Lake Natoma-What kind of fish is this?

I fished Lake Natoma for a while on saturday but only managed 1 small fish.  I was trolling a live minnow and a small countdown rapala and he hit the rapala.  It didn't look like a rainbow, it's sides were very silver and the bottom jaw was straight and it's mouth was black around the bottom teeth.  I released him after taking a couple pics. What kind of fish is this?


Duck Duck GOOSE!  That was a mean gang and the goose tried to get in my yak. Yikes!



I met a really nice guy who was fishing from his kayak.  I talked to him for quite a while.  This is him in the distance.



I found a bunch of deep holes where the river entered the lake.  The upper part of the lake was about 10 feet deep all the way across then when I got up into the current I found a bunch of holes that were about 50 feet deep.  I was marking big fish all over in there but I had no luck on my minnow or rapala.  I even tried jigging a spoon, nada.


What I got from talking to a couple of the people who fish this lake a lot is that there are not a lot of trout in here but there are some very big ones.  One guy told me he gets skunked a lot but he caught an 11 pounder out of here a while back.

Travis,
Where did you launch and what area did you fish? ? I see by the last picture you went up to the bridges.

I launched from negro bar.

killer photo-report!

Looks like a salmonoid of some sort. If not a rainbow, probably a salmon...

Cool Travis.  Looks like a Chinook to me.

nice report/pics Travis - please keep posting photos with your reports !!! As soon as rockfish season is over, I'll be making more "trout trips"  

I hear that lake natoma is good for big trout in the winter.  I plan on hitting it more this winter since it is so close to home.  What do you guys suggest using to catch monster trout?  Was I correct in thinking they would like large minnows?

Maybe a kokanee?

Big Rapalas

Travis - try this = night crawler + power bait combo. Use a small gob of power bait to "float" the crawler from the bottom. Drift slowly up and down the deeper pools. Make sure you keep the night crawlers happy by keeping them cool in a small ice chest. IMO: A big lazy trout can't say no to a lively nightcrawler that smells like power bait = EASY MEAL for 'em......try live crawdads too - take the pinchers out - they tend to struggle more when they don't have their "weapons" to defend themselves when a bruiser fish is swimming around them...

Travis - try this = night crawler + power bait combo. Use a small gob of power bait to "float" the crawler from the bottom. Drift slowly up and down the deeper pools. Make sure you keep the night crawlers happy by keeping them cool in a small ice chest. IMO: A big lazy trout can't say no to a lively nightcrawler that smells like power bait = EASY MEAL for 'em......try live crawdads too - take the pinchers out - they tend to struggle more when they don't have their "weapons" to defend themselves when a bruiser fish is swimming around them...

Thats a good idea I will try to float some night crawlers next time.

I would say kokanee or king salmon.

Hay Travis,

Nice Kokanee. Is there an abundance of those fish in that area?

Alex-  I don't think there are a lot of kokane in Natoma from what I hear.  It looked like I went over a school right as I hooked this one though.