Los Vaqueros Reservoir Fishing Report 9/13/11

General Conditions

Stripers continue to provide the best action at the reservoir although fishing has slowed down when compared to the action a month ago. Water conditions for fishing are still good. The surface temperature is 72° and the temperature at 45 feet is 68°. Our water level is currently at 50% (the reservoir has been drawn down to this level to allow for the Dam expansion project). We are now doing a variety of naturalist-led activities at the Marina every weekend. Give us a call for program details.

Trout

Trout fishing is rated slow. Most anglers are concentrating on striped bass. Try nightcrawlers or Power Bait on the edges of drop offs. Often times the trout hold on the shallow side of these drop offs. One angler had success fishing a crawler/powerbait combo under a bobber.

Largemouth Bass

There are not many anglers fishing for largemouth bass. The anglers that do target them continue to catch fish. Senkos are your best bet. Watermelon is the favorite color plastic bait of many of our regular anglers. Try casting Senkos to the base of trees in 5 to 10 feet of water. Nightcrawlers are also a good choice. Try fishing any other structure you are able to locate. We appreciate catch and release of the largemouth bass.

Stripers

Fishing for stripers is best early or late in the day. We continue to check in stripers every day although fishing has slowed down when compared to a month ago. We see anywhere from 5 to 20 keeper stripers every day. Anchovies continue to be your best choice for bait, shad will also take stripers. Anglers fishing from shore are working a wide variety of spots and we are seeing fish being caught from the all open shoreline. Boaters are doing very well by anchoring off of points and casting into deeper water. Boating anglers are taking stripers from all over the reservoir. We are clearly seeing a wide variety of results. Some boats come in with no striper keepers then the next boat has 3 anglers with 6 nice stripers. Anglers trolling rattle traps are taking a few fish. There are still many shakers being caught, remember bass must be 18 inches to keep. Please release them quickly and carefully.

Salmon

We rarely see anglers targeting salmon this time of year. Trolling as deep as possible (30 to 60 feet) might be worth a try. There is no doubt the salmon are holding in the deeper/cooler water. We should start to see more salmon by the end of September.

Catfish

Liver, anchovies and nightcrawlers will all catch catfish. Most catfish are caught by anglers fishing with anchovies for stripers. We appreciate catch and release of catfish over 20lbs. Some of the 1lb range catfish we planted last month continue to show up on anglers stringers.