Lake Natoma

[JAWallace]

I have fly fished Lake Natoma for over 20 years, formerly very regularly and with great success. I boated a 10.25 lb. LMB about 12 years ago and have caught hundreds others along with smallies, spots, panfish, and some great holdover trout. I remember the days when the Kiene/ARFF crew was there several times a week for the Hex hatch.

Last night I made my third trip of the year without so much as a bump. The previous time I was so determined to find fish I took my daughter and used live bait! Nothing.

DFG doesn't stock the lake now, but I cant find bass or even panfish any longer. I have fished Willow Creek and Nimbus Flat; haven't gone upstream from Willow Creek in two years. These two areas have never failed to produce for me, EVER.

Have I lost it, or have others had experiences, good or bad, that can be posted? Thanks.

John

[David Lee]

Hi John .

A few years back ..... I decided to learn Natoma . To the tune of about 30 or so trips . I fished every level .... from the surface to the bottom -

I landed 1 Catfish @ 8 lbs. , 1 16-inch Rainbow , and a handful of planters . The fish in there are better than me !

It'd be neat to do a shocking survey and see what's really in there .... :idea:

David

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

It is a mysterious fishery.

Maybe we need to scuba dive it?

[JAWallace]

David, I'm sure you're a better fisherman than I so that's not good.

I would say that in the past probably 90% of the lake does not hold fish. I knew 5-6 areas that did, and knew them all well. In Willow Creek I knew five pieces of structure and bottom that did. I would make three casts to each and if after 15 casts I didn't get hit, I'd go home. My expectation was 3 fish per evening, 1.5 hours, and that was normally met, 75% of the time. The structure has not changed in either Willow Creek or Nimbus Flat.

There are some observable changes, primarily a lack of insect activity. No tricos, one caddis observed last night; formerly they were fairly thick for 20-30 minutes at dusk. No Hex but it's slightly early. One swallow east of the dam; used to be a dozen at dusk. No minnows busting the surface. I think the changes started occuring about the time DFG stopped planting. I don't know if they're related.

[SuperFlyGuy]

I've been fishing lake natoma hard for the past 2 weeks. I work at an office across the street and just hop over after work. I've been landing about a dozen fish each trip, a mixed bag of bluegill and bass. I've noticed packs of baby bass running together and the ocasional large fish, but I haven't hooked any larger than 15". What I've noticed is that the bass are flocking together... They leave areas completely alone and some days fill the place up..When they leave a place, I mean they REALLY leave a place... not a fish to be seen, but if you cover lots of water and find them, there are hundreds to be seen with polarized glasses. They stick together is the ticket. Small poppers stripped hard did the trick, and damsel nymphs were solid producers. They always chase down the nymphs, but when I see them turn around last minute, I switch out to poppers. Usually right before dark they hit the poppers like crazy. I am casting to structure and using thin tippet because they seem to be scared when the leader hits the water. FC is the way to go. I can see them dart off... but only come back curious of the fly. I have been fishing the inlets at willow creek in some of the back areas that bank fisherman cannot access in my inflatable kayak. The big ones are in there, but I can't get them interested in anything.. You can hear huge rises in the tullies themselves. I've thrown dahlbergs and USF's at the edge, but none were interested.

All in all, the fish are in there! You just have to move around a lot to find them.. A float tube probably isnt a good idea to search for them because I've found I had to travel quite a ways to find them.. But once you do its on....

[Charlie Gonzales]

Last time I scouted there(in the spring) I spotted a good amount of bass across from negro bar a bit down stream from the power lines and a few river right where the rock wall begins and the lake makes its bend to the left. What I want to do is target some of the carp there. I have seen huge schools down stream form Willow creek up on the flats.

Charlie

[Garrett S]

whenn i was kayaking there we saw a bunch of carp rising to it looked like caddis flies