Lexington 6/6/6

My son, Alex, got his first kayak fish, 13" trout, from Lexington yesterday on a gold Kastmaster trolled way out half way up the lake out in the middle about 9 am.  Tons of ff fish on the bottom, I don't think we got down far enough to get them, niether of us know anything about lake fishing.  Very little wind all day, pretty day, pretty place,top water 74-76 deg..  Another angler said he hooked lots of little ones.  Sign said gate to  parking lot and ramp doesn't open until 8 am, tho the ranger opened it at 7:45 and didn't seem to mind that we'd rolled the yaks under the gate already.   Watch out for the big rock trucks on that sleepy road around the lake.

Awesome Tom! Good to hear they are still biting at Lexington. I might sneak out there on a dawn patrol next week.

went today 6/7. 17" bass + dink first cove on left. osprey had one. banker had 4. can get real windy there!

I am deeply hurt you didn't tell me you where going 

Not that I would have been able to make it anyways... 

Dang FT!  Sounds like a devlishly good time yesterday!  Maybe that's an Omen of things to come for me this weekend.      Gonna try to get the new outback rigged and head out on sunday.

bill, I didn't decide until late last night! I got 4 cell phone calls while I was out there, and that was before 8:15,  . but I'm happy I went!

the big bass was fun. 4lb line. that is two decent bass on gold seps dodger and crawler.  where's my trout?
I'm thinking my worm chunk is too big, not sure.

we need an online wind meter so we can find out if we can go in the evening. any ideas? call the rowing club?

J

Here is iWindsurfs San Jose Airport link. Should be kinda sorta close...

http://www.iwindsurf.com/windandwhere.iws?regionID=126&siteID=1141

great! I wonder how accurate it is?

I went one weekend afternoon and it was blowing 25 knots with whitecaps!  . I fished the one
protected creek arm, but didn't catch anything that day. It's a pass, so the wind can really blow there.
but it was blowing from the south, I think it was that last weekend we had the rain.

But that experience has prevented me from trying in the evening during the week (not that I could really
swing that one anyway)

Today the wind started blowing lightly from the north by about 9.

btw, the water is a bit cloudy again, i guess from all the wave action on shore from the wind. clear enough for
fishing tho.

if an osprey got a trout, they must be near the surface early, right?

J

Weather Underground's site has the Los Gatos Bird Farm at 37.203 122.008 at something over 1000ft elev, which by my atlas and my "Do not use for navigation." calculations puts it about 1 mile west of the middle of Lexington (opposite the Soda Spring Road arm of the lake). They have plenty of computerized weather data and charts on-line:
http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=KCALOSGA14
   Have you seen the yak fan in McCovey cove with the waterproofed laptop and God-only-knows what other gear watching the ball game as he waits for splash hits?  You could do that to check out the wind by the minute, to be ready for the bird farm, so to speak.
   On the grossly practical side, how do you troll the worm/lure deep enough in that lake to attract those fish on the bottom without a downrigger? Planer?
 

tom, nice link for a guy born before computers! 

you missed our whole dowrigger via another rod, 1lb ball, and $8 seps downrigger release thread. 

ken kickfish was catching fish all last summer using a sawed off rod mounted sideways at his feet
with a lead ball and scotty release. he'd let out 20 feet of line behind him, clip it to the release,
lower the ball 15 feet and score the trout. he likes a watermelon dodger and half a nite crawler, threaded
onto a #6 to #8 baitholder hook (I think).

I have two rod holders pointing backwards and I have tested two long rods, one heavy with weight and release,
one ultralight with 4lb test. a 10" trout is not strong enough to trip the release so detecting the strike is still problematic.
I have tested this, but caught all my fish with just weight but maybe this weekend is the time to try it in earnest?

ken kickfish notes that with the downrigger, the line behind his boat is shorter, meaning he can carve around coves
and sailboats and rower coach motorboats do not foul his line. basically he's a downrigging kayaking pioneer!

if that is too complicated, basically a long thin line and weight will get you down.  the trick there is detecting
the strike and dealing with 100+ feet of line behind your yak. if the weight is heavy, you won't see the strike.

the dodger itself will sink and you can look for mark wiza's articles on fish sniffer, he says 10 feet down for every 100 feet
back for dodgers and lake trolls as a rule of thumb I think? 10% sink. but dodgers vary in size, weight, and hydrodynamic
efficiency.

I recall you are using an external line counter like me? works here as well as for salmon.

I have also put 1/4 oz of lead 12" ahead of the dodger. the dodger itself needs to remain unweighted and
have line ahead and behind it to move properly.

I think you only need to be 18 feet or so down to reach the epilion (?) layer the oxygenated
colder layer where the trout hang during the summer @ lexington?  but I am new to this.
check out the seps site for ultra light trolling tips: http://www.sepsprofishing.com/

mooch uses mini crankbaits that dive around 10 feet and seems to do real well.  the troll rate for cranks is
higher than for dodgers too so you can cover more ground in less time.

the most efficient way to catch trout @ lexington is probably just cast powerbait out there from the bank and wait.
I don't see how that could possibly be as much fun tho!

J

Thanks for the getting deep tips, I missed the whole thing, was mulling over some kind of downrigger.    Downriggers seem much safer to use in Lex than in the ocean.  I see a project in my future. 

Tom, since there are a lot of people that trout fish in lakes via trolling there is quite the body of 'literature' on it. It's kind
of like bass fishing where the 'science' is very deep.  you can also actually fish for salmon in some of the foothill lakes,
like melones and don pedro. they have chinook and sockeye (known as kokanee).  often 80 feet down. the koke fishing
is good in summer while the trout fishing is more year round, but shallow in winter and deep in the summer.

from what I read the koke fishing in particular is generally done with sonar and downrigger and
something to carefully monitor trolling speed.
it looks pretty scientific to me.

I have not seen anybody successfully catch salmon off their kayak in a lake, except for travis who caught
a king while trout fishing in natoma, so there's room for pioneering here.

Basically I am proposing more or less using your ocean salmon rod/reel as your downrigger,
and using a second long lightweight rod with the line clipped to the weight hanging off the salmon rig.
It can't be any harder than fishing for salmon 5 miles off moss landing!

J