News
The rain of a week ago prompted a column declaring the end of summer and an early start to October fishing.
Rather than admit I was wrong, I prefer to think of my statement as “premature.” This week's weather is distinctly summer-like.
The good news is that the heat does not come on until later in the morning and cools off earlier in the afternoon than a month ago. This still trends toward fall, but at a slower pace.
I received two Davis Lake fishing reports from late last week, one from a friend who prefers anonymity and the other from Brett Brady, “Bare Bones Guide Service”
The water surface is 65 degrees and the weed and algae growth continues to be a problem for trolling in most of the lake. The exception is the deepest water over the original creek channel. Most of the fish in the middle to upper water column are the moderate to small trout. These are fish 14 inches and smaller. Brett Brady found a pattern that produced four fish from 18 to 20 inches.
He located the original creek bed, which is lower than the surrounding bottom and had fewer weeds. He slowly trolled a rust (crawdad) colored fly just over the weed tops and picked up four large trout. Each of these fish had bellies full of small crawdads of less than 2 inches long. Prior to this report, I was unaware of a crawdad population in the lake. The smaller fish were well fed but contained a variety of insects.
Fly anglers fishing the lake have had success targeting areas with enough open water to retrieve bugger patterns or fish nymphs. There is considerable surface feeding activity throughout the day.
Another comment from both of my Lake Davis reports is that the cocopods are much less in evidence than earlier in the year.
My anonymous source also fished Jackson Meadows Reservoir last week. He had success with modest sized trout. The most interesting comment was that the mid-60s water temp was constant from the surface down to 40 feet. On his fish finder there were fish scattered through this layer. There were also a few large images on his screen below the 40-foot mark.
A report from the Feather River noted stripers in the Afterbay Hole a couple of weeks ago. A local had been successful using swim baits to catch stripers there. The most current information has these stripers moving up river into the Low Flow section. These fish seem to be feeding their way up river one hole at a time. They are capable of eating a 2 pound steelhead if they can catch one.
Once the stripers move into a confined space like the Low Flow the steelhead and small fish move out, hide or get eaten.
The only salmon action in the state is in the Klamath/Trinity system. The rain and cloudy weather lowered the river temp to 64 degrees a week ago. This turned on the salmon bite for the beginning of the week. By week's end the temp was back up to 70 degrees and the bite turned off.
The heat this week will continue the poor fishing. The poor bite is not a reflection of low fish numbers. Tommy from Little Ray's Tackle Box walks his dog each evening for up to two hours along the river. He sees rolling salmon throughout the lower river. He said, “There have not been this many salmon in the river since 2002.”
It is easy to criticize the DF&G about many aspects of fishing. I would like to commend them for their accurate assessment of the Klamath salmon return of 2009. They predicted a good return that would allow a recreational salmon season and their assessment has been confirmed. Yes, they can get something right!
If you want to salmon fish, there are some fall run fish in the upper Trinity River. The big numbers have yet to arrive. Weather will be the determinate of this.
On a sad note, I want to mention that Dave Stull passed away about a month ago. Dave was the president of the Gold Country Fly Fishers for a year in the early 1990s.
He moved to the Reno area a decade ago. He was my best source for Pyramid Lake reports. He fished there often and was always open and honest about where and how he fished. He last appeared in this Sports section last winter with a truly large cutthroat trout from Pyramid. I will miss him.
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.
Rather than admit I was wrong, I prefer to think of my statement as “premature.” This week's weather is distinctly summer-like.
The good news is that the heat does not come on until later in the morning and cools off earlier in the afternoon than a month ago. This still trends toward fall, but at a slower pace.
I received two Davis Lake fishing reports from late last week, one from a friend who prefers anonymity and the other from Brett Brady, “Bare Bones Guide Service”
The water surface is 65 degrees and the weed and algae growth continues to be a problem for trolling in most of the lake. The exception is the deepest water over the original creek channel. Most of the fish in the middle to upper water column are the moderate to small trout. These are fish 14 inches and smaller. Brett Brady found a pattern that produced four fish from 18 to 20 inches.
He located the original creek bed, which is lower than the surrounding bottom and had fewer weeds. He slowly trolled a rust (crawdad) colored fly just over the weed tops and picked up four large trout. Each of these fish had bellies full of small crawdads of less than 2 inches long. Prior to this report, I was unaware of a crawdad population in the lake. The smaller fish were well fed but contained a variety of insects.
Fly anglers fishing the lake have had success targeting areas with enough open water to retrieve bugger patterns or fish nymphs. There is considerable surface feeding activity throughout the day.
Another comment from both of my Lake Davis reports is that the cocopods are much less in evidence than earlier in the year.
My anonymous source also fished Jackson Meadows Reservoir last week. He had success with modest sized trout. The most interesting comment was that the mid-60s water temp was constant from the surface down to 40 feet. On his fish finder there were fish scattered through this layer. There were also a few large images on his screen below the 40-foot mark.
A report from the Feather River noted stripers in the Afterbay Hole a couple of weeks ago. A local had been successful using swim baits to catch stripers there. The most current information has these stripers moving up river into the Low Flow section. These fish seem to be feeding their way up river one hole at a time. They are capable of eating a 2 pound steelhead if they can catch one.
Once the stripers move into a confined space like the Low Flow the steelhead and small fish move out, hide or get eaten.
The only salmon action in the state is in the Klamath/Trinity system. The rain and cloudy weather lowered the river temp to 64 degrees a week ago. This turned on the salmon bite for the beginning of the week. By week's end the temp was back up to 70 degrees and the bite turned off.
The heat this week will continue the poor fishing. The poor bite is not a reflection of low fish numbers. Tommy from Little Ray's Tackle Box walks his dog each evening for up to two hours along the river. He sees rolling salmon throughout the lower river. He said, “There have not been this many salmon in the river since 2002.”
It is easy to criticize the DF&G about many aspects of fishing. I would like to commend them for their accurate assessment of the Klamath salmon return of 2009. They predicted a good return that would allow a recreational salmon season and their assessment has been confirmed. Yes, they can get something right!
If you want to salmon fish, there are some fall run fish in the upper Trinity River. The big numbers have yet to arrive. Weather will be the determinate of this.
On a sad note, I want to mention that Dave Stull passed away about a month ago. Dave was the president of the Gold Country Fly Fishers for a year in the early 1990s.
He moved to the Reno area a decade ago. He was my best source for Pyramid Lake reports. He fished there often and was always open and honest about where and how he fished. He last appeared in this Sports section last winter with a truly large cutthroat trout from Pyramid. I will miss him.
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.
