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NORCAL FRESH STORIES: CLEAR LAKE anglers need to know new DFG regulations...more
WON STAFF WRITERSPublished: Mar 03, 2010
NORTHERN CAL WEEKLY LAKE REPORTS
BY ROBIN WADE/WON Staff Writer
KELSEYVILLE—Panfish anglers at Clear Lake found new limits on crappie and bluegill came into effect March 1, and bass anglers are looking forward to more settled weather and a move into tule beds by the bass.
The daily bag limit for sunfish has been reduced to 25 fish and incorporated into a combined bag limit of 25 bluegill and crappie of all species, something locals here at Clear Lake have wanted for a long time.
“When the crappie fishing was off the hook here, many of us locals believed that 25 crappie were too many. After all, they were not small fish, with average size was running around 12 inches,” said bass guide Ross England. “I can't tell you how many times I have seen people with literally buckets of fish when we had a good population of crappie. Now we don’t. Right now I believe the overall baitfish numbers in our lake; shad, silversides, juvenile bluegill, and juvenile crappie are lower than we have seen in years. Anything that supports the bluegill population making a positive gain is a good thing.”
“My fishing report is really a tale of two anglers," England said. "There is a group of anglers who are still struggling to catch four to seven fish a day, and then there is another group (primarily tournament competitors) who are catching up to 25 fish a day."
Successful anglers are catching fish on plastics, brush hogs, worms, and Senkos fished Texas-rigged, drop-shot, or wacky style, with docks and tules producing bites. “The guys who get into the right areas are doing well with 15 to 25 fish a day that average three pounds," he said. "Other successful anglers report catching fish on spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, and swimbaits, although all of these bites tend to be dependent on the day and even the time of day. A few anglers are also catching fish with jigs on offshore structure like the Glen Haven Reef.”
With a little more settled weather and water; look for more and better fish to start working their way into the tule beds. Once they are there, plastics like drop-shot worms, light c-rigged Creature Baits, and Senkos will be productive. “The big bite that everyone looks for in the prespawn, the swimbait bite, is really up and down. A very select few anglers are consistently catching a few good fish each day they try,” England said.
SHASTA BROWN trout and rainbows on a good bite as waters rise
BY ROBIN WADE/WON Staff Writer
REDDING—The bite came back after a series of storms passed through this past week at Lake Shasta, and brown and rainbow trout, salmon, and even the spotted bass bite showed good signs of things to come this spring. And the lake is still coming up about a foot a day, and by press time it was 43 feet from full pool and 93 feet higher than this time last year.
“I went fishing for German brown trout with Greg Perasso from Lakehead and we caught two browns and five rainbow trout,” said Ben Raimondi of Fish’in Comfort. Their browns weighed between 2 1/2 and 5 pounds, while their rainbow trout were just over 3 pounds.
“We went way up in the McCloud arm, as far up as we could go," he said. "The water is clearer in the Sac arm and it has more rock banks, which are where the browns spawn. They are returning now, and even with a full moon, it was a good day."
Raimondi said he was fishing 10 to 25 feet down and 150 to 200 feet behind the boat with a silver/blue Apex, and that a UV silver HumDinger also produced fish. “Both worked well throughout the day catching trout,” he said.
Bass pro Jeff Michels said he’d been fishing the upper Sacramento arm and had a tough day on Sunday, but said generally speaking, the bass fishing had been good. “I’ve been catching fish on Senkos and Mother’s Finest by starting shallow, going from the bank out to 40 feet,” he said.
Main lake points produced, but he had to go back and forth throughout the day as the fish were on the move and would be in close for awhile and then back out. “Bridge Bay, the mouth of Sac arm, and Arbuckle Flats were all good spots.”
"Water temperatures are in the low 50s now on warm days by the afternoon. The willows are coming in all around the lake now, too, and fish will be moving into them. That’s when the rip bait and spinnerbait bite will start to get in gear, when water reaches 54 or 55 degree,” Michels said. For now, start the day with swimbaits first thing in the morning and then switch to Senkos. “A 6-inch Osprey inline Talon is what I like to use.”
COLLINS LAKE receives its second trophy trout plant
BY PAT YOUNG/WON Staff Writer
OREGON HOUSE—Collins Lake received its second private plant of trophy-sized rainbows this season on February 25, and anglers are already reaping a harvest of 2- to 5-pound trout. Bass action is really starting to pick up too.
“Our last private plant arrived on February 25 and was made up of fish that weighed from 2 to 5 pounds,” said Mike Butler at Collins Lake Recreation Area. “Both trollers and shore anglers have been doing pretty well despite all the weather that’s come through this area this past week. Most of the trout are running 2 to 3 pounds and the biggest fish of the week was a 5 pounder caught by Ed Smith who was visiting from Vermont.”
