14 Sept 25, 2020 MAP FEATURE
VOL.39 • ISS. 20
While known best for its bass
fishing, the Mother Lode’s Lake
Camanche, is a quality rainbow trout
fishery targeted by shore and
boat anglers throughout the
year.
The early summer and late
fall, especially at a time of
record fires and record heat,
is generally not the top time
to target trout at Camanche,
but Robbie Dunham of Koke
Machine Guide
Service
Lake Camanche offers shore anglers and boaters top-notch fishing for rainbow trout, largemouth and spotted bass, channel catfish and
crappie.
Photo courtesy of LAKE CAMANCHE RECREATION COMPANY, Burson.
Lake Camanche Trophy Trout, Bass Lurk Above Ruins of Lancha Plana
decided to try the lake anyway.
On Friday, Sept. 4, Dunham and
Dianne Stockton found surprisingly good
trout fishing on a scout trip to Lake
Camanche, s popular EBMUD
reservoir.
“We launched out of the North
Shore Marina as I always do,” he
said. “I told her it might be a boat
ride or we might catch some fish.
I had no expectations
that
we
would do as well as
we did.”
The two anglers
caught a total of
10 rainbows, each
taking home their
five fish limit, by
noon. The largest
fish weighed 4 lbs.,
while the majority
were in the 2 lb.
range.
“We caught the
fish all over the
lake from the North
Shore Marine to the
dam — we covered
a lot of ground. We
used Speedy Shiners
around 40 feet deep
to catch the fish,”
Dunham said.
Lake Camanche,
located on the
Mokelumne River in the low, rolling
Sierra Nevada foothills northeast of Lodi,
features good shore and bank fishing for
trout during the fall, winter and spring
months, but it can be fickle at times.
“You can go fishing all morning on the
lake and leave at noon without a bite,”
said Bob Simms, host of the KFBK
Outdoor Show. “Then the anglers in the
boat that arrives at the ramp at noon will
catch their limits by 2:30 pm.”
As the weather cools and fall trout plants
begin, trout fishing should shift into high
gear at Camanche.
Since regular rainbow trout plants began
in 1989, the East Bay Municipal Utility
District water supply reservoir, has
become known throughout the north state
as an outstanding trout fishery.
Each year, over 60,000 pounds of trout
are stocked between October and June.
The fish weigh at least a pound and go up
to trophy sized 8 pounders, according to
the Lake Camanche Recreation Company.
The South Shore Pond at Lake Camanche is a great
spot to pursue trout, as Mario Castillo can attest
after catching these two monster rainbows there.
Photo courtesy of LAKE CAMANCHE RECREATION
COMPANY, Burson.
Dennis Choi of Rocklin caught the second largest bass ever caught
at Lake Camanche, this 15.46-pound largemouth, while fishing for
trout with Berkley Power Eggs off the bank in January 2018.
LAKE CAMANCHE RECREATION COMPANY, Burson
Ten percent of the fish stocked in the
lake and pond are trophy fish three pounds
and over, including some real lunkers.
The concessionaire plants only “triploid”
fish — infertile fish incapable of spawning
— since EBMUD biologists don’t want
the rainbows mixing with the native run of
steelhead in the Mokelumne River below
Camanche dam.
The largest trout I have every personally
caught at Camanche was a 7-1/2 pounder
that I landed while trolling in April over a
decade ago, but many huge fish have been
caught on this lake.
You could catch the trout of a lifetime
when you fish at Lake Camanche. Just
ask Mark and Mike Seaters of Lodi,
who teamed up to catch the lake record
rainbow of 19.42 pounds while fishing a
brown plastic worm near the dam on May
5, 1998. Ray Miles of Woodbridge set
the record for the South Trout Pond when
he bagged a 19.37 lb. largemouth while
fishing a jig on March 28, 1998.
While many anglers come to the lake
to fish from shore or boat, very few are
aware of the lake’s history. After the dam
was completed and the reservoir filled in
1964, the remains of several Gold Rush
towns were flooded.