Approaching a new lake, tips?

[fishermanx14]

I moved from so cal out the the colorado river a few months ago. I have fished the river and some back waters and i have a basic understanding of the fishing below the damn. Since i am getting my boat out here within the next month or two i want to go up to lake Mohave. I would like to fish for every thing in here but i have no idea how to do it on such a big body of water (28,260 acres of water) :EyePop:. I know willow beach is up there a ways and they kill the striper up there, but that is quite a ways to go from where i live. My boat has a fish finder on it and i plan on going out for the first time in spring.

Should i start out with the smaller species (bluegill, crappie, trout?) and work my way up to bigger fish? Or should i just go for the big ones first and work my way down the food chain? I was kind of thinking the first day go out to just cruise around the lake with the fish finder on and get an idea of whats happening around the lake

What are some good baits/tactics to start out with on a new lake? Im not to worried about finding the crappie and bluegill as much as i am the shad , bass, stripers, etc.

[Kingfish Addict]

My relatives launch their boat out of Catherines Landing. We're not trolling pros by any means and we were going for striper, but instead I caught a decent sized catfish trolling anchovies on a dropshot in about 30-40 ft of water, maybe about 50-60 yds off the shore. Not sure if a dropshot setup is common while trolling, probably depends on the structure of the bottom. We were trying to get the feel for it, so we just trolled in and out of all the different coves. I'm not positive trout exist in Lake Mohave, and if they did, they would be hard to locate because of the sheer size of the lake. Next time I go out there, I want to try trolling rainbow trout-colored swimbaits. I guess I can't provide you with any EXPERT advice, just advice from experience.

[fishermanx14]

thanks, ya i plan on trolling some big plugs and stuff, all my swimbaits are on back ordered on TW though, i should get them around the 30th

[Natural Lefty]

It's a good thing that you'll have a boat there, Fishermanx. My wife and I visited Cottonwood Cove at Mohave a few mnths ago, and considered fishing, but found out that basically they don't allow fishing in the marina. You can fish if you hike to either side of the marina, but we ended up deciding it wasn't worth getting a permit to do that. We saw a bunch of large carp in the marina where you couldn't fish, but no other fish.

[fishermanx14]

It's a good thing that you'll have a boat there, Fishermanx. My wife and I visited Cottonwood Cove at Mohave a few mnths ago, and considered fishing, but found out that basically they don't allow fishing in the marina. You can fish if you hike to either side of the marina, but we ended up deciding it wasn't worth getting a permit to do that. We saw a bunch of large carp in the marina where you couldn't fish, but no other fish.

ya, its not a very friendly shore fisherman type place