Fishing Report: New Hogan Lake May 28, 2018
I am not familiar with New Hogan Lake at all. In fact, I’ve never fished Hogan Lake before this trip. All I knew about Hogan were the stories that fishermen tell.
Stories about massive striper boils. Non-stop action all day. Enough to make your arms fall off. Even stories about a mysterious creature. A local lochness monster that lurks in the deep.
I’ve been on the fence about hitting Hogan for a few years now. Most fishermen who fish there have a love hate relationship with the lake.
The striped bass can be jumping in the boat one day and nothing the next.
It’s a 2.5-3 hour drive with the boat in tow so not my usual fishing commute. I set out with Melanie, Cheng, Neo and Gary and we got there about 8am that morning.
The lake was quite with a slight cool morning breeze. I could see all the campers and beached boats from people camping out during the Memorial day weekend.
We knew the lake was going to be flooded with boaters and skiers mid morning so catching fish first thing was key. We headed off towards the dam first. We fished a cove next to it which didn’t produce anything.
We also didn’t mark much. Marked some isolated arcs but nothing that caught our attention.
We then trolled the east side of the lake. Found a few coves and on the first pass, Melanie hooks into a nice bass.
Seconds later, I hook into our first striper on the Atlas Umbrella Rig. Both fish were caught in about 20’ of water.
We continued through the cove but nothing else would bite. So we tried another cove and another. Another hour or two later of searching and fish on!
The fish were getting more active and hungry as the morning progressed. One after another we started hooking up. The fish were choking the baits too. Maybe this lake isn’t so bad after all.
I definitely wasn’t marking much the entire trip. They were not schooled up but scattered along structure like coves and points. You can spot individual arcs here and there but that was about it.
You really had to work for these fish. From the underwater footage, I was able to get showed alot of short striking or stripers chasing the Atlas Rig most of the time. Only a few of the ones we caught choked the baits.
As the day progressed, more and more boaters and skiers began to populate the lake. Fishing was impossible on the main lake so we stuck to the coves.
At least most of the traffic there were anchored or moving at slower speeds.
We trolled into a long deep cove with no recreational or fishing boats in the back. As we trolled the Atlas Rig in 15’ of water, I hook into something heavy. It was heavier than anything we caught that day plus it was fighting back!
Unsure if it was a big fish or not I took my time reeling it in while steering the boat away from the shallows. As the Atlas Rig surfaced, I could see multiple stripers hooked on. I had hooked into a double!
We caught 9 fish total. Not knowing the lake made it much harder. The topography of Hogan is similar to San Luis Reservoir. They are both deep lakes with peaks, valleys and submerged islands.
I fish San Luis often and I noticed the stripers at Hogan were on a similar pattern. Recently, the striped bass at San Luis Reservoir moved shallower and are lurking in and around coves. Just like how the stripers at Hogan were that day.
Overall, the bite was pretty tough. But with a little luck we managed to avoid a skunk.
How do you think our trip went for some first timers? Any tips from the locals? Let me know in the comments below.
Now you know. Go get em!
You can find the same gear I use in the affiliate links below.
–TackleBuilders Atlas Umbrella Rig
