Lake Natoma is a mystery to most.....

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

It is located in a great place very close to town.

http://www.recreation.gov/recAreaDetails.do?contractCode=NRSO&recAreaId=2280&agencyCode=129

It can have the Hex mayfly hatch in the summer right at sunset.

It has giant Rainbow trout that are put in the local paper from time to time.

It looks great too, not too big and not too small. It has back water and current.

But over the years not to many fly fishers have got wild about fishing it. Not even me.....

I have been selling fishing tackle sense 1965 very near the lake and have very little feedback as far as people really fly fishing it a lot.

.

[JAWallace]

The only factual statement I can offer is the fishing/catching dropped way off when DFG stopped planting trout. Beyond that, I don't know. DFG doesn't have an answer either; I've asked. They blame it on lack of feed but I think they're guessing. As I've said repeatedly it used to be a good to very good fishery. I can't even find Bluegill any more. The bass are rarely big enough to eat the planters so that's not the reason. There are still plenty of crawfish, but not as many pond smelt, and it's foul with carp.

I got my largest fly caught LMB there, just over 10#. Dozens of trout, but more on conventional tackle than flies. Dozens of LMB and SMB on flies. Several panfish, a few crappie. One catfish. Got one good smallie this year, that's it.

[kabah088]

With all the carp which IMO has displaced most of the fish in the backwater areas, THIS is a TROPHY CARP WATER!

[bassakwards]

Landed 5 trout in a 2 week period last year, all were over 14" nothing since. Took 40 years to get them hope it does not take another 40.
I’ve seen others taken recently, the key seems to be time of day and moving water. I’ve seen some nice size LMB in the coves across from the flats but never caught any.