In this once great fishing spot in the desert southwest on the mighty Colorado River is now the river runs dry. After watching the salmon disappear and even smallmouth bass fishing that has become very expensive on the Columbia River, I spent the last few years fishing for largemouth bass here on the Colorado River.
It was perfect for kayak fishing. The fishing for largemouth bass was good. You didn’t get a trophy fish every day, but it’s hard to remember ever getting skunked. There were a lot of places to launch kayaks. The launch areas and nearby camping areas were free or inexpensive.
This is not a secret spot, but almost all the fishing was done by fishermen on standard bass boats. Fishing from a boat with a hundred horsepower motor is a lot different than from a human powered kayak. Here, a kayak may be the best boat for the job.
The Colorado River is running dry and a lot of the backwaters and man-made “lakes” are shallow. Some very shallow. Because the water is from the bottom of an upstream reservoir, it is unnaturally clear. The stealth, and having nothing protruding below the water surface, gives a kayak an advantage in these conditions. Big largemouth bass were caught in less than two feet of water.
Nobody, except for a few catfishermen, fished at night. Some of the best kayak fishing experiences here were fishing under a full moon, dead calm on a cool desert night and catching big fish when nobody else was even fishing.
Over the past five years, there have been big changes that have turned this area around. It has gotten much hotter and much windier. Daytime temperatures over 110°F are much more common and days with wind less than 10 mph are rare. The desert wind can go from dead calm to 20 mph or more in a very short period of time. The relatively sudden climate changes are alarming.
Wind makes this type of kayak fishing, drifting/floating with pinpoint casting, very difficult. The chances of catching fish go down and the chances of getting snagged go up. Not much fun paddling into a 10-20 mph headwind either.
The lower Colorado River here is under a lot of pressure. It is all controlled by dams, pumps and miles of concrete canals, which is where most of the Colorado River water goes. The actual Colorado River itself is reduced to a trickle with the “natural” river water level rising and falling on a daily basis. Having the water level drop to only the deepest spots, then refill it to the top in a short time is unnatural, to say the least. That has got to have a negative effect on the fish. When the demand for Colorado River water is greater than the amount of water the river can carry, the wildlife that is left is going to suffer.
In the past few years, there has been a rapid and noticeable increase in the amount of milfoil in the Colorado River waters. Milfoil is an invasive aquatic plant that grows and spreads rapidly. When milfoil appears, it kills everything in less than twenty feet of water.
Milfoil reproduces by segments, pieces break off and take root downstream. These pieces also clog equipment like dams and gates. That’s why many places where milfoil appears try to get rid of it as soon as possible. It’s likely that agricultural chemicals leeched into the river from nearby commercial growing operations enhance the rapid spread of invasive milfoil.
From what I’ve been told when I asked several people from the BLM is that the milfoil is a “naturally occurring” plant and a “hiding place for small fish”. Milfoil has killed off a small backwater where I used to catch a lot of fish in just a few years. You could see it slowly take over the lake. There is no fishing there now. This is an area that doesn’t put much stock in science, but you could see it with your own eyes.
The fishing has gone downhill and the weather is much more severe. What else could go wrong? Well, all those free or inexpensive camping areas are just about history. The “snowbird” senior citizen crowd is just about extinct, replaced by “weekend warrior” type of visitors. Far less fishermen and more off road vehicle enthusiasts. Free camping areas are gone. The Bureau of Land Management(BLM), well known for poor management, have done an exceptionally poor job here and are more than tripling user fees for a job poorly done.
We are done with kayak fishing for largemouth bass here on the Colorado River. It was a good run, but all good things come to an end and the really good stuff doesn’t last long at all. I’m not sure what’s going to be next as we move to the next chapter of the long watermanatwork.com kayak fishing story, but it will be something. Check back soon.