Los Banos, CA (November 26, 2025) — San Luis Reservoir has come up 15’ since 11/13/25 as the input of water from the latest storms has reached as high 18,000 acre feet on some days- pushing the storage volume up to 1,224,000 acre feet on 11/24. The rapid filling of the lake has caused the reaction bite to go from good one day to difficult the next. Trollers are getting limits of school sized fish to 26” working the Portuguese Cove area , as well as flats to 70’ in the main lake -with everything from Rapalas, Smithwicks, Lucky Crafts and Arigs . Jigs and spoons have also been an on and off kind of bite. Fog is becoming a bigger issue now as it is hanging over and on the lake at times.
Anglers need to use extreme caution in the heavy fog while making the left hand turn at the Dinosaur Point exit on 152 . The speed of the oncoming eastbound traffic in the low visibility makes it a dangerous turn . Many fishermen are going a couple miles downhill – heading west- and taking the turnabout near Bell station – then heading back up the 152 to exit safely at Dinosaur.
Water temps are running around 65 to 66 degrees and the visibility is around 4-5’ in some areas.
The top area has been the Portuguese Cove / Lone Oak flats for the past week – with some boils and topwater action early. Covering ground to find active fish remains a good tactic.
I took out a grandpa and his 15 yr old grandson on Monday and only fished 5 hours due to early and late fog. We released 10 schoolfish from 20-24” trolling Lucky Craft’s over flats on the western side of the lake at 2 mph over 60-80’ depths.
The forecast looks good for the week and into the weekend with a possibility for a storm later. My top pick for success would be to troll a stick bait in Shad colors over 70-80’ flats.
Never give up!
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