I will be fishing the Colorado river near Yuma, AZ in April. What do you recommend for baits, river locations, GPS spots, good maps, etc. Any help here would be appreciated! Also, any tips for navigating the river?  Any thing not to use / locations or areas to avoid?

The Colorado itself is SEVERELY dewatered due to massive diversions to the All American Canal. So below there it is only a midsize river with quite a few shallow sections. There are still many backwaters and small lakes around the river that hold a lot of nice bass.

Above the diversion the Colorado is a very large river, about 1/4 the size of the Mississippi, probably 300 - 700 yards in width bank to bank. It's also very deep and quite swift, though numerous backwaters, side eddies, and slower sections hold a lot of largemouth, smallmouth, and stripers.

The river is quite clear as well so I would stick to natural colored lures. Spinnerbaits, poppers, cranks, weedless frogs, and assorted plastics will all work well.

The Reservoirs such as Imperial, Martinez, and Ferguson that form behind the All - American Canal diversion are also top notch and would probably be where I would concentrate most of your fishing.

Thanks for the insight!

Where exactly is the All-American canal diversion located?

Thanks for the insight!

Where exactly is the All-American canal diversion located?

Imperial Diversion Dam, north of Yuma. Flows average about 20,000 to 45,000 cfs above the diversion and about 900 - 3000 below. The All American Canal is larger than most rivers.

In fact largely due to this diversion the Mighty Colorado River is a small stream or even dry at it's delta on the Gulf Of California. Mexico uses the rest of what California and Arizona don't. The river above the diversion can float Mississippi River sized paddlewheelers and bargers. Smaller ocean ships used to be able to ascend the Colorado to Yuma until the 1900s.