Trolling San Pablo reservoir - but mostly getting trolled

Hey y’all

I’ve tried trolling San Pablo reservoir 5-6 times this season for trout from the yak. Tried toplining,  Downrigger (various depths between 5-30 ft) trolling sinkers, etc. I can see the fish on the finder but they just won’t bite. I got one in the boat on a kastmaster at 8 ft on the Downrigger, but I’ve tried just about everything. Worms (real and PB) flashers, spoons, spinners. Is San Pablo just not a good trolling lake? Anyone else do better there?

Thanks for the help!

-Danny

Hi Danny, welcome to NCKA 

i've never done well there trolling....water is too green in my experience

Interesting. I did notice it’s got some algae or some such compared with sierra water. Could explain why shore
 fishermen do well with smelly PB. Fish are using smell more than sight.

If you target the planter lakes, use the trout planting schedule as a guide for when to go.  If they aren't planting recently, that could be the reason your not catching, as these lakes are pounded on after each plant.  I'd move to another lake for trolling that is more productive like New Melones, which you probably would have caught 100 trout by now with all those trips.  Of course, not as close i'm sure.  But the drive is worth it to get to good fishing.

Thanks ALS. I get a lot out of the water therapy either way, but it’s always fun to have a chance at catching a fish or two. Need to work on my delta/bay fishing skills to open up the options. 

I've only been able to get to San Pablo once and caught one while trolling with a dodger + hoochie tipped with worm. It was going over a shallow point north of the boat ramp right near shore.
The whole while I was eyeballing successful shore fishermen who were all soaking powerbait. Eventually the wind picked up and I anchored up south of the ramp and let some mouse tails (dipped in garlic spike it) soak for a bit.

Within 10 min I had a bite, then as I was explaining how I rigged the mouse tail to a buddy I got bit again.

All of this is to agree with chillee about scent outperforming flash at San Pablo, from my one experience anyway. Maybe tipping hoochies or spinners with something super garlic stinky would help?

I've never fished in San Pablo reservoir but do fish lakes where the water is heavily stained. In those conditions I switch to bright colored needlefish and tip with firecorn or add scent. Colors like firetiger and chartreuse seem to work well. I also like using small (f5) flatfish in these water conditions. Not sure why they work but they have. The only challenge is maintaining the very slow trolling speed needed to keep them from spinning.

If the shad are schooled up try trolling around and under the bait ball with a rapala or other baitfish imitation - those are the only conditions I've had success with there. To be fair though I haven't fished it that much. Good luck!

Cheers,
Brad

Hey y’all

I’ve tried trolling San Pablo reservoir 5-6 times this season for trout from the yak. Tried toplining,  Downrigger (various depths between 5-30 ft) trolling sinkers, etc. I can see the fish on the finder but they just won’t bite. I got one in the boat on a kastmaster at 8 ft on the Downrigger, but I’ve tried just about everything. Worms (real and PB) flashers, spoons, spinners. Is San Pablo just not a good trolling lake? Anyone else do better there?

I live close by to San Pablo reservoir and have trolled there a dozen times. Not that I have any exciting story to tell but I think my success rate was decent. I found trout hook-up mostly come from 8-15' of water, sometimes shallower. A trout hanging out in deeper water will take a powerbait but might not be in the mood to chase after a swimming lure. I have good success using wedding ring (with diver to 10-15'), plug, and red crank bait (shallow water luckycraft 30' out). As another post said, planting schedule makes big difference but sadly water is too warm to plant trout since May. Wait for fall when DFG plants trout again, now should be good time for bass.