Capt Kennes Fishing Charter Lake Havasu

Summer has officially settled into Lake Havasu. Temperatures have been hot, the wind has been a regular challenge, and water temperatures are now well into the 80's and still climbing. I've been extremely busy with both party charters and fishing charters, but I finally found a moment to sit down and put together a fishing report. With the spawn now behind us for all of our major species, it's time to start focusing on post-spawn patterns. Largemouth & Smallmouth Bass Soft Plastic Pattern Post-spawn bass are beginning to slide off the banks and set up around secondary points, rock transitions, submerged brush, and offshore structure. One of my favorite techniques right now is a dropshot or Texas-rigged soft plastic. Four to six-inch Roboworms, Senkos, and small creature baits have been producing well. Target the areas around Copper Canyon, Thompson Bay, the points around California Bay, and rocky structure near Steamboat Cove. Focus on depths from 15-30 feet and pay close attention to isolated brush piles and rock piles. Early mornings and late evenings have been especially productive. Crankbait Pattern For anglers looking to cover water, medium-diving crankbaits have been excellent. Shad and crawfish patterns fished along chunk rock banks, tapering points, and ledges have been producing both largemouth and smallmouth. Some of my favorite areas include the points around the north basin, the mouth of Castle Rock Bay, and rocky banks between Site Six and Copper Canyon. Deflecting a crankbait off rock and keeping it in the 10-20 foot range has been triggering reaction bites from bass that are feeding up after the spawn. Sunfish I am still catching quality sunfish, but the bigger ones have moved deeper and are holding tight to structure that provides shade and cover. I am finding plenty of medium and smaller fish tucked up in the reeds. If you're fishing the reeds on bright bluebird days, expect the fish to be buried tight against the cover. When we get a little cloud cover, they seem much more willing to venture out and feed. A dropshot rig with a fairly heavy weight to maintain bottom contact, paired with a small Aberdeen hook tipped with a chunk of nightcrawler, has been getting the job done consistently. Striped Bass This post-spawn striped bass bite has been a little funky in my opinion. Some days have been fantastic and other days we've had to work hard for just a few fish. I've still been catching quality stripers in the 2-5 pound range by trolling before sunrise with the newer 6.5" Live Target swimbaits at around 2.5 mph using leadcore line. I've been seeing massive schools of 1-2 pound fish boiling all over the lake, especially in the north basin just north of Windsor State Park. Topwater poppers have had some success, but 3.5" white swimbaits have definitely been the ticket for getting those schooling fish to commit. Of course, I've continued to rely on the tried-and-true white fluke on a Pulse Jig head while trolling, and it continues to produce fish. However, lately I've been dealing with a lot of short strikes, which tells me the fish are feeding but aren't fully committed. Catfish Both flathead and channel catfish are definitely in their post-spawn phase, and I expect this bite to only continue improving. We've had some incredible nights chasing these fish with both live and cut bait. Some nights have been absolutely nonstop with runs, while others have been a little slower, but overall the bite has been trending upward. With the next full moon arriving on June 29th, I fully expect the night bite to continue ramping up.

Water temperatures have been holding in the high 50s, bumping up into the low 60s during the afternoons, especially in the shallow back coves. Sunrise is now around 7:15 AM with sunset stretching to about 6:30 PM, so we’re finally gaining daylight. We’ve had several windy days and a wet weather system push through recently, which caused some unstable air and water temperatures, but looking ahead at the forecast, things appear to be trending warmer and more consistent. With longer days, a warming pattern, and the next full moon approaching on March 3rd, we should start to see more fish pushing shallow. Bass and redear are beginning to show signs of movement, although the redear bite hasn’t fully turned on yet. I personally haven’t dedicated a lot of time to hunting them down just yet, but I have received reports of anglers finding redear in the 5–10 foot range around rocky points. That bite should improve quickly as temperatures stabilize. Striped bass fishing has been decent overall, especially on the south end of the lake, where quality fish have been coming primarily on live shad. The north end has been tougher in my opinion, but live shad has still been the key to getting bites when fish are present. Trolling for stripers is still producing, but it’s been inconsistent and very dependent on timing and conditions. I’ve shifted gears a bit recently and started targeting smallmouth and largemouth bass in roughly 30 feet of water using live shad, and that approach has been producing solid results. We’ve been seeing quality fish hitting the deck consistently, which has been a fun change of pace while waiting for other seasonal bites to turn on. I plan to give this warming weather pattern another week or two to fully settle in, and then I’ll start doing some catfish scouting trips to get ready for flathead season. Once I’m confident the bite is on, I’ll be opening up our trophy flathead trips again.

Lake Havasu continues to fish like winter, with water temperatures holding steady in the mid-50s and days slowly starting to get longer. While conditions haven’t changed drastically temperature-wise, the biggest shift over the last few weeks has been in how we’re targeting stripers. We’ve started throwing the cast net for shad and incorporating live bait into the program, which has made a big difference on certain days. My live shad setup has been simple and effective: 30 lb braid to a 24-inch 15 lb fluorocarbon leader, rigged with a small circle hook and as little weight as possible depending on the depth the fish are holding. Boils are still popping up periodically, and when they do, it’s been game on. During those moments, I’m still throwing Rapala CrushCity swimbaits on a 1 oz jig head. In several of the same coves where stripers have pushed shad shallow, we’ve also caught a surprising number of both smallmouth and largemouth bass mixed in with the stripers, all feeding aggressively on the same baitfish. Fishing over this stretch has been a true mix of highs and lows. The good days have been unforgettable, with fast action and aggressive fish that make winter fishing worth every cold morning. On the flip side, the tough days have been grind-it-out kind of days. Even when you’re marking shad and stripers stacked together, it doesn’t always mean the bite is on, which is just part of winter fishing on Havasu. I only have a few open dates left for February