day to start the fishing season, can’t complain about that. We are back in business here on the Colorado River so check back soon for more kayak fishing action.