After a long absence, we finally have great kayak fishing for largemouth bass on the Colorado River. Every day of great fishing is important now because the trend is defintely less days like this. We’ve really been lucky here because this place is not known for its great bass fishing. It’s been a poor winter fishing season in the desert southwest. It’s not a matter of if the fishing was good or bad, there was no fishing at all for months. Our time here is running out and we haven’t been fishing much at all. Even though the fishing hasn’t been very good, we were out there before the crack of da ..read more

Extreme weather and unfavorable water conditions are making for tough kayak fishing on the Colorado River. After a good, but very late start to fishing in 2024, both the weather and fishing conditions have declined. At the time of this post, it is extremely windy, 15-30 mph, with rain forecast for the next couple days, at least. The wind has increased dramatically here in the past few years and had a major negative effect on the kayak fishing. Fishermen are an optimistic lot and we’re no different. Whenever the conditions permit, we are out there fishing. A couple calm mornings in the forecast ..read more

We are running out of time on location here so it’s all out kayak fishing time on the lower Colorado River. The fishing conditions have not been favorable for months and, as far as sportfishing goes, the trend is down. Alarmingly down. Now, each kayak fishing trip here is valuable because there is a real chance that they will be the last ones. We’ve personally witnessed the salmon disappear on the Columbia River, to see the largemouth bass gone from this part of the Colorado River is way less of a stretch. Due to the extremely cold water and the desert wind that increases in duration and inten ..read more

Go to All Out Kayak Fishing Part 1 After a day with mixed results, we were hoping a change of location would bring a change of fortune. Normally, we would not fish here because other spots are better, but the conditions are not normal. We really didn’t know what to expect. Unlike the previous spot, the water level here was extremely high. The water level was up into the foliage of waterfront trees. The fishing started off slow. The water temperature was 58°F, which is still pretty cold for good bass fishing. The fishing wasn’t exactly “on fire”, but we managed to get a fish here and there ..read more

Low Colorado River water level means no fishing as conditions deteriorate. Despite all the recent El Nino influenced rain and snow, the water levels of small lakes and backwaters connected to the river are extremely low. The Colorado River is controlled by a series of man made dams and network of canals. By the time any water reaches the lower Colorado, there’s not much left. The exploding populations of southwest American cities are using more water than there is in the river. Since the snow is still unmelted in the mountains and nearly all the recent rain has run off into the ocean, the wa ..read more

There has been some great kayak fishing for largemouth bass in the desert southwest and photos from over the years have been posted on the watermanatwork.com website. Click HERE or on the photo below to go the the Desert Southwest Kayak Fishing Photos page Before you fire up the bass boat and head to one of the locations in the photos, notice that most of the photos are at least five years old. The man made lower Colorado River environment changes constantly and the biggest changes are happening now. The photos are not how kayak fishing for bass on the Colorado River IS, it’s how it WAS. Enjo ..read more

After months of persistent desert wind conditions that prevented us from fishing one of our favorite spots on the Colorado River, the wind took a break for one day, and we headed out early in the morning. This place has a very sketchy launch, especially in the dark, and it is a couple miles of paddling in the dark to the fishing spot. There was enough light from the crescent moon and stars to see the water level in this section of river was about as high as it gets. The bass usually start biting as the sun rises here, but this day there was no action at all. Conditions were perfect, what was ..read more

As winter starts to set in for most of North America with snow and rain, we are fortunate enough to be kayak fishing for largemouth bass on the Colorado River in the desert southwest. It doesn’t snow, or even rain very much here, but it does get cold. It’s in the low 40’s Fahrenheit at night fairly regularly and I’ve had ice on the windshield a couple times. Early morning fishing trips can be cold, but almost never wet. With the cooler desert weather and winter sun lower in the sky, the cold water released from the bottom of upstream reservoirs behind large Colorado River dams does not warm as ..read more

Changes in location and weather turned our luck around and we had a few days of great kayak fishing. It has been extremely windy in the desert southwest, and on top of that, aquatic vegetation has all but killed off one of our favorite kayak fishing spots. We can’t do much about the wind, but we had to find somewhere else to go fishing. When the relentless wind stopped for three straight days, we went to a spot that doesn’t get a lot of action, but our choices are limited. This is the desert after all. It turned out to be a good call because we had three straight days of calm wind and good fis ..read more

Dodging the desert wind for a single morning of kayak fishing is all there is to report on from the super windy desert southwest. It was great to have a calm morning in the midst of week long winds of 15-30 mph, even if it only lasted a few hours. We were thankful for a few hours to go kayak fishing, but the fishing was not very good. As the sun rose and it got a bit lighter, we could see that the milfoil, an aquatic plant, had taken over just about every part of the lake. Thick forests of milfoil covered the bottom of the shallow backwater and dead, decaying milfoil coated the reeds that lin ..read more