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ENLARGE
Predicting the future in print, where people can go back and read last week’s column, has come back to bite me. I said that the drop in water temps on the Sacramento River would postpone the striper spawn.
I spoke with Brett Brady (Bare Bones Guide Service) on Friday afternoon. He fished stripers on the Sacramento River near Colusa on Thursday. He stayed on the river Thursday night, fishing for sturgeon, and fished stripers again on Friday morning. The water temps had come back up to the 62 –64 degree range. From Thursday evening until dawn on Friday morning, he was always within ear shot of stripers spawning around his anchored boat.
Stripers are broadcast spawners. The females swim at the surface releasing eggs and are followed by numerous males fertilizing them. This all makes quite a commotion on the surface in the bright moonlight.
This will conclude the striper run for these individual fish. The high water level is drawing more fish upriver. It is normal for the stripers to be present in the Colusa area until June. There should continue to be good striper fishing for the rest of the month of May in the Knights Landing to Chico zone.
Since the high water came on the Feather River, there has been a marked increase in the steelhead/trout bite in the Oroville area. There have been a lot of evening caddis activity and the fish have been feeding on them. A No. 14 Elk Hair Caddis Olive has been working as well as olive pupa patterns.
The fishing at Pyramid Lake Nevada has come alive. This past winter featured fair fishing. The size of the fish was good but the numbers were low. The fish were in close to shore on an infrequent basis and the boat anglers were picking up fish from all depths and areas around the lake. There was no reliable pattern.
Since late April, the cutthroat trout have moved in to the shallows and the shore fishing is very good. Dave Stull (Stully’s Fly Fishing) has been doing well. He recommends down sizing your wooly buggers to size No. 8 for the early morning bite.
Once the sun is up and on the water, he switches to fishing with nymphs. For his wooly buggers he favors black or purple. During the bright time of the day he uses Zebra Midges as large as No. 8, Copper Johns (red) in No. 12 and many other standard trout nymph patterns in No. 12 .
The fish are in a pre-spawn mode and it is common to hook fish in 1 to 2 feet of water right on the shoreline. Dave recommends staying back from the waters edge so as not to spook the fish which are feeding where anglers normally are wading. The fish are more likely to be this shallow in low light conditions or when a choppy surface will give them cover. Dave also has noticed that concentrations of anglers will push the fish away. Recently he saw a couple dozen anglers fishing just south of Pelican Point. There was so much commotion on the water that no one was catching fish.
Stampede Reservoir near Truckee is fishing well for both mackinaw and kokanee. The recent heavy rains brought the lake level up 6 feet. John Minnis, a Truckee local, has been fishing on Stampede and said there were concentrations of kokanee in the Sage Hen Creek arm of the lake.
The water from the creek has put color and nutrients into the water, which has attracted a lot of feeding fish. In low light conditions, the kokanee are near the surface.
Under bright skies they retreat back down to the 15 to 30 foot depths. Be sure to run at least one rod with mackinaw tackle while trolling for kokanee. The mackinaw are currently right in with the kokanee. A 5-pound mac came from the Sage Hen arm late last week.
The size of the kokanee is promising. The majority of fish are in the 12- to 14-inch range currently, with a good number of 15-inch fish being take. Minnis has picked up a few as large as 16 inches. The water temp was in the high 40s late last week.
At higher elevations winter is still hanging on. The road from Bassett’s Station to Graeagle was plowed more than a week ago. Sardine and Packer Lakes are fishing well. Gold Lake at the top of the hill was still ice covered on Sunday, with snow still on the main boat ramp.
Well to our south at Lower Twin Lake outside of Bridgeport, Calif., the trout are beginning to bite. The water is still in the low 40s at the 7,000 foot elevation lake.
Steve Marti, owner of Lower Twin Lake Resort, kept all boats off the water during the recent storms. Once the weather calmed down, trout fishing has been very good for rainbows in the one to three pound range. The best techniques have been fishing with olive Wooly Buggers over top of the submerged weed beds.
The fly anglers fish close in while the trollers work the outer edge of the weed beds. There has been a consistent bite all day. The large brown trout have yet to show up. The water needs to reach the upper 40s for these fish to move up.
Denis Peirce writes a weekly fishing column for The Union and is host of “The KNCO Fishing & Outdoor Report,” which airs 6-7 p.m. Fridays and 5-6 a.m. Saturdays on 830-AM radio. Contact him via e-mail at dpeirce@theunion.com.
