I've only been able to get to San Pablo once and caught one while trolling with a dodger + hoochie tipped with worm. It was going over a shallow point north of the boat ramp right near shore.
The whole while I was eyeballing successful shore fishermen who were all soaking powerbait. Eventually the wind picked up and I anchored up south of the ramp and let some mouse tails (dipped in garlic spike it) soak for a bit.

Within 10 min I had a bite, then as I was explaining how I rigged the mouse tail to a buddy I got bit again.

All of this is to agree with chillee about scent outperforming flash at San Pablo, from my one experience anyway. Maybe tipping hoochies or spinners with something super garlic stinky would help?

Reporting back!

The day was beautiful, Berryessa is a zoo on the weekend, the water was in the high 60's and I managed to catch two rainbows on opposite ends of the day.

Oak Shores is a neat little area to launch out of, I appreciate the electric kiosk since I so rarely carry cash anymore. What I had assumed via google maps to be a ramp was more of a walk way, but it was easy enough to find a shallow beach to launch from. My PVC kayak cart has been holding it's own.

I need to spend a bit more time learning what are good settings for my fish finder, as I think I had the gain far too high to be useful.

Paddling and trolling is it's own adventure, but I do think I'm figuring out a workable approach. When using a diver or a weight I'll just loosen my drag until it can start taking line in a controlled manner while I paddle. One rod I've been running a clip on line counter, the other I just tied brightly colored braid onto the main line as markers at 50ft, 75ft and 100ft. Between that and my laminated trolling cheat sheet I can have a rough idea of where things are.

First rainbow came at 9am (ish) on a green kokabow dodger and pink hoochie, roughly 10 or 15ft down and south of the big island. Obviously I then left fish to continue exploring the east side of the big island and didn't catch anything else until the very end of the day.

Wake boaters, speedy bass boats and parasail boats definitely made for an exciting paddle. I swear one of those parasailers was so high that an airplane had to change course to avoid it.

Eventually I figured it was time to head home, so I pulled my lines out of the water and made my way back to the place I had launched. About 100ft from shore I was hit with the desire to have one last cast, so I made my way to an uninhabited point (the parking lot had filled up and the day use area was super busy by now) and started casting into a fishy looking area. The wind had picked up slightly and I think this helped. Casting around a little pins minnow I figured I might be able to hook a bass for some last minute excitement, so imagine my surprise when I got a bite and it turned out to be an 18" rainbow.

I had a good time and am feeling a bit more confident figuring out where to look for fish in lakes. Trolling too, is starting to make a bit more sense to me and I hope to get out and keep trying soon. I think maybe Folsom next, since it's so close to home.

Photo time -

Look at all these "fish"


my favorite craigslist find to date.


faux baitfish that did the trick.


9am front and 4pm back

First time posting up an invite, so please forgive any funky formatting or broken rules.

I'm going to Berryessa this coming Saturday, May 14. Figuring to launch from the long ramp at Oak Shores Day Use, arriving at 7:30 am when they open the gates. Planning on targeting trout and kokanee.

Look for a white Honda Ridgeline (goofy looking 1st gen) and a green/black/camo Wilderness Systems Tarpon 140, I'll have an orange NRS Chinook PFD.

Alrighty, essentials out of the way now I'll start rambling! This is going to be a day of firsts for me, I've never launched from Oak Shores, never targeted kokanee and sadly never had much success trolling for trout. What I have done is read a bunch of posts on, divers, thermocline and Berryessa as well as spent far too much time watching youtubers make kokanee fishing look far far too easy. I'll be going out with some dipsy divers, dodgers and a bunch of hand tied hoochies that are probably a little too big. Tack on a handful of minnow lures, some gulp wax worms and a couple spinners and I should have far more options than I can reasonably use in a single day.
It should be an adventure, one that I'm happy to be making after all that time spent online thinking about fishing. So if you do decide to come out and fish, know that I'm going out with low expectations but high hopes.
Of course if anyone is reading this and sees any red flags or has advice to offer I'd love to hear it. Otherwise I figure I'll just go out and see what a bit of experience in the boat can teach me.

Yeah let's give this a go!

+1 for electric. Charging batteries is easier than finding co2 and AEGs (automatic electric gun) are more reliable than co2 or green gas guns, at least from my experience.

Check out a G&G Combat Machine, it should be right in ballpark for your price range. I haven't been into airsoft for quite a while, but everything I've seen on them makes it seem like they just work and don't require any fussing to get decent performance. It has metal moving parts (gearbox) and should be compatible with a bunch of aftermarket upgrades should your son decide he likes to spend the time between trips tinkering and spending money. Just like real AR's it'll be easy to find magazines and accessories as well.

Here's a random google review -  https://airsoftgunguy.com/g-g-combat-machine-cm16-aeg-review/

https://evike.com/ https://www.airsoftgi.com/ and https://www.airsoftatlanta.com/ are all sites that I've ordered from before and were reliable. You can probably find stuff on amazon too of course.

I'll be watching this thread.

Been to Sherman Lake once before and got skunked throwing pearl big hammers, and red/white deep diver plugs.

Saw plenty of something jumping right at dawn though!

Oof.

Still at least he recognized he was at fault there.

Wow, that was a really dull knife.