Trollers have been successful with Rapalas, Cripplures and flasher/worm combos. Shore anglers have been doing best at the dam with Power Bait.
Bass action is starting to pick up, according to Kelly Jadg at Collins Lake Marina. “We went out after work this past week and my daughter caught a 3 pounder on a spinnerbait. My husband and I have done pretty well on brown worms.”
Gabriel Jupina used live crawdads in Elmer’s Cove to pick up a limit of nice bass this past Sunday. The bass all seem to be coming out of less than 10 feet of water.
BAY AREA'S San Pablo Reservoir producing whoppers and limits since opener
BY JIM JONES/WON Staff Writer
EL SOBRANTE—San Pablo Reservoir is open, and Marsha Garrett, San Pablo Recreation Area manager said anglers have been doing quite well on rainbow trout since plants have been kicked up.
“They’re catching limits and we’re seeing trout all over the place,” she said. “We planted 2,400 pounds of trout for the opener, and 380 pounds of those were whoppers. I put in 1,200 pounds this week, and we’ll be planting 1,200 pounds every week from now on. She said the water level is eight-tenths of capacity, the highest it’s been in years.
“We will be up to nine-tenths capacity when the work on the dam (to improve its ability to withstand earthquakes) is completed in two months.”
She said the water is “dark and murky” but in spite of that, anglers, even trollers are catching lots of fish. For example, Scott Pierce caught a 6-pound, 12.8-ounce rainbow at Farrell’s Landing on Power Bait, Paul Yazetian caught a whopper trout weighing 8 pounds, 4.8 ounces at Sandy Point on Power Bait, and then followed up on a 5-pound, 9.6-ounce spotted bass which Garrett thinks is a lake record. Yazetian wasn’t giving up any information on what he caught the big spot on or where.
Sandy Point, Bobber Beach, the Pines, Farrell’s Landing and the Main Rec have been some of the better spots. Private boat launches are allowed Thursday through Sunday from 7 a.m. to 1 hour before closing, currently 5 p.m.
FOLSOM LAKE cranking out trout, king salmon and bass
BY JIM JONES/WON Staff Writer
FOLSOM—This is really a great time of year to be fishing at Folsom Lake, and judging by the crowds over the weekend, lots of other folks have already figured that out.
Take your pick: Bank fishing around Brown’s Ravine and Granite Bay for trout, which are being planted alternatively at each spot every other week. Or try trolling with Speedy Shiners and small Rapalas for a mix of planter and holdover trout. And as a bonus, landlocked king salmon, too, which are something of a surprise, given no king salmon have been planted in Folsom since 2006.
This writer went on a morning fishing excursion with Jerry Lampkin of TNG Motorsport Fishing Guide Service to check out all the great reports coming from Folsom lately. And, son-of-a-gun, they are true! We landed eight fish, including four rainbows to 14 inches and four kings to 16 inches, plus losing several more in a few morning hours. They were taken both high—toplining—and low—from 20 to 30 feet deep on downriggers trolling from close to the ramp at Granite Bay across the lake to
Brown’s Ravine. Look for the On-the-spot with photos in an upcoming issue of WON along with what this writer found out about those mystery salmon.
As for the bass, while anglers’ success hasn’t been universal, some nice catches are being made of mostly spots and smallies. And, there definitely seems to be a pattern emerging—the fish are moving shallower as the water level comes up. Quite a few bass are now being caught in water as shallow as five feet deep. However, “slow” still seems to be the watchword when it comes to the key to success. Fishing soft plastics drop-shotting or shakey-heading seems to be bringing the most success.
OROVILLE RAMPS opening up with increased lake level
BY PAT YOUNG/WON Staff Writer
OROVILLE – With all the rain hitting the North State over the past few weeks, water levels at Lake Oroville have come up enough to put all three main ramps back into operation. Boat launching is now available at Bidwell Canyon, the Spillway and now Lime Saddle Marina.
Lime Saddle Marina’s boat ramp opened this past week and now offers launching to anglers coming in from Chico and regions north. The ramp at Bidwell opened last month and the Spillway ramp became operational a couple of weeks ago. The Lake Oroville Visitors Center reported that the water has come up enough to put the main ramp at Bidwell back into operation. This ramp has multiple lanes and a bigger parking lot for boaters. As the lake rises, all the ramps are designed to provide more lanes for launching.
Fishing at Lake Oroville has been good and will only get better as the water level increases. Over this past weekend, Anglers Choice was holding a Pro-Am tournament at the Spillway. The 92-boat event was being led with 14.75 pounds and a 5.78-pound big fish after the first day. Jim Spradlin at Feather River Outfitters pre-fished with one of the contestants mid-week and said they caught 20 to 25 fish on tubes, jigs, and dartheaded worms in browns and greens at 25 to 35 feet. Spradlin said that their best five fish weighed about 12 pounds.
