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CAMANCHE HAS IT ALL AND
MORE
By: Ron Wilson
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Norval & Quen with a couple of lunker
Catfish |
June 1, 2006.... Dr. Quen Young and I
spent a fishing vacation at Lake Camanche last week. Dr. Quen spent the
vacation gardening and I spent it farming. Quen pulling grass and weeds
off his fishing line and I lost fish after fish!
As Quen and I traveled the road on the
northern part of the lake heading to north shore Quen said, "well it
looks just like last year, windy and nasty rain". I guess an inch of
rain could be considered nasty.
We met Chris Cantwell at the marina and he helped us check in early so
we could dropped our stuff off at the spacious room we had arranged
before we hit the water.
I headed out in front of the dam to troll
for trout. I was looking to hook another one of those huge 8 to 10
pounder's the lake has generously gave up to us over the last few years.
The bigger fish will kind of spoil you. I
guess both Quen and I like taking pictures of fish in the 5 pound plus
class or better.
I found a good trout in 30 feet of water
and told Quen, "its a big one," as I handed him the rod. I put the
bungee cord onto the steering wheel of the boat, (my Automatic Pilot),
as I got prepared to net the fish. I grabbed the net and turned around
just in time to see the fish get rid of the Ex-Cel blue and gold lure it
had in its mouth. I don't like losing the first fish of the day. It's
not a sign of good luck.
I trolled on back toward Hat Island and
on the way we picked up a couple real nice trout in the 2 pound plus
size and then we had a triple hookup. Talk about a Chinese fire drill,
Quen lost another one and I had mine run up and around the downrigger
cable and then tear the hook out of its mouth. The last one almost got
in the motor before it was netted. Four fish in the box and the weather
was finally breaking up. Quen suggested black bass fishing. I guess he
is starting to get hooked on the faster action of bass fishing. He likes
to travel and see the country at a fast pace and there is nothing fast
about trolling for trout.
I headed to the rock piles up river as I
rigged our rods with a variety of Keeper Worms. 082, brown and
chartreuse, red and green flake, and black flake. The idea was that the
water was higher than I have seen it in some time and the bass were
feeding on crawdads and other critters that were moving up from the
flooded islands.
We had a good evening bass bite with
several spots, some up to 4 pounds and largemouth up to about 5 pounds
all caught by Quen, he really kicked my butt from the back of the boat
the first day. By 7 p.m. I was more than ready to call it a day.
Tuesday we trolled for about an hour for
trout with no luck and then I decided to head upriver as far as I could
go. I had never been there in all the years I have fished the lake.
Up past the old mine and its tailing
around a couple bends and we were in a rock wall canyon that was just
gorgeous with the sun shinning down on the bottlebrush trees, it was
just plain beautiful, Quen said this was
without a doubt the best scenery to be had on the lake.
I dropped in a couple lures and trolled
for trout with no luck. For some reason I just wasn't tuned in to what
was happening with the trout and told Quen he needed to find a better
guide, Quen said I would rather fish for bass anyway so we headed back
to the bridge to fish our way back out into the main part of the lake.
Upriver I caught several spotted bass but
nothing of any size. By 2 p.m. I had worked my way to the last cove
before heading in to the North Shore Marina. All of a sudden Quen set
the hook on a mulley in the 5 pound class, a real scrapper and Quen was
having a ball fighting it! Mulley's are a cross between a spotted bass
and a Florida strain and they can rip off some drag when they make a
run. I netted the fish and told Quen it was about time he caught a fish.
He threw out again and set the hook on a largemouth bass in the same
spot, 2 nice fish in a row made Quen's day.
Wednesday Bass Professional Norval Pimentel showed up in his new
Stratos Bass Boat. Norval and Quen loaded up and I launched them and
then made a jump into the Stratos bass boat, my weight pushed the boat
far enough away from the dock so there was no problem and Norval soon
had the boat out past the buoys and on the pads heading upriver.
Around the corner and to the first
houseboats and Norval shut it down, he soon had the first bass of the
day in the boat. Near the island top behind the houseboats Norval set
the hook on a good fish with his brown gitzit. The only problem was that
it had whiskers and was in the 5 to 6 pound class.
We fished our way on back to the rock
piles up river with a fish here and a fish there. Norval told me about
the different spots he had fished in the last tournament there and I
laughed as Jason and I had fished all the same areas at different times.
I told Norval that I had not seen anyone
in the last couple days fish his favorite rock pile so he went there and
Quen scored on a nice spotted bass and then it as my turn and then
Norval's.
I was watching Norval shake a brown
gitzit when I saw his rod just thump from a bite. Norval set the hook
and the rod tip just went down and down until the tip was in the water
and the line was peeling off his reel! Norval had his hands full with
what I first thought was a huge bass, but Norval said, "its a big
catfish, I can feel the tail slap the line as it swims away".
About 50 yards away from the rock pile I
got a real good close up look at a 20 pound catfish! I was just guessing
as we never had a scale that could weigh that much and I believe it was
every bit 20 pounds, maybe more.
We then headed back out to the rock walls
to catch a few cruising bass before calling it an early day at 4 p.m. We
had catfish and a few bass to clean and a steak dinner to cook before
Norval could head home.
Thursday I got Quen on the water at first
light and we headed back to the rock wall. Fish were rising all around
us, some were carp and others were chasing some type of minnows. I tied
on a shad rap and when a fish broke the surface close enough, I cast it
in his direction. A few cranks and the rod bowed with a strike. The fish
wasn't a bass as it never jumped and then the silver streak that went by
the boat told me it was a trout in the 3 pound class.
I knew the trout were scattered and I
knew they were shallow but it never dawned on me to use bass lures to
catch them. I sure hate it when I let a fish kick my butt because I
don't use my head!
Quen and I had another great annual
vacation at Lake Camanche.
A word of warning to fishermen with
boats. The cottages on the hill are real nice and great views, but are
not ideal for fishermen with boats. In order to park you have to
disconnect. When booking I suggest rooms 7 through 10 they seem to have
more boat room, or the rooms over by the equestrian trail, tons of easy
parking room there.
The high water has lots of trees in the
water, crappie like shade and with a small jig lots of nice crappie can
be found around them. Ken Moore of Ripon and a fishing friend were there
last Thursday and when I left they had a nice sack of 1 pound crappie.
Once the water temperature climbs and the
trout seek the cooler depths the trout action should bust wide open once
again.
For a fishing vacation I strongly
recommend Camanche Lake as it has one of the best all around fisheries
of any lake in the valley! For more information about Camanche Lake go
to www.camanchelake.com.
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