I Had To See For Myself

The reports I've been getting from Lake Amador management was that they were biting early in the morning on silver Kastmasters. What I've been reading on the various forums out there is that guys would go out to fish and get nothing. So I figured the best way to find out what is really happening is to go out there and fish. 

As you know from previous posts, I don't head out at the crack of dawn. I usually leave at 0730 when my wife leaves for work and today was no different. I got to the lake, checked in, and was at the spillway peninsula by 0815. 

Now, for some reason (and I'm guessing where they are stocking, but I'll get to that in a minute), there is now a gate across the road a hundred yards from where we usually park. I parked, grabbed my gear and walked to the spot where we usually fish.

Was this an omen of things to come?

Turkey Vultures

Apparently they aren't afraid even when you get fairly close to them.

Turkey Vultures

When I got to the usual spot it was higher and dryer than I've ever seen it. In the next pic, I'm standing next to the buoys that are usually underwater.

Where's the water?

You'll note the tube running down to the water.

Oh, there it is, way down there.

Just happens that the tube ends up in the water.

That's a long ways down.

The tube is used to stock the Cutbows from the hatchery truck. While I was there, they dumped in a load of fish. They couldn't have been very happy about being put into the warm water because I didn't hear one weeeeeeee.

After getting run off the no fishing area (yes I did fish there because I didn't see the signs) I went over by another fisherman over the top of the nearest peninsula and because it was in the direction closest to me truck. I had a premonition that I wouldn't be staying long. Why is that, you ask?

Once I got settled and put out one line with Power Bait and one with a small silver Kastmaster, I began chatting (as usual) with the other guy. He had caught a couple early on, but nothing recently. While we were chatting, the stockers were lazily swimming up and down the shore occasionally running aground like they were on drugs. I'm sure they do something to them so they don't bite right off the bat.

If one wasn't an honest fisherman (unlike the guy out in the boat), one could walk along the shore with a net and get a limit in about ten feet. What I did was tap them with the tip of my rod and make them swim back out into deeper water. I don't know how many I saved, but I'm sure quite a few didn't make it which brings me back to the Turkey Vultures at the beginning of the post. Those were only two of many, flying around the lake. 

Right in front of me.

This one too.

And this one.

And that one.

My conclusion is that the water is too warm, the water level too far down, and if you caught one I'm not sure you'd want to eat it anyway. What is needed is more rain and more cold for this to be the premier fishery it is during the winter. 

The question was asked of the stocking guy why they were only planting small fish (about half pounders) and the answer was that the bigger ones would only die. So wait a while before you head out there.

Mark