I spoke with Brett Brady (Bare Bones Guide Service) on Friday afternoon. He fished stripers on the Sacramento River near Colusa on Thursday. He stayed on the river Thursday night, fishing for sturgeon, and fished stripers again on Friday morning. The water temps had come back up to the 62 –64 degree range. From Thursday evening until dawn on Friday morning, he was always within ear shot of stripers spawning around his anchored boat.
Stripers are broadcast spawners. The females swim at the surface releasing eggs and are followed by numerous males fertilizing them. This all makes quite a commotion on the surface in the bright moonlight.
This will conclude the striper run for these individual fish. The high water level is drawing more fish upriver. It is normal for the stripers to be present in the Colusa area until June. There should continue to be good striper fishing for the rest of the month of May in the Knights Landing to Chico zone.
Since the high water came on the Feather River, there has been a marked increase in the steelhead/trout bite in the Oroville area. There have been a lot of evening caddis activity and the fish have been feeding on them. A No. 14 Elk Hair Caddis Olive has been working as well as olive pupa patterns.
The fishing at Pyramid Lake Nevada has come alive. This past winter featured fair fishing. The size of the fish was good but the numbers were low. The fish were in close to shore on an infrequent basis and the boat anglers were picking up fish from all depths and areas around the lake. There was no reliable pattern.
Since late April, the cutthroat trout have moved in to the shallows and the shore fishing is very good. Dave Stull (Stully’s Fly Fishing) has been doing well. He recommends down sizing your wooly buggers to size No. 8 for the early morning bite.
Once the sun is up and on the water, he switches to fishing with nymphs. For his wooly buggers he favors black or purple. During the bright time of the day he uses Zebra Midges as large as No. 8, Copper Johns (red) in No. 12 and many other standard trout nymph patterns in No. 12 .
The fish are in a pre-spawn mode and it is common to hook fish in 1 to 2 feet of water right on the shoreline. Dave recommends staying back from the waters edge so as not to spook the fish which are feeding where anglers normally are wading. The fish are more likely to be this shallow in low light conditions or when a choppy surface will give them cover. Dave also has noticed that concentrations of anglers will push the fish away. Recently he saw a couple dozen anglers fishing just south of Pelican Point. There was so much commotion on the water that no one was catching fish.
Stampede Reservoir near Truckee is fishing well for both mackinaw and kokanee. The recent heavy rains brought the lake level up 6 feet. John Minnis, a Truckee local, has been fishing on Stampede and said there were concentrations of kokanee in the Sage Hen Creek arm of the lake.
The water from the creek has put color and nutrients into the water, which has attracted a lot of feeding fish. In low light conditions, the kokanee are near the surface.
Under bright skies they retreat back down to the 15 to 30 foot depths. Be sure to run at least one rod with mackinaw tackle while trolling for kokanee. The mackinaw are currently right in with the kokanee. A 5-pound mac came from the Sage Hen arm late last week.
The size of the kokanee is promising. The majority of fish are in the 12- to 14-inch range currently, with a good number of 15-inch fish being take. Minnis has picked up a few as large as 16 inches. The water temp was in the high 40s late last week.
At higher elevations winter is still hanging on. The road from Bassett’s Station to Graeagle was plowed more than a week ago. Sardine and Packer Lakes are fishing well. Gold Lake at the top of the hill was still ice covered on Sunday, with snow still on the main boat ramp.
Well to our south at Lower Twin Lake outside of Bridgeport, Calif., the trout are beginning to bite. The water is still in the low 40s at the 7,000 foot elevation lake.
Steve Marti, owner of Lower Twin Lake Resort, kept all boats off the water during the recent storms. Once the weather calmed down, trout fishing has been very good for rainbows in the one to three pound range. The best techniques have been fishing with olive Wooly Buggers over top of the submerged weed beds.
The fly anglers fish close in while the trollers work the outer edge of the weed beds. There has been a consistent bite all day. The large brown trout have yet to show up. The water needs to reach the upper 40s for these fish to move up.
Denis Peirce writes a weekly fishing column for The Union and is host of “The KNCO Fishing & Outdoor Report,” which airs 6-7 p.m. Fridays and 5-6 a.m. Saturdays on 830-AM radio. Contact him via e-mail at dpeirce@theunion.com.
