Low Down at Lex Sat 4.26.08 w/ pics

Was curious about Lexington so I racked the boat, grabbed two rods, my dog, and headed to the lake.  As you can see, it's WAAAAAAAYY down.  That didn't stop all the lady crewers out today.  At least 6 teams were practicing while I was on the water.  Sorry Mooch, didn't want to be rude and take pics.   

Saw two types of watercraft that were novel to me.  The yellow boat looked like some kind of SIK/SOT hybrid.  Dude had a teacup chihuahua in his lap.  For propulsion, he was doing a seated freestyle crawl with a pair of DUSTPANS, I kid you not.  pretty interesting set up.

Then there was this guy a standup paddleboard.  I've seen those in Hawaii before.  Seems like a close cousin to Mooch's flatstalker.

For me, the wind coupled with 75 lbs of furry ballast riding shotgun, made it hard to track a straight line.  With all the boat traffic from the crews and others, it felt a little crowded so I turned in early.  As i was packing up my boat, i saw this float tuber bang a good ~3-4lber right off the spot where I launched (which was straight down the ramp).  it was his 4th bass of the day.  Caught it on a t-rigged salamander or something.  It was pretty cool to see him set on the fish and bring it in, kind of like watching TV.

Then as i was walking up the car, I saw this lady banker with another fat bass on a stringer.  She'd picked it up on a night crawler in the first cove to the east at 0630, she said.  She was also getting into crappie and some bluegill, but was tossing them. 

Anyway, it seems the bass are still in Lex and are pretty decent sized, and ready for the pickins.  doesn't appear like you even have to cover a crapload of water to get on 'em.  I hope I'm not spoiling somebody's best kept secret, but just thought I'd share for those who were wondering about the effect the water draw down was having on the fishing at Lex.

Wow thats low...

I guess the low water should have the fish bunched up though.

I guess the low water should have the fish bunched up though.

Let's hope it isn't fished out, figuratively speaking of course, because I doubt they do anything to help the recovery of our poor little finned friends.

Nice report Martin.  I've peddled Lex once and bank fished it once.  The peddle wasn't fishing but trying out the modifications made to the yak.  I'd love to fish it by boat someday.

Wish I could have joined you but we celebrated the girl's first birthday.

Michael

  HOLY COW BATMAN!!

Never seen Lex that low - TRAGIC! I'll need to check that out myself pretty soon. Besides, we a have a stand-up paddle board at Aquan that I've been wanting to take out. With the weather getting better, it will be a nice place to get familiar with our surf ski as well. Now, I just need to dust off my speedos  So many toys to play with , so little time

Did you have to walk through much mud to get to the water?

Great report, Martin.  Good Times include those where you check out others' catches and rides.  Thanks for the photos and commentary.   

Just to give some perspective, the reservoir is at about 603 feet in elevation today. The drawdown is scheduled to bring the reservoir down to an elevation of 575 feet by June 15th. Lexington will stay below 575 (expect it to keep dropping) all the way through November of this year and then should be back to normal operation. Now here's the inside scoop. According to some of our biologists, the fish apparently tend to stay in the reservoir as long as they can. Then, when it's officially hit the fan as far as the fish are concerned, they'll make a mass break for it. If that happens, I'll be sure to pass the info along. One more thing: construction is about to start on the ramp area of the reservoir closing that area down to public access. I'm not sure of a really good alternate launching location, but maybe some of the other Lexington regulars can share some intel. Sorry for the dire news.

I've seen WAY lower. Heck there still water on the other side (Maybe inches deep but not completly dried up yet)  I sure wish they'd finish up that darn project so the lake can fill again.

Now, I just need to dust off my speedos 

Oh, no! The girls in the row club have a surprise coming to them!

Did you have to walk through much mud to get to the water?

Not much mud at all.  As you can see, the shoreline is basically bone dry.  The only mud and loose clay you'll run into is right at the water line.  But getting down to the water is kind of dicey.  Lots of rocks as you can see.  Balloon tires would help.

