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FISHING PARADISE IN OUR BACKYARD

By Ron Wilson

For the last few years I have been fished many lakes and reservoirs in central California, trying to locate one that can consistently produce the quality trout that I like to catch.

I've caught decent size fish at Pine Flat, McClure, Don Pedro, Pardee and New Melones, to name a few, but none of these lakes produce huge fish consistently like Shasta and Camanche. 

I like Shasta because when your there at the right time of year you can usually catch both quality rainbows in the 5 pound class and salmon in the 6 to 8 pound class. But my first choice of big fish lakes is Camanche because of the convenience of being close to home.

I recently took a weeks vacation after making arrangements to stay at Lake Camanche North Shore, within a couple minutes of the boat launch.

The rooms had all the amenities one could hope for as it was more like a home away from home, all you had
to bring with you was clothes to wear and food to cook, everything you need for your stay is already there. Heck there is even a TV in every room. 

Dr. Quen Young of San Francisco and I had adjoining rooms 223a and 223b. A queen and king size bed, dinette, couch, coffee table kitchen, recliner, 2 bathrooms and 3 television sets. 

I probably left out a few things but you should have a good idea of how we roughed it. Dr. Young's idea of
roughing it is slow room service!

We arrived on Monday afternoon and started fishing. Dr Young's first trout was in the 6 pound class. His biggest ever and he has traveled and fished all over the world. He was very proud of his fish! 

The fish was caught on a blue/gold Ex-Cel Lure behind a silver dodger. The lure was dragged 200 feet behind the boat almost on top of the water. 

On Tuesday Dr. Quen hooked another monster using the top line technique, we were off Hat Island as Quen fought the fish all the way to the buoy line at the dam before the fish pulled free of the lure. I then boated one that went 6 pounds before we called it a day. 

On Wednesday we couldn't buy a top line bite. But I had Figured out a small fish catching pattern at 30 feet the previous day. I was trolling Vance's silver and gold blades hooked on the downrigger ball using a Vance's yellow clip-on for the cable and then clipping my rod to it with a blue/gold Ex-Cel lure about 6 feet behind the last blade. The fish seemed to be coming to the blades as this rig got 3 times as many bites as the one on the other side of the boat. I had it at the same depth with the same lure but no ball troll.

The first fish of the day was a small one that was a want-a-be steelhead according to Quen, he was jumping like crazy until he threw the lure. The next fish was a big one as the rod jerked off the downrigger clip and stayed bowed as the fish took out line. Quen reeled in the other lines while I fought the fish in choppy water. I was doing a wide circle as the fish kept me guessing which way to steer the boat. He was going this way then that way, he would run away and then back at the boat. When he finally gave up it looked like a small salmon rather than a big rainbow trout. The fish was very thick and filled the bottom of the ice chest.

Darn it, I had left my camera in the truck again. I wanted to take a picture while it was fresh. Fish take much better pictures right when you catch them. They begin to change colors after they have been dead for a while.

We traveled almost to the dam when another rod went off. It was another monster fish that Quen fought as I cleared the other lines, Quen soon had the fish to the net and it was a clone to the one I had just caught, both fish were in the 10 pound class, monster trout to Quen and myself. Quen was so happy he gave me a high five after landing his big one. I can't remember seeing Quen that excited and him and I have caught some huge sailfish, marlin and dorado together!

We headed in for lunch and a break. At 1 p.m. we came back out. A guide we had met that morning thanked
us for the information I had given him. He said he had used a gold and silver Kastmaster to catch 9 fish for the 3 elderly guys he had on board the biggest one was in the 6 pound class.

I asked him if he wanted to see the lure I was using to catch fish but he said "no he was doing ok"! I thought "boy I'm glad I wasn't on his boat", Quen and I had released that many before lunch!

We went toward little hat and set up a troll. I was going along out in the middle of nowhere when suddenly an underwater hump came into view on my depthfinder, it was only 35 feet deep. The downriggers had just cleared the island top when my rod bent double. The fish was peeling off line and we knew it was another good one. I fought it and it fought me, it was pulling drag and staying around the 30 foot depth shaking its head and making drag pulling runs. The fish soon tired and Quen netted him, no monster like we had that morning but a real good one in the 8 pound class. 

For the next couple hours the 1 and 2 pound fish we caught, jumped and fought on the light rods we were using, but it just wasn't that exciting. Boy, we sure got spoiled in a hurry!

Thursday we hit the water early but could not find any big fish, just small ones. The wind came up, causing whitecaps on the lake, so we decided to get off the water. Once on land we headed for brunch and then traveled to Ione to look the town over. Then we headed to Martell where we ate lunch, then over to Amador City for a look see before heading back to Lake Camanche. 

I drove down to the launch ramp to see that the wind had died down. "One last chance for another big one" I told Quen. We hit the water again and started trolling and trolling and trolling with no luck. I told Quen "when we left Lucas' Restaurant, Wednesday night, the moon was up, so that means the bite probably won't come on until 5 p.m.

Our first strike of the afternoon came after two hours of solid trolling. It was another big one that didn't take the lure good and came off much to quickly for us to even get excited! The fish finally turned on and started biting and it was fish after fish until we called it a weekend at 6 p.m.

What a great fishery, the fish are there because the angler pays $3 a head to fish the lake, and all the money goes to replace those that are caught. The lake is more expensive to fish than most but dollar for dollar and pound for pound I think it is well worth it.

For more information about Lake Camanche and the campgrounds, cabins, Equestrian accommodations and
information in general call North Shore 1-209-763-5121 or South Shore at 1-209-763-5178.