Parker strip/ havasu fishing questions

[Fishingkid97]

I'm heading up to Parker Friday staying on the california side just below the Parker dam at river lodge. I got a 16 year old kid interested in fishing and want to try changing up are usual fishing routine down there. We make several trips to the house throughout the year and always fish bass for a few hours in the morning and evening from the bank with the occasional run up to fish by the dam on the ski. We usually only get a couple small Mouth and maybe 1-2 large mouth. This weekend is the kids birthday want to try something different try to get on more fish. My question is would it be worth driving up to havasu to fish the lake from float tubes for a few hours in the morning targeting large mouth and small Mouth? If so where is the closest public launch to river lodge? Or would we be better off staying on the river in Parker and fishing? We have kayaks at the house and a couple ski's to fish from. The kids not picky just wants to pull on fish. I prefer the bass fishing.Any advice would be appreciated thanks.

[chompot]

I fish both places, but I am definitely not an expert at either of them. What I can say is that the parker strip can be beyond excellent fishing for smallmouth. I have seen some absolute TANK smallmouth on that stretch of the river. The problem with that is you are fishing with current. If you get a slow flow you can drag plastics and catch a ton of smallmouth, but IMO to fish it effectively a nice strong trolling motor is required. We anchor over spots out there as well if we get of a good lay down or rock pile that we like.

Havasu is scattered with cover and we tend to move around a lot there. I would maybe recommend using the kayaks there to cover more water. I love fishing from my tube, but I am not sure I would do it there, in some areas sure, but in general I would not.

Both have great fishing. You might get a little tired, but driving a truck down the river to pick you up works too. Then you can use your float tube or kayaks and not have to kick or paddle up river.

[Team Santana]

I usually fish the lost lakes area of the river (south of parker dam / north of palos verde dam), and can get small mouth all day on tubes, crank baits, and spinner baits.
But If you really want to make a trip to havasu and have the kid pull on a fish he will never forget, hook him up with a 4-6lb test rig, fly line some corn or piece of tortilla, and pull on a 20+ lb carp for about 10 minutes. I usually revert to this method after a few drinks when I'm in havasu and it never gets old.

[Stormcrow]

You could always catch some bluegill and toss them out in the evening for some BIG cats. :-)

[Fishingkid97]

I have fished for some cats with a few smaller bait fish we have caught in the shallows along the beaches by hand at night only landed 2 cats around 3-4 pounds a piece. Tried fishing live crawdads with no luck. We have caught small mouth and large mouth bass fishing tube baits, senkos with nail waits, drop shot, crank baits. The current is what throws me off here I fish a few spots from shore where I typically do good every time. Then I try drifting up by the dam from a ski the currents is usaully ripping I think I need to use heavier weights when fishing up there not sure?

[drifter023]

Havasu where the Bill Williams comes in to Havasu would work great in your tubes or yak's for stripers but got to fish it before the sun comes up all the way. They usalley chase the shad up there into the shallows fast short action when the sun comes up it is done.