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NORTHERN CAL WEEKLY LAKE REPORTS BY ROBIN WADE/WON Staff Writer KELSEYVILLE—Panfish anglers at Clear Lake found new limits on crappie and bluegill came into effect March 1, and bass anglers are looking forward to more settled weather and a move into tule beds by the bass. The daily bag limit for sunfish has been reduced to 25 fish and incorporated into a combined bag limit of 25 bluegill and crappie of all species, something locals here at Clear Lake have wanted for a long time. “When the crappie fishing was off the hook here, many of us locals believed that 25 crappie were too many. After all, they were not small fish, with average size was running around 12 inches,” said bass guide Ross England. “I can't tell you how many times I have seen people with literally buckets of fish when we had a good population of crappie. Now we don’t. Right now I believe the overall baitfish numbers in our lake; shad, silversides, juvenile bluegill, and juvenile crappie are lower than we have seen in years. Anything that supports the bluegill population making a positive gain is a good thing.” “My fishing report is really a tale of two anglers," England said. "There is a group of anglers who are still struggling to catch four to seven fish a day, and then there is another group (primarily tournament competitors) who are catching up to 25 fish a day." Successful anglers are catching fish on plastics, brush hogs, worms, and Senkos fished Texas-rigged, drop-shot, or wacky style, with docks and tules producing bites. “The guys who get into the right areas are doing well with 15 to 25 fish a day that average three pounds," he said. "Other successful anglers report catching fish on spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, and swimbaits, although all of these bites tend to be dependent on the day and even the time of day. A few anglers are also catching fish with jigs on offshore structure like the Glen Haven Reef.” With a little more settled weather and water; look for more and better fish to start working their way into the tule beds. Once they are there, plastics like drop-shot worms, light c-rigged Creature Baits, and Senkos will be productive. “The big bite that everyone looks for in the prespawn, the swimbait bite, is really up and down. A very select few anglers are consistently catching a few good fish each day they try,” England said. SHASTA BROWN trout and rainbows on a good bite as waters rise BY ROBIN WADE/WON Staff Writer REDDING—The bite came back after a series of storms passed through this past week at Lake Shasta, and brown and rainbow trout, salmon, and even the spotted bass bite showed good signs of things to come this spring. And the lake is still coming up about a foot a day, and by press time it was 43 feet from full pool and 93 feet higher than this time last year. “I went fishing for German brown trout with Greg Perasso from Lakehead and we caught two browns and five rainbow trout,” said Ben Raimondi of Fish’in Comfort. Their browns weighed between 2 1/2 and 5 pounds, while their rainbow trout were just over 3 pounds. “We went way up in the McCloud arm, as far up as we could go," he said. "The water is clearer in the Sac arm and it has more rock banks, which are where the browns spawn. They are returning now, and even with a full moon, it was a good day." Raimondi said he was fishing 10 to 25 feet down and 150 to 200 feet behind the boat with a silver/blue Apex, and that a UV silver HumDinger also produced fish. “Both worked well throughout the day catching trout,” he said. Bass pro Jeff Michels said he’d been fishing the upper Sacramento arm and had a tough day on Sunday, but said generally speaking, the bass fishing had been good. “I’ve been catching fish on Senkos and Mother’s Finest by starting shallow, going from the bank out to 40 feet,” he said. Main lake points produced, but he had to go back and forth throughout the day as the fish were on the move and would be in close for awhile and then back out. “Bridge Bay, the mouth of Sac arm, and Arbuckle Flats were all good spots.” "Water temperatures are in the low 50s now on warm days by the afternoon. The willows are coming in all around the lake now, too, and fish will be moving into them. That’s when the rip bait and spinnerbait bite will start to get in gear, when water reaches 54 or 55 degree,” Michels said. For now, start the day with swimbaits first thing in the morning and then switch to Senkos. “A 6-inch Osprey inline Talon is what I like to use.” COLLINS LAKE receives its second trophy trout plant BY PAT YOUNG/WON Staff Writer OREGON HOUSE—Collins Lake received its second private plant of trophy-sized rainbows this season on February 25, and anglers are already reaping a harvest of 2- to 5-pound trout. Bass action is really starting to pick up too. “Our last private plant arrived on February 25 and was made up of fish that weighed from 2 to 5 pounds,” said Mike Butler at Collins Lake Recreation Area. “Both trollers and shore anglers have been doing pretty well despite all the weather that’s come through this area this past week. Most of the trout are running 2 to 3 pounds and the biggest fish of the week was a 5 pounder caught by Ed Smith who was visiting from Vermont.” Trollers have been successful with Rapalas, Cripplures and flasher/worm combos. Shore anglers have been doing best at the dam with Power Bait. Bass action is starting to pick up, according to Kelly Jadg at Collins Lake Marina. “We went out after work this past week and my daughter caught a 3 pounder on a spinnerbait. My husband and I have done pretty well on brown worms.” Gabriel Jupina used live crawdads in Elmer’s Cove to pick up a limit of nice bass this past Sunday. The bass all seem to be coming out of less than 10 feet of water. BAY AREA'S San Pablo Reservoir producing whoppers and limits since opener
