Davis 10/13-10/16
I fished davis wed thru sat. It was on and off for the most part. I;ll try and explain as best I can.
WED-----I started out stalking the shallows and off the bat hooked a 21" and 22" fish back to back in a foot of water. They were prowling the shoreline in small pods of 1-3 fish. I ran into and fished with jon and bob baiocchi and we had some skinny water fun. This was very fun and challenging as the fish were only 1 to 3 fish cruising together and showing themselves very VERY intermittently. They were in a foot and less of water a foot from the bank out 20 feet or so. Mostly they were a foot to 5 feet from the bank(Jonny b will tell you, we were blown away by how shallow and how close to shore). They were trying to catch some terrestrial black fly that would sit high on the water that I could not catch and identify. These flies/gnat were around a size 14 or so. They were good fliers and would land and sit on the water but when I approached from maybe 10 feet away they would fly off the water. They were landing on the water close to the bank and drawing these new brood stock fish right to the bank. It was crazy how shallow and how close to the bank these fish were coming. These fish I was hooking I believe to have been recent brood stock planters. DFG planted on the 19th and they generally throw in some nice brood stock quality fish. They were very green. One fish I landed had a ton of yellow on it under it's jaw and on it's fins. very cool beautiful looking fish. Too bad i didn't have a camera.
After the morning session ended.<<<<wind came up around 11 and blew good. I took a break from 11-2 or so. I was on the water but the wind shut down the skinny water fish so I just enjoyed the day. Wind eased up around 1:30? I didn't have a watch so I am not sure of the exact time. The lake went off with fish rising and grabbing anything from around 2 till dark at a new spot, let's say spot b. These fish were in 10-20 feet of water roughly 100 feet off the shoreline. I caught fish on 8 casts in a row. I caught fish after fish. Then I'd miss a fish on a cast and go on another streak. 8 in a row was my best. I do not know the end number of how many I landed. As many as I wanted to catch. They would grab anything, it didn;t matter. I couldn't eat my bockwurst as I flipped my bug in the water and fish would grab it. I did this for like 4 hours straight till it got so ridiculous and I went looking for larger fish. During this session I probably had well over 20 plus short strikes as these fish were nipping at my bug and not hammering it and sucking it in. These were the 10-12" fish that are NOW 14-16" or so. They are covered with parasites. So you cansee and tell a big difference from these fish and the new brood stock bright green backs I was catching earlier.These 14-16" were one after another after another. So these fish have grown since the beginning of the summer. and adding 4 inches over the summer is about right.
I decided to go look for bigger fish and see if I could find some 20"+ holdovers or the new brood stock in another area. I moved and a wild thing happened, callibaetis started coming off around 2 hours before dark till well after dark. This was in an entirely different area. I have never seen callibaetis come off that late on DAVIS. It was a rare occurrence of nature. Always cool nedw things happening on sierra lakes. New things to see all the time. Nice larger holdover fish came in on these callibaetis. These fish ran from 19" to 21" and also had the mange and poc marks and pimples and sores and such.
After catching unlimited amounts of fish at spot b. I got an extra dose of insane fishing at spot c. I pushed the back of my kayak up the bank and sat and waited. I didn't have to wait long. All of a sudden callibaetis started coming off and fish showed up shortly after, gulping them right off the bank in 2-4 feet of water at this particular spot. I landed somewhere between a bakers dozen and 15 fish the largest 21" or so with about half as many short strikes. A guy from truckee i met this year @ davis showed up and said he had an equally insane day earlier but was unable to stick anything over 19". I said start casting next to me as your 20+" is right here. Sure enough he banged a 21" and was very stoked.
Thu I did ok, nothing remotely resembling wed as the wind blew hard all day and the weather changed and that's all it takes to shut things down or change things instantly on davis from one minute to the next. The barometer changes, the wind shifts or picks up and it's game over. I scraped up some fish but I will not fight the wind or conditions just to catch a few fish. I don't need to.
Friday AM I hooked up with jon b and we got into another shallow water session. The fish were coming in shallow again and it was tough as there were only a few fish doing it and they were not telegraphing their moves. They would show a tail or make a wake/rise circle and disappear in a foot of water. from my angle in the kayak I could not see their swimming direction so it was hard for me to judge their direction and it was a bit overcast which grayed up the surface of the water. I asked jon b if he could see thewir direction as he was standing up along the bank but he couldn;t either. Either way they only had 180 degrees to move but you really had to have a perfect presentation and spoon feed them putting it right in their mouth. The same black gnats/flies were doing the same thing and the fish were trying for them but i think they were not very successful as these bugs were very skittish. The afternoon and evening was pretty dismal.
SAT I fished the am and left around 1 when the wind came up. I had some good skinny water fishing.
All in all there is a lot of dead water out there. 99% of the shoreline is dead if you want to wade(bring a tube). I don't want to mislead anyone and have them drive distance and expect to find what i was lucky to find on wed afternoon. That is a very rare occurrence especially with rapidly changing conditions. Cow area is very slow at the moment. That can change and I have to believe it will at some point. I recommend a boat with a motor but if you don't have that and use a tube/pontoon I would recommend resorting to trolling. Or better yet hire jonny b as your guide and he will get you into the fish. Try small wooly buggers, leaches, wiggle tail type flies,,,,ie attractor streamer patterns on type 1 and 2 lines 8-12 feet deep. You don't really need to be bug specific as the hatches are few and far between and it is getting late and the fish will grab most anything. I recommend attractor patterns and fishing them appropriately covering as much water as possible till things go off if they do. You can luck into a good day or you can have multiple consecutive lousy days due to weather and wind conditions. Despite an off the charts day for me many days are 90% + slow with only an hour of fishing/catching(it comes on and then shuts off quickly and it can be done for the entire rest of the day) as I know where and when to be at a spot. if it wasn't for the recent plantings of brood stock it would be real slow for lots of folks out there. All this is hard to explain to someone unless they have been spending a lot of time out there. It has been a weird year and the lake/fish has a long way to go.
also i recommend fishing till dark. That can be hard if you are worn down from getting skunked all day but sometimes I spend a whole day with only a few fish and then I get a nice late afternoon bite. also you do not need to be on the water crack of dawn. I'd say best fishing right now is starting after 10 am.
and by all means whatever you do just stay away from a guy in a dark colored kayak as he is a nasty bastard and doesn't want you near him bothering him.
good luck
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by gene goss
Bookmarks