Baum Lake - Thursday January 14th

[michaeln]

After only 4 hours sleep Wednesday night, got on the water at 9AM at
Baum. It was dense fog and very cold (like 28 degrees). Caught 4
fish from 14-16" in the first hour, all on a small white wooly bugger
fished on a sinking line. Didn't get another bite during the day
until around 1:30-2PM when I caught four more, all browns, all 14"
long (I have a new "Measure Net" that lets you measure the fish just
by them laying in the net).

I was pretty tired, so came in around 3PM and quit. Went to the motel
and checked in, went to my favorite Mexican place for an early dinner,
then back to the motel where I slept from about 6PM until 7AM this
morning. I was really tired! Feel refreshed this morning and they
have coffee in the room.

It's about 25 degrees this morning and foggy again, so I think I will
wait a while to go fishing. There were about 12 boats and maybe 10
shore fishermen out there yesterday. Kind of surprising to me, given
it was Thursday!

Michael

[joshfish]

talked to a customer of mine today. he said they recently stocked baum lake and the fish were biting just about anything.

[michaeln]

talked to a customer of mine today. he said they recently stocked baum lake and the fish were biting just about anything.

He speaketh with forked tongue. Lotta guys were skunked today, I overheard them grumbling. I got six browns.

[michaeln]

Hit the water about 10AM today. Temp in the low 30s, very very foggy. The parking lot was FULL. Seems a flyfishing club was having a fishout. There must have been 30 boats on the water, mostly 'toons.

I had stopped in at Vaughn's Sporting Goods on the way and talked with Steve. He advised using a muddler minnow on a sinking line, so because only a fool would ignore Steve's advice (he probably knows more about fishing Baum than anyone on earth) that's what I did.

I anchored near the place where the Cassel branch dumps into the main part of Baum, and on the second cast, caught a 14" brown. In the next hour I caught three more just like the first one, plus had a VICIOUS strike and a 15second fight from a fish I never saw before he came unbuttoned. He was way stronger than the ones I landed, I assume he was bigger.

Then nothing... worked many places on the lake, including with a #20 Copper John under an indicator, nothing. Went back to the morning spot and caught 2 more browns, 12" and 14".

Although it was cold and foggy in the morning, the afternoon was calm, and the sun came out so it was pretty delightful until the sun got behind the clouds again. I took out at around 4PM. My toothache is killing me.

Fun day though, aside from the bad tooth. I will fish again tomorrow (Saturday) then come home Sunday morning.

[ycflyfisher]

I spent two winters in the late 1990's fishing Baum almost exclusively, 2 days a week, every week. Baum is an absolute fish factory from Dec- late Feb if you don't mind rubber trout. Steve's recommendation of the shaved "on plane" muddler I've found it to be the percentage method during Dec FROM THE BANK, but it's usefulness drops off considerably as the winter progresses or if you're not striping it towards the bank on a near parallel to the bank cast.

I've had a ton of success fishing Baum with olive "no hackle" estaz bodied, bugger type patterns on Baum.

The Sawyer's PT in 18-22's that Steve pushes hard are a must have while fishing Baum in the winter IMO.

Something no one ever fishes that I tried on a lark, are egg patterns. In December of the second year I was catching a fish on every cast on full sized globugs. There's gotta be a ton of fish spawning in Dec up by the powerhouse, in the crystal lake outlet, and from the hatchery outlet. Anywhere where there was heavy current. Insanely stupid fishing. I was greaselining the damn thing unweighted and tossing it at the head of the heavy current, and letting it come under tension and had the fish literally rising to eat the damn thing no where near the bottom, usually only a foot or so under the surface film. Sometimes multiple fish rising for it on the same cast. Sounds nuts I know, it was so successful in Dec that it made the fishing boring after an hour or two.

If your fishing from a watercraft, Turtle bay on the side of the lake directly opposite the side of the parking lot can be interesting. You'll catch a lot of large minnows (that I was not able to identify to 6" or so), but there can be some huge toads cruising that small cove or near it's outlet. All that said, I've always done better in terms of both numbers and bigger fish on the side of the lake that comes down from the powerplant to the hatchery outlet that most FFer's tend to ignore.

[michaeln]

Thanks for the tips, ycflyfisher!

Here is a pic of one of the browns. Sorry, I am not good about taking pictures of caught fish. I just want to look at them, revive them, and let them go. This is the only fish I took a picture of, and it was because his colors were so vibrant. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to come through in the picture so much.

http://michaelnel.smugmug.com/Sports/Baum-Lake-November-13-15/15brown/767006869_m7QvT-XL.jpg

[joshfish]

the club that was there was the shasta-trinity fly fishers. nice fish. one of these days i need to get back up to baum lake since its only about an hour and a half drive for me.

[michaeln]

I was on the water at 7AM today. Cold and foggy again. I decided to check out the arm up by Hat Creek Powerhouse #1, up past the fish hatchery. Didn't catch a thing out that way. Worked my way back and stopped again where I had caught the browns the past two days, caught 4 more there, and that was it for the day, in spite of trying lots of things and lots of locations, I couldn't get a bump. I quit at about 3PM.

I solved my boat hassles though. When I stopped at Vaughn's Sporting Goods yesterday, Steve Vaughn was admiring my pram, asking me lots of questions about it. Last night I got to thinking, and this afternoon I made him a proposal.

I left my pram and all the goodies for it with him. He can use it any time he wants to, and I don't have to haul it back and forth. Since I am unlikely to go fishing anywhere I need the pram except Baum Lake and the other lakes up here, and Fall River, it makes sense for me. I no longer have to use a block and tackle to get the boat up and down the flight of stairs at my place in SF, and Steve has a great rig to use. I think it'll be a cool deal for both of us.

All things considered, it was a great trip for me!

[Paul B.]

Thank you for the report! I had to chuckle at the thought of a pram bumping it's way up stairs in an S.F. building. Bet you happy to solve that problem.

[michaeln]

For those not familiar with Baum Lake, here is a pic I took when I was up there in November:

http://michaelnel.smugmug.com/Sports/Baum-Lake-November-13-15/mypram3/714209116_qp8rE-XL.jpg

[joshfish]

headed up tomorrow. will post a report when i get back.

[michaeln]

headed up tomorrow. will post a report when i get back.

Great! I am headed up there this coming Thursday, returning Sunday.