Lake Almanor and Clear Lake 3-21/25-15

We had been planning this trip for a while I had some stuff come up that I had to be at so we left on Friday after I left the Central Coast to handle some business in the LA area and then drove up to Coalinga to been Derrick and Ryan. We left around 5pm and sailed north.



Made a few stops along the way and got into Chester the home of Lake Almanor around midnight. Unpacked and got the rods ready for the morning and finally laid down around 1am. Up at 6am to get on the water by 6:30 in a chilly 28 degrees. We launched on the East side of the lake and worked it hard for a few fish. First thing in the morning on day one. Ryan nailed a nice smallie just under 18inch this was right after I hooked a dink smallie on a point. The lighting on this one did not turn out as it was still pretty dark out.

We rounded the corner trolling rip baits and everything as we came up here for big browns and could not find a bite. The weather was amazing to say the least not a breath of wind and sunny no clouds. We worked the water till about 1pm and called it a day and grabbed some lunch in town and talked about a game plan.

We decided to launch by the dam and fish the deep water. We got there around 430 and wanted to fish till sunset. However at this point we were greeted by some wind making it pretty tough out on the water.
Ryanimpreza and Derrick headed one way and I headed the other looking for fish. I found one on the troll within a couple minutes at 17inches was happy to get the trout skunk off the boat.

We trolled for a little longer and at about 630. I set up shop in a cove to get away from the wind. Drifted a flylined crawler and tossing a rip bait and the crawler gets picked up by 21inch - 4lb brown sweet UPGRADE.

They end up joining me and do the same thing as we were about to loose light and call it a night, I get picked up again on the crawler this time its BIG. 6lb test is screaming off my reel. I wanted to put the breaks on this fish so BAD. But held off and had a close to 30 minute battle with the fish. Finally got it in the net and hurried to shore to snap some picture and release it.

Ended up being a 24incher and close to 7lbs.





The next morning we woke up early and found it was raining so fell back asleep as one of the local kayak guys (Chris) was gonna meet us at 7am and we wanted to just wait on the rain. Well it did stop raining and we got on the water at 7:30 but today was much different then the day before it was cloudy and WINDY. Great wind just what every kayak fisherman loves.

Chris had 4 browns in the boat already. He was working a pretty small area and picking up fish. We found some smallies sitting on a bank and I pulled a 15incher off it and 20 minutes later Derrick gets a pig at 18inches

We worked our way around the east end of the lake again pulling in fish at a decent rate. Think I got about a dozen smallies but most around the 12inch range. We worked down to an area called big springs and Chris found a school on the FF and dropped down and got a 20inch Salmon.. Great maybe we found them. But no that ended up being the only Salmon of the day. I did nail a decent Brown on day two as well at 23 inches.

That afternoon with the wind blowing we decided to head down to Butt Lake to try and get a brown. At this point in the trip being the last afternoon for Almanor, RyanI had yet to get a trout and wanted one. So we got there and we headed out on the troll. We got about 3 miles down the bank and he hooks up and its a dandy. 25inches. We get some photos and release it.

Biggest Trout of the trip came from RyanI he got his Nice Brown from Butt Lake.



Couple other photos from the Almanor section of the trip.

Derrick with a Smallmouth

Now for Clear Lake. Well Bass and cold fronts do no mix well. Windy conditions were there non stop. We arrived on the 23rd grabbed some minnows and headed out. This lake is loaded with docks and areas for bass to hang out at. Talking with people coming in the bass bite been tough since the wind picked up and rain the night before. We gave it a couple hours and then moved locations. Windy as can be and good washing machine out on the water. We decided are best bet was troll the shallows and hope for the best. We turned the corner and as Derrick came around the corner from the launch hooks a nice bass ended up being the only bass the three of us caught that was really even over 12 inches everything seemed small for us.

Biggest Bass


We are trolling and I feel a snap. I gimp back into the marina and we call it a day at 630.


We drive to the nearest town which is Ukiah and find a home depot and start looking for parts. Coulc not find hobie part in Home depot so we make it work.




Didnt hold well but the rebar gave me enough to get by.

The next morning we launch at the state park and I toss a dropshot gulp into the trees looking for crappie or bass and hook into a monster. Came in at 14lbs.



We peddle the 2.5 miles to Shag Rock and find no fish along the way or at it. Wind made fishing nearly impossible. We find another marina and tuck in and I set out a minnow on one rod and a piece of cut mackeral on the other. About an hour sitting there the mackeral rod starts pealing like and I reel in a 16lb Cat...

Biggest Cat of the Trip


That night we head to an area called the Keys which is just a maze and we set some mackeral and minnows out for cats and nothing wanted to play we fished it till midnight and called it a night.

The next morning was the day we had to head home, Clear Lake Bass beat us this time. We fished another 2 hours for nothing.

With close to 40hours on the plastic and 24hours of driving over the trip we put an effort in that is for sure. We all came away with some new best.

Both RyanI and myself got Personnal best Trout on the trip and Derrick got a new personnel best Bass.

We enjoyed the trip.

Looks like one hell of a fun trip!   

Nice Kitties!!

Hell of a roadtrip!

looks like fun, might have to try for kitties when I'm up at Clear lake in a couple weeks

That's one helluva long trip! My friends and I just finished a trip up to almanor and had similar results, fished the same area for a few decent bows and Browns and a limit or two of smallmouth. Butte and Almanor are spectacular lakes. Thanks for sharing the report and pics

Thats heck of a trip!  WTG guys on the nice fishies.

Nice!! The smiles on your faces really put it into prospective! As the saying goes a picture is worth 1000 words!!

Awesome report.

I especially like the rebar/epoxy crankarm repair. That's gotta be a first!

Thanks for the awesome report and pics. Lake Almanor is such a great spot, can't wait to get up there again.

Thanks for the awesome report and pics. Lake Almanor is such a great spot, can't wait to get up there again.

It really is great, we cant thank Chris enough for putting us on some fish on Sunday.

RH

Thanks for the awesome report and pics. Lake Almanor is such a great spot, can't wait to get up there again.

It really is great, we cant thank Chris enough for putting us on some fish on Sunday.

RH

Hey, you gave me that sweet 6-pack of double IPA  .  It was good fishing with you guys!  Glad you all scored on some 20+ inchers as well.  That 25+ that Ryan picked up at Butt was sweet!

Thanks for the awesome report and pics. Lake Almanor is such a great spot, can't wait to get up there again.

It really is great, we cant thank Chris enough for putting us on some fish on Sunday.

RH

Hey, you gave me that sweet 6-pack of double IPA  .  It was good fishing with you guys!  Glad you all scored on some 20+ inchers as well.  That 25+ that Ryan picked up at Butt was sweet!

Yeah man, glad he got it we had been working hard and he had yet to score a trout so was nice that his one fish up there on the mountain was that one.

By the way how you like that beer. I love there beer they have a good 3-4 different IPA's to choose from.

By the way how you like that beer. I love there beer they have a good 3-4 different IPA's to choose from.

Loved it!  Very hoppy, just the way I like it.  I'll have to remember that brewery when I'm in your guys' area, so I can pick some up and bring it up the hill.  Thanks again!