Lake Natoma Report

[JAWallace]

Took out my new Renegade for a maiden voyage yesterday on Natoma for a shakeout and lake check. Although I continued my streak of getting skunked there, I did hook one nice fish about 30' down.

The good news is I graphed a LOT of fish. The bad news is they were all 30'-40' down and in the channel. They were holding fairly tight to structure and I assume they were bass. The surface WT was 65 deg and I don't think the lake has turned over yet so I'm not sure why they were so deep. Some guy reported catching some under the dock at Willow Creek and I guess I'll believe him, but I saw no evidence of any fish in the flats or any water less than 25' deep.

Late afternoon there was the usual minor Trico hatch, but no evidence of feeding. No shad boils either. I suspect there are few trout left after DFG stopped stocking five or six years ago except for the big guys up near Folsom. I am going to try dredging again for them but am not holding my breath. I've never caught fish above Rainbow, but have taken dozens just below it when they were there.

I don't know how to get bass at that depth. I've taken Kokanee at 35' but that was on a slow troll with Type IV line. I did a countdown with Type II but aside from the one hit, nothing. Maybe someone has some good ideas. I'm a pretty good fly basser but this has me stumped. I'm temped to drop some live bait down to see what I can dredge up and pump a stomach.

[David Lee]

I don't know how to get bass at that depth.....

John -

27 feet of LC-13 on a 7 or 8 wt. , use a low stretch mono running line . Threadfin Shad are in there , but the main forage is Pond Smelt and Crayfish (billions of Crayfish in there !) . Start with a 20 count and go higher from there .

Remember , most fish taken BELOW 25 feet will not recover -

Good luck !!

D.~

[JAWallace]

Thanks David. You still have the Trout Traps tube you got from me a few years ago? If so we should give it a try together. You're a very knowledgeable guy.

[Scott Thornley]

John -

27 feet of LC-13 on a 7 or 8 wt. , use a low stretch mono running line . Threadfin Shad are in there , but the main forage is Pond Smelt and Crayfish (billions of Crayfish in there !) . Start with a 20 count and go higher from there .

Remember , most fish taken BELOW 25 feet will not recover -

Good luck !!

D.~

Actually, studies have shown that if you have a plan for getting them back down to depth in a hurry, barotrauma does not pose a huge survival risk for fish caught at depths much greater than 25'

Do a search for the Sheldon Fish Descender for a commercial product, or make your own from 6" of stainless spinner wire.


Scott

[rusty fly]

If the lakes surface is 65 degrees fish stay deeper until the lake start to cool in the fall. Lake turn over doesn't start until surface temp drops to 39 degrees.

[Jay]

Black bass recover very well from being caught and released down to about 30-35 ft, if they are brought in quickly ( they need to be strong enough to fight their expanded swimbladder until they get deep enough to shrink it back down). You can catch and release fish effectively from much much deeper if you needle them or sink them.

[David Lee]

Some reading for y'all ....

http://kramergonefishing.com/2011/02/24/bass-release-mortality-whats-the-scoop/

And , some thoughts by my Friend Max on the subject ...

" I have no credible evidence to prove otherwise, but I have a wide range of evidence that supports
your "This is the dirty little secret behind bottom fishing"
What I do know is that effected fishes, no pelagics, vary in the depths they are effected by barotrauma, some at 30 foot depth, and the results include, stomach out the mouth, intestine out the vent, capillaries between the arterial and venus circulation system completely fractured by gas bubbles causes the fish to bleed to death over a few days. Heart ceased, eyeballs expanded and out of their sockets, causes blindness, blood circulation in the brain ceased and the brain function slowly degrades until it ceases to function, gas bubbles in small blood vessels expand and fracture those vessels.
Reef fishes effected and returned are very susceptible to being eaten by sharks, and lager fishes.
The Tag and Release system, is also rather suspect. Since a lot of fish released are barotrauma species. Tag returns fish taken from 30 feet are 10%, while returns from 100 feet are 1%. Well published FACTS.
"Dunno where tis" are from 90% at 30 feet to 99% at 100 feet.
Great Barrier Reef marlin tagging results over 10,000 fish over 10 years are just 189 returns. But it's well known that the BGR Marlin season is right on schedule with the Tiger Shark season. They are probably very well fed.
My research, a lot of stuff from PhD type scientists, and studying a lot of papers took a few years and after the publication of the article I was banned from just about everything. I lived in WA, and the banning even went into WebSites in NSW, Qld and Victoria. Still am. It went Australia wide rather rapidly. That banning was in 1998 or so.
One WebSite in WA that I was off, got a new owner in 2003 or so and I'm still banned. Very Big Grin. It took the guy 5 days to decide. Big Grin.
Anglers have long memories, even though the science is proven these days, like I only published FACT.
What started it was that Greg Jenkins from WA Tafe started to do a thing on Dhufish Aquculture and landed 75 dhufish from various depths, and doing the hollow tube pressure release put the fish into tanks. After 3 days they were all dead. He got a Scientist, Masters Degree, to find out why. He came up with barotrauma, with the arterial/venus capillary fracture as the primary reason, The fish bled to death over 3 days.
It just went on from there.

Question..Is this new "thing" in any way related to a "lead weight" which is the fast return vehicle ?"

Keep in mind here , Max is talking about Saltwater fish , which (in my opinion) are a LOT tougher than freshwater Black Bass . I don't care to eat Bass .... so why should I take a chance on the POSSIBILITY of killing them when fishing deep ??

D.~

[Jay]

I couldnt make it through all that. Ive been up for 40 hours, and jumped out of a plane today. Maybe ill try again when Im rested, and want to read about saltwater species. I also wouldnt believe George Kramer if he claimed the sky to be blue.