08 / 24 / 2016 By Craig Bentley 2016

Transcription

1 08 / 24 / 2016 By Craig Bentley 2016 King salmon bite steady for trollers on Lake Oroville with no pessure and limits of fat salmon being caught on the main body of the lake, while the trout and steelhead bite in the Low Flow outshines salmon fishing on the open section of the Feather River below Oroville. Lake Oroville The Lake surface elevation is 776 feet. The lake is dropping about sixteen inches a day. The surface temperature is 78 degrees. The main body is clear green. Mudlines form off of main body points when there is significant wind. There may still be some woody debris on the lake and caution is advised for boaters to watch out for submerged logs while underway at high speed. The caution advisory statement regarding Bluegreen Algae issued by CA State Parks two weeks ago is still valid for the Middle Fork arm. The State Park officials advise bathers, boaters their Pets and personal watercraft operators to avoid the inhabited areas, which are posted with signs. Please avoid those areas until further notice. Launch ramps open; Lower ramps at Bidwell Canyon, Lime Saddle and the Spillway. Most Car-top boat access points are still open, including Dark Canyon, Foreman Creek, Nelson Bar, Stringtown and Vinton Gulch. Loafer Creek launch ramp is now closed. The Enterprise ramp is closed. Boater's may call the lake's Visitor Center at (530) , to check the daily status of launch ramps prior to making a trip up to the lake. The weather will be sunny and warm with some clouds through the week. High temperatures will be from 87 to 92, with lows from 63 to 68 degrees. Winds will be light and variable mostly from the south, south-east and south-west to 5 to 9 mph, afternoons. Brent Kline and Don Reighley at Oroville Outdoors both said the bass bite was pretty tough at the lake last week, with fish spooked into suspending deep by a constantly dropping lake level. Releases are not scheduled to be cut back anytime soon according to DWR. Conditions as they are, two anglers are catching ten to fifteen bass in a four to six hour session with the better fishing in the late evening to ten Pm.

2 A local tournament held in the evening last week was won with an eight pound limit and a two pound bass was the big fish in this club tourney. For the ardent bass angler, it's mostly smaller bass being caught now by boating anglers. Topwater lures, crankbaits and Finesse fishing plastics were working for catching a few bass over 12- inches last week, with few fish going over 14-inches. Boating bass anglers are working the suspended fish with small swimbaits, or tubes are finding a few fish from 30 foot down to 40 feet. Fish along the points, or on the ddeper flats with small rocks, along steep walls. Drop-shoting small tubes or Keitech minnows, or fishing 5" Senkos may catch some small bass. Natural bait fish colors such as Baby bass, Shad and Bluegill may catch bass. Earth tone baits, like watermelon, pumpkin, oxblood or brown are also good color choices. Panfish may be caught in brushy coves, such as Mc Cabe's or Stringtown in the South Fork arm, or Dark Canyon and Canyon Creek, up the West Branch arm. Bluegill, an occasional Crappie and other varieties of hand-sized perch may also be found in those areas. The Catfish bite is on with the warm water and some nice cats can be caught weighing between 5 to 7-pounds, with an occasional whopper to 12-pounds plus coming out of the coves. Try fresh Chicken Liver, Crawdads or cut bait for Cats. King salmon fishing continues to be decent for boaters trolling. The main body continues to give up limits of fat Kings to 18-inches in good numbers, mornings until about 10 Am. The main body of the lake has been uncrowded most days, with few if any boats trolling in front of the Dam on weekdays. The Dam, Green Bridge and Bidwell point have been good areas to troll. The catch has been fish averaging 15" to 18", with a occasional fish to 24" caught. Boaters troll lures down from 40 feet, down to the 60 foot mark to catch salmon, with some biting deeper down to 70 feet. The last few weeks, 45 to 60 feet deep has been the bite zone. Troll around until you find the bait. Speedy Shiners spoons trolled at 2 to 2.2 mph have been taking fish early mornings, then Hoochies tipped with anchovy chunks, behind a dodger works later in the day. Salmon may usually be caught while trolling over submerged islands or structure, or along the face of the dam. The best tactic is to try and find bait schools then troll your gear just under the bait. Berkley Power minnows, Apex lures or Hoochies-tipped with a piece of anchovy, rigged behind a medium sized dodger, trolled anywhere from 30 to 75 feet, at 1.9 to 2.2 mph usually works for both salmon and trout. Spoons like the Speedy Shiner, Coyote, RMT flutter spoons are getting bites at faster trolling speeds now that the water is warm. Diversion Pool Releases from Oroville Dam to the pool have been as much as 9500 cfs being released from 1Pm to 11Pm, then back down to 4500 cfs. The spillway gates are closed and the water is coming from the tunnels at Hyatt Powerhouse and the penstock. The water is clear with about 4-6 feet of visibility. Trout and salmon have been active during the day with releases of water from the lake and some real nice fish can be caught. Few anglers have been out here lately. Casting and retrieving minnow imitations: soft plastics, stick baits, or spoons, or fish bait for the trout or salmon.

