Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition 3809 April 12-26 2019 | Page 27

I-5 Amador County Jackson Elv 588 12 Lodi 49 88 ck Ro Boat Camps Stockton ek Cre 580 Spillway To Rio Vista Elv 577 on cks Ja Lake Amador El 468 eek Cr Kr eth Cr eek Jackson Creek Camp Dock R.V. Lodge Dock To Ione Picnic Area Swimming Pond Isaacs Ditch Fishing information: Lake Amador Resort at (209) 274-4739, www.lakeamador.com. Larry Hemphill of Larry Hemphill’s Instruction and Guide Service, (530) 674-0276, offers guided trips for black bass. 124 Lake Amador Day Use and Other Fees: The parking fee (1 vehicle up to 4 people) is $7.00, with $1.00 extra per person. The fishing permit costs $9.00 per day. The boat launch fee is $7.00 per day; kayaks, canoes and float tubes are $4.00 per day. Lake Amador El 925 Camping: Full hook-up RV sites and a 150 site camp- ground, with showers and flush toilets, are nestled along the shoreline of Lake Amador. The sites are available year round with reservations or just show up. They always have room except maybe on some holidays. 49 Launch Ramps: The lake has an expanded launching ramp with new docks and a paved parking area lighted at night for nocturnal fishing adventures. 50 16 Fishing Season: Fishing is open year round. The lake management and California Department of Fish and Wildlife plant the lake from mid October through mid June, depending upon the surface water temperatures. Resort Facilities: Amador is a full service resort complete with a marina, fishing dock, café and store. The Tackle Box Cafe, located in the Lodge, serves breakfast and lunch on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Also located in the lodge is a large general store and beer bar with a large screen TV. A well-stocked bait and tackle store with rental boats is also located in the lodge. Unlike many other lakes, Amador encourages fishing from its docks. The resort also features two 18-hole disc golf courses and a DG pro shop. Placerville Sacramento Location: Lake Amador, located on Jackson Creek in the Mother Lode foothills near Ione, features 400 surface acres and 13-1/2 miles of shoreline when full. The reservoir is managed as a fishing lake – no water skiing or jet skis are allowed. Lake Amador Facts 25 Apr 12 - 26, 2019 MAP FEATURE VOL.38 • ISS. 9 El Fishing Notes Jackson Spillway 639 • Fishing for Amador’s Rainbow Trout is best when plants are taking place from mid-October through early June. Bank fishing is best for anglers fishing Power Bait, Pautzke Fire Bait, salmon roe and nightcrawlers in the top 3 feet of water until the water temperature warms up in the spring. Trollers use Needlefish, Cripplures, Rapalas, Rebels, Yo-Zuri’s and other minnow imitation lures. • Florida-Strain Largemouth Bass offer year-round action. Night fishing with jigs and Power Worms is best during the fall. During the winter, drop shotting with small plastics off main body points in 15 to 30 feet of water is most productive. Spring and summer baits include spinnerbaits, plastic worms, Zoom Flukes, crankbaits and top water lures. • Channel Catfish action reaches its prime in the summer and fall. Toss mackerel, chîcken liver and stinkbaits off the points. • Crappie fishing is best off docks and other structure in spring and fall. Fish mini-jigs and live minnows. and normal rainbow trout coloration.” For more infor- mation., go to: http://www. yorkccd.org/wordpress/ wp-content/uploads/2009/12/ Golden-Rainbow-Trout.pdf) Lake Amador boasts an ambitious trout planting program from October through Memorial Day weekend (weather permitting). I once caught a five fish limit of rainbow trout, in addition to releasing numerous other fish, off the dock at Amador in the late spring while tossing out golden grubs. It was one of the most beautiful limits of trout I have ever caught at a Joey Hill Jr. won first place in the youth division of the California lake. Amador NTAC by catching a 4.44-pound cuttbow while Each fish was square tailed fishing with his dad, Joe Hill Sr. Photo by DAN BACHER, Fish Sniffer Staff. and silvery like a fresh-run steelhead and ranged from 3-1/2 to 4 pounds. In fact, a friend I rainbow trout; and Lightning Trout,” showed the fish thought I had just gone said Lee Lockhart of the Lake Amador to the American River and chided me Resort. The Lightning Trout is a unique breed for “keeping over my limit.” I told him of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) the fish were not American steelhead, but rainbows from Amador. He was featuring vibrant, yellow, orange and shocked. pink colors. Like other trout raised at The hard fight that Amador’s own Lake Amador’s on-site hatchery, the hatchery-raised trout have historically fish being stocked in the lake now have deep orange or pink flesh similar to king provided anglers, along with their beautiful fins and colors, are due to the salmon, due to the krill-based food they unique strains of fish grown here and the eat, according to Lockhart. conditions they are raised in. The Lightning Trout (or Golden First, the hatchery raises the fish Rainbow Trout) “is a gold-orange in tanks 5 to 6 feet deep, rather than rainbow trout raised under artificial 18 inches deep like other hatcheries, fish culture conditions and stocked as making for better growing conditions. a novelty for angling sport. The golden Second, when the fish reach the age rainbow was developed from one fish, of 8 months and are taken out of the a single female trout with a genetic raceways, they are raised in 7 octagonal mutation that gave her a mixed golden tanks with a constant current running through them. Swimming in the current forces the fish to become strong and healthy. Third, the resort uses top quality “EWOS” food to raise their fish. Since it includes krill and sardines, it helped give the fish’s flesh their unique pinkish orange color. Fourth, the lake management keeps the amount of fish in the hatchery at a lower density than the state and other hatch- eries, so the fish display squared, rather than rounded, tails. Fifth, the quality of the fish they raised also has to do the unique strains of fish they raise. While they first spawned fish from brood stock, they began buying eggs because it was less expensive. “We raised kick-ass fish that fought like hell,” said Lockhart. “However, because costs to raise fish have tripled, we aren’t going to be able to raise 100,000 fish per year like we used to.” But trout isn’t the only fish you can catch at Amador. You can pursue Flor- ida-strain/northern strain hybrid large- mouth bass, channel catfish, crappie, bluegill, redear sunfish. A sleeper trophy carp population inhabits the lake, with carp up to 50 pounds landed by anglers. Threadfin provide abundant forage for bass, catfish and crappie in the impoundment. A family owned and operated business since 1972, Lake Amador Resort is located in the beautiful oak-studded foothills of the Sierra Nevada only one hour from Sacramento and Stockton, and only two hours from anywhere in the Bay Area, The 1300 acre facility offers a heavily stocked 400 acre lake, with updated dual lane boat launch and a large fishing dock for shore anglers. The facility also features a huge campground with hot showers, flush toilets and large shady oak trees as well as a full hookup RV Park The Lake Amador Clubhouse offers free Wifi, a pool table, horse shoes, foosball and TV. The Clubhouse features a beer bar, as well as The Tackle Box Café, where you can eat a delicious breakfast and lunch. For more information, call: Lake Amador, (209) 274-4739, http://lakea- mador.com. For more information about the NTAC, call Vince Harris, (916)768- 0938, www.anglerspress.com. Larry Valderrama of Stockton won first place in the NorCal Trout Anglers Challenge event held at Lake Amador on March 23 with this beautiful 7.79 trout that he hooked on a Rooster Tail from shore. Photo by DAN BACHER, Fish Sniffer Staff.