Dungee
Keeper of San Juan Secrets
Put in Thursday (late afternoon) below the main ramp at Hite because of Bruce's suggestion with no issues. Andrew and I drove the boat down to Farley while the rest of our group drove around in the truck, ran into slurps/boils at the mouth of Farley and boated about 30 in about half an hours time. They had them pinned on the bank and were still in the area without being on the surface. We met up and set up a nice little camp towards the end of the road in Farley, there was one other boating group back there but they left the next day. The last couple hours of Thursday we fished a few more much quicker slurps in Farley and hit some bank spots in White, the bank fishing was awful, even in the evening, I hooked into one Largemouth on a buzzbait and we caught another couple Smallmouth, we also didn't see any surface action late that night.
Friday morning had some cloud cover until about 9am which was nice, we chased many quick slurps in Farley and White, the slurps really liked a top water or smaller grub or tube, remember to cast in the direction they're heading or you'll miss them. We headed back to camp to process some fish, a Dutch lady who had gotten her van stuck on the other side of Farley came running over to our camp and asked for help, so a couple of us went to help her while we went back out. Mid morning was even better, bigger slurps and even some boils up against the bank, if you have your pick of slurp/boil I'd say go to the one closest to the bank, one boil in White had them split in two coves that were connected, so we just sat on the point and caught them from both coves for over half an hour. Lunch time things slowed down around White and Farley so we headed down lake. Mid afternoon the slurps started up again in the main bay by Castle Butte and towards the northwest banks. The last couple hours of the day we followed some huge boils that had shad pinned against the bank just by mile marker 126 I believe. They headed north and we would just follow them from cove to cove and they would erupt, it was an amazing site, I've never heard that kind of noise before with all of them (and so many of them) sucking shad right at the surface. Wind kicked up and we didn't want to drive through some debri in the dark so we headed back.
Saturday we tried following the same pattern, there was still lots of activity in Farley and White but not as much as Friday. We headed back down south a little earlier and found bigger slurps/boils just below Scorup that lasted pretty much all day long between mile marker 127-28 I believe. At numerous points that day you could look 360 degrees and see many different groups/schools slurping/boiling at the top. One thing that helped with so many going on was to pick one and chase/be by that one, if you just waited in that area they would usually pop back up soon enough, we caught more that way then chasing different ones after each would go down. Also remember to just keep casting in the area even if they aren't at the surface, we caught probably half our fish this way. Saturday had cloud cover from about 3pm to 6pm that afternoon so that might have helped as well?
Sunday we chased a few more into White and swam around Battleship rock (BTW water depth around it is 50-60 feet). We took out below the main ramp again with little issue. Many things worked on this trip (except the mouse lure my cousin used a boil just for fun ha ha), Nixon and I used a 3 inch candy strike king tube with a Gamakatsu jig head 90% of the time that was working well, buck tails, poppers, spooks, and grubs all were effective. Stripers and Shad are everywhere right now! It was probably the most consistent boil trip we've ever had. We never kept track but guesstimated at around 450-500 Stripers. I'd say it was 75% slurps and 25 boils. Stripers were all sizes and it was probably 60% healthy, 40 skinnier. Bank fishing was another story, we struggled when we tried it!? Maybe it was a timing thing but we didnt catch much of anything in the brush (which is everywhere) mid-day or even late? We did catch a few Largemouth early and late but that was it, usually even in the dead of summer a the smaller Largemouth will attack anything? Baby bass are everywhere tho so that was a good sign. We saw a few different sizes of shad, some were tiny, a quarter to half an inch and others were already more like two or three inches. Water temp was 82-84, water clarity was fine, Farley and White are green, there is more of a stained mud line with only a couple feet of visibility in front of Trachyte towards two mile, then green till Castle Butte again. Debri has mostly cleared but there are still some patches out there so be careful. The top of Good Hope and the Horn had a few different spots to watch out for wood wise. Best of luck! Thanks for everyone's input and advice, cant wait to get back in the fall.
Friday morning had some cloud cover until about 9am which was nice, we chased many quick slurps in Farley and White, the slurps really liked a top water or smaller grub or tube, remember to cast in the direction they're heading or you'll miss them. We headed back to camp to process some fish, a Dutch lady who had gotten her van stuck on the other side of Farley came running over to our camp and asked for help, so a couple of us went to help her while we went back out. Mid morning was even better, bigger slurps and even some boils up against the bank, if you have your pick of slurp/boil I'd say go to the one closest to the bank, one boil in White had them split in two coves that were connected, so we just sat on the point and caught them from both coves for over half an hour. Lunch time things slowed down around White and Farley so we headed down lake. Mid afternoon the slurps started up again in the main bay by Castle Butte and towards the northwest banks. The last couple hours of the day we followed some huge boils that had shad pinned against the bank just by mile marker 126 I believe. They headed north and we would just follow them from cove to cove and they would erupt, it was an amazing site, I've never heard that kind of noise before with all of them (and so many of them) sucking shad right at the surface. Wind kicked up and we didn't want to drive through some debri in the dark so we headed back.
Saturday we tried following the same pattern, there was still lots of activity in Farley and White but not as much as Friday. We headed back down south a little earlier and found bigger slurps/boils just below Scorup that lasted pretty much all day long between mile marker 127-28 I believe. At numerous points that day you could look 360 degrees and see many different groups/schools slurping/boiling at the top. One thing that helped with so many going on was to pick one and chase/be by that one, if you just waited in that area they would usually pop back up soon enough, we caught more that way then chasing different ones after each would go down. Also remember to just keep casting in the area even if they aren't at the surface, we caught probably half our fish this way. Saturday had cloud cover from about 3pm to 6pm that afternoon so that might have helped as well?
Sunday we chased a few more into White and swam around Battleship rock (BTW water depth around it is 50-60 feet). We took out below the main ramp again with little issue. Many things worked on this trip (except the mouse lure my cousin used a boil just for fun ha ha), Nixon and I used a 3 inch candy strike king tube with a Gamakatsu jig head 90% of the time that was working well, buck tails, poppers, spooks, and grubs all were effective. Stripers and Shad are everywhere right now! It was probably the most consistent boil trip we've ever had. We never kept track but guesstimated at around 450-500 Stripers. I'd say it was 75% slurps and 25 boils. Stripers were all sizes and it was probably 60% healthy, 40 skinnier. Bank fishing was another story, we struggled when we tried it!? Maybe it was a timing thing but we didnt catch much of anything in the brush (which is everywhere) mid-day or even late? We did catch a few Largemouth early and late but that was it, usually even in the dead of summer a the smaller Largemouth will attack anything? Baby bass are everywhere tho so that was a good sign. We saw a few different sizes of shad, some were tiny, a quarter to half an inch and others were already more like two or three inches. Water temp was 82-84, water clarity was fine, Farley and White are green, there is more of a stained mud line with only a couple feet of visibility in front of Trachyte towards two mile, then green till Castle Butte again. Debri has mostly cleared but there are still some patches out there so be careful. The top of Good Hope and the Horn had a few different spots to watch out for wood wise. Best of luck! Thanks for everyone's input and advice, cant wait to get back in the fall.
Last edited:
