Whiskeytown fishing (clear water tips)?
December 28, 2009
i need some insight on fishing at whiskeytown lake in north state, CALIF. im use to fishing in ‘the delta’ and cant get used to the crystal clear waters of whiskeytown. the other source of my frusteration is not having a boat. is there any tips for sucess you can share about fishing off the banks of whiskeytown or other clear ass waters? what line is best? is there a kind of braided line that is suited for clear water? A couple more of my frusterations are: they dont let you use live bait, its hard to reach deep water while fishing from the bank, and the water is freakin cold so the bass dont hardly become aggresive. the temperature warms up in the summer at like the top 3 ft of the surface. I’d like tips on bass fishing with bait, bass fishing with lures in shallow, and summer trout fishing in shallow.
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You are about two months early my friend. The water is too cold for the bass to be active unless you can find some shallow water thats a bit warmer. Other than that what works for me is to use small trout spinners with a slow retrieve that pauses and sinks an inch or two every ten feet or so. Don’t let it sink for more than a second. Just retrieve–pause, retrieve–pause, etc. Until the water temp reaches 60 degrees or so they are not going to be very aggresive so you have to put the lure right in front of their noses. I always check the stomach contents when I catch my 1st fish to see what they are eating. Every bass I have caught in the last two months had very SMALL bugs and tiny (1/8 inch) fresh water shrimp in them.As soon as I used smaller lures I began to hook up.Problem is that lightweight lures don’t cast very far with a baitcaster reel so use your spinning rod like your fishing for trout. Also a fly rod may do ok with wet flys and sinking line. Try to make your way to the back of the lake where the creeks feed into the lake. Either Whiskey or clear creek. Fresh food will be washing in to the lake and the fish hang out waiting for it. Make sure trout season is open because since you are using trout lures you may hook one. Stay away from bright colors. Try a #1 mepps gold spinner or panther martin. Also a black plastic worm may produce in deeper water if you can get it to sink down. Also put some smelly jelly on it. Remember, slow retrieve. Good luck
Aqua Beast knows his fishing and his water. He gave you an awesome amount of information. I’d suggest you buy a copy of California Fishing by Tom Steinstra. He covers every river, stream, lake and reservoir in the state in detail by describing what fish are there, what is the best season, what part of the water to visit and fishing techniques. He even rates each water according to how good it is. I always take his book with me. If I am in the Lake Almanor area, for example, his book will give me info on what water is nearby in case I want to try something new or the lake’s fishing is slow.