Fishing Report: San Luis Reservoir February 11, 2018
When I take FishAholics members fishing on my boat or when I fish out there solo, I’ve never been able to stay consistent with the number of striped bass caught out of San Luis Reservoir. Some trips I’ll be in the 20-30 stripers caught and the very next visit I’ll be in the single digits to low 10’s. It’s never consistent.
But I’ve been fortunate in keeping my catching consistent. I think experience plays a role but the ability to use a rig that mimics a school of bait fish like the Atlas Umbrella Rig has helped keep that consistency.
The spring like weather has been nice these last few trips but it’s slowed down the fishing quite a bit. I took Christen and Gustavo out for a decent day of striper fishing at the big lake. We started early morning and right away we went straight for Portuguese Cove.
We didn’t see any boil activity but marked fish on the bottom. We started casting lures and swimbaits at cover along the shoreline and caught one striper about 20”. That was it until mid-morning when we decided to troll the Atlas Rigs in the same area.
We fished in 30′-40’ of water inside Portuguese and caught fish on our first pass. Most were dinks but we had fun reeling them in. On another pass, I noticed some structure below. Protruding rocks and isolated boulders showed up on my Humminbird 598CI fish finder.
Didn’t mark any fish but as we raised the rigs to avoid snagging these boulders, one of the lines popped off the clip. Initially we thought it snagged one of the boulders but the boulder fought back! Finally Christen was able to reel it in and it turned out to be our biggest catch of the day at over 8lbs on the digital scale. It was released back after a quick photo.
We trolled the area some more but the bite seemed to have shut off so we decided to go deeper in the water column. We trolled the Lone Oak Bay area in 80-100’ of water and I was not marking much. Previous trips in the same area, I’d mark several fish hugging the bottom but the deep water bite has changed with the recent warmer weather. We trolled the area with nothing to show for.
We decided to troll the Basalt area. Our first area, we spotted fish in and around submerged brush. They were also in the deep channels and ledges but not takers. Tough bite. We spent some time trying to get these fish to bite but no takers.
Next we trolled near the dam and trash racks. It was still slow and just by chance, Christen hooked up into a decent 25” striper when we were reeling in our gear to head out to a new location. It bit on the Atlas in about 80’ of water.
Already you can see, you really have to work for these fish. Even when you see them in the area, finding active stripers to take that bait can take some searching.
I’ll fish several locations, scan the bottom or blind troll the area for a bite before moving on. Sometimes it’s the only way to catch fish. Get one or two here and there. At the end of the day, the catches add up and if you’re lucky, a nice quality striper can be caught in the mix.
We really weren’t having much luck fishing these locations so we decided to head back into Portuguese to see if it was still biting. Right away we hook into a fish.
Not a big one but it kept up entertained from not catching much that afternoon. We continued fishing the area and caught a few more striped bass.
We fished in 30-50’ of water. Half of the catches we didn’t even mark on the fish finder. A few were on the bottom and actively feeding. You can tell how active they are by the tall vertical arcs they make.
We ended the day with 10 fish to over 8lbs. The quality of fish caught were better but we still caught several dinks in the mix. The winds picked up late in the afternoon and a cold front is due to move into the area. This is bound to change the bite again for the next trip.
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
