Berryessa 1/20 RPT

Sam and I got out to berryessa yesterday for a little trout trolling. Launched from Putah Canyon at 11am. They are charging $15 for kayaks now!!! That seems a bit steep to me 

Anyways started trolling around for trout. Water was 53 and clear. There was a lot of floating algae too. I found birds and bait, but the fish were not cooperating.

Sam picked up 2 trout in the 14 inch range. I got no trout. She was trolling a rainbow trout colored plug on top.

At the end of the day I picked up my bass rod and made a few casts with a football jig to a good looking point. I landed a small smb on the first cast. Then a few casts later I hooked into a giant spotted bass. I got him next to the yak but he was able to shake the hook out before I got the net under him

If I were to go again I would bring my downrigger. Most of the good marks I saw were down around 30 feet and the bait was down that deep too. Or I would just throw jigs for bass if the trout don’t want to cooperate.

Thanks for the report and picture 3$J.

15 bucks! $10 was pushing it for a kayak.thanks for the heads up.

Wow, that is a big increase. I believe they only charged me $7 last year when I launched from there

Could it be the gate entry and inspection fee combined?
I remember a local lake charging similar prices and that was the end of lakes for me.

Could it be the gate entry and inspection fee combined?
I remember a local lake charging similar prices and that was the end of lakes for me.

Yeah... I like playing around at San Pablo reservoir, but the entrance/parking/fishing permit fees and inspection hassle just suck the fun out of it. Just not worth it unless I’ve got at least a half day.


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is there inspection at this launch?

Lakes are getting less and less fun for me, and more and more anxiety inducing. is it going to rain? am I going to have to take the kayak off the roof before I get to the lake and towel it down because there was rain on the road where I live, but not where the lake is?

Damn $15 to launch? I just got a kayak and fished there for the first time a few weeks ago and it was $10. I better get good at shore launching soon, at least until the halibut start to show

Anyways, thanks for the berryessa report

No inspection for lake berryessa. The sign looked new and it said $10 day use, $15 kayak and kick boat, and some crazy high number for regular boats.

Before it only had boat launch and day use for $10 so you could just pay the $10 and launch your kayak. I think they figured out they could make a lot of $$ by charging more for kayaks and raised it to 15.

There are limited areas to launch at berryessa that are easy to use. You can drag your kayak to a few spots, but if the lake level is down it can be a really far drag to the water!!

i fished there today. I can confirm last week it was $10. Today, $15. Ouch.

As to report - good mix of largemouth to ~19", spotted to ~16" and a 12" crappie). no trout were brought on board.

Capel Cove is still 10 bucks or 5 bucks with a geezer card.  Oak shores is still free but doesn't open until 8 AM.  Lake Hennessey is just up the road and holds some nice bass but is somewhat limited on trout. There is another ramp further up the road from Putah Canyon but I don't know if it's free or not.  Welcome to California!!!

Damn 15$ to launch, that kinda sucks.

Capel Cove is still 10 bucks or 5 bucks with a geezer card.  Oak shores is still free but doesn't open until 8 AM.  Lake Hennessey is just up the road and holds some nice bass but is somewhat limited on trout. There is another ramp further up the road from Putah Canyon but I don't know if it's free or not.  Welcome to California!!!

I'm a fan of paddling Lake Hennessey, but I have yet to catch a darn thing there.

I've seen a million carp feeding, it's a quick trip from my parent's house.

I've had good luck there in the past and also astonished by the parking/launch fee.  There've been no more that 4 other vehicles in the parking lot when I've been there during December/January.