Lake Almanor 6/14-20

First a thank you to Clayman for all his advice on fishing Lake Almanor.

Just got back from spending a week at Lake Almanor with my brother and his wife.  My brother rented a cabin in Wilson Camp which is where his brother-in-law keeps a trailer and his boat. 

The hex hatch was in full swing and every morning we would head out in the boat in search of big browns.  With all the food in the water from the hatch the bite was slow for almost all the boaters.  The average catch rate for most boaters was a little over one trout per outing.  The best we did was 2 fish on two different days, otherwise it was one or none.

In the afternoon weather permitting I would head out in my kayak.  My brother had never eaten crawdads and so I dropped a pot and fished straight out in front of Wilson Camp for 2 days.  Catching crawdads was good but fishing was slow. 

On Wednesday Jonesz came up and we met up on the water for a late afternoon fishing adventure.   For me the bite picked up and I ended up catching 5 and losing one.   My biggest was a PB of a brown that was somewhere north of 10 pounds.  I released all the fish except for a smaller one that I kept.

 

 

 

 

Sounds like a great trip!  Way to make the most of it.   

Hell yeah Terry, well done on a tough bite! I recall those Hex Hatch events where the fish were stuffed and you had to grind to get bit...similar to the fall season when there's a bumper crop of smelt and the fish are stuffed with them. Glad you and Ron got into some good fish. Any pics of the PB?

Any pics of the PB?

No. I was using an ultra light set up with very little drag applied and all the fish I released were showing signs of distress and I didn’t want to stress them more by taking them out of the water. I also watched a boater catch an 8 pounder and he took it out of the water to weigh it and snap a photo and he then tried to release it and the fish didn’t make it.

Any pics of the PB?

No. I was using an ultra light set up with very little drag applied and all the fish I released were showing signs of distress and I didn’t want to stress them more by taking them out of the water. I also watched a boater catch an 8 pounder and he took it out of the water to weigh it and snap a photo and he then tried to release it and the fish didn’t make it.

Copy that, totally understandable. Always tricky business with CnR up there when the water's warm.