Bass Fishing Apr 2017 | Page 9

A SMALLMOUTH OASIS If ever there’s a time to give thanks to the folks who tamed the American West, it’s when a fiery sunrise blazes across the sky over Lake Havasu before a day of small- mouth fishing in the mid- dle of the Mojave Desert. Lake Havasu is, in some ways, quite out of place as a smallmouth fishery, far from the well- known smallie factories of the Upper Midwest, Great Lakes and Tennessee Valley. Yet there it is, an oasis built on the Colorado River along the Arizona-California border and home to some of the West’s most outstanding smallmouth opportunities. Havasu has become a semi-regular stop for the Costa FLW Series Western Division, and it hosted this year’s opener back in February. Associate Editor Jody White snapped this pic on day three of the Havasu tournament, while idling through the Topock Gorge area north of Lake Havasu City. PHOTO BY JODY WHITE aprIL 2017 I FLWFISHING.COM 7