Dungee
Keeper of San Juan Secrets
@flyfishfishnut and @Colin weren’t joking around.
Just got home today, went down Thursday night and slept at the top of the main ramp. Friday morning we launched with no issue. We first ran into boils just past the new no wake zone heading north. Spotted them in the back of the first cove with one fork. They were aggressive and stayed active for a good half hour straight. We picked up a couple bins that had gotten blown off houseboats (we’re guessing the couple days prior) and used those the whole trip to help manage the chaos.
Mid lake between cedar and seven mile there were many single splashed and small wolf packs chasing shad off the shade line on the east side of the lake, we spent the next couple hours chasing those.
We spent the afternoon hugging shade and swimming trying not to melt, it was intense but staying in the water made it manageable. That evening we went searching, we focused on the bathroom area of Good Hope, we saw a few quick pop ups but nothing we could pin down. Drove all the way up the Red but the water Pat popcorn started getting pretty dirty so we went back down. Towards the bottom of the straight below the bathroom we started seeing groups pinned to the shore, so we chased them for a good half hour, then the whole bay there went up, and we chased a few different huge groups to the other east bank and fished a pocket of them the rest of the night. It was so epic!
Saturday morning we found similar patterns but just outside of seven mile. We spot locked in a pocket along the west shore and let them come to us in interchanging smaller and bigger groups. We slayed them for a good two hours. Then we again swam, hugged shade and Cooke up some fresh Striper tacos like the day before.
Saturday evening we went to the bottom of the channel below Good Hope hoping for the same, but after about fifteen minutes and one quick main channel pop up nothing. So we hit the bathroom, while one in our group was doing business we did business on a decent boil that popped up in the bathroom cove.
Then the real show, at the bottom of main Good Hope we ran into huge swaths of consistent staying up boils, and followed four different groups until and then with them as they pounded shad along the shore and our boat. In the final hour of fishing just last night we tallied 151.
The sun drenching the bay and skyline, pinking up the clouds and off distance thunderheads flashing lightning serenaded the scene. It was Powell at its finest.
This morning we chased them again between cedar and seven mile and a couple up in the same Good Hope area.
On the drive back there were big packs of them opposite Tapestry, it was hard to leave them.
Stripers and the shad themselves ranked in size. Some shad were pretty small, less than half and inch, which is why I think we would see both slurps and then full on boils. I’d say 7/10 of the catch rate was healthy.
It was single handedly the hottest trip ever but we’re thinking it was the best boil trip ever. I’d say we ended near 800 fish. It did not matter what you threw, by the end I caught my lag 50 on a white jig head…. I was just sick of putting on a new swimbait ha, and it worked just fine!
It would be nice to see some more anglers, and see some more reports (I think we saw two other fishing boats), this place is unreal aa always, even at low levels.
I’ll post some pics below, if you’d like to see some of the videos, I’ll link our instagram as well.
Preston
Just got home today, went down Thursday night and slept at the top of the main ramp. Friday morning we launched with no issue. We first ran into boils just past the new no wake zone heading north. Spotted them in the back of the first cove with one fork. They were aggressive and stayed active for a good half hour straight. We picked up a couple bins that had gotten blown off houseboats (we’re guessing the couple days prior) and used those the whole trip to help manage the chaos.
Mid lake between cedar and seven mile there were many single splashed and small wolf packs chasing shad off the shade line on the east side of the lake, we spent the next couple hours chasing those.
We spent the afternoon hugging shade and swimming trying not to melt, it was intense but staying in the water made it manageable. That evening we went searching, we focused on the bathroom area of Good Hope, we saw a few quick pop ups but nothing we could pin down. Drove all the way up the Red but the water Pat popcorn started getting pretty dirty so we went back down. Towards the bottom of the straight below the bathroom we started seeing groups pinned to the shore, so we chased them for a good half hour, then the whole bay there went up, and we chased a few different huge groups to the other east bank and fished a pocket of them the rest of the night. It was so epic!
Saturday morning we found similar patterns but just outside of seven mile. We spot locked in a pocket along the west shore and let them come to us in interchanging smaller and bigger groups. We slayed them for a good two hours. Then we again swam, hugged shade and Cooke up some fresh Striper tacos like the day before.
Saturday evening we went to the bottom of the channel below Good Hope hoping for the same, but after about fifteen minutes and one quick main channel pop up nothing. So we hit the bathroom, while one in our group was doing business we did business on a decent boil that popped up in the bathroom cove.
Then the real show, at the bottom of main Good Hope we ran into huge swaths of consistent staying up boils, and followed four different groups until and then with them as they pounded shad along the shore and our boat. In the final hour of fishing just last night we tallied 151.
The sun drenching the bay and skyline, pinking up the clouds and off distance thunderheads flashing lightning serenaded the scene. It was Powell at its finest.
This morning we chased them again between cedar and seven mile and a couple up in the same Good Hope area.
On the drive back there were big packs of them opposite Tapestry, it was hard to leave them.
Stripers and the shad themselves ranked in size. Some shad were pretty small, less than half and inch, which is why I think we would see both slurps and then full on boils. I’d say 7/10 of the catch rate was healthy.
It was single handedly the hottest trip ever but we’re thinking it was the best boil trip ever. I’d say we ended near 800 fish. It did not matter what you threw, by the end I caught my lag 50 on a white jig head…. I was just sick of putting on a new swimbait ha, and it worked just fine!
It would be nice to see some more anglers, and see some more reports (I think we saw two other fishing boats), this place is unreal aa always, even at low levels.
I’ll post some pics below, if you’d like to see some of the videos, I’ll link our instagram as well.
Preston
