Artificial Lure here with your Lake Mead fishing rundown, straight from the desert shoreline to your speakers.
Lake Mead is sitting low but stable, and that’s kept the bite pretty predictable for early December. Mornings start off chilly and calm, with light winds and clear skies, then pick up breeze and a little chop in the afternoon. Figure sunrise around the mid‑6 o’clock hour and sunset late in the 4 o’clock range, so your prime windows are first light until the sun gets up over the basin and then that last 90 minutes of daylight when the shadows run long against the canyon walls.
No real tide out here in the desert, but water level changes from dam operations can nudge fish shallower or deeper over the day, so pay attention to new bathtub rings on the rocks and fresh weed lines. When the lake is dropping, fish pull off the bank to the first break; when it’s steady, they’ll nose up to chunk rock and points and graze on shad right against the edge.
Striper action has been the headline lately, with schoolie fish running from about 2 to 6 pounds and some bigger ones mixed in for the early risers. The most consistent pattern has been chasing birds and graphing bait balls in 40 to 80 feet, then dropping spoons or small swimbaits right through the marks. Anglers working deeper flats are putting good numbers in the boat by vertical‑jigging slab spoons and heavy blade baits once the sun gets higher.
Largemouth and smallmouth are more of a grind but worth it if you slow down and fish methodically. You’re looking at fewer bites, but many of them are solid keepers, especially around steeper rocky structure and submerged points. Think classic winter spots: transitions from chunk rock to gravel, the edges of old river channels, and any wood that still has some depth under it.
Best producers on the artificial side have been:
- 3 to 4 inch shad‑style swimbaits on 1/4 to 1/2 oz heads, slow‑rolling through suspended fish.
- Silver and white jigging spoons, worked with short, sharp hops just off the bottom or through schools.
- Medium diving crankbaits and jerkbaits in ghost shad or craw colors for bass along rocky points and ledges.
- Football jigs with green pumpkin trailers crawled painfully slow on the bottom for smallmouth.
For bait, it’s hard to beat:
- Cut anchovies or sardines on dropper loops for stripers, especially near the dam and main‑lake basins.
- Live shad when you can net them at first light, fished on downlines or free‑lined around boils and steep breaks.
- Nightcrawlers or small pieces of shrimp on light line for a mixed bag of catfish and the occasional bonus bass.
A couple of local hot spots to circle on the map: down by Hoover Dam and the Boulder Basin has been a striper factory, especially around the deeper humps and the intake tower area when the current is moving. Up‑lake, the Overton Arm and the points around Temple Bar have been steady for both stripers and smallmouth when the wind stacks bait on the windward side. If you want to stay closer to ramps, the Boulder Beach area and Hemenway can kick out fish all day if you’re willing to follow the bait with your electronics.
Overall, expect fewer but better quality bites in the middle of the day and more numbers right at dawn and dusk, especially if you can stick with it through the chill and trust your graph. Keep your presentations slow, natural, and close to the bait, and Lake Mead will still treat you right, even in low water and winter light.
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This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI
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