I got a late start out of Flagstaff on Friday, July 28 and after a launch
from the Antelope ramp, a houseboat stop at Wahweap, and an ice cream float
stop at Dangling Rope, I was on my way to the San Juan after not seeing much
in the way of boils anywhere except for some "burps" here and there between
buoys 2 & 3 in the narrows by the dam. I finally ran into boils in Cha
Canyon Bay at 11:25 and was on them for 3 hours before they went down for
good. These were mostly just solid 3-4 lb fish that fought well, no dinks
but no big ones either. My boil baits as pictured were a KVD 'sexy shad'
with a weight strip on it to throw it further, a big 'whopper plopper',
again for distance but that lure worked best in the middle of the feeding
frenzy as it seemed to scare the outside single fish, and a 3/4 oz
Rattletrap that could cast a mile and either be retrieved quickly near the
surface or counted down to depth once the boil went down. I could always
catch at least 2 or 3 fish from each boil before they'd go down so these
fish were very cooperative! Good weather conditions of no wind and light
boat traffic along with high clouds made for almost ideal conditions
although it was still pretty hot to start with. The clouds lowered coming
down off Navajo Mountain and cooled things off and it looked like it would
only get better but the bite faded out by 2:30. Although the boils were only
25-50 fish groups, they were very numerous in a half mile circle with 5-6
different groups at all times. I wonder how long they'd been going before I
got there???
When the boils died I ran on up to the Neskahi Wash area and the smallies
welcomed me to their party with 12 fish for 12 cast to start on a 'Ned Rig'
and another 25 before the wind came out of nowhere at 4 to go from flat
water to whitecaps in a matter of minutes and the bite shut down. With the
rain and wind I decided to make a slow run back to Wahweap and check a few
places out on the way. With the 2-3 waves most of the way back I lost
interest in breaking out the trolling rods but did find a few fish on spoons
here and there.
I did get an early start on Sat morning but had some wind that wasn't
conducive to prime boil conditions so I decided to just work the southern
end of the lake and headed for the Padre Bay area, but with a slow drive
through I saw nothing on top so I headed over to the Buoy 25 wall and found
a few small boils that would go down quickly after one fish was caught. I
left here and went into Face Canyon without seeing anything before going
over to Dove Canyon and finding a side cut with little wind and some willing
stripers on top as well as some on spoons at 25-30', along with a fat cat,
(see pic) and a couple of the smallest bass I've ever caught! (see pics)
From Dove I headed over to Friendship Cove at 8 AM and was surprised to pass
over several small groups on top in the boat traffic/rougher water (buoy 31
area) but they'd go down quickly. Friendship only produced a few spoon fish
deeper and one quality LM bass on a TRD (see pic) up very shallow. A few
other small spoon fish on my way back in and I was headed back to Flag at
11:30.
Sam Sherwood
Mesa & Flag, AZ
from the Antelope ramp, a houseboat stop at Wahweap, and an ice cream float
stop at Dangling Rope, I was on my way to the San Juan after not seeing much
in the way of boils anywhere except for some "burps" here and there between
buoys 2 & 3 in the narrows by the dam. I finally ran into boils in Cha
Canyon Bay at 11:25 and was on them for 3 hours before they went down for
good. These were mostly just solid 3-4 lb fish that fought well, no dinks
but no big ones either. My boil baits as pictured were a KVD 'sexy shad'
with a weight strip on it to throw it further, a big 'whopper plopper',
again for distance but that lure worked best in the middle of the feeding
frenzy as it seemed to scare the outside single fish, and a 3/4 oz
Rattletrap that could cast a mile and either be retrieved quickly near the
surface or counted down to depth once the boil went down. I could always
catch at least 2 or 3 fish from each boil before they'd go down so these
fish were very cooperative! Good weather conditions of no wind and light
boat traffic along with high clouds made for almost ideal conditions
although it was still pretty hot to start with. The clouds lowered coming
down off Navajo Mountain and cooled things off and it looked like it would
only get better but the bite faded out by 2:30. Although the boils were only
25-50 fish groups, they were very numerous in a half mile circle with 5-6
different groups at all times. I wonder how long they'd been going before I
got there???
When the boils died I ran on up to the Neskahi Wash area and the smallies
welcomed me to their party with 12 fish for 12 cast to start on a 'Ned Rig'
and another 25 before the wind came out of nowhere at 4 to go from flat
water to whitecaps in a matter of minutes and the bite shut down. With the
rain and wind I decided to make a slow run back to Wahweap and check a few
places out on the way. With the 2-3 waves most of the way back I lost
interest in breaking out the trolling rods but did find a few fish on spoons
here and there.
I did get an early start on Sat morning but had some wind that wasn't
conducive to prime boil conditions so I decided to just work the southern
end of the lake and headed for the Padre Bay area, but with a slow drive
through I saw nothing on top so I headed over to the Buoy 25 wall and found
a few small boils that would go down quickly after one fish was caught. I
left here and went into Face Canyon without seeing anything before going
over to Dove Canyon and finding a side cut with little wind and some willing
stripers on top as well as some on spoons at 25-30', along with a fat cat,
(see pic) and a couple of the smallest bass I've ever caught! (see pics)
From Dove I headed over to Friendship Cove at 8 AM and was surprised to pass
over several small groups on top in the boat traffic/rougher water (buoy 31
area) but they'd go down quickly. Friendship only produced a few spoon fish
deeper and one quality LM bass on a TRD (see pic) up very shallow. A few
other small spoon fish on my way back in and I was headed back to Flag at
11:30.
Sam Sherwood
Mesa & Flag, AZ
