Could not resist the "perfect fall weather forecast" and a clear calendar for three days to I head back to the upper San Juan for probably my last trip of '16. The weather turned out perfect 68 high, 50 low and little wind for all 4 days (including travel). Camped the same spot as in October so setting up camp was about as easy as it can be. Quickly went to the Great Bend area and fished the 35'-20' depths trolling....though picked up a few jigging. Which is not easy to do when you are fishing two trolling poles already. Fished one braided line and one leaded line both with divers--a Lucky Craft ghost chartruse pointer (10') and a Rapala diver in dark black/green translucent. Took all of 3 minutes to get first hit. The leaded started off 3 to 1 over the evening but they about equaled out over the trip. Most fish were 3 to 5#, fiesty and healthy. Broke a number of hook rings on very tough fish....lots of ongoing repairs. Caught one walleye of about 3.5-4# and half of him made a great dinner that night. Also caught a very large crappie on a trolling lure....go figure. total of about 85 fish. Overall a very successful trip and there's still time for someone to get up there and nail the ones that didn't find my lures. There were a couple other camps up there fishing also and all were catching fish....some fished mostly in 20'-15' water and did well too.
Chuck Fulton
Chuck Fulton
