Phoenix pro John Murray tagged Lake Havasu as the “healthiest reservoir on the Colorado River,” and he’s expecting some equally healthy limits of largemouths and smallmouths to be brought to the scales when the EverStart Series comes to town.

“That’s always the best week of the year to fish Lake Havasu,” Murray said. “There will still be some largemouths suspended over deep water, but the bigger populations are going to be spawning up shallow. Flipping and pitching will be two of the primary largemouth patterns during this tournament.”

Murray said largemouths will be relating heavily to tules (reeds or cattails) in the backs of main-lake and secondary pockets and toward the upper reaches of the Bill Williams River, and the fish will often bury up in the heaviest cover they can find.

The best baits? Tubes and jigs will be deadly in the heavy cover, as will the Kinami Flash.

While largemouths have dominated Havasu tournament weigh-ins for years, Murray said newly established bronzeback populations have recently begun to factor into the winning equation.

“The lake is full of smallmouths in the 2-pound range, but there have been some big ones caught up to 6 pounds,” he said.

Murray suggests targeting smallies on rocky or sandy main-lake points in 10 to 15 feet of water. Drop-shot finesse worms in oxblood or watermelon patterns typically draw the most strikes.