VOL. 44 • ISS. 3

March 28, 2025

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FRESHWATER REPORTS:

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LAKE BERRYESSA

Take Your Pick of Trout or Bass!

NAPA – The hot rainbow bite continues for trolllers at Lake Berryessa, while bass fishing is moving into prime form.“ Yesterday we had Keith and his family out on Berryessa for another stellar morning of fish catching,” reported Nate Kelsch of Big Nate’ s Guide Service regarding his latest trolling adventure“ They scored 3 limits of big, beautiful trout along with a kokanee, and another slab of a crappie before lunch time.”“ The young man Jonah was the star of the show with big fish honors,” he revealed.‘ We used our whole arsenal of Trigger Spoons, Trigger Spoon Jrs, and Optomizers along with Chrome Killer Scent at depths down to 37 ft. We are on a red hot bite and we will start seeing more and more king and kokanee salmon in our catches in the coming days.” On his previous trip to Berryessa, Kelsch also reported great trout fishing.“ We had my good friend Brian and his crew out on Berryessa to celebrate not only Brian’ s birthday, but his friend Tyler’ s birthday as well- and they knocked it out of the park. They landed 23 trout, 3 bass and we had another 11 pop off right behind the boat!,” said Kelsch.

“ Every time boats would pile up around us we moved,” he emphasized.“ This is the only way to be successful right now, Get away from all of the other boats!! When we could find water that wasn’ t being pounded we would light them up.”“ I haven’ t seen this many boats on Berryessa in a very long time. All this fishing pressure is pushing the fish deeper in the water column, so we focused our spoons between 12 and 35 ft most of the day and applied Chrome Killer Scent every 15-20 minutes,” said Kelsch. The bass fishing is also great at Berryessa now.“ Lake Berryessa bass are biting,” reported Don Paganelli of Paganelli’ s Bass Fishing Experience.“ We’ re seeing some of the best fishing of the year with all 3 species moving up to spawn.”“ The bass are in full pre-spawn mode. Lake temperatures yesterday started at 54 degrees and went up to 60 degrees by the end of the day. The small weather fronts we have coming in are not much to worry about, but will add to the already full lake,” he concluded. Reclamation now requires all boats launching at Lake Berryessa to participate in a seal program to prevent the spread of invasive golden mussels. All vessels wishing to launch at Lake Berryessa will be inspected, according to the Bureau of Reclamation:“ A red quarantine seal will be applied for 30 days during, which the vessel will not be permitted to

launch. Vessels that have finished the 30-day quarantine may return to the lake and have the seal removed by authorized staff and will be allowed to launch. Any vessel wishing to launch sooner than the required 30-day quarantine period must have a hotwater decontamination performed by Solano County Water Agency trained and approved staff. These vessels are allowed to launch immediately following decontamination. Should a vessel be decontaminated at another facility or by another entity, that decontamination will not be valid unless a seal is applied to the vessel. Upon exit from the Lake, all vessels must have a seal attached by authorized staff to be allowed to freely launch at Lake Berryessa. Otherwise, the vessel will need to undergo another quarantine period or decontamination. Hand launched watercraft with electric motors like fishing kayaks, require an inspection prior to launch. Non-motorized watercraft, such as kayaks and paddleboards, are not subject to inspection and are encouraged to be inspected for free at any launch ramp. All paddlers are encouraged to arrive clean, drained, and dry.” For questions about this new protocol and vessel decontamination, contact BOR-Berryessa @ usbr. gov. Lake Berryessa is holding 1,344,372 acre feet of water, 98 percent of capacity and 117 percent of average.

- Dan Bacher

BULLARDS BAR / ENGLEBRIGHT LAKES

Trollers Nail Trout and Kokanee

DOBBINS – Anglers are finding quality action on both rainbow trout and kokanee salmon at Bullards Bar Reservoir. On his latest trout trip to the lake, Bret Brady of Bare Bones Guide Service reported catching good numbers of rainbows while using trolling flies in. black and olive patterns. Trollers continue to catch kokanee from 10 to 30 feet deep while trolling with hoochies, spinners and Kokanee Cut Plugs.“ It took us until 10:00 a. m. to find the kokanee at Bullards today – I haven’ t been there in over a month,” stated Rob Reimers of Rustic Rob’ s Guide Service after his latest trip to the reservoir.“ But once we did it was a pretty good bite. The biggest fish today was 13.75 inches. Although there wasn’ t enough time left to limit out, we had a good day!” If you book a trip with Reimers at Bullards for kokanee or Oroville for kings from now through the end of March, he will smoke and package your fish for no additional charge. Bullards Bar is holding 820,367 acre-feet of water, 85 percent of capacity and 104 percent of average. Few anglers have been on the water at Englebright Reservoir fishing for trout. However, this is

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