Looking for striper at Elephant Butte Lake in New Mexico

[Big Ta Tonka]

I am planning a trip down to Elephant Butte Lake this weekend to fish for some stripers with a high school friends that I haven't seen since I joined the military 11 years ago. I was wondering if someone out there would be able to give me a few pointers as to where to go, what is the best to use, and what time is the best time to go. Any information that you can provide would be greatly apprecitated. May the New Year bring you all joy.

Big Ta Tonka

[bountyhunters]

get in contact with mexico new mexico on this site ,I think thats his name ,he;s a pro on that lake ,

[karpbuster]

I will second that, talk to Brian Stangel (aka Mexico):

www.abqsportfishing.com

The lake is a little bit murky, but the weather has been outstanding lately and they are picking them up slabbing and on bait.

Good fishing.

karpbuster

[pwrfshn]

BTT,

The fishing is tough right now. (with a capital T)

Some of the best fishermen on that body of water have been fishing hard daily and getting lucky with one or two fish...a week. That is not to say that they won't turn on any day.

This last weekend we fished hard and did not produce a fish...not even a "blind squirrel" fish. The previous two weeks we were catching 2-5 a day.

There are a TON of fish in the lake right now and they are all fat. The baitfish is abundant and we have been catching (when we do) on slabs or live bait. I hate fishing live bait (even swore it off last year) and had to eat my words. Urigs are my first choice when chasing stripers.

http://www.abqsportfishing.com/tips.html This link will give you some very good specific information on what we do to catch fish.

If you want specific areas, get a map and fish the break south of Rattlesnake along the river channel. In front of McRae Canyon there are two humps that hold fish. There are a series of three sunken islands across from Horse to the east that we have had our best luck. South of the Jungles there is a repeater in the water and an island behind it with a secondary point going further back into a canyon.

There is tons of structure in the lake to fish...patience once you find fish has been our best method...we did the spot-to-spot Monday and blanked.

Good luck,

[rspahr]

As of today, the water visibility was less than a foot, but it is improving.

[welch40]

Thanks for the info NM. I was wondering if you had any cords for the GPS on those spots. Just thought it might make it a little quicker to find, if not thanks again for the information. I will let you know how it turns out.

[welch40]

I almost forgot, what depth range should I be concentrating on?

[pwrfshn]

Funny you should ask.

The only fish we can get to bite are in the 12-25 range...and some higher on slip bobbers drifted (I'm not a fan of the balloons).

There are fish being caught by one of the other guides in 40-60 FOW which we have not been able to duplicate...nor anyone else. ;)

If you stumble onto something, please let us know.

[pwrfshn]

Russell,

Did you hook up?

[rspahr]

When I saw the water clarity, I decided not to fish and use up one of my 12 fishing trips per year. I cleaned up the travel trailer, ran both engines, marked fish, and in general made sure that everything worked well. I did put one line out for 20 minutes while I was running the trolling motor, but I did not get bit. I think that there were about 10 boats fishing on the lake.

[karpbuster]

So you got a do-over?

How does that work, you have a great wife, for sure!

karpbuster

[rspahr unlogged]

Yes to both. Originally I had just planned on taking the boat down and setting up the travel trailer. It was rough on me fishing without fishing (marking fish):)

[fishhogg]

Do you guys ever troll live bait off planer boards? We do that at Lake Cumberland all the time. Mostly big shad 6" and bigger, use different weights and length of lines out to control detph. We use autopilots to keep speed down and hold our course. Just curious.

[pwrfshn]

I talk to Tim Tarter and share infromation all the time.

Tim is a great guide and is the first person I talked to about pulling bait on boards.

It doesn't seem to work as well here as urigs, but that may be changing.

We don't have the bait the Cumberland guides do so we have to improvize. Size 3 - 5 shiners are considered large and the only bigger bait is gizzard shad.

We'll be doing more of that if the urig bite stays slow.

Also forgot to mention our own Chairman of WC has done a lot for the striper community...Bruce has fished the NSBA and put me in touch with many of the better fishermen on that trail to share info with...they are still amazed that the walleye guy was able to figure out how to troll 6 urigs at a time (or more). ;)

[rspahr unlogged]

I have done that before and it works well. I have not had much luck catching shad 6" and bigger. Maybe that will change. We had a bait explosion this last spring and that is part of the reason fishing has slowed.

[welch40]

Mexico,
Well just wanted to let you know that I tried all your spots and then some along with the U-Rig and you were right about Tough with a capital T. The only thing that I guess you could have added was the capital OUGH. I fished all day Friday and little on Saturday and everyone I talked to came up empty on both days. I will try again in a couple of weeks. Hopefully they will be out there with some hungry bellies and some clearer water. Thanks for the information though.