Last week the weather patterns around San Luis were typical spring with 15-20 MPH winds all weekend long as the slow moving high pressure moved in to displace the last storm systems. This weekend, the winds were gone and the entire day was calm with less than 5mph all day. Vaughn’s fishing report from two days ago was not promising for the weekend.
Pretty slow day for me yesterday on the Forebay. Arrived around 9:00 am with the wind blowing out of the west and putting up a good chop. My first stop was the north island where I was able to drift with the wind and cast/retrieve, but did not mark fish. Went to the ditch and used the same method to cover the deep water (15-23 feet). Marked a few fish, got a couple of grabs but could did not hook-up. Moved in to 10-15 feet with a similar result. I was using the 7 weight with the T-11 head and the white/chartreuse/brown craft fur fly that had been catching fish well the last 3-4 outings.
The wind died around noon and I moved to the area between the south island and the shore (8-12 feed deep under the power lines) and marked a few fish, then got a couple of half-hearted grabs. Changing to the six weight rod and the smallest chartreuse/white craft fur fly finally convinced a striper to eat and hold on. I caught another 3-4 in the shallow water on the little fly over the next hour or so. When the wind came up out of the north and ruffled the surface, I moved out to deeper water again, thinking the chop might improve the bite–it did, but not much: I changed back to the 7 weight rig and got another 2-3 using the white/chartreuse/brown craft fur fly. I missed a couple, as well.
I tried the channel from the power lines down to the 152 bridge, but only found one LMB, which came off at the boat. I did not try Madeiros or the inflow. I put the boat on the trailer around 3:00 o’clock.
Overall, my slowest day on the Forebay this year. I never found any good sized groups of bait or fish, shallow or deep. It seemed if my fly swam in front of a striper, he would eat it, but it was blind casting in the strictest sense, considering I never marked a significant aggregation of stripers and bait. Thinking of trying the big lake with Wayman tomorrow.
The Solonar table for April 2, 2016 was pretty bad and with no wind on the water, I expected a pretty bad day and even contemplated fishing the Lake for a Big one, but I spent the week tying some small Fish Mask rear weighted darting flies that I want to try on on some picky fish. Also , I have been experimenting with Popovic’s Flex Fleyes. The fish were picky and not biting aggressively. I managed to find some schools in 12-20 feet of water and pounding then with flies I managed 15 for the day . Most of the fish were nice sized fish 18-22 inches and fought really hard. The flies were great. The rear weighted craft fur fish mask flies in a size 1/0 -2 were great and darted all over the place. Out of curiosity, I put a pulse disk on one and it still darted. The pulse disk actually made both flies dart even more on the pause. The Flex Fleyes look more like a San Luis Smelt that any other fly I have, but the synthetic fibers don’t move much. I think Ill try to tied them with craft fur to get more action on the flies. I caught fish on both flies but I think they can be improved. Most of the fish today were in 14 feet of water and on the Wall at Mederious. I fished the islands and the shallow flats looking for fish with no luck. I came in early today at 1:00 to find Vaughn launching after fishing the lake this morning. He fished all the regular places on the lake without even a bite. That changes my plans to fish it tomorrow. I think Ill stay home and get ready for Henderson Springs on Monday.
Vaughn texted me that they managed to get 10 in the forebay after I left. Not a bad day.
