April 2025 - Parker Strip
April’s tournament at Parker Strip delivered fantastic fishing, with heavy bags across the board and multiple techniques producing quality fish. Jeff Mason and Nathan Fearno took 1st Place with a winning weight of 19.32 pounds, followed closely by Andrew Goettl and Thomas Alauria in 2nd with 18.37 pounds, and Laron Porter and John Schramer in 3rd with 17.92 pounds.
The river’s strong current, abundant docks, and active spawning fish created diverse opportunities. Anglers capitalized early with sight fishing for bedded bass, then transitioned to pitching jigs and working drop shots around shaded docks as the day progressed. Drifting soft swimbaits and crankbaits in the morning also produced key bites before switching to finesse tactics.
Successful teams adapted to the river’s changing conditions, using both power and finesse to put together impressive limits. Parker once again proved why it’s considered one of the most exciting fisheries in Arizona.
Techniques:
Jig fishing dominated, especially pitching and flipping jigs around docks and current seams.
Sight fishing (bed fishing) for spawning smallmouth and largemouth was extremely productive early in the day.
Drop shotting was key for upgrading later in the day, especially in slower current and shaded dock areas.
Some teams also drifted the river with swimbaits and crankbaits early to cover water and pick off roaming fish.
Baits:
Jigs – Keitech jigs, brown jigs, and black/chartreuse jigs were standouts.
Drop Shot Baits – Baby bass-colored worms (like Sensei worms) and other natural-color finesse worms.
Soft Swimbaits – Reaction Innovations Skinny Dipper for drifting early in the day.
Craw-style Plastics – White Chigger Craws and similar presentations for bed fish.
Crankbaits – Used early by some to target active fish before transitioning to slower presentations.
Key Locations:
AZ side docks near Pirates Cove produced early limits and big fish, especially when jigs were pitched shallow into current.
Backwater pools held roaming and bedded fish early in the day.
California side docks with shade became important later, especially for drop shotting upgrades.
Mid-river rock piles in current seams offered consistent fish later in the afternoon.
Dam area produced early bites for some teams with jigs and crankbaits.
Key Takeaways:
Fishing current correctly and using natural drift presentations were critical.
Sight fishing early before pressure and sun angles changed the bite was key to big bags.
Dock shade and slower finesse presentations became more important as the day wore on and boat pressure increased.
Parker Strip once again showed it can produce heavy limits through a combination of power fishing early and finesse tactics later.
Weight Distribution
(Thank you, Charlie Mackintosh, for these graphs.)
Tournament Reports
1st Place Jeff Mason, Nathan Fearno 19.32 lbs & 1st Big Fish 4.61
Jeff Mason’s Report
To start off, I’m the guy who wiped out the dock on our lovely early morning trip up the river. My partner Nathan Fearno and I thought our day was over! But the motor started right back up, and we managed to make it through the day. I have talked to the owner, and we’re working it out. Back to the fishing, pre-fished Tues with Nathan and caught some fish on a jerkbait and jig, nothing great. Started Weds across from Pirates Cove with the jerkbait, but couldn’t get anything going, so we went across to the Az side and started pitching the jigs around the docks. Bam, we started catching them, BIG ONES in shallow water. I was pitching a 1/2 oz Keitech jig and pitching it shallow in the current and letting it drift with the current. We had 5 good ones by 10:30 when our trolling motor died on us. Nathan took over and moved our boat into position so we could still fish. He also managed to cull two 3+ smallies while maneuvering the boat, amazing job! One of the best days ever, will never forget. Thanks MWB.
Nathan Fearno - No Report
2nd Place Andrew Goettl, Thomas Alauria: 18.37lbs
Andy Goettl Report
This is one of my favorite bodies of water to fish in the State, and it really did not disappoint. First off, I got a VRBO, and the group of guys I spent a couple of nights with was an absolute blast. We ate well, laughed a bunch, and solved all the world's problems in just two nights.
I got drawn with Tom Aluria and was really excited to fish with him. He and I gelled real fast, and we are both old native Arizonans, so the stories told were all very familiar, and we found out we ate a lot of the same dirt in the State over the years.
Our plan was simple. We were going to give sight fishing a go on the first day of practice and see what we could find. We moved around a lot over the next 2 days and found what we thought was a good bag. I started marking beds, and we judged a ton of fish before derby day.
Everything pretty much worked out the way we wanted. We ran to our first spot and sat for an hour waiting on the sun to hit the water and battled the current. As soon as we could see, we started working our fish. We had about 16# by 0700. We worked through our waypoints and culled up where we could, but it's the tail end of the spawn, and while there were enough fish to keep us busy all day, we were culling by ounces by 1200. Most of our fish had been caught multiple times by now, and some of them were actually pretty spooky. We tried flipping for a kicker and managed to catch a few nice Largemouth but nothing that could help us out at the end of the day.
