San Juan, Main channel Report

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Tytypie

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We went to the San Juan area from June 9-13. Water temp averaged 74 deg. Outside air temp 100-103 F. Windy the first two days, calm the last few. Water exceptionally clear.
We fished with Ned Rigs and caught many smallmouth bass, and generally were the biggest size we ever caught. The best color was white with a red jig head.
The first 2 days were windy and we did not see many Stripper slurps, but when the wind died down we were able to fish the slurps. We normally used Rapala X-raps in blue shad color but the white with a red jig head Ned rig caught just as many. The most slurps were around the San Juan entering the main channel bay but we saw a lot of slurps in the RinCon area as well. We went up the Escalante one day and did not see any slurps.
Our best Stripper spot was fishing with anchovies at the west wall of the San Juan at the main channel. The depth was about 60-70 feet at 4pm in the afternoon and about 30-40 ft toward late evening. As soon as you hit the right depth you had a hookup. Usually we had 3 on at the same time. The males were full of sperm and the females full of eggs. All were quite healthy and sizeable. Surprisingly, with new 8lb florocarbon and drag set correctly, we had two very big fish break our lines. I say big fish as the fishing poles were bent all the way down to the base handle and the pole tip was entering the water as they made their run.
On a side note:
We saw a donkey at Neski canyon.
We had 10-12 desert bighorn come down to our camping spot. Incredible how they came down what looked like impossible shear walls.
And I know what a buzzard looks like, but I saw a very large black bird with a rectangular wing planform (all black wing feathers vs the gray wing feathers of a buzzard) fly overhead. I speculate it may of been a California Condor.
And I learned that with all the sharp mussels shells now in the water everywhere, I can no longer walk with bare feet into the water. I have about 5 deep cuts on both feet.
 

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Where a buzzard (turkey vulture) has bi-colored gray/black wings, a condor has even whiter feathers instead of gray.

Maybe it was a golden eagle?
 
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