Fishing Report: San Luis Reservoir March 17, 2018
Fishing strengthens the bond between people. In this case, between father and son. My trip to San Luis Reservoir with Salvador Gomez and his son Sal was a good example of that. Even through the rain, wind and hail, they stuck it out and had some much needed time out on the water.
Last year I fished in similar weather. It wasn’t the best bite but we were able to catch stripers.
I knew the weather was going to throw us a curve ball so covering a lot of water was key.
I didn’t know if the cold front was going to push the striped bass deep or if they were going to gorge in the shallows before the storm hit. Typically when a cold front rolls through, I’ll see them relate to structure like channels, submerged islands, ledges, etc.
So that’s what I did. We trolled the Basalt side through a channel. It took a little searching but we landed a striper in about 40’ of water on the Atlas Rig.
As expected, the bite was tough. So I tried the submerged islands by Romero but wasn’t marking anything. We kept searching along the northern side of the lake and finally found a striper to take the Atlas. After fruitless passes in about 40′-50’ of water, we moved over to Dinosaur Point.
We scanned some submerged islands and finally found them stacked up and hugging very close to one of them. Dark clouds were looming off in the distance. Moments later it began to pour on us. In the midst of the rain, little Sal hooks into a double. It took him off guard as both fish were really fighting back.
I have 4 boys and the older three will talk to me about their video games like Minecraft, plants vs zombies and what not. We connect when we talk about that stuff but only at a surface level since I can’t really relate to what they’re talking about.
The moment little Sal hooked into the double, you see both father and son sync. Almost instinctively like they’re one and the same. The connection was deep and Dad was just as excited as son was as he recorded every moment with his phone. To think that for a moment fishing can be the key to a life long bond between two people.
Little Sal was stoked at his pair of fish. He couldn’t be happier. After the rain passed, the bite shut off in the area and we moved on.
The stripers caught during the trip didn’t choke the baits like how they did during the fall bite. I believe these were reaction bites. Most fish caught had the hooks near the lip of the mouth. If you factor in the incoming cold front, this was a reaction bite not a hunger bite. We had to entice these striped bass to bite.
One advantage to using an umbrella rig like the Atlas Rig is, you can entice a reaction bite. The sheer size of the Atlas Rig can draw in curious stripers or trigger a reaction strike.
It’s easier to make striped bass bite when they are stacked up on structure. The key is to get the Atlas Rig in the stripers face. That is why knowing your depth is so important and why I went through the trouble of creating a depth chart for the Atlas Rig.
These stripers were hugging so close to structure you had to be no more than a foot off the bottom. So a steady speed straight ahead using the provided depth charts for the Atlas was key to catching fish with an incoming cold front. With the proper tools and gear, you can stay consistent.
Now you know. Go get em!
You can find the same gear I use in the affiliate links below.
–TackleBuilders Atlas Umbrella Rig
–Okuma Cold Water line counter reel
