Union Valley 6-11-06

Son 1, Tote zero.

Tote-

I've been dying to try UVR... I've been doing to homework on the place but, I haven't been able to get good recon on that place though. Is UVR really big??? I've been there once like 20 years ago and have never fished there. I know that there are some huge macs in there though. I've also heard that once the water temp hits about 60 degrees, the bite turns off. It must be getting close to that now. Were you doing the top water thing or jigging deep?

Freddie

The plan was to make bait, find fish, and nail 'em.
Started out and my FF went on the fritz. I thought maybe the batteries weren't putting out power even though I charged them all the night before. Wasn't the batteries. I checked out the connections and they appeared to be solid too. I will have to test the circuit to see what is wrong. Bottom line, no FF on this trip.
Earlier in the year my son was in the water where Silver creek spills in and saw TONS of minnows, so I figured we would score there. NADA.
So no FF and no bait. We fished the inlet area and I did see a few nice sized rainbows. I tried Kastmasters and a few other lures to no avail. My son got one on a Kastmaster.
Size of a lake is a relative term. Some of the guys on here paddle 16 miles + for salmon...You know who you are. It is a pretty big lake for the area, but nowhere near the size of Tahoe. Ice House which is 5 miles before Union Valley on the way up is a lot smaller.
There is still plenty of snowmelt runoff so the lake will stay  colder a little while longer as will all the streams in the area.
I haven't fished it enough to give good recon although I know a guide up here ( PB fisherman ) who gives me good intel when he has it.
If you plan a trip up let me know. I am 46 miles from the lake. If you wanted to head up from your place in the evening and needed a place to crash then get up early and fish you can crash here. Once my FF is working, or I get a new one I think my odds will improve for that lake.

If you can get deep or early morning hours run a F-18 Rapala with some trophy trout bait butter and the Mackinaw love those ( silver/black or rainbow pattern). For Kokanee run a vance's pink/copper or green/copper dodger and a red and green wedding ring about 16" leader of 6-8 lb. fluorocarbon leader about 40 - 50 feet behind you should be plenty or if you have a jet diver those work well at UVR this time of season.  I got some secret sauce to marinate your white shoepeg corn in which you tip the corn on your hooks for some hot kokanee action.   I caught a fat kokanee there a couple weeks ago on this set up, right in front of fashoda campgrounds.  Sucker was 16.5 inches and fat!!!  RGT's work really well 8-10 inches behind a dodger.  If you aren't familiar with these prducts PM me and I'll point you in the right direction.
 Right in front of the sunset ramp about 300-500 feet out are tons of rainbows and kokanee and yup you guessed it the big macks feed on those concentrations.  Good place to start.
There are some browns in there but not like 20 years ago.  The macks screw everything up for the Browns like eat all of their food and they reproduce like jackrabbits.  It's a real shame they introduced the macks to all these lakes.  Nothing like a big brown!  That's ok I don't mind catching a hog mackinaw every once in a while.