Fishing Report: San Luis Reservoir August 12, 2018
I remember going over the game plan with Victor on our way to San Luis Reservoir. I told him we’re gonna hit Portuguese Cove then try the Dinosaur Point area cause I know some flats over there that’ll hit when the water level gets this low. It’s set. We’re good.
The sun was already blazing over the horizon when we got there. We get to the Basalt boat launch, I’m warming up the boat while slowly moving around in the area. Then I see it.
Scattered schools of stripers not even 100 yards from where we launched. Looks like a change of plans today.
For the next hour or two it was striper after striper trolling the Atlas Rigs with a few doubles in between. These striped bass were hovering off the bottom in 60-80’ of water. You needed downriggers to fish them properly. Dipsy divers or heavy weights will get you down there but it’d be a guessing game as to how deep you were. The Atlas Rigs had depth charts so we knew exactly how deep we were using my Electric Scotty downriggers.
We were trolling with the Atlas Umbrella Rigs. I was using the Pearl Ice pattern and Victor was using the Shad pattern. The Pearl Ice did better in the morning.
We trolled parallel to the shoreline. On a few passes we targeted the submerged islands south of the launch ramp.
We found stripers hugging the islands and hooked into a few in 15′ of water. No downriggers needed.
We lost count of number of striped bass when it finally slowed down. We moved on to other locations. We trolled shallow in 30-40’ of water on the north side of the lake across from the Pacheco pass freeway. The water on the north side of San Luis Reservoir is much cleaner and clearer than the south side of the lake. If you’re worried about the blue algae, the north side of the lake is the area to fish if you want to avoid it. It wasn’t a hot bite like earlier that morning but steady with quality stripers in the mix.
We weren’t marking any striped bass on my Humminbird fish finder trolling the area but once in awhile stripers would hit out of the blue. Since the water was a lot clearer in that area, the shad pattern that Victor had on was hooking up more often.
We continued trolling the Atlas Rig in the 30′-40’ zone inside Bay of Pigs by the Basalt pay station then to Goose Neck and back to the boat launch before heading home. All hookups in that area were when the Atlas Rig was at a depth of the 25’.
So if you’re trolling at 2.5mph with the Atlas Rig on 30lb braid, let out about 150’ of line and you’ll hit the right depth. Just remember this depth is measured from the surface of the water to the rig. So if you raise your rod to put on rod holder, let out more line to compensate for the extra height off the water.
We ended the day early for over 30 plus stripers to 24” with a quarter of the catches over 18”. We caught them deep and shallow on the Atlas Rigs. The bites better than expected so get out there while it lasts.
Now you know. Go get em!
You can find the same gear I use using the affiliate links below.
–Okuma Cold Water line counter reel
–Daiwa Wilderness Trolling Rod
