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22 June 8 - 22 , 2018 VOL . 37 • ISS . 13
Lake Oroville Kings Are Back in Force !
Lake Oroville has a long and interesting history of fish plants , with Feather River Chinook salmon providing an excellent coldwater fishery on the reservoir now .
Photo by DAN BACHER , Fish Sniffer Staff .
The landlocked king salmon fishery at Oroville has been a popular and exciting fishery at Lake Oroville since 2013 , but the fishing took a back seat last year to the unfolding of events at Oroville Dam that resulted in the evacuation of nearly 200,000 residents of Butte , Yuba and Sutter counties on a one hour notice when Department of Water Resources and local law enforcement officials announced that a failure of the auxiliary spillway was imminent after the spillway began eroding
The giant hole caused by erosion in the primary spillway and then the erosion and damage to the emergency spillway that spurred the evacuation , followed by the release of 100,000 cfs down the primary spillway , also created the need for two rescue operations of salmon and steelhead by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife ( CDFW ) and the California Department of Water
Resources
( DWR ).
Since then , the shabby construction of the spillways that resulted in the evacuation , the failure of state and federal officials to heed the advice of environmental groups regarding safety concerns at the dam , the ensuing investigations and the ongoing construction at the dam has been a front-page topic of local , state , nation and international media since February of 2018 .
The good news is that the Chinook salmon fishery is back in force this spring as construction activities continue at the dam . Anglers can no longer launch at the spillway , but boat launching is in full swing at the Bidwell Canyon launch ramp , as I found when I fished with Rob Reimers of Rustic Rob ’ s Guide Service on Saturday , May 19 , on a beautiful and mild spring day .
Several days earlier , Reimers had done a scouting trip on the reservoir and caught 15 salmon in a couple of hours while trolling Brad ’ s Kokanee Cut Plugs behind dodgers , keeping five and releasing the other ten back into the lake . On this morning , trolling with us were Gary Adkins of Yuba City and Carrie Hodges of Loma Rica .
“ On the last trip , we didn ’ t get any bites in the first 20 minutes and then the bite turned on ,” said Reimers after he launched the boat at the ramp and headed towards the “ green bridge ,” the Bidwell Canyon Bridge .
“ There are three classes of fish that anglers are catching ,” Reimers explained . “ First there are the fish planted last November that measure 12 to 13 inches long . Then there are the fish that were planted last spring that measure around 16 inches . Then there are the big holdovers that
Carrie Hodges of Loma Rica and Gary Adkins of Yuba City show off a quality catch of landlocked king salmon and one rainbow trout taken while trolling with Rob Reimers of Rustic Rob ’ s Guide Service on Lake Oroville on May 18 .
Photo by DAN BACHER , Fish Sniffer Staff . range from 22 to 26 inches long .” Anna Kastener , manager at the CDFW ’ s Feather River Fish Hatchery in Oroville , said they stocked 25,000 salmon fingerlings in Oroville last May and then 110,000 chinooks in the 6 to 9-inch range in October . The facility also stocked 133,120 salmon in November 2016 .
Rob put out five rods outfitted with Brad ’ s Kokanee Series Cut Plugs in different colors at 25 to 35 feet deep . Carrie hooked and landed the first salmon at 6:00 a . m . while I hooked and landed the second fish 5 minutes later .
For the next couple of hours , we found great action , landing a total of 20 fish , ranging from 12 to 18-1 / 4 inches . We didn ’ t get land any big holdovers , but we did get two surprise rainbow trout measuring 18 and 12 inches in the mix . We didn ’ t realize they were wild rainbows until we got back to the ramp and Rob noticed they were trout before cleaning them .
“ It should be an excellent year at Oroville ,” said Reimers . “ I ’ ll be booking trips at Oroville and Bullards Bar until salmon season begins on June 16 .
Bret Brady of Bare Bones Guide Service confirmed the top-notch landlocked salmon fishing in Oroville .
“ On my latest trip , we landed around 30 fish by 9:30 a . m . while trolling at the green bridge and the east wall of the lake ,” he stated . “ The biggest were 17 to 18 inches long . We caught our fish while trolling at 25 to 35 feet deep with white and green hoochies , tipped with anchovy strips , behind dodgers with custom tap at 1.2 to 2.3 mph . We also lost two big holdovers .”
The Oroville trout and salmon stocking began in 1968 after the lake was filled and opened to the public – and has gone through many twists and turns over the years .
From 1986 to 1992 , the CDFW with additional private stocking planted rainbow trout , brown trout , Chinook salm-