NORCAL FRESH REPORTS

FRESH UPDATE: Antelope Reservoir — what the locals know — lots of fish! BY ROBIN WADE/WON Staff Writer BY ROBIN WADE/WON Staff WriterPublished: Jul 28, 2010

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NORTHERN CAL WEEKLY SALT UPDATE Western Outdoor News TAYLORSVILLE — Located in the northern Sierras in Plumas County, Antelope Reservoir is a local favorite, although it doesn’t see a lot of fishing pressure. It’s a great place to go camping, but anglers can catch 40 or more trout a day here, and it’s time WON readers were let in on the secret. “I had two guide trips there this past week,” said Roger Keeling from Roger’s Guide Service. “The rainbow and brook trout are a nice size here, as well as Eagle Lake planters from last year. Once you learn how to fish it, this can be a very good lake,” Keeling said. This past week, sizes of the rainbows went to 21⁄2 pounds, holdover fish were running to 20 inches and brookies to 13 inches. “Trolling here. we caught 40 to 60 fish in a few hours on flies I made up. but you can also use Rapalas, a flasher/worm, or several colors of Needlefish from the surface down to 15 feet and there were still some fish rising. You don’t have to fish deep here, but when it gets hot, the cove in front of the dam has deeper and cooler water,” he said. There is a fee for launching here. but good shoreline action can be found near the dam where the steep drop offs are with Power Bait with an egg or two. Fly anglers also fish in the mouth and the first mile below the dam of Indian Creek, as waters are cooler and more oxygenated for wild brown trout. “There are also large and smallmouth bass here. Fish summer patterns for bass with surface lures, Zara Spooks are good or get into the weed lines with Senkos. And there’s crappie and Sun River perch (remember limit of 25 now) and big blue and bullhead catfish in the shallower coves. Eagle Lake trout settle into summer setting BY ROBIN WADE/WON Staff Writer SPALDING TRACT — As the waters started to warm up on Eagle Lake, the trout scattered from the shallows where they were feeding very early in the mornings and the bite got tough. Fishing is back to being very good now though, as fish have moved into their summer months bite pattern and the bite stabilized. Both trolling and slip bobber fishing have provided limits or near limit fishing all week. “The summer bite pattern is an early morning affair, so anglers that are hitting the water early have the best chances,” said Tim Noxon of Fish Traveler Guide Service. “Successful trollers are using 2-inch watermelon grubs or red/gold spoons at 25 to 30 feet deep in water that is 50 to 60 feet deep. Slow trolling is best with the average speed being 1 mph,” Noxon said. The best areas now are on the east side and good trolling spots included Miners Bay, and the Eagles Nest areas. “The majority being caught are being taken between 5:00 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. so get out early,” he said. “The bite has changed a lot since last week,” said Ron Beck from Flying Eagle Guide Service and Taxidermy. “Dave Evans from Corning and Jacob Vervalin of Susanville both had their limits by 7 a.m. We started slip bobber fishing at 5:10 a.m. half way between Miners Point and Eagles Nest in 50 feet of water with the nightcrawler 25 to 28 feet down,” Beck said. As usual a nightcrawler with Garlic Gravy was a winning combination. Evens and Vervalin fished both Saturday and Sunday (today) with fish weighing 2 to 21⁄2 pounds. “We saw a lot of nets out and it looked like we weren’t the only ones catching fish this week.” Anglers still making limits at Berryessa but pulling the cork hasn’t helped BY ROBIN WADE/WON Staff Writer NAPA —Berryessa is still fishing very well for kokes, although a little slow at times due to fluctuating water levels, but anglers are still getting limits. The problem has been that the water has been dropping each day, so there are a few slow days followed by the fish getting back into the swing of things. Then they pull the cork out of the dam, there goes all that water and the bite slows again. “I had three trips this past week and found the kokes to be in good shape and with all of their scales still,” said Troy Barr of T-Roy’s Guide Service. “On the first trip we started out in front of the Ranch House with good results and then fished all the deep water in front of the Big Island for 10 fish and lost 8 by 1 p.m. It was a spinner and tube bite Tuesday and the colors were Uncle Larry’s spinners in copper orange, Too Hot and Hot Belly or RGTs in red and blue,” he said. Barr had fish from 15 to 20 inches that day with his youngest reeling in his personal best at 20 inches. The best scent again was Pro-Cure’s Herring and Sockeye Slayer gel. The next day the bite was a lot faster and Barr had hookups right off with 10 fish in the box in three hours and 6 lost by that time. “They wanted RMT Hyper Plaid and Bahama dodgers and Uncle Larry’s spinners in Pink Tiger, Blue Tiger and Mad Irishman that day. Our best depth was 48 to 56 feet deep going 1.5 to 1.7 on the GPS, but it was hard to keep the right speed because of the high winds out of the south.” His last trip produced good results for fish over 19 inches and a few smaller ones as well. “We fished from the Ranch to Goat in the morning and ended up over the channel for the last ones that day.