Davis Lake?

[Rockman]

Anybody been up to Davis yet? I have never fished it this early in the spring.
Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Would like to try out my new float tube.

Thanks
Rockman:D

[jayclarkflyfishing]

Rockman-
Lake is still 99.9% iced over with one itty bitty patch of open water in Coot bay.Ice is still 14" thick off of Mallard and there is still a couple feet of snow on the ground around most of the lake.The road is plowed to Mallard but that is it.With another return to winter next week it may be a awhile before the ice comes off.I'll post when it does.

Jay

[Rockman]

Hey Jay,
Thanks for the heads up, I'm going to have to break in the new tube someother place than Davis. Look forward to fishing it this spring & early summer.
Once again, a big thanks.

Rockman

[bigfly]

Rockman, ice is out on Stampeed/Boca. Fish are holding around Boca inlet.
The warden is omnipresent around here, be sure you dot your I's, and pinch the barbs.

Jim

[DFrink]

Hey Bigfly, do you know what the official line is that separates the Little T from Boca? Most my fly’s have pinched barbs anyways, but I would hate to be fishing from my kayak in the lake near the inlet and get sighted for using a barbed hook. I checked the reg’s and they don’t really seem to give information on how they define the end of the river and beginning of the lake. Just curious.

[Don Rotsma]

Rockman
Davis is still iced over except for a few patches near runoff inlets. The strong wind the last few days is working its magic and the lake could ice out quickly in the next couple of weeks. The ice has thinned considerably in the last week. You could actually fish an indicator in a couple of spots on the east side, but not enough room for a tube yet. I drive by the dam every morning and evening and will post to let you know when it breaks up. Right now it is snowing hard and we have gotten about 8 inches of snow today. Don

[jayclarkflyfishing]

The ice is off of Frenchmans....

[OceanSunfish]

It's great to hear that the area around Davis Lake appears to have received a healthy dose of snow this winter. I'll continue to keep my fingers crossed that the runoff is substantial and the lake elevation rises considerably to assist in the 'healing' process, post-treatment.

I remember fishing Davis Lake within the first few days of April in the 90's, so I feel that with the lake still iced over and several feet of snow still surrounding the lake as of 31-March is a very good sign for the lake's ecosystem.

I think we can all agree that Davis Lake is a very special place for trout and trout fisherman in Northern California.

Thanks for the first hand reports.

[bigfly]

Troutman, I called the warden, he said he will enforce the LT regs. from the lake up. LT is open, 0 take, barbless artificial.
What is the lake? No moving water. Ripples, bubble line etc.
The lake is almost up to the campground. LT is flowing at 208. temp 42-45. Nothing but midges in the air. Still winter.
Pheasant tails might work. We got 4-6" of fresh. Road is open, be very careful not to get stuck on shoreline, saw one boat out yesterday. Enjoy.

Jim

ps, Noses on the big T. Call me.

http://i905.photobucket.com/albums/ac260/Bigfly1/mattfish2002Small.jpg

[DFrink]

Bigfly, nice delivery! Thanks for the post.

[michaeln]

So... how is the ice-out coming along? I would like to go up there around the beginning of May, if that's doable. Any guesses as to whether the west side will be accessible by then?

[Troutstalker55B]

Click on my link below to my blog and catch a fresh report on the lake.
Between Jay and I we will let you all know just what is happening

Jon.

[michaeln]

Click on my link below to my blog and catch a fresh report on the lake.
Between Jay and I we will let you all know just what is happening

Jon.

Thanks Jon for the update. It does look like it'll be a while. I hear Frenchman is alot farther along though.

[jayclarkflyfishing]

Frenchmans is free of ice and fishing.

Jay

[michaeln]

Weather forecast for the next few days is for high 60 to low 70 degree temps at Portola. Hopefully that will help get rid of some of that pesky white stuff.

[michaeln]

Well, I got a wild hair Sunday morning and drove up there to look for myself. It's still pretty well covered with ice, in spite of Sunday and Monday's warm temperatures.

I fished from 6AM to 9:30AM this morning at a big open area about 3/4 mile past Mallard, sorry, I don't know the name of the place, maybe between Five Tree Point and Lightning Tree. Lots of shallow water that goes way out there. I tossed wiggletails in cinnamon and olive on an intermediate line without so much as a bump. The water was really murky and cloudy and had lots of floating and suspended debris in it, to the extent that almost every cast I retrieved ended up with a fly covered with salad and sticks. It was pretty frustrating.

You could definitely fish that area with a float tube or a boat, but it would be kind of silly in a boat.

I took a bunch of photos and put them on my smugmug site at:

http://michaelnel.smugmug.com/gallery/11897666_f6nPv#842032695_mheDx

Here's just one to give you an idea:

http://michaelnel.smugmug.com/Fishing/Lake-Davis-Iceout-2010/iceout-3/842032754_v5Emu-L.jpg

From what I saw, I am going to wait at least a couple weeks before going back, more likely in mid-May.

BTW, the west side road is completely snowed in, the east side is plowed as far as Mallard, after Mallard there are some random snow drifts across the road. I was able to get pretty far up the road in my low little Honda Civic, if you have a higher clearance vehicle you could go a lot further.

[michaeln]

Frenchmans is free of ice and fishing.

... and ugly as sin. I drove out to Lunker Point launch ramp there on Sunday, the place looks like it's on the moon!

Aesthetics of the place I'm fishing matter too much to me to go back to that place, no matter how good the fishing is.

Ugggh.

[michaeln]

Looking at the pics, they give the impression that the open water is much bigger than it really is. I would estimate that in the pic shown in this thread, the open water between the shore and the ice is something like 100 feet wide.