Lake Davis Iced Out

[Don Rotsma]

About 90% of the ice is off Lake Davis today and will be 100% in the next couple of days. I was able to drive down the cleared west side road but there is still no access to Camp Five or Eagle Point. East side road is clear most of the way with good access to Coot Bay and Mallard Cove. I saw a boat that had been hand launced at Coot this morning. The Honker Cove boat ramp and parking lot are still closed but will probably be at least 4wd accessible by end of week. Get your midges and attractors ready! I will keep everyone up to date on west side and boat ramp access as things change. Lake is still quite low. Don

[jayclarkflyfishing]

Don-
I am excited for the possibilities this year at Davis!What are your thoughts on the upcoming season?I did see schooling fish yesterday at Honker,but not enough water in the creek for them to start moving into it.

See you on the water!

Jay

[FRSam]

It sure would be nice to see them, DFG, put up a screen on Snow Creek to keep the spawners out. The number of fish taken illegally from Snow Creek by poachers is frightening and DFG and the Forest Service don't seem to have the personal available to patrol the creek effectively. The success rate of the spawners is reported to be below 2%.

And while we at it why not drop the limit on Davis from 5 fish to 3 fish. Eagle Lake gets by with a two fish limit and it sure doesn't seem to affect the number of anglers it attracts.

I think we are all looking forward to seeing Lake Davis return to its once pristine condition where the trout regularly run you into your backing. It's a special lake and I'd sure like to see it reach its full potential.

Pete

[jayclarkflyfishing]

Pete-
The poaching in Snow Creek has to stop.As you said there isn't enough enforcement to stop it from happening.Lowered limits would be ok with me as well,but it isn't going to happen any time soon.Whether we like it or not Davis is a put and take lake.

The schooling fish gave me hope that last years planters are following their instincts and looking for a place to spawn.Which in turn means they will be cruising the shorelines like the fish in Davis have in the past.Translation:I don't have to freeze tube to have a reasonable shot at catching fish.

Jay

[Chris Evison]

Hey Jay,

Fished Davis yesterday. Fishing was good! The fish were podded up and the coves with snowmelt streams held fish. Fish seemed to be looking to spawn. Males were colored up and the females were ripe with eggs.

Fishing seemed best from 10-2 and slowed down after 2pm. Fished a sz 16 GB Prince with a sz 16 red CJ underneath. Fish seemed to prefer the prince.

I hope this bodes well for Lake Davis. You have a great home fishery Jay! See you on the water.

Chris

[Darian]

I don't want to start a controversy here but isn't it counter productive to block access for spawners to Snow Creek :question: If only 2% are successful (due to activities of poachers), that's still better than zero.... :confused: Are there other creeks entering the lake that're available for spawning :question: If not, it sounds like a losing proposition unless the lake is stocked.... :confused:

[gene goss]

My wife and myself follow some of these snow melt streams through a culvert under the main road and up the hill for a 1/4 of a mile where the stream ran out of water.....there would be a big school of trout 2-6 lbs in a small pool 3 inches deep. Most of the trout will not make it back to the lake....the water between the little pools would dry up when the snow is gone. Each of these snow melt streams would have 50-300 trout in them. There were some people putting the trout in 5 gallons buckets and running them back to the lake....if the trout have not spawn...they ran right back up the little stream. It was very sad to see this happen to all those trophy trout. What can we do....i don't know....but its a big wast of trophy trout that we would all like to catch when the damsel fly hatch starts.

[gene goss]

Eagle Lake has the same problem with their trophy trout....i found this on the fishsniffer message board http://www.fishsniffer.com/cgi-bin/forumsyabb/YaBB.pl?num=1238981967 read Scott R post.

[OceanSunfish]

I had a conversation with J Fair a decade ago about this very topic. He told me back then that there was very little or negligible fish born by natural spawn from the various intermittent streams as well as Freeman Creek, etc. Apparently, birds do a pretty good number on the fry and if the lake depended strictly on natural spawn, it would not be much of a fishing lake.

J Fair went on to tell me that the best strategy was the planting of Eagle Lake strain fingerlings which would grow very fast due to the healthy aquatic life and food chain. Essentially, you get more fish for the dollar and they grow fast and strong.

Nevertheless, Davis Lake is a special ecosystem.

[Darrin.Deel]

unfortunatley these are planted trout, not wild, so i would think that DFG isn't going to regulate them. I would like to see these fish reproduce. The thing to do would be to close the arm/section of the creek.

[gene goss]

The last fishing derby at Rancho Seco in March i was standing next to the hatchery truck making a dump of trophy trout and notices the name on the truck was from Mt. Lassen trout hatchery....looking for a edge on the catching of these trophy trout i look up the web site for the hatchery....and found the FREAKOIDS (triploids) trophy trout....now these trout are not genetically engineered....the eggs are sterilezes....ifffff some of these freakoids were planted in Davis lake....they would not have sex on their mind....and we would not be loosing these trophy trout in snow melt streams....they would only be thinking about food...and getting bigger every year. http://www.californiafishingguide.com/trout_history.htm

http://radio.weblogs.com/0105910/2004/01/07.html

[gene goss]

I found this on the web about Eagle Lake trout and how they handle snow melt streams. http://eaglelakefishing.net/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=593

[Jay]

Anybody have an update on the snow and ice conditions, maybe even the fishing?

[jayclarkflyfishing]

Jay-
The lake is ice free and fishing well.The boat ramp has been plowed and the dock has been installed.The road on the east side is free of snow and the west side road appears to have been plowed as well.There is some snow on the shoreline but not much.The wife and I fished yesterday and she landed 2 nice fish while I landed 6 fish including one that was almost 24".We were fishing buggers on long leaders and floating lines.

See you on the water!

Jay

[FRSam]

Jay did you take a boat out or fish from shore? I was out at Honker last week and they had plowed the ramp and had plans to put the dock in this past Friday - looks like they got it in.

I'm glad to hear you got into some nice fish!

Pete

[jayclarkflyfishing]

Pete-
PM sent

Jay

[Jay]

Thank you sir!

[FRSam]

Thanks Jay. I drove out yesterday to check things out and exercise the dog. The Honker Cove boat ramp looks ready and the West Side road is open to the Camp Five Boat Ramp - the road into Eagle Point is still snowed in. I walked over to Jenkins Point...the water level looks like it needs a couple of real good shots of rain / snow. :-(

Pete

The Honker Cove Ramp
http://kiene.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=21&pictureid=71


The West Side road
http://kiene.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=21&pictureid=72

Jenkins Point
http://kiene.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=21&pictureid=73