lexington test troll

I test trolled lexington reservoir this morning.

water is muddy and tons of debris.  reservoir level very high.

a rower I met said it would take about a week to clear up.

I trolled a size 5 silver and black floating rapala minnow on clear 5lb test.
no fish for me or who I think might be ferdie the float tuber
(as reported by mooch), he was casting for bass.
ferdie said they did stock the reservoir with trout "recently".

but as a place to get a little exercise before salmon season, get familiar
with some of my new gear, and perhaps catch
a trout it looks pretty good for me.
close, free, beautiful, uncrowded, no power boats.

I'll probably hit it once a week in the morning wednesdays or thursdays through the spring
and tow various lures or bait around.

I fish Lexington too. I fish by the bank more often than kayaking at Lexington. But the waves generated by the row boats and their power boats from where the coach yield at the boys and girls can throw an unattentive fisherman off the kayak. The wind kicks up well in late morning. The gate to the boat ramp sometimes is close due to wet condition. It is safer to bring a kayak cart along.

Quarry Lake and Shadow Cliffs may be more productive if you are trolling for trout.


Izi

I'm anxious to give lexington a go.

With the recent rains it should be full any day now.

Should be fun, bass fishing is going to be really good in a couple of years.

MolBasser

I was suprised by how full it is already... it looks like it's full to capacity now, even though it's early in the season.

If anyone finds something there while playing around, please post.  I pass by it on 17 quite frequently and I always carry my freshwater rod with me (the new telescopic rod fits in a motorcycle saddle bag!).  I'd love to spend a commute hour bringing in a bass or two.

lots of info on lexington buried in these forums, especially from ken kickfish and mooch
and surfingmarmot.

enter lexington in the forum search feature.

my goal is kind of specialized, I fished off a scrambler for rockfish and halibut last summer
but I traded it for a longer boat (SPTW) to try for salmon this year for the first time.
I want to get comfortable with my gear by trolling for trout over the
next couple months as practice and exercise. actually catching trout is a bonus, but
I'm confident that I will catch some after reading the reports and looking into trolling
for trout on lakes as a general approach.

my plan now is to dawn pa-troll it wednesday morning or thursday morning, probably
every week from now till salmon season opens. I'll get my
stuff ready tuesday night, load up my truck, and then I'll attempt to be there early
wednesday. if that fails somehow, I'll be there thursday morning. I plan to be on
the water a bit after 7, off the water by 9 and back at work by 10.

I'll probably post what I see each week.

 

>>close, free, beautiful, uncrowded, no power boats.

Help me out on the "free" part, please.
The last time I went to Lex, I paid to put a boat in AND paid to park.

BTW, I think I saw you as we were driving by.

vp

I didn't pay to park or launch.

I just assumed that was normal.

I didn't see you wave,  .

 

Check out Joel's just posted Kayak Trout article for more info! http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com

  In the past, pre dam repairs, when the lake remained full (or not drawn down due to repairs) there used to be a fee station (feed the kitty style) there was a "day use, and lake use" fee.  In later years 3 to 4 yrs back the park had installed an electronic pay station and the day and lake use fee's went up to $9 (parking & boat launch) The new electronic pay station was not put back up last time we were on the lake (Nov time frame)
  When the repair on the dam is complete,(if not already) and the park resumes it's normal operations, I suspect that the paystation will reappear.


 

Hey, I re-post the info here, since it is about lexington.

Just want to pass along the info. I lauched my kayak in lexington this Sunday 10:30AM. I took my kid out for paddling. Weather was perfect ( no wind, sunny and warm). My fish finder showed schools of fish around bank on the right side of the launch ramp, the cove on the left at 20-30ft deep. However, they did not strike. I used spinnerbait, Storm and kastmaster, but no luck. Water is still muddy. It was fun to paddle around.

What is yak-motor thing? Can you attach a motor to kayak? just curious ...

Eric

Lots of people have attached electric trolling motors to their kayaks.

I think Quietman has the best website on it.

MolBasser

Lots of people have attached electric trolling motors to their kayaks

might as well get a small boat 

Just remember that if you intend to participate in the big fish pool this year - you have to "paddle"

Just remember that if you intend to participate in the big fish pool this year - you have to "paddle"

I am guessing you could "peddle" too if you had a hobie. Right???

Just remember that if you intend to participate in the big fish pool this year - you have to "paddle"

I am guessing you could "peddle" too if you had a hobie. Right???

sure you can....bottom line = no motors allowed.

mooch, stop mooching my thread! 

I hit lexington this morning (the 11th) from about 8:15 to 9:45.

executive summary, complete and total failure.  . no fish again.

Water is a little clearer than last time, but visibility still less than a few feet. lots of debris
still, water level down a little from last week, not much. still super high.

still free. saw a ranger open the gate @ 8, but I had already parked across the street on a pullout. he didn't
hassle me.

I tried a rattling firetiger frenzy deep diver lure with hooks removed as a kind of attractor/diver thing and hung a worm
off the back of the lure maybe 18" behind. I did not have a threader and did not do a very good job of threading it. 
I probably trolled too fast for the worm part of things and probably still was not deep enough. But I think the
fish could feel/hear/see that lure. probably scared them away.

Then I switched to a pearl colored 3" grub-tail storm swimbait since I saw on fishsniffer that people were
catching trout in the sacramento area lakes with white grubs (including hitdog). I've never caught a thing on any storm
swimbait, but I gave one away to some australian in baja, and he killed the corbina with it so I know they work.

cruised the dam area a few times, then the shoreline south along 17, crossed over, came back the other
side.

I'm still trying to get comfortable with all my gear.
One thing that sucks about fishing is just the insane about of getting everything ready
(and cleaning up afterwards). It's like being the parent of toddler twins or something.
It's not relaxing if you are under time constraints. I hope that I eventually get used to
all this gear and can eventually just concentrate on the fish themselves.

That's part of what this whole lexington practice troll thing is about so when I go for salmon
I'm not freaking out on all my gear.

Met one guy as I left. he was showing up with a boat to fish for bass, looked like a bass pro.
He commented that trout were stocked last week, but maybe they hang deep.

So I guess next week I'll think about trying to go deeper, not sure.