Just to give some perspective, the reservoir is at about 603 feet in elevation today. The drawdown is scheduled to bring the reservoir down to an elevation of 575 feet by June 15th. Lexington will stay below 575 (expect it to keep dropping) all the way through November of this year and then should be back to normal operation.

Well, that's that for Lexington then.  Felt so cramped already, but lose another 28 feet and it's basically nothing more than a puddle.  Guess i'll turn my attention to SCR or the Morgan Hill resvrs.

kind of cool to see it low tho. in a twisted sort of way.

what does 'make a mass break for it' mean???? I mean, where are they going to go?

martin, rockfish opens in a few days, you don't have to go to freshwater anymore. (you did know about rockfish season, right?  )

I went to scr today (27th) for the sundown bite and had a lot of action. lots of fish on the surface at sundown. one big LDR took a huge run halfway across the lake (wtf?). boated two, two sdrs, two solid ldrs (runs, reeling etc, but no color), and numerous strikes. no luck on my ghetto downrigger experiment, I even lost a couple s-hooks, one stacker and a release clip somehow,  . also, I only had two crawlers (my last two now that rockfish opens on thursday) and they seemed to only want those, no luck on plastic. but I had some gulp 4" turtle back worms and cut those up and eventually those got popped, including the big ldr.  but it's interesting how much better landed to hooked ratio you get with crawlers, plastics and gulp gets hit, but the hookup is never as solid as with a crawler.

John

what does 'make a mass break for it' mean???? I mean, where are they going to go?

I was kind of wondering that myself, but was too chicken to ask. 

rockfish opens in a few days, you don't have to go to freshwater anymore. (you did know about rockfish season, right?  )

It does?!?!   Oh yeah, it does!!!!       Stow the fresh water gear and break out the big irons and plastics! 

Still I hope Lex comes back.  I liked to fish it for the spring bite, especially since it was pretty close with good freeway access.  It had enough acreage at 80% to get a workout in to tune up for the ocean season.  But with the drawdown, its not much of a paddle/ peddle at all.

hey how much longer do you think they'll keep stocking at SCR?  i'd like to hit it one more time for some trout for the smoker.  it's gotta be getting close to quitting time for the DFG stock schedule.

Wish I could have joined you but we celebrated the girl's first birthday.
Michael

Didn't even know you had a daughter!  Congrats Dad!  let's hit the ocean soon.

lex is great. my lakes are lex and scr. So I'm down 50% on my lakes right now,  .

I think scr is done for this year basically. I had a lot of fun there this year and a lot of success.

not as much success as the cormarants (saw one so fat he could not take off) the terns (they look pretty, but they are GNAR!) and the ospreys (does not seem like an efficient way to fish, but sure looks good (kind of like fishing with all artificials,  )), but I caught fish all over that puddle this spring. even a crappie, but no bass, unless one of those LDR's was a bass (or cormarant?) eating the trout off my line.

today I saw three trout jump at once, between me and a tuber. they looked like mini-dolphin I have to say. I was almost cheering those stupid little planters! 

but rockfish season is here, so who cares!

John

Just to give some perspective, the reservoir is at about 603 feet in elevation today. The drawdown is scheduled to bring the reservoir down to an elevation of 575 feet by June 15th.

Here is another perpective for you. Lexington's dam is 195' high.

what does 'make a mass break for it' mean???? I mean, where are they going to go?

The fish have two options. Some head upstream if there's enough water to make it passable. Others make a run through the outlet pipes underneath the dam and end up in Los Gatos Creek. It's a rough trip, but some do survive. The odd thing is they tend to go in large groups... lemming-like. The most recent example of this mass exodus occurred last year when Uvas Reservoir went nearly bone dry. I don't know what the queue is, but we'll be watching the temp, dissolved oxygen, pH, and turbidity at the outlet. Elevation data for Lexington (and all other SCVWD reservoirs) is posted for all who are interested at http://alert.valleywater.org/gageresv-cross.html. Hope I made sense.