Okay, here's what's going on out here in Southern Nevada. Right now we have a lot of hot weather and we're getting some rain. I was out there at Willow Beach late Saturday night trying out a few of the items I found out the ICAST convention here in Las Vegas. Well, I was about 6 miles down river from the marina and all was calm, and then out of nowhere I saw the lightning strikes from down river near Cottonwood Cove. Although I saw the flash I couldn't hear the thunder so I wasn't too concerned. I've been caught in a lightning storm before while fishing and it's not a good thing so I decided to play it safe and turned the boat back up river. If you're familiar with Willow Beach then you know that it's literally pitch black out there on most nights and Saturday was no exception. Well, I slowly started puttin' my way back up when all of a sudden I could hear the thunder and man was it loud. The storm was moving very fast and it was about to crawl right up my, well you know. I can't remember when I reeled in two lines faster than I did right about then. Now I've been running that river for the past 25 years or more and I know it very well but as black as it was I still had to be careful. I ran that little boat as fast as I dared to and really had to pay attention lest I run head on into one of the mountain walls. By now the lightning was getting too close for comfort but I could see the lights of the harbor so I felt a bit more comfortable. I passed up another small boat that had two guys sitting there poles still in hand and I thought man these guys are nuts. Well, no sooner had I gotten to the docked and tied up my boat when the rain fell on me, and hard. Right about then the other boat just about hit the docks because it was coming in so fast. Those guys were scared outta their wits. I managed to get the boat onto the trailer and tied down and now I had to get the hell out of there unless I planned to stay for the next several hours, or day. Willow Beach Marina sits very low in a valley and when it rains like that you will get flooded in for an extended stay.

Now, just when I thought I was safe it gets more exciting. I drove the six miles back up to the highway and the rain was coming down harder. It was about three a.m. now so the traffic was light and this made me feel a little better. No sooner had I traveled two or three miles down the highway when all hell broke loose. There were about five cars in front of me and brake lights started to glow, mine included. The traffic coming from the other direction all stopped as well. The water was coming down so hard that visibility was literally zero. The only thing that I could make out was the red glow from tail lights and the white light from head lights. I pulled off the road as far as possible and waited with everyone else. The lightning was striking within just a hundred feet all around us and this lit up the night so well that you could see the sage brush for just that instant. Fortunately none of the cars, or my boat, were hit. We sat there for what seemed like ten or fifteen minutes waiting for it to clear up enough to drive. When I finally was able to start moving I noticed the truck seemed very heavy. It occurred to me that I left the drain plug in the boat, I never take it out, and the boat had filled up with water. Once I found another place to pull over I got out to pull the plug and found that the boat was almost half full. It's a 15 foot aluminum with a wide beam so it'll hold quite a bit of water. Well, I sat there and let it drain for a few minutes to alleviate some of the weight then headed home. What is normally a 20 minute trip from the river to home took me about an hour. What a night!

Let's see, the action out here has been terrible. Not many folks are hitting the water during the day because of the excessive heat and only a few fools such as myself will go out there at night. The trout fishin' at the river is not good since the fish are heading to deep water pretty quick. The striper fishin' at the river is great if you'll settle for shakers. (Shaker; a small fish that shakes so much when you get him in it's hard to get a hold of the little bugger to get him off the hook.) Lake Mead action is decent but again the fish are relatively small at just around three pounds or less. The Bass action is fair when you can find the time to get out there. As soon as something breaks loose I'll let everybody know.

I mentioned ICAST. For those of you that don't know ICAST is a manufacturers convention of tackle products. This is a place where the makers and the retailers can get together to see what's new on the market, place orders and annoy each other. I was there and found some truly incredible stuff. Once I get an okay, I'll do a write up on some of the stuff I found. Until then, keep the lines tight, wet and tangle free.

Ken Marlow, pappystackleshack@yahoo.com

Ken Marlow has lived in the Las Vegas Valley since 1973. He began fishing at Willow Beach for trophy trout soon after moving there and has been hooked ever since. Ken currently fishes twice a week and travels across the Dam to Willow Beach about four times a week to interview anglers and to see what the conditions are like.

Ken writes the weekly fishing column "Let's Go Fishin'", which appears in the Boulder City News, Henderson Home News and, from what he hears, two or three other HBC Publications.