NORCAL HOT TOPICS

Eagle Lake set for fun and fishing BY ROBIN WADE/WON Staff WriterPublished: Jul 01, 2009

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SPALDING TRACT —This weekend’s holiday festivities will find many of the mountain lakes filled with happy campers and anglers and Eagle Lake will not be the exception. Not only have anglers been finding success and limits early in the morning, but this weekend is Project Eagle Lake Trout (P.E.L.T.) annual celebration and fundraiser. California Inland Fisheries Foundation, Inc. (CIFFI) will host a giant raffle, but the celebration starts in the morning on Saturday with the fire department’s parade, followed by a horseshoe tournament with divisions for all, and a band that night. Sunday’s activities will resume after the morning bite, and include the traditional pancake breakfast, fishing seminars and much more. Tim Noxon of Fish Traveler’s Guide Service said the weather has warmed up and the winds have died down, and in order to catch fish, you must adjust your fishing times and methods. “We are dropping our trolled baits in at first legal fishing time, one hour before sunrise. The bite has been outstanding until the sun hits the water, one hour later. Fishing from Pelican Point south along the west side of the lake, the trout we are hooking are running between 2 and 3 pounds. After the sun is on the water, I have been moving over to the east side of the lake, off Miner’s Bay, fishing in water from 20 to 45 feet deep, running our baits from 12 to 18 feet deep,” he said. Roger Keeling had one trip on the lake this past week, scoring a 5-pound, 7-ounce trout for Jim Dally of Paradise with a nightcrawler at Miner’s Point. Eagle Lake Charters’ Tim Miller said he, too, found excellent fishing this week, limiting out every day by 6 a.m. “Bobber fishing early produced good fish in 16 feet and about 8 feet down. The caddis hatch also produced great fly and trout teasers around 6-7 a.m. in the same area,” he said. Miller’s best areas were just south of Pelican Island on the west side, all the way down thru Shrimp Island. Mack attacks still on at Bucks Lake BY ROBIN WADE/WON Staff Writer QUINCY — The Mackinaw bite is still holding on at Bucks Lake, although the fish are more scattered, making them a little tougher to find and stay on. Find them, and you’ll find fish from 4 to 15 pounds. “I’ve been scoring 2 to 7 fish per trip including an 8 pounder caught while bottom trolling for trout on one of the Rogue 792 ultra light kokanee rods,” said Bryan Roccucci of of Big Daddy’s Guide Service of Quincey. “Talk about a big bend and an exciting battle.” “The Pro Troll Stingfish have been the tops, with several patterns all featuring chartreuse being the most productive,” said Roccucchi. The nice thing about Bucks Lake is that anglers are still catching fish down only 35 to 50 feet. “My most productive area has been the south side of the Bucks Creek channel. There has also been some pretty good action for browns and rainbows to 18 inches both in the Mill Creek arm as well as the Bucks Creek side,” he said. The fish have been hitting a variety of spoons trolled near the bottom with copper and red as well as red dot frog getting the most action. “The kokanee seem to have grown a bit this year already, with a good number of 12-inch fish being caught along with a few 13 inchers and it’s only June. My favorite combo of a watermelon dodger in front of an Uncle Larry’s Pink Tiger has been working well from 25 to 35 feet down.” For those of you counting, the addition of his latest fish has brought the boat’s total to whopping 549 pounds of fish for the season. Algae blooms starting early at Clear Lake BY ROBIN WADE/WON Staff Writer KELSEYVILLE — Massive algae blooms are taking over the Redbud and Rattlesnake arms of Clear Lake, as well as areas of the southern end, and anglers are searching out the clearer water to find bass. The algae has turned most of the two arms into a pea soup color, and where the wind is a constant, has packed it into a thick sludge, such as the Redbud launch ramp. Trying to stay in the clearer water has been one good way to stay on fish. “The size overall has consisted mostly of bass weighing in the 21⁄2- to 3-pound range. We’re hearing the average boat is catching 6 to 12 bass per day. Our recent trips have run between 20 and 30 fish for two anglers, mostly caught drop-shotting or using a flick shake worm around the weed beds on the north end of the lake,” said guide Ross England. Dave Brabec of Clearlake Outdoors said the weather keeps getting warmer and the fishing is getting slower. “Many anglers had a tough time this past week, with water temperatures up into the 70s, and the topwater bite has been on and off as well. WON BASS had a ‘swimbait only’ tournament here yesterday (Saturday) and it only took 17.87 pounds to win,” Brabec said. From the south end, Bob Koch of Southend Sportfishing said that end was still kicking out bass early and late in the day with Senkos and split-shot Robo Worms although the fish have been smaller, juveniles mostly, although a few up to 4 pounds were possible. “The crappie bite isn’t as good as it has been but decent numbers of fish up to 3 pounds are being taken still on the south end around docks and around shade. If you want crappie, you can find them,” he said. Medium-size minnows under a bobber or split-shotting them have been Koch’s best set up. Catfishing has been steady with one 22 pounder weighed in at Linger Longer Resort this past week, although the average has been 7 pounds. Koch said a combination of a shrimp/nightcrawler, and targeting them in the bays in 7 to 20 feet of water has turned a cool night into some hot action too. Delta shakers and takers on both sides but anglers are waiting for summer stripers BY ROBIN WADE/WON Staff Writer RIO VISTA —The water was clear enough this past week on the outgoing tides to troll for stripers, but it has warmed up to a very warm 74 degrees. Anglers are still looking and waiting for the “summer” stripers to show up in the Rio Vista area, and on the San Joaquin River side of the system, fewer sideliners were found, but the big ones were just that — big. “I went striper fishing with Dr. Bard and his grandson, Ari Bard, in the Rio Vista area doing a combo bait and trolling trip because of the big outgoing tide that day. We tried trolling in the Old Sac down to Decker Island with Yo-Zuri’s in shallow water for only one shaker striper. By mid-morning we switched over to bait fishing by the upper Decker Island. The butterflied shad caught us around 12 shaker stripers and 4 small keeper stripers to 4 pounds,” said striper guide Mark Wilson. These fish were small males, still spawning in the area. “We did not catch any bigger fish and only missed on really good bite. We trolled our way back to the launch area for one other small shaker striper and finished the day with about 14 shaker stripers and the 4 keepers. “I’m still looking and waiting for the ‘summer’ stripers to show up in the Rio Vista area.” Alan Parson from Gotcha Bait and Tackle in Stockton said the striper bite was finally picking up, but not many boats were out targeting them. “I heard they were catching them in Frank’s Tract, and the fish were from 18 to 22 inches, with lures,” Parson said. The Antioch Pier was an option as it has been consistent for larger fish, with 30-plus-inch stripers a day but for only 2 or 3 fish per day for the whole pier. “In the shallower flats around there is where a number of smaller fish have been,” he said. Parson said bass took topwater lures such as buzz baits for fish to 4 pounds but early in the morning. “Once the sun hits the water the bite turned off.”