July 27, 2006 |
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Stripers are boiling at Hite ! Young stripers are boiling near the inflowing waters of the Colorado and San Juan Rivers. The center of surface feeding activity is from Good Hope Bay to Hite in the Colorado Arm and from Neskahi Bay to the Great Bend in the San Juan. Boil action should remain strong for the next two weeks until nights get bright in mid August. Fish size is a factor. Unprecedented survival of striped bass last year created an excess of yearlings all competing for the new shad crop. Young stripers range from 8-15 inches. Although small in size, yearlings feed voraciously making the experience rewarding for anglers who prefer surface fishing. Boils last over an hour and catches of 30 or more fish are common. Yearlings are the highest quality table fare and are the preferred target for those harvesting fish to eat. Larger adults are catchable but are trapped in the cool water 30 feet down. When yearlings are surface feeding, larger stripers are cruising below waiting for injured shad to fall. If bigger fish are desired, find a boil and drop spoons below the surface feeding activity to catch stripers up to 6 pounds. It is possible to fish boils for a while and then drop spoons for a change of pace. Catching is quick for both techniques. Boils are occurring lakewide. Frequency and duration increase with proximity to the inflowing river water, but boils could happen anywhere. Schools of adult stripers are traveling main channel walls and are easy prey for bait fishermen. Find a prominent point extending into the main channel where the dominant habitat is sheer cliff walls. The sloping point draws stripers who probe the broken rock structure looking for crayfish. Anchovy bait is readily accepted by hungry adults who are separated from shad by the warm temperature barrier. Bass are feeding around boiling stripers and can be caught on surface lures and shallow running jerk baits immediately after the boil has subsided. When no boils are present, bass are consistently found at depths of 20-30 feet. Fish plastic crayfish imitating grubs and tubes on the breaking edge of rocky structure for best results. Open water or mid channel reefs are excellent smallmouth bass habitat. Use green and brown plastic to best imitate crayfish coloration. Bluegill are very active along the brushy shoreline. Larger sunfish are often at the magical 25 foot depth with bass. It is possible to find a school of bluegill while bass fishing and then increase the sunfish catch by using pieces of live worm on small hooks. Catfishing is good on sandy beaches in the evening and after dark. |