Lake Davis Report

[Troutstalker55B]

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I went up to the lake yesterday to check conditions after last weeks snow storm, I was greeted by 26 degree temps and freezing fog on the water. The roads are fine and all the snow is gone. I fished Cow south and got to my favorite point. Water temps at 8:30am were 50.3 degrees rising to 55.6 by 1pm. No bug activity, and very few risers. The pods of rainbows I had been fishing to using the dry, are gone. Fished a Sheep Creek special in a size 10 for an hour and not a bump.

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Madison soaked in the warmth of the sun but was not pleased by my lack of catching. He reminded me that after the first rain the fish smell that new sweet water and like to gang up in the north end of the lake - We were gone!

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I did more scouting today than fishing, and the fish are on the move after the storm. I C&R 4 rainbows in 25 minutes on the Sheep Creek special. fish ranged from 16-17 inches and were clean - No parasites. Give the fish a week or so to adapt to the new water temps and the fishing will only improve. I was going to fish today but this surprise rain storm halted my trip, but there are many days left to get out there and touch a few fish.

Jon.

[betty]

Fished Fairview Oct 8-9. Water at 52 deg in the morning, warming to 55 by end of day. Best bite during middle of the day. Found fish mostly in shallow water (5-8 ft) near the weeds. Not many risers, didn't see many insect. Did OK Saturday (10 or so fish), but better Sunday (about 20 fish in far less time). All clean, 14-16 inches. Got some stripping (sheep creek and rusty wiggle worm), but indicator fishing produced most for me--blood midge and blood midge emerger. Heard of a couple of fish caught in the 18-19 inch range. Sure would like to know if the Davis fish will ever get bigger. This is the same size that I caught in June. But it was sure nice to be there, beautiful fall weather. Drove home Monday in a driving rain all the way from Truckee to Sacramento. Glad i went though.
Betty

[Troutstalker55B]

Sure would like to know if the Davis fish will ever get bigger.

We need those snails back in big numbers to see bigger fish, the trout who have switched over to crayfish will run bigger than your average fish. Thanks for the report Betty!

Jon.

[jayclarkflyfishing]

We need those snails back in big numbers to see bigger fish, the trout who have switched over to crayfish will run bigger than your average fish. Thanks for the report Betty!

Jon.

Jonny-
DFG needs to slow down the amount of fish planted as well. The lake has too many fish and is slowing down growth rates in a big way. We should be seeing 5-6 lb fish by now and that ain't happening. Lack of food and overpopulation of trout=stunted fish.

Jay

[catch&release]

Jay,

This a great point. I have always beleived in this from fishing alot of blue ribbon stillwaters in Utah where you could average 80 fish days and all were in the 15" to 18" class and when you would spend 4 days averaging that many fish you feel you would have to catch a fish in the 20" to 24" range but it would never happen.

Crowley the last three years has made a great beleiver in this fact about over fish population. Crowley Lake is one of the best food factorys that I have ever seen, I would put that up against any lake in the west. Perch fry, midge factory, Damsels, great Callabaetis, and recently tui chubs. I thought you could not put enough fish in that lake to eat all of the food but I was wrong.

Example: In the early and mid 2000's you would have 60 fish days at Crowley very easy and some much more but 1 out of every 10 fish caught on average would be 18" or larger. Since they have stocked half of what they used to in the late 2000's we are now getting 20 to 30 fish days and half of those fish are 18" to 24".

I'll take 20 fish with 15 over 18" compared to 60 fish with 6 or 7 in the 18" range every day of the week.

Ernie

[Troutstalker55B]

Point well made Jay, reminds me of the MFFR - Too many mouths to feed and too little food. I wish they would change the regs and have it just like Eagle Lake.

Jon.

[FRSam]

Hey Betty...nice hearing from you..I'm glad to hear you enjoyed your Davis outing. As you know I fish Davis quite a bit and the big fish are what got me hooked on the lake many years ago. The size of fish being taken over the last couple of years has defiantly decreased. We're currently looking at 15 to 18 inch fish as the average size. Twenty plus inch fish have become pretty scarce. They are being taken but the numbers are nowhere near where they used to.

The lake has had enough time since the last treatment to produce those big fish. The food source is definitely there to grow big fish even with the elimination of the snail population...as Jonny pointed out the fish have gone to town on the crawdad's and there are tons of crawdad's in the lake. I think if there was a lack of food and an over population of fish you'd be seeing a lot of very skinny fish being taken and this isn't the case. I agree with Jay - it's the increased number of fish in the lake and it's this over population in my opinion that has put the nay on growth. DF&G in my humble opinion is at fault for the over population of the lake due to the wild trout law suit filed a couple of years back which left them with a surplus of trout and was also responsible for the introduction of trout infested with parasites because of the overstock of trout created by this law suit.

On the positive side the fish are now clean and healthy for the most part and for their size are putting up one hell of a fight. And I'd bet for those who keep and eat these fish they taste a lot better having switched over from snails to crayfish.

I'd be a very happy camper taking two or three twenty plus inch fish putting me into my backing per outing - I do miss that...

Pete