Page 4 of 4 FirstFirst 1234
Results 31 to 35 of 35

Thread: Martis Lake Stories

  1. #31
    Join Date
    Feb 2005
    Location
    the Lost Sierra
    Posts
    750

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by montana mike View Post
    That fly has caught a lot of good fish in many places! We would go to Martis in float tubes in the evening and wait for sipping crusers. You had to be patient , but it was worth it . Lots of good fish , but lost lots in the weeds too .THanks again . Mike
    Thank you.

  2. #32
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Location
    Placer County
    Posts
    1,135

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Ralph View Post
    Storage has been vastly increased in Stampede over the past few years. I think the pressure is a little off keeping Martis a flood control option. The dam was built atop a base of fractured basalt. At the 26' elevation currently maintained, it holds water but any more water and the head pressure seems to be enough to force water through the basalt. Years of pumping concrete into the dam has done little to stem the leaks and the potential for failure. Reno would be massacred if the Martis dam failed during a flood control attempt.
    Images of the Teton Dam failure come to mind. I'm sure that event looms large when the Engineers considered what to do about Martis Dam.

  3. #33
    Join Date
    Jun 2021
    Location
    reno
    Posts
    63

    Default

    I flyfished Martis pretty hard on a regular daily basis as I lived in Truckee from 1990 to 1997. It was damn good in that period. Excellent Callibaetis dry fly fishing. Fish 16-22" Rainbows and some slightly larger and some nice size browns during that period. I got an 8 pound Brown. I would consistently average 8 - maybe 15 fish. They were not hard pulling Rainbows. There was also blood midges and a few damsels during that period. I would start at 9 am and fish until 4. The wind would come up around 1pm but I would go to the creek and anchor up and the fish would move west to the creek every afternoon like clock work and I would catch maybe a half dozen more. During that period the weeds were not a problem at all. There was lots of open water and slots and channels and the creek area was good to fish. Water at the creek was 4+ feet deep right up to the creek bank which would draw in fish as the cold water would reach out into the lake 50+ feet from where the creek came in. The cold water would sink to the bottom and pull in fish. There was a good channel that dropped down 6+ feet and the creek cold water would flow into the lake. I liked the lake during that time period. I had a blast fishing it when I didn't hit Davis or Eagle it was right there and a few minutes from my house.

    What happened to it was the 1997 floods. Those floods silted up the lake badly and reduced water depth particularly at the creek entrance which went from 4-6+ feet to two-3 feet and choked with weeds from the silt. That flood also killed off lots of the fish population and the minnows and sunfish population exploded reducing the Callibaetis. The Callibaetis were never the same after the 1997 floods and silt. All that silt is the problem in my opinion. People always say it is the fertilizer from the golf courses at North Star but I think the silt is the real problem. They should drain the lake and dredge it out especially the creek area, deepen that back like it once was and dump some gravel and rocks on the bottom which may reduce the weed growth. Throw some decent Eagle lake Rainbows in there. CADFG is a disaster. They let so many lakes get ruined like Davis. The lake was never the same after the 1997 floods and I stopped fishing it, concentrating on Eagle and Davis. Martis is Just another lake that CADFG has squandered away.
    Last edited by FREEDOM-FLYFISHER; 07-10-2021 at 09:03 AM.

  4. #34
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Sebastian, FL, USA, Earth
    Posts
    23,837

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Ralph View Post
    Storage has been vastly increased in Stampede over the past few years. I think the pressure is a little off keeping Martis a flood control option. The dam was built atop a base of fractured basalt. At the 26' elevation currently maintained, it holds water but any more water and the head pressure seems to be enough to force water through the basalt. Years of pumping concrete into the dam has done little to stem the leaks and the potential for failure. Reno would be massacred if the Martis dam failed during a flood control attempt.
    Davis Lake in Oregon has some kind of leakage problem too. This can drastically change the lake's level. I heard they even tried to plug

    the leak with bails of hay?
    Bill Kiene (Boca Grande)

    567 Barber Street
    Sebastian, Florida 32958

    Fly Fishing Travel Consultant
    Certified FFF Casting Instructor

    Email: billkiene63@gmail.com
    Cell: 530/753-5267
    Web: www.billkiene.com

    Contact me for any reason........
    ______________________________________

  5. #35
    Join Date
    Jun 2021
    Location
    reno
    Posts
    63

    Default

    I fish Davis, OR. there are still BIG rainbows in there but they are few and far between and extremely hard to catch. There is natural seepage of water from the lake through the porous lava. There are lava tubes and just porous masses of lava and the water leaks out. All over that part of OREGON you can see big masses of lava flows and right there at Davis. The water just seeps out of Davis through the lava into Wickiup.

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •