fremont quarry lakes... sat. 24th.

I had never been. $11 to park, launch and fish. a recent plant was the reason.

tiny lake, but I saw as deep as 80 feet and a lot of 20 to 50 deep.

It has shad, you will see shad balls in there on your sonar.

water was stained. wind was blowing short of 10 knots, it was cold, in the 40's?

sky was overcast and some raindrops fell.

probably a decent day to catch fish. they should not have been real deep?

I got there at the crack of 10:30,  .  now that I know the place,
maybe I will try to get there earlier next time, overall it was pretty relaxing,
but if there's no recent plant, I would skip it and get skunked somewhere else!

by the time I launched,
raymac and marmite had three from raymacs TOAD of a kayak,  .
They got them on 7cm rapalas and 5cm shad raps I think, downrigged
around 16-20 feet. I think they launched as early as the park let them.

I trolled some things on 4# test 80' to 110'
behind some weighted seps white willow leaf micro flashers:
a shad-like trolling fly, a shad risto rap, a shad rap, a 1/2 crawler, and also tried
a shad rap and yozuri snap bean naked. I should have been down around 15 to 20 feet
with some of that setup, it has caught trout before at lexington.

I got at most one hit, it might have been a momentary snag, raymac says
there are some cables there. bu it could have been a fish too.

my main issue today I think was not controlling my trolling speed very well and not staying
over the right depths.

I did not have my GPS, i forgot that it is useful for measuring trolling speed, my guess
is that when I was moving, I was moving way too fast for the worm. so hard to
go 1.0 mph.  Since I don't know the lake, I had to paddle around to find lake features
instead of knowing them well like raymac does.

the water was not crowded, just a few boats, but the banks were packed.
there were probably 30-50 bankers. I didn't see anybody net one while I was there, but the
ranger said a couple 5lbers were pulled out yesterday.

I do not have the patience to baitfish, so did not try kickfishes backup plan of anchoring
and powerbaitfishing off the swim area.

I left when raymac and marmite left around 1:30pm.
They had 4 fish total, not big, but I would have been happy to catch one like that. but 3/4
of the catch came before I even launched, so maybe I will try early next time. or late,
that might work too.

J

What no   ????    

Moral of the story: You - you leave empty handed...

sky, you are right there, but sometimes, you get to sleep in _and_ catch fish!   

I was thinking I would stay late, but I got chilled so I not only got there late, I gave up early too!,   .

nothing is better than sleeping in _and_ catching fish tho,  .

it does happen... I swear! I remember this one one time...

speaking of remembering, if I had remembered I needed the GPS to monitor trolling speed
I would have done pretty well, I remembered all my other equipment,
(even a net and cooler!) and didn't lose any lures. that's pretty good for me when I'm out
of practice like I am with the freshwater trolling.

but now I got a little practice in, I might actually catch some fish next time!

J

John,

Never really done good at the opening gate.  I am on the water maybe 30 mins slower than Raymac.  I have had my best luck from 8:30am until noon.  And then from 2:30 or 3:30pm until 5pm.

I have not gotten a fish on a dodger & worm here.  Had a few bites.  But, no hook ups.  I am surprised on what Ray was trolling.  His "go to lure" here is a needle fish or rainbow runner.  I like them too.  You really need a downrigger to work these lures.

Also, you saw the bait fish and these lures are about the same size.  You may want to get a yearly pass if you start really going to these lakes.  Chabot, Quarry, Del Valle and Shadow Cliffs are covered with this pass.  $65 for non-res.  (Used to be $30 a short while ago).  $50 for residents.  I pay $6 (includes fishing pass) each time I go.  Starts on the month you buy it.

I know you are still waiting for Lexington to start.

Ken kickfish

Moral of the story: You sleepy2 - you leave empty handed...

Sky didn't you read the website rules you can flirt but you can't tease us about our fish untill you post some picts of your catch.

I must have missed those rules Mick.

Oh alright I'll post a picture of the fish I caught...the first fish ever I caught that is.

I don't want to break any rules. 

Considering that I have officially posted a photo of fish I caught (you didn't say when), now do I get to tease?

now do I get to tease?

Sure are you the Blonde or the Brunette?

I'll never tell.

John summed up what the day was like pretty well already.  Ray and I got there, actually at about 6:40 because we didn't know the opening time had changed back an hour starting on 2/1.  We initially fished with rainbow runners and needlefish on the two trolling rigs for nada.  Eventually I caught a 16 inch rainbow "free" trolling a little blue and orange broken-back rebel that FishHunter told me was one of his favorites when I met him at Del Valle.  I was more confident to use the lures now.  Previously, I had caught most of my fish on minnows and saw most of the fish taken at Quarry with power bait from the bank.  Then Ray decided to change over to a bright orange #5 Rapala trolled on the Scotty.  Not too long after that he hooked a smallmouth and then later we got another trout on the same lure.  Then I got a 14 incher and 12 incher on another deep diving bright orange rapala lure trolled on top.  It was interesting that all five fish were caught with lures that had bright orange bellies. We had no luck trying a silver/white Glass Shad Rap  or a Rainbow Trout Shad Rap. Of note, we only saw one small trout landed from the shore fisherman.  There were fewer on the shore than on my past two trips and they definitely weren't catching much.  On the first trip it seemed like they were killing big ones--four to five pounders--from the bank.  So this time we had the satisfaction of out fishing the power baiters.

Thanks again Ray for your hospitality, fishing tips and good company.  But I should have left you one of the trout.  Was way too much for us to eat tonight.  The 16 incher had real pink flesh and was much sweeter than the regular white fleshed ones.

Marmite
 You were so polite not to mention in your report the 250 lb sucker (me) that sat on a #5 trout pattern Ralapa and you had to remove a trebble from the seat of my pants and the stool i was sitting on. Thanks for the company enjoyed every minute except for the cold temps.

sky, keep 'em coming, I'm making a list of who's nice and naughty,  . you are heading up
the list right now.   

Ken, it was a short drive. I will go back. it looks like a decent winter time, bad weather place.
nobody hassled me on the water, it was pretty peaceful out there.
 
perfect place for when the surf is stormed out and I need to warm up the kayak skills for spring/summer.
how bad can the weather get on a lake that small? seems like you should always be able to troll there.

but don't expect me to sit for 4 hours with powerbait. maybe if I had an mp3 player...

here's a photo of the fly I tried trolling, it is a saltwater lefty's deceiver with a little trailer hook I added.
I think it got the hit near the swim area. there was a power bait 'crappie nibble' on the trailer hook too.
the 4cm rattlin rapala is there for reference.
the rockfish sure like these flies... I figured it looked pretty shad-like, but it needs something to give it
action, I think the micro-flashers were not the right thing. maybe put it behind a small spoon/micro dodger.
or one of those 'action disks'.
But I remembered what ken said about dodgers not working so I went with the micro flashers.
maybe I will try a small dodger and that fly with a little power bait tidbit on the trailer hook next time.

raymac is only downrigging 16 feet. you don't need a real downrigger for that, just
20 feet of cord with a weight and a seps release. I have that, I will try it or something like it soon,
maybe even tomorrow, bankers didn't look like they cleaned it out just yet.

ken, the raymac had some serious plug weaponry there, it looks like he went to town: red hooks,
red diving lip, blood paint and all, the full complement of the latest from rapala!

he's holding out on you ken!

J

John,

I done good there.  Only, been shutout 3 to 4 times I have been there.  But, it does get windy, John. Very windy.  No waves, but too windy to troll.  The guy to watch there is a guy name Jack.  He fishes a smaller aluminum boat.  He trolls also.

You think your having a good day by catching the limit.  He will catch 10 to 20 fish in the same day.

Most good fishermen will not tell you all their secerts.  You have to fish with them and fish a lot with them.

You don't need to soak powerbait for 4 hrs.  I have had days there.  Where I would troll for hours fornothing and start powerbaiting.  Caught my limit of nice fish in a hour or two.

Ken kickfish

John

Got skunked at Del Vallle yeaterday if it makes you feel better. Way to go Doug and Raymac. If I had known you were all going I would have hit the Quarry for some downrigger lessons. I used the cork trick which decreased the humming a little. Got a real work out but no love.

scott

scott, pm'ed you my cell. I'm never sure I'm going to go until the last minute... 

misery loves company, of course part of me is happy to know I'm not the only complete and total failure (LOL,  ) on here, but we both got some exercise and some practice.  it will pay off, surely.

Ken, I guess that guy jack puts the right lure/bait in front of the fish at the right speed. sounds so easy,  .

J

John-

Too bad you didn't hook up out there... I'll tell you where you went wrong though... Right off the bat... You remembered the net and ICE CHEST...

Better luck next time brother...

Freddie