3 Please note that DWR advises that flows can increase without notice and flows are subject to change throughout the day. No wading, swimming or floatation devices are allowed on this water above the buoy line that normally spans the pool, 100 yards below the spillway. Thermalito Forebay No recent reports. Trout, salmon, bass, catfish and other species of rough-fish are present in the Forebay. Some transient trout and salmon that have moved down from the diversion pool to the South Forebay are occasionally caught on bait by patient anglers enjoying the solitude of this little used facility off of Grand Avenue. Thermalito Afterbay Pool elevation is above 135 feet. The water coming in at Wilbur Road Bridge is 62 to 65 degrees and warms up a little to the seventies in the back coves. The water is clear green with about 4 to 6 feet of visibility near Wilbur Road and at the 162 bridge and below. Bass fishing has slowed last week at the Afterbay with few fish on the bite. Largemouth are showing best along the western rock wall. The topwater bite is slowing and anglers were catching bass on Frogs, Buzz baits and Spooks. There's a few fish weighing 1-1/2 to 2 pounds caught and again last week, a 20" long bass won the last local turkey shoot-type evening tournament held this year at the Afterbay. Some boating anglers have been Flipping creature baits like Baby Brushhogs, skirted jigs, Texas or wacky rigged Senko's, Roboworms, chartreuse or white spinner baits, into the tules, or working in and along the rocks, or brush piles. Drop-shoting small swim baits, plastic minnows or tubes, off the same areas will also work when conditions are right. Good sized Bluegill are available. The Panfish will hit small jigs, lures and small plastic worms. Standard baits like Meal worms or Redworms work good. Minijigs and panfish poppers are good lures to use. Little panfish poppers, or Deerhair flies like Humpy's and Irresistables in size will work for those wanting to try fly casting. Steelhead fishing has been dead for boaters with very few trying. Bank fishing has been slow, there have been few anglers fishing at the Wilbur Road canal and near the Hwy.162 Bridge. No reports last week from the canal mouth last week. Anglers trying for steelhead use pink Gulp eggs, with a nightcrawler or scented marshmallow, use a three to five-foot long leader and a sliding sinker setup, or cast soft baits or lures while bank fishing at the Afterbay. Boaters usually troll with minnow type lures or a threaded nightcrawler behind a dodger, or drift a flylined nightcrawler from the surface down to fifteen feet deep, along the west wall of the Afterbay, on the flats, or on the edges of the channels in front of the outlets, north of the Highway 162 bridge and the mouth of the inlet canal. Feather River Salmon fishing remains slow while trout and steelhead fishing improves along with river conditions.

4 Flows are now 1600 cfs in the "Low flow" at Oroville, with 5000 cfs being released from the Thermalito Afterbay Outlet, for a total 6600 cfs below the Outlet. The Gridley gage data showed 6899 cfs at the time of this writing, which is good for safe powerboat operation and pushy for driftboats on the river below the Thermalito Afterbay Outlet. The river is still high with all the overgrown brush that grew up during the drought, there are sweepers and strainers that may catch unsuspecting boaters, kayakers and tubers off guard. Flows were dropped to 6,600 cfs by DWR last week. The water temperature is 58 to 54 degrees at station FRA in the Low Flow. Below the Thermalito Afterbay Outlet at station FOW, the water temperature is 62 to 65 degrees. The water is clear green in the Low Flow and below the Thermalito Afterbay Outlet, it is slightly slate green with about 3 to 4 feet of visibility. Salmon fishing is still slow and inconsistent, good one day and poor the next. There are a few fresh kings being caught in the Afterbay Outlet hole, on spinners. Example; 8 waders caught 3 kings, out of 5 hooked yesterday morning on spinners, then just two kings were caught this morning by 8 anglers today. Boaters try K15, K16 Kwikfish, Flatfish, or Brad's Killerfish with a fresh Sardine wrap or Roe, or Jigs. Some nice salmon were caught by boaters between Gridley and Biggs last week. Bank anglers and experienced waders cast and retieve no. 5 or 6, Blue Fox Spinners, #5 Mepps Aglia, Scopion spinners, or spoons. The best bite has been in the mornings when the water is coolest. The Kings are still moving right through the Afterbay Outlet Hole and not holding there for very long, if at all. The first good push of Fall run kings should start to arrive in the next couple of weeks and peak in September. The catch rate lately indicates that fishing appears to be steady and should improve as fish numbers increase as more fall fish arrive in the upper river. A few Shad are still around in the river below the Thermalito Afterbay Outlet and downriver. Shad action has slowed with the anglers focus now on salmon.the Largemouth bass bite in the river has slowed down with the cooler water. The bass have been caught in the Feather's back eddys and surrounding ponds. Tubes, swimbaits, or grubs will take Largemouth, while topwater plugs, swimbaits, Bucktail jigs or bait,- Anchovies, minnows, pileworms and sardines may take Striped bass. Some nice stripers have been caught in the river above the Outlet, yet there have been few anglers trying for them. Fishing for trout and steelhead in the upper "Low Flow" is picking up! Releases to the low flow are lower now, at 1600 cfs and the river is at the edge of the stream side brush on most runs, making wading possible. Flows went down to 1600 cfs last week and trout and steelhead fishing was good last weekend. A few anglers were on the water last week in boats, fishing for trout. This writer walked in to the Low Flow and hooked several wild Rainbow trout and steelhead, two hatchery trout, releasing a few fish up to 4-pounds while drifting bait. There are few adult steelhead over 20" present in the river now and its mostly wild trout being caught by anglers fishing above the Afterbay Outlet and below Hwy 162