BY JIM JONES/WON Staff Writer EL SOBRANTE—San Pablo Reservoir is open, and Marsha Garrett, San Pablo Recreation Area manager said anglers have been doing quite well on rainbow trout since plants have been kicked up. “They’re catching limits and we’re seeing trout all over the place,” she said. “We planted 2,400 pounds of trout for the opener, and 380 pounds of those were whoppers. I put in 1,200 pounds this week, and we’ll be planting 1,200 pounds every week from now on. She said the water level is eight-tenths of capacity, the highest it’s been in years. “We will be up to nine-tenths capacity when the work on the dam (to improve its ability to withstand earthquakes) is completed in two months.” She said the water is “dark and murky” but in spite of that, anglers, even trollers are catching lots of fish. For example, Scott Pierce caught a 6-pound, 12.8-ounce rainbow at Farrell’s Landing on Power Bait, Paul Yazetian caught a whopper trout weighing 8 pounds, 4.8 ounces at Sandy Point on Power Bait, and then followed up on a 5-pound, 9.6-ounce spotted bass which Garrett thinks is a lake record. Yazetian wasn’t giving up any information on what he caught the big spot on or where. Sandy Point, Bobber Beach, the Pines, Farrell’s Landing and the Main Rec have been some of the better spots. Private boat launches are allowed Thursday through Sunday from 7 a.m. to 1 hour before closing, currently 5 p.m. FOLSOM LAKE cranking out trout, king salmon and bass BY JIM JONES/WON Staff Writer FOLSOM—This is really a great time of year to be fishing at Folsom Lake, and judging by the crowds over the weekend, lots of other folks have already figured that out. Take your pick: Bank fishing around Brown’s Ravine and Granite Bay for trout, which are being planted alternatively at each spot every other week. Or try trolling with Speedy Shiners and small Rapalas for a mix of planter and holdover trout. And as a bonus, landlocked king salmon, too, which are something of a surprise, given no king salmon have been planted in Folsom since 2006.This writer went on a morning fishing excursion with Jerry Lampkin of TNG Motorsport Fishing Guide Service to check out all the great reports coming from Folsom lately. And, son-of-a-gun, they are true! We landed eight fish, including four rainbows to 14 inches and four kings to 16 inches, plus losing several more in a few morning hours. They were taken both high—toplining—and low—from 20 to 30 feet deep on downriggers trolling from close to the ramp at Granite Bay across the lake to Brown’s Ravine. Look for the On-the-spot with photos in an upcoming issue of WON along with what this writer found out about those mystery salmon. As for the bass, while anglers’ success hasn’t been universal, some nice catches are being made of mostly spots and smallies. And, there definitely seems to be a pattern emerging—the fish are moving shallower as the water level comes up. Quite a few bass are now being caught in water as shallow as five feet deep. However, “slow” still seems to be the watchword when it comes to the key to success. Fishing soft plastics drop-shotting or shakey-heading seems to be bringing the most success. OROVILLE RAMPS opening up with increased lake level BY PAT YOUNG/WON Staff Writer OROVILLE – With all the rain hitting the North State over the past few weeks, water levels at Lake Oroville have come up enough to put all three main ramps back into operation. Boat launching is now available at Bidwell Canyon, the Spillway and now Lime Saddle Marina. Lime Saddle Marina’s boat ramp opened this past week and now offers launching to anglers coming in from Chico and regions north. The ramp at Bidwell opened last month and the Spillway ramp became operational a couple of weeks ago. The Lake Oroville Visitors Center reported that the water has come up enough to put the main ramp at Bidwell back into operation. This ramp has multiple lanes and a bigger parking lot for boaters. As the lake rises, all the ramps are designed to provide more lanes for launching. Fishing at Lake Oroville has been good and will only get better as the water level increases. Over this past weekend, Anglers Choice was holding a Pro-Am tournament at the Spillway. The 92-boat event was being led with 14.75 pounds and a 5.78-pound big fish after the first day. Jim Spradlin at Feather River Outfitters pre-fished with one of the contestants mid-week and said they caught 20 to 25 fish on tubes, jigs, and dartheaded worms in browns and greens at 25 to 35 feet. Spradlin said that their best five fish weighed about 12 pounds. |
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