Tom Alauria Report
I want to congratulate Jeff and Nathan. And I want to thank the weigh-in crew. For this tournament, I chose to go as a co angler because I wasn't familiar with the river, and I'm glad I did. I had the pleasure of fishing with Andrew Goettl, and he knows how to navigate the river. I can't tell you exactly where we fished, but all our fish came off beds.
3rd Place Laron Porter, John Schramer: 17.92 lbs
John Schrammer
I want to extend a big thank you to Laron Porter for an incredible day on the water. After our first day of prefishing, we decided to revisit a few key areas where we believed we had the best shot at targeting quality bites.
Laron started the day working a jig, while I followed up with a dropshot. Within the first hour, we had already secured our limit. Looking to upgrade, I switched to a 4-inch swimbait to pursue larger bites, while Laron rotated between a dropshot, swimbaits, and jigs.
The bite stayed consistent, and we were able to put a solid number of fish in the boat—though we had our fair share get away as well. The combination of jigs and swimbaits ultimately proved to be the key to landing the quality fish that pushed us near the top of the standings.
A huge thanks to the weigh-in crew and everyone behind the scenes who made this trip and event possible. We’re grateful for the opportunity. Tight lines!
4th Place Devin Brown, Jeffrey Stone: 17.73 lbs
Devon Brown - No Report
Jeff Stone
What an awesome day of fishing. First, I would like to congratulate 1st place team , Jeff and Nathan, great job guys. Devon and I finished a close 4th place . We started the morning fishing upstream and letting the current float us down. I was using a Reaction Innovations skinny dipper bouncing it off the bottom, and Devon was hitting the shore with a crank bait. We both were picking up fish,2~3 lbers. After the sun came up, we started fishing beds, targeting larger-size smallmouths. I was using a white chigger crawl and drop-shoting baby bass Sensei worm. I would switch back and forth, putting it on their beds. Devon was picking his up on a black and chartreuse green jig. In all, we caught about 30 fish, including several largemouth bass . We had a great time fishing together . Can't wait until the next time we go there and do it again. I would like to thank everyone who helped with the weigh-in crew. The great thing about this club is meeting new people. It was the first time that I met Bryan Golden. We helped each other out when we were recording all the weights. Hope to fish with him sometime. Next month, we will see you at Rosey.
5th Place Floyd Vaughan, Mike Adamson: 17.66 lbs
Floyd Vaughan - No Report
Mike Adamson
What a great tournament at Parker this week. Lots of great fish and big bags caught by the club. Floyd and I started in a backwater pool and were able to pick up a limit of bedfish and roaming fish. From there, we headed towards the dam and fished a group of docks on the California side with drop shots and were able to upgrade our bag another 3 pounds. The water level had dropped, and flow slowed by this time, and the fish were caught in the shady parts of the docks. From there, we went downstream and flipped the reeds on both sides of the river but didn't have any luck doing that. The last couple of hours, we again flipped docks, casting into the shady parts with our drop shots, were able to upgrade our bag. Fun day catching lots of strong smallies and a few big largemouth.
6th Place John Hilland, Corey Kepler: 17.20 lbs
John Hilland
Congratulations to Jeff and Nathan. Great job, guys! I enjoyed fishing with Corey Shepard this month; he's a fantastic angler. Having never fished Parker, I decided to put in a few days of prefishing to try and learn what I could. I learned this is an amazing fishery, a place I plan to frequent more often. I also realized I can't run slowly in 1.2 feet of water; my prop took the brunt of that one.
During the days before the tournament, I found fish all over at each location I stopped. It seemed the better fish came early up north, and later in the day, I found them in the current. On tournament day, we went north and fished a few spots without much luck and decided to hit our slow current fish. This proved a good move, and we had a pretty good bag by 09:00. Most fish came on DS and brown jigs. Around 1:30, we moved up north in the middle of the river, where we had found some rocks stacked up. We put the boat on spot lock in front of the rock and would cast out into the river, let the current bring the bait down to the rocks, and wham, we got bit. We caught about 15 fish in the last two hours, upgrading three times to finish with our final bag. Hope to see everyone next month.
Corey Kepler - No Report
7th Place Luke Spreitzer, Richard Knight 17.16 lbs
Luke Spreitzer - No Report
Rick Knight
I want to give a first thought to everyone involved in putting on this tournament. Especially the weigh-in team. They have a lot of work to do at the end of the day and it doesn’t go unnoticed.
I was lucky to fish with Luke Spreitzer who knows his way around the Parker strip. We started up towards the dam and the first fish I caught was a 6.5 pound catfish on a jig. It’s funny how those things make you think you’re landing a big bass only to realize quickly that it doesn’t seem to come up to the top of the water and you know what it is then!
Luke knows his way around the river really well, and almost every place he took me, we caught fish and nice ones. I don’t throw a jig very often, but Luke gave me a small one, and it worked fantastically. It was a lot of fun, and we caught a lot of fish. Unfortunately, I lost what would have been my biggest at the boat right near the end of the day, but no matter what, we had a great time.
8th Place Mike Bidak, Gary Volpe: 17.13 lbs
No Reports