I'm working about 20 minutes away. How is the fishing out here? How about fishing below the lake in the river. Looks amazing

always wanted to try it out.......blackjack tables always got in my way though.

I'd rather blow my money on a kayak and smallmouth rather than the casinos. I'm sure i'll end up on the strip once or twice this summer though

I always win money

Don't go there with your wife, girlfriend or any other significant other you want to remain friends with! It's that good.

Brown and purple jigs with a yamamoto baby craw plastic trailer.
Topwaters bone or clear
small jerkbaits
Dropshot 4 inch purple plastics

Obviously some days are better than others but fish secondary points and the backs of brushy coves early with topwaters and jigs.

Mead has some decent smallie fishing but for a great smallie lake take a weekend and go down to Lake Havasu. Have fun. lake Mead is fishing better than it has in years.

what about in the river below mead?

Willow Beach Marina below Hoover Dam offers boat rentals. The striper fishing is the main draw now a days. But the rainbow trout fishing is still awesome. The US Fish & Wildlife operates one of the largest fish hatcheries in the west at the same location. Every friday they release trout and people will line up to try and catch them so I would stay away on Friday mornings. If you want you want to try bank fishing for trout go right at dark and fish the rocks just south of the boat ramp with a meal worm behind some power bait. Use a lindy rig slip sinker so the power bait will float up off the bottom. If you have access to or decide to rent a boat, trolling very large A/C plugs in trout patterns from the #52 to #56mi markers is the best way to catch huge stripers. 15 to 35lbs are pretty common. Also running down river towards Lake Mohave will produce some good striper spots as well. If you run up river from Willow Beach be careful and stick to the parts of the river that have ripple and current. The smooth areas are the shallow areas and you WILL hit bottom if your not careful. Even if you don't get a chance to fish it the Black Canyon of the Colorado along that stretch is absolutely amazing and you owe it to yourself to go explore it!

Are there smallmouth below the dam? Largemouth? At what point does the bass fishing pick up towards mohave?

You won't find much to speak of in the way of bass along the actual river section. Their are some decent Small Mouth but few and far between that have taken hold south of Willow towards the mouth of Mohave. I'm sure the water temps have got to be up in the mid to high 80s by now and the bass in the lake will have started to move fairly deep. I would get on the WON bass website and see what they are reporting right now. The bass fishing in these months will be difficult to say the least on those lakes. If I were going to fish Mead I would run North out of Calville Bay and fish tubes and spider jigs on big chunk rock below vertical bluffs. Also drop shot with small worms. Like a roboworm. The best small mouth in the area would have to be on Lake Havasu without a doubt.