Fish Bits for the week of 1/8/20
Lake Almanor
John Crotty of Almanor Fishing Association reported in for the last time in 2019 on Dec. 29. “Well it’s winter time in Plumas County. It was 16 degrees at Canyon Dam on Friday morning, water temps are ranging between 37 and 41 degrees; I encountered fine sheets of ice in shallow water on the north end of the lake,” said Crotty. “We will need a few days of single digit weather for the ice to thicken up and stick around.” Water clarity was around 7 feet on Friday and water level is 4,484, exactly the same as last year.
“Trolling was slow; I picked up four rainbows Friday on seven grabs and one rainbow on one grab Saturday,” said Crotty. “I was covering ground fast trolling speedy shiners attempting to find some fish. I could not find a pattern or a concentration of bait or fish. I spoke with a bass fisherman yesterday and he hooked a couple of fish on plastics fished deep off the East Shore across from the Canyon Dam boat ramp.”
Ella Garcia shows off one of the six fish she and her dad, Robert, caught at Eagle Lake on Jan. 2. Photo by Robert GarciaBank fishing pressure around Canyon Dam has increased significantly over the past few weeks. There were some smaller browns planted two weeks ago and they continue to hang around. These fish are straight from the hatchery and while they may be fun to catch they are not good table fair and are the future of our fishery and need to be released. There are a few larger mature fish showing up in the coves as well. Fly fishermen are picking up fish from boats and float tubes on size 12 green wiggle tails/woolly buggers.
“Don’t forget to pick up your 2020 fishing license, you will notice a price increase in this year with your base license costing $51.02,” said Crotty.
Lake Davis
Jeanne Graham of J&J Grizzly Store said the ice is thinning during the day due to the 45-degree temps and hard freezing at night. “I wouldn’t consider it safe myself,” said Jeanne. “A fisherman brought in a 4 1/2 pounder last week, but they had to work for it.”
The John Pato Ice (or no ice) winter fishing derby will take place Feb. 1.
Send pictures of your winter fishing expeditions for publication in the Feather Publishing Sports Section to [email protected]