5 For the spinning or gear angler trying for trout or steelhead on the Feather, try side drifting jigs or pink worms under a float, Glo-bugs, single eggs, small clusters of cured roe, nightcrawlers with a 4mm florescent red bead, or size 14 Corky, Steelhead worms, Berkley Trout worms, or Micetails, on a sliding sinker setup, using a light slinky weight or pencil lead. Lure caster's use spinners,- Rooster Tails or Vibrax, spoons- Lil' Cleos, Kastmasters, small jigs and small minnow imitating plugs, such as Rapala's. Size Hot Shots in copper, gold, or silver are good and the 3.0 Flatfish in Copcar, Firetiger, Perch or Crawdad color, are good choices for wiggling, diving lures used for trout and steelhead. Fly fishers should try Caddis, Mayfly, or Fry patterns, Glo-bugs, Egg patterns, black, purple, or cerise colored Articulated Leeches, olive, brown, or black Wooley Buggers. For indicator fishing try Troutbeads, Glo-bugs-in size 8-10, followed by a size 16 or 14 Birdsnests, Fox Poohpah, Prince Nymph, or Soft Hackle Emergers, in green, olive, or tan, also San Juan Worms, in red, bubblegum or tan. Boat traffic is minimal on the river below the Hwy.162 Bridge. Most drift boaters fly fish nymphs or egg patterns under strike indicators, or swing wet flies or streamers when fishing for trout or steelhead in the Low Flow. Some boaters pull plugs or side drift from drift boats on un-crowded days on the low flow. * Please note that only hatchery trout (those fish under 16 inches) and hatchery steelhead may be taken from the Feather. Wild fish- (those with an adipose fin) must be released. The daily bag limit is 2 hatchery trout, or steelhead, with a maximum of 4 in possession for two days of fishing. * The Feather River, from the Hwy 70 Bridge to the Table Mountain Bicycle Bridge in Oroville is open to fishing from Jan. 1st, 2016 to July 15, 2016 for Steelhead. * Barbless hooks and a 2016 Steelhead Report Card are required. * The King salmon season opened July 16th, 2016, for the water from the boat ramp above the Afterbay Outlet, downstream to 200 yards above the Live Oak boat ramp at Pennington Road. * Fishing for the king salmon is closed all year in the Low Flow above the Outlet. There is no allowance for any catch and release fishing that targets salmon when any water is closed to salmon fishing. * Below the Hwy 70 Bridge, the Feather River is open year around for steelhead, trout, bass, catfish and panfish. Check DFW regulations for species limits, gear restrictions and salmon regulations. Oroville State Wildlife Area ponds will produce a few bass, bluegill and sunfish for anglers fishing the ponds near weed beds or stickups. Use creature baits, small chatterbaits, buzz baits, plastic worms, or nightcrawlers for bass and red worms or small flies and work them slowly for the bluegill or sunfish. Watch out for Rattlesnakes! Hunting The General Hunting Season closed in the Oroville State Wildlife Area Jan. 31st. * Dove season opens Sept. 1st. There are an average number of birds around this year, with their numbers increasing daily, it should be a good opener. There's mostly Mourning or spotted Doves, with the Eurasian Doves holding tight to populated areas

6 and safe zones, where there is no shooting. * No other hunting seasons are open in the Oroville Area until Sept. 1. *See regulations regarding Hunting and area use at Ca. Dept. Fish and Wildlife,