Fishing Report: San Luis Reservoir January 13, 2018
My first striper trip for 2018 with Brett, Teng and Nick at San Luis Reservoir. Water temperature was in the 56 degree range with foggy skies that didn’t allow any sunlight penetration plus the cold. The fishing was tough. They were on a different bite but we managed to shake off the skunk with 8 striped bass to 23″. We fished all depths from 30′ to 250′ of water.
We started fishing Lone Oak Bay initially with nothing to show for. Started shallow and slowly worked our way deeper. Didn’t mark much until we got to the 80′ area. You can see them on the bottom as small marks but no takers. We trolled the Atlas rigs into Portuguese but didn’t catch anything either.
Finally after searching the deep flats with no results, we trolled along on the western side of the lake. After targeting a few points, we were able to land our first fish of the day on the Atlas rigs. It was caught in 30′ of water. I usually don’t have much luck inside Lone Oak until late morning so it was back into Lone Oak Bay later that morning.
The initial drop using the downrigger, we finally hookup in the area. For a good hour or two, we were hooking into fish. Not the hot bite like it was last trip but the area was producing for us.
Since I knew the Atlas umbrella rigs will dive to 18′ going 2.5mph with 100′ of line out, with the downrigger, I was able to hover my Atlas rig on the bottom. Having it hover a foot or two off the bottom is key to catching these bottom foraging stripers. The advantage to using the Atlas rig vs a lure is that I don’t have to worry about my hooks snagging on the bottom or grabbing debris if it hits the bottom. The wires from the Atals umbrella rig act as a weed guard. It’ll even kick up clouds of debris attracting curious stripers to the area.
We finished the day with our last fish caught in 100′ of water over by the trash racks. Most of the boaters we talked to that day had similar results. Slow bite but many managed to land a few fish.
You get your good days and slow days but no day on the water is bad. I’m sure the pattern will change again which is typical of San Luis Reservoir. Keeping up with reports like these and posts on FishAholics will help you make increase your catches.
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
–TackleBuilders Atlas Umbrella Rig
