I was hoping to spend a week around Keystone earlier this winter, but that last cold blast changed any plans of that. I have a buddy that lives down in New Mexico that told me about Navajo Dam. I have fished that area years before for trout. The San Juan river is the tailwater to Navajo, but I have trout at home. I wanted pike.
The haul was just shy of 1k miles. I was able to stop along the way and visit with family, enjoy my brother's 40th birthday, and find some open water with warm(er) weather.
I learned a lot about pike fishing this lake. In the past, I have fished lakes with a good population of weeds and such, so finding pike was pretty easy. This lake had none. Water temps started at 41, and moved up to 48 by the week's end. Flats that would hold fish were hard to find with the low water, but some fish were touched. Fishing super slow was the ticket, and I got a good bit of bites when the line was paused.....having to watch the line for the slightest movement was key to finding nibbles. In hind sight, I should have spent a bit of time looking for smallies, but hind sight is 20/20.
First pike of 2021.
The haul was just shy of 1k miles. I was able to stop along the way and visit with family, enjoy my brother's 40th birthday, and find some open water with warm(er) weather.
I learned a lot about pike fishing this lake. In the past, I have fished lakes with a good population of weeds and such, so finding pike was pretty easy. This lake had none. Water temps started at 41, and moved up to 48 by the week's end. Flats that would hold fish were hard to find with the low water, but some fish were touched. Fishing super slow was the ticket, and I got a good bit of bites when the line was paused.....having to watch the line for the slightest movement was key to finding nibbles. In hind sight, I should have spent a bit of time looking for smallies, but hind sight is 20/20.
First pike of 2021.