Lake Mendocino???

[Darian]

In another post, Tony mentioned that Lake Mendocino was turning on.... That's a long way to tow a boat from Sacramento.... Does anyone know if there're boat rentals over there

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Darian,
Here is an email from a real good guy 'lee s.' who is active on the web helping others too. I asked him for some info on Lake Mendocino Stripers some time back and here is his email repley:
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"Bill,
We have targeted those stripers in Mendocino since the late 60's early 70's when they were first planting them.
They used to plant 10K per season and maybe just plain dump another several K of excess fish for good measure. The lake level was more stable then also. As a consequence, maybe, the fish got bigger and were more aggressive in their frenzies.
In the late 80's and early 90's, with all the budget cuts etc. seems that plants were cut to less than 2K per season. Walla! Could still catch fish, but had to really work at it. Now I believe thru CSBA and Red's efforts there, and the Ukiah chapter's efforts, there has been in excess of 5K annual plants for the last two seasons. At least last season for sure. So the logical results are being enjoyed.
Best times for us fly (and lure?) guys sure does seem to be after the Sept holiday (or at least after coooooooled weather sets) to thin skiers and the muddying of winter rains. Also the pond gets quite small during the fall. Concentration of targets, so to speak.
It IS a grand fishery.
It is a planter fishery, as are many of our troutiod spots. No need to be treated any differently. And like searching for WILD trouts (and the desired variables encountered with wild), the delta system is still the place for that.
Now how do we class San Luis? Some planters, yet mostly borrowed residents from the total delta eco-system.
......lee s.
PS - Is mostly a shad based food chain there. Like Shasta, Berryessa, and Sonoma."
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