Lake Chabot Fishing Report 7/26/11

General Conditions

Trout fishing is starting to slow down a lot with all this warm weather but bass, catfish and bluegill are getting more active. We’ve been receiving catfish plants since 6-20-11 from Bundy’s fish hatchery and Mt. Lassen will take over the plants for the rest of the season. Water level is about 4 feet from spillway and it’s been staying constant. When you bring in your big fish we’ll get your picture and give a “Lake Chabot Whopper Club” hat. Water temperature consistently remains in the low 70’s. If you have any questions please call or visit the marina.

Bass

Bass fishing is picking up with several bass getting caught daily. With this warm weather bass are hitting mostly in the mornings and evenings. Most of the anglers are throwing Senko’s and dropshots to get the fish to come out from their close to shoreline structure. Several reports of bass were getting caught over by raccoon point and bass cove by using top water lures in the morning and plastic lures off the bottom in the afternoon.  Livewells can be provided upon request thanks to Walton’s pond.  Please practice catch and release for bass, as they are not stocked into the lake and their population depends on you.

Trout

This week the weather is warming up a little so fishing for trout will be a little slow. For all the trollers out there make sure you put on a lure that dives deeper than 15 feet.  Indian Cove has been staying pretty consistent pulling out several fish during the early morning using mostly powerbait and powereggs. Drift fishing is also another good way to pull out trout, especially back by the dam to half moon bay. Look forward to better trout fishing when the water temperature cools down a little. We will not get any more trout plants until late September early October.

Catfish

The weather is warming up and so is the catfish bite. We’ve received 3,000lbs of catfish so far this season but most of the fish being caught right now are holdovers from past stocks. Last week Mt. Lassen put in 500lbs. of catfish into Lake Chabot and will do another plant later on this upcoming week. People are starting to catch good numbers of catfish but they haven’t been on the larger side. Current hotspot for catfish is back in honker bay, raccoon point and bass cove. The first dock at night will be great spot to fish for catfish, so make sure to come out early and claim your spot. Using mackerel and anchovies have been a great bait to help anglers catch their limits and the less weight you can get away with the better.

Lake Camanche Fishing Report 7/26/11

General Conditions

Lake Camanche is 96% full & the water temperature is 75 degrees.

Trout

Ron Berhorst, a Camanche resident caught 10 trout this last week near Hat Island using green powerbait in about 40 feet of water. South shore also reported to have numerous trout catches along the dam. Anglers are reporting using chartreuse and green powerbaits. Both bank fishing and trolling are still producing decent catches.

Bass

No bass reports this week.

Catfish

No reports of catfish being caught this week.

Los Vaqueros Reservoir Fishing Report 7/26/11

29.09lb Catfish Caught By Van Pham at Los Vaqueros Reservoir

General Conditions

We did not have many changes in fishing conditions this week as anglers fishing with bait continued to score nice numbers of striped bass! Most of the bass caught range in size from 6lbs to 12lbs. Most of these fish are being caught on anchovies or shad. Trolling for stripers has slowed way down but a few anglers continue to catch fish on rattle traps and other minnow like lures. Best shore spots for stripers include the mouth of the south cove, oak point and the point between the 2 piers. Anglers fishing with bait from boats are catching stripers in sunken oak and peninsula coves.

Water conditions for fishing are still good. The water temperature is between 70 and 72 degrees at the 5 foot depth. The water temperature around 40 feet is 68 degrees.

Our water level is currently at 49%. The reservoir has been drawn down to for the Dam expansion work that started in March. The South entrance to the watershed remains open for fishing and other recreational activities.

Trout

Trout are receiving very light pressure as most anglers are going after striped bass. We have only had a few reports of some trout being caught. Nightcrawlers are probably your best bet. Try fishing them on the edge of drop offs. The trout hold on these spots to avoid the striped bass. Trout are found in surprisingly shallow water except on very hot days or in the middle of the day.

Largemouth Bass

There are not many anglers fishing for largemouth bass. We see a few caught here and there but nothing very spectacular. Senko’s are your best bet. Nightcrawlers are also a good choice. Try fishing any trees or structure you are able to locate. We appreciate you taking a picture of the bigger bass then releasing them to fight another day.

Stripers

Fishing for stripers is best early or late in the day. We have checked in 60 fish over 8lbs in the last 5 days. We figure at least another 50 or 60 were caught and not reported. Anchovies continue to be your best bet but several anglers trolling rattletraps have had success. Anglers fishing from shore are working a wide variety of shoreline and we are seeing fish being caught from the south cove to the back of sunken oak cove. Boaters anchoring off of points and casting into deeper water are also having good success on stripers. Stripers average 6 to 12lbs with fish up to 18lbs. There are still many shakers being caught, remember bass must be 18 inches to keep. Please release them quickly and carefully.

Salmon

We did not have any report of salmon caught this week although we rarely see anglers targeting salmon this time of year. Trolling as deep as possible (30 to 60 feet) might be worth a try. There is no doubt the salmon are holding in the deeper/cooler water.

Catfish

Liver, anchovies and nightcrawlers will all take catfish. We appreciate catch and release of the catfish over 20 lbs. Some of the 1 lb range catfish we planted two weeks ago are showing up on anglers stringers. We will be putting another load of 500lbs in sometime in the next week or two. We had catfish of 20.5lbs, 17.8lbs and 12lbs checked in over the last 3 days.

Fishing Report – Lake Camanche – 7/20/11

Trout

Trout are still being caught in the main lake. Warmer weather still has the trout going down to about 40-45 feet or so. Hat Island and along the buoy line at the dam are still hot spots for trollers. Powerbait in rainbow and chartreuse colors as well as night crawlers are still the favorites along with rapala lures and needlefish lures.

Bass

At the South Shore pond, 2 anglers caught a few bass with a hula popper. The biggest was a 5lb and reported catching a big spotted bass the previous day with the same bait.

Catfish

Michael Butler (a CRC employee) and son caught numerous bluegill & even lost a huge catfish next to the boat which broke his 5lb test line and even caught a glimpse of the fish. Since the lake level rose so quickly, a lot of feed was created for channel catfish and many good reports have been coming in to the North Shore store. Most fish were caught with clams, crawlers, chicken liver, and shad. Find a dropoff or timber area to target some shallow fighters. You can also throw some 3 inch grubs for spotted bass, crappie and bluegill.