Lake Siskiyou

There have been some reports from Starman and others regarding the lake, mostly from 2015-16 and prior. I am meeting some old friends there right after Memorial Day and planning on an extended stay, May 28-June 7, 2024. It’s not a fishing trip in priority, more like a reunion of old friends from the PNW. We chose the location as a base to explore the northern state and there will be wives, only one other is a Flyfisher and a beginner at that, I thought this would be an opportunity to educate him and possibly explore the McC, upper Sac and other water, in addition to the lake, conditions permitting.
Initial research shows the lake gets planted with rainbows, browns and bookies and has a decent smallmouth population and some holdovers so I’m hoping to have an opportunity, sounds like it might be a sinking line and leech/bugger/crayfish presentation unless obvious hatches occur. We have boats, fishfinder and I have found some bathymetric charts which are helpful.
Any information you’d care to share would be appreciated.

A friend of mine fishes it fairly routinely from his kayak as he has a cabin near McCloud I know he prefers the north side of the lake. That lake grows some monsters. I routinely get photos like this.

Attachment 19722

I think your timing is good.

Fish around where the tributary or tributaries flow into the lake.

That is a beautiful Brown Trout.

That is a sweet Brown!

Yep, you got it right, sinking lines and Buggers is a go to technique for the lake. Have some smaller buggers like 10s and 12s. Black and green most common.

The trout are often shallow, so trolling to find schools is a good bet.

couple of wildcard ideas to keep in mind:

Ants: black, size 8 (carpenter ants) and 14-16 (all the rest). If it gets windy they will be on the water.

Siskiyou has a good midge population, but I mostly see/fish them in the winter because the fish will sometimes rise to the them.
Most common is a size 16 grey one, I have not tried midge pupas subsurface because I am usually fishing a bugger.

Siskiyou has good numbers of crawdads so have a few handy esp for the Smallmouth or just use a brown bugger.

Small poppers can be a lot of fun for the Smallies, Esp early and late.

The smallmouth also like big bug patterns like Prince nymphs, 20-incher, etc, in sizes like 6-8. Toss them along the shore in 2 to 8 Ft deep water and let them settle to the bottom on a tightish line, then crawl them a short distance, I do not crawl them for a long way because of the plethora of snags (often sunken wood or old tree stumps).

Fish the edges and arms (coves), the old river channel runs down the center-ish of lake favoring the east (?) side a little, the one closest to the mountain, you can see it with your maps I hope, it is 80-100 FT deep! The edges of the river channel are more like 20-30 FT deep and the coves are not real deep.

Use your finder to find drop offs, they are usually worth a few casts.

--edit--
I read my post and then re-read yours, looks like I told you a few things you already knew, but hey, I was just typin away.

Thanks Steven, much appreciated!

Steven,

My brother Frank lives close to you on the north side of Dunsmuir on Prospect Ave. He fishes the river almost daily and has been bugging me about coming up to try Lake Syskiyou. Now with these posts I'm more anxious than ever.
Tony

Hey Tony:
Ya, it is a good fishing lake.
It can get a little busy during prime tourist season due to the very large campground next to the lake
but during the shoulder seasons it is pretty good.
I used to fish it a lot but now that the local rivers are open year round I spend much less time there.
Getting close to the age where wading Upper Sac and Mac is a bit too hard, so that may change in a few more years.

I am so glad that really good fly fishers like Steve and Tony are here on our Forum with such good information.

Thanks Guys.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bill Kiene semi-retired

I am so glad that really good fly fishers like Steve and Tony are here on our Forum with such good information.

Thanks Guys.

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Agree, if this was on a Facebook page it could be seriously over exposed. You have some real-deal guys on this site that other folks like me can learn from.