|
LAKES ARE RISING AND THE BITE IS ON!
By: Ron Wilson
March 19, 2011.... Look for all the lakes and reservoirs to be brim
full this year. They are holding the lake
levels pretty steady as they are letting the water out as quick as its
flowing in.
With the recent storm I look for the lake to start rising as they can
let out just so much water at a time to keep the lower rivers from
flooding over their banks.
All the reservoirs and lakes are close to full and they are all
letting out water,
Millerton, McClure-McSwain and
Lake Don Pedro are
keeping the San Joaquin
River brim full with their runoff, which has been going on since
early January of this year. Shasta, Oroville and Folsom are keeping the
Sacramento River system
full.
This all leads to our delta which will keep the flow high. The delta
will get one heck of a good flushing out this year. Lots of water should
mean that the striper population should do real well with there
spawning and I bet that the fish find there way almost all the way to
Fresno to reproduce.
Red Bartley and I fished Lake Don Pedro recently and the water has
risen a couple feet since I last visited the lake. We started off in
Blue Oaks trolling for trout. Lead core and a top line was what I
brought for trout.
Red reeled in a nice one on top line that hit a blue/silver Ex-Cel
Lure. After watching the graph awhile it told me that I should of used
my downriggers and went down to 30 or 40 feet as I believe that is where
the comfort zone is for the fish right now. I saw lots of what I think
were salmon down in the 80 to 100 foot depth.
I decided to leave and try our luck at Jenkins Hill. I went all the
way to the big rocks on the left hand size of Jenkins Hill and trolled
back to the point. As I went past the little island on the inside of
Jenkins my lead core rod had a hit. "Fish on", I told Red as the lead
core screamed off the rod. The clicker didn't click it went
zit-zit-zit-zit as 15 yards of line left the reel. I knew immediately it
was a real nice fish over 2 pounds, but as I grabbed the rod the fish
tore lose, darn small hooks, one of these days I will learn to put on a
size bigger so I get a better hook set when they stick. Oh well like my
son would tell me that's one less fish you have to clean.
 We
trolled toward Rogers Creek arm for nada. The wind died and it got
glassy calm. I told Red I don't have any luck for trout without some
chop on the water.
We decided to go bass fishing. We got everything in and fired up the
little bass tracker and headed to Ramos Creek. I got to the mouth and
dropped the trolling motor
and looked back at the lake and there came the northwest breeze. Red and
I chuckled at that.
On the second cast I was shaking a chartreuse tail worm and felt a
fish suck up the bait. I set the hook on a nice 2 pound fish for the
dinner table. We worked the area over and managed to catch a couple more
shakers and a smallmouth bass when the wind changed direction right out
of the north pretty hard.
I decided to get out of the wind and head back into Rogers Creek arm.
I drove to a shallow rocky
point and on the second cast I nailed a nice spotted bass. 3 fish
and 3 different variety's of bass in the live-well, well I got dinner
anyway I thought.
I moved further back into Rodgers and stopped on a rocky point. "Red
I have 3 dart head rods set up, grab one of mine and see if you can't
catch a fish". Red grabbed one and we both cast out and just as quick we
both had fish on. One released and 4 in the box.
We moved back further in Rogers Creek arm and I found a school of
bass on structure, schooling bass on wood is good. It was fish after
fish for me as Red did not have the feel of the soft bite they were on.
He would catch one every now and then but it was fish after fish for me.
While the fish were almost all in the 12 inch range I was having a
ball on the 6 pound test line I was using. I knew the big gals were
nearby and when I moved about 30 yards down the bank to a rocky area I
found fish in the 3 to 5 pound class. I just love seeing a nice
big fish wallow on
top as they try to throw the hook.
A couple pictures and the bite died there so I moved back to the
structure and Red caught a nice crappie. I immediately changed from a 6
inch worm to a 4 inch with a chartreuse tail and started shaking it. I
loved the pickup of the crappie, no bite just a sudden heaviness and we
soon had enough crappie for another meal.
The crappie bite died and Red put his 5th keeper bass in the
livewell. "Red we are limited out now with a
good mess of bass and crappie lets see if we can add another trout to
the box".
We started at the buoy line and trolled out of Rogers Creek arm
almost all the way out of the area for nada. "Red we have a half hour of
cleaning fish lets call it a day". I was hoping to get back to Waterford
in time to give some fish to my son for his dinner.
At the fish cleaning
station I ran into Art Romero who brought up a limit of fish to
clean. I don't eat largemouth bass he chided while cleaning a nice 2
pound plus smallmouth as I cleaned a
black bass.
I never said a word as I finished cleaning my last fish. Art's partner
was coming up with another net full of bass while I was leaving, yep Art
dose not eat black bass I thought. I guess Art's partner is going to
have a lot of fish to eat and Art needs to learn his fish species. |
