Tips on Lake Oroville for a Fly Fisher (with his own boat)

[Trout Nut]

So I am joining a gear fishing friend of mine on a houseboat tomorrow as a guest. I am curious if anyone has some good advise on Oroville for an experienced fly fisherman. I am thinking Oroville might be a good lake to take my young kids to fly fish for Crappie/Spotted and LMB, etc.

I will be throwing a SAGE Largemouth Bass rod with the floater it comes with (for top water, etc.) or an Rio Aqualux intermediate line (for depths 2-10) -- for spotted bass and LMB. I have a SAGE SLT 5 wt for Crappie. and many other rods avail (I fish the Delta alot, so I will have the 7-10s on board also.

I will also have an SLT 7 Wt rigged with a Rio Aqualux or an SA type 3 full length sinking line for Trout/landlocked Salmon, and have shooting heads for faster sinking stuff..

So - I really want to from you guys if there are areas I should be focusing on. My friend will obviously have ideas, but since he will have his own boat, I will likely spend some time prospecting on my own. Note I have a full size bass boat with a 175 Merc Optimax, so I can cover alot of water!

Your thoughts?

[Adam Grace]

I'd recommend the 7wt with sinking lines. I normally use a conventional rod on Oroville, I have not figured it out well enough to use a fly rod and not exhaust my arm. Spinner baits work well out there, and so do worms bounce on the bottom.

As far as fly fishing goes, try the back of coves and rocky points. Use something that sinks well like clouser minnows. I have caught only a few fish using topwater lures, you can try topwater but I don't think that it'll work well. I've also done well on shallows rip baits, very fast and crazy rapala like lures, so I think a clouser will be a good idea.

Good luck out there

[Trout Nut]

I have a host of clousers and chad patterns that i will throw, and even some gummy minnows I got from Kieni's shop (or whatever the heck the name of those "flies" are!

Anyone Else?

[Hogan Brown]

I agree with Adam. I fish Oroville quite a bit (With Adam) with flie. I would recomend the Lime Saddle Area and back of the NF Arm. fish the back of coves and rock points. Fast sinking lines that you can work down the steep banks are key. Bright colors during high sun, darker (olives) during morning evening. Slower retrieves midday, faster reaction type retrieves morning evening. NO top water. Key is move and cover water if you have had troling motor set the speed and cover the banks. Good luck.

[Trout Nut]

Question:

Do you need fast sinking lines in areas where there is alot of vegetation, or just for rocky points - shore drop offs?

I assume I can get to crappie with a slower sinking line, but please tell me if you thinhk they will be deeper than 10 feet or so.

Of course, I have pretty good electronics on board (hummingbird 997 SI combo), so I guess I will figure some of this out!

thanks again guys!

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

I've only fished there once but have talked with many who have over the years. It should be like 90% of all the other large Valley reservoirs.

Trout and land locked salmon will be shallow in the fall, winter and spring so they might be a possibility.

Bass are in the shallows spawning in the spring and also shallow in the fall too so they should be available.

The lake has Thread-fin Shad and Asian Pond Smelt for food fish.

I would fish the shoreline for bass from early till maybe noon.

Take a break for lunch.

Then go back out at 3pm and fish till dark.

I don't hear of many using floating lines on these lakes unless the fish are busting schools of bait fish on top. Maybe try poppers early and late just to see if they would come up.

I would use the 7 weight with the clear slow sinking line and fish the banks with clousers and buggers.

This is the time of year for it.

Our good friend Pete Peterson is a top reservoir bass fly fisher and he uses sinking lines and streamers 90% of the time.