Lake Mead Midday Update – Day 2
Mead is fishing better (or maybe worse) than on day one
It’s hard to get a read on how well Lake Mead is fishing on day two of the Costa FLW Series Western Division opener presented by Ranger Boats. By some accounts, calmer conditions and cloudy skies have made the bite pick up in some key areas of the lake. On the other hand, the Overton Arm area is much slower today than it was on Thursday. It's an area of the lake that produced for many anglers atop the day one leaderboard.
Perhaps there are some anglers there who are catching them and we haven’t been around to see it, but it certainly seems like slow going at that end of the lake. If afternoon winds pick up, though, Overton could once again be the deal later today. It may also depend on boat pressure, of which there is plenty up there. Most of those boats are rotating in and out of cuts featuring old road beds or cypress trees.
Meanwhile, there’s plenty of boat pressure in Las Vegas Wash, as well, but anglers seem to be having better luck in the stained-water channel that’s littered with submerged brush and some tulies. Craig Miller of Las Vegas (7 pounds, 4 ounces on day one) nearly matched his total from Thursday’s weigh-in with one fish – a 6-pounder he found in a cut in the Wash. He followed that up with a small keeper just a few minutes later.
Several other anglers in that area have also reported some small catches, and it’s not really all that surprising after having seen the life in that section of the lake. There’s a lot more bait moving up shallow than we’ve seen so far this week, and with bait comes bass.
That’s going to be one of the determining factors for the remainder of this tournament. As the water continues to warm (it’s in the mid- to upper 50s right now), both bait and bass are going to continue moving up shallow. If enough bass move up to prepare to spawn, productive areas will become more productive and potentially cycle through new fish throughout the next couple days.
As was the case yesterday, we’re seeing a ton of different tactics in play among the tournament field. Spinning rods with a drop-shot or Senko are prevalent, but plenty of anglers have opted for casting tackle with spinnerbaits, ChatterBaits, jerkbaits and jigs tied on. A good portion of the top of the leaderboard got its fish on reaction baits yesterday. That looks to be the case again today.
Compared to Thursday, the wind on day two is practically nonexistent, and skies are overcast enough to create drastic pattern changes from day one. As Joe Uribe Jr. explained earlier this morning as he was finessing his way through some cuts near takeoff, the sun was pushing some fish up shallow yesterday, and he hasn’t been seeing the same thing yet today.
It took Brett Leber 15-12 to climb to the top of the leaderboard on day one. We might see a few anglers top that mark today, though we might also see a few more anglers blank than was the case yesterday. It’s just one of those unusual days on Lake Mead.
Weigh-in begins at 2:30 p.m. ET. Stay tuned to see how the 216-angler field did on day two on Lake Mead.