Fishing Report: San Luis Reservoir June 19, 2018
I took a much needed break from making the Tackle Builder Atlas Umbrella Rigs and took my boys out fishing at San Luis Reservoir yesterday. One of my son has been asking me to take him out the past few days so it was good timing.
The fishing reports coming from the FishAholics community at the big lake has been consistent action and productive from shore. It’s the windy season so not too many boaters were willing to risk being turned down after a long drive to the lake. I was going to chance it either way.
I called the wind hotline at 3am that morning and it was gusting to 25mph. It didn’t look good but the day prior it was glass late morning so I figure it might be the same that day.
When we arrived, the wind had died down to about 12mph and the warning light was amber colored so we were good to go! We launched out of the Basalt side and was the only boat that morning.
I readied the rods, got the kicker motor down and running. I go to setup the downriggers and noticed the downrigger balls weren’t there. I had forgotten them at home. No fishing them deep today.
There were anglers fishing from shore in the area so I couldn’t target them shallow. So off to a new area it was.
When shore fishing is good like it has the past few weeks, that usually means points and coves will produce. We tried a few points initially but no takers. The west side of the lake has been good to me in the past fishing shallow along the points. That’s where I headed next.
We started off near the mouth of Portuguese Cove and worked our way north. Ten minutes in and we hook up.
A few points later and another fish. These fish weren’t the big ones we were looking for but they were definitely choking the swimbaits on the Atlas Umbrella Rig. I tried every color but the only color getting them to bite was the blue shad.
We headed over to the Dinosaur Point area next. I wasn’t marking much in that area. Went over a few submerged islands but nothing. We trolled for a bit in the area with no luck.
By this time it was glass calm on the water surface with little to no wind. The bite seemed to completely shut off. I decided to head back to the Basalt area to try my luck.
Using the Atlas Rig, I trolled in 20′-30’ of water. Our first pass, we hook into a smaller fish. It seems they were active in this area. We continued to troll back and forth for a few more fish. Even hooked into a double. Some fish were caught in 50’ of water with the Atlas Rig trolling at 20’ in depth.
They were definitely shallow that day and even suspended over deeper water. I spotted a few marks hugging the bottom. Ussually I’ll drop the Atlas Rig down with the downriggers when I see this but with no downriggers to bring it to depth, I decided to try something new.
With a lot of line out, I let the Atlas Rig drop all the way to the bottom in 60’ of water and throttled the boat to 3mph. This little trick enticed a bigger fish to bite!
I figure I could use this little technique at Lone Oak Bay. It’s notorious for having stripers hug the bottom. We headed out to Lone Oak Bay and sure enough, stripers hugging the bottom in 60’ of water.
The first thing I did was let out 300’ of line while trolling at a low speed. Then I would let the boat idle and drift with the waves until I saw my rod tip begin bouncing. The Atlas Umbrella Rig is dragging on the bottom at this point. A few seconds later, I would throttle up the boat and whaaam! That’s when I would get hit.
I repeated this for a few more stripers before the bite died.
While trolling, my son was telling me about how he learned about how sharks hunted. He said they like to hunt at dawn and dusk and are more active at night. When I told him that’s how stripers feed too, his eyes lit up and I could see a smile from ear to ear. Like a light bulb went off and he had figured out the bite. Yea I could see a future fisherman in him.
It’s great to see interest in fish behavior from him at such a young age. I know he’ll make me proud one day.
After we ran out of drinking water and with sun blazing down with no breeze to keep us cool, we left for the boat ramp. Overall, the bite was consistent. You had to cover a lot of water and try new areas and new things to get them to bite. We managed 10 stripers to 23” all caught on the Tackle Builders Atlas Umbrella Rig.
San Luis Reservoir isn’t an easy lake to fish but a little knowledge, having the right tackle and thinking outside the box, you can stay consistent. Even when you forget to bring some gear.
Now you know. Go get em!
You can checkout the video below.
You can find the same gear I use using the affiliate links below.
–Okuma Cold Water line counter reel
–Daiwa Wilderness Trolling Rod
