This year I’ve been chasing boils on a regular basis. When you find them, the action is fast and furious, and as I wrote in a recent blog, “Seeing It Makes It More Exciting,” the visual aspect is phenomenal.
A boil is a situation where a school of predatory fish attacks a school of “bait” fish, pushing them to the surface. Often the pursued fish jump out of the water to avoid being dinner. In some cases, birds, particularly gulls, spot the activity and join in, attacking from above.
Colorado boils are far less extensive than those in saltwater. White bass, a cousin of stripers, and wipers are well known to bust baitfish, creating boils. Largemouth and smallmouth bass will occasionally form bait busting schools. I’ve even run into cases where large schools of bluegill boil at the surface in pursuit of a meal. While lure and fly selection is often important when fishing, with boils you can often throw most any fly or lure that’s close in size to the bait and you’ll get bit.
Sound easy? Yes and no. Under some conditions no matter what the angler does they’ll catch fish. However, that’s rarely the case. Will a little forethought and preparation you can increase your odds of encountering boils and taking advantage of them.
Be prepared and make an effort to be on the water when conditions are right. It’s good to know what baitfish exist in the reservoir. They need to be plentiful open water schooling fish and large enough to attack attention, fish from 1 to 4 inches or so, and an . For shad and shiners that often occurs mid-summer into the fall. Learning a bit about baitfish and where they’re likely to be will assist you in catching their predators. Find the prey and rest assured the predators will be close. Of course the lake needs a healthy population of white bass, black bass, wiper or other predatory fish.
Once you’ve determined a lake has the potential to produce boils (bait and predators) fish when there’s a high probability of activity, for many waters that’s early or late in the day, especially when conditions are calm, low wind and/or boat traffic. Reports of boils and prior history are also help peg when to be on the watch for boils.
Predicting where the boils will occur isn’t easy, especially if you don’t have a history with the lake you’re fishing. Locating schools of baitfish is a good start, but not always possible. Actively feeding fish, no matter the species, is a good indicator. Many times I’ll fish for alternate species while looking for boils. If nothings biting, I move on, if I’m catching, especially the target species, I stick close. Actively feeding birds, such as herons or grebes, is another clue as to where the action may start. The presence of gulls, especially if they’re sitting on the water, or flying around looking is a good sign. However, if they’re snoozing on the shore, I don’t give their presence much weight.
Many folks use feeding gulls as their primary means of locating boils. I watch for feeding gulls, but find that being in an area where boils are likely and scanning for them is more productive. Often I spot boils before the gulls, especially smaller ones. When scanning for boils, don’t look directly at the water, rather look to the horizon and trust your eyes to pick up disturbances. Once you spot a boil, now the fun begins.
If you’ve positioned yourself well, you often can reach the boil using your trolling motor, this is best. If you have to make a longer run, come off plane early such that you’re several casts from the boil and move in with the trolling motor. You only want to be close enough to be able to cast the boils edges, hopefully picking off fish without disturbing the action. How close you get should be determined by the worst caster. Let them make the first cast when he feels close enough, then kill the trolling motor and all cast.
Running into a boil typically put it down permanently. You scatter the bait, fish, and birds. It’s rare the boil will start anew when you do that. However, if you hold off it, make long casts, often you can land several fish from a boil. Even if it does quit, it’ll often start anew close as the fish (bait and predator) haven’t been spooked. Many times the fish will erupt closer to the boat than I’d stopped. Point is, take it easy and you’ll have better action than the gun-n-run boys.
Please, respect others. If someone is on a boil, let them have it, do not run into it on plane and drop in on top the water they’re fishing. I’ll tolerate a boat that comes in slowly, especially if they talk with me. Gun-n-run on me and you’ll hear about it. Do that on the east coast saltwater and you’re boat will likely develop a serious leak!
Finally, when you’re successful chasing boils you’ll catch a lot of fish, great eating fish. Keep what you need for a meal, release the rest. As they say, limit your kill rather than killing your limit. That we’ll have boils to fish all season long.
