Davis Lake?

[michaeln]

So... how is the ice-out coming along? I would like to go up there around the beginning of May, if that's doable. Any guesses as to whether the west side will be accessible by then?

[Troutstalker55B]

Click on my link below to my blog and catch a fresh report on the lake.
Between Jay and I we will let you all know just what is happening

Jon.

[michaeln]

Click on my link below to my blog and catch a fresh report on the lake.
Between Jay and I we will let you all know just what is happening

Jon.

Thanks Jon for the update. It does look like it'll be a while. I hear Frenchman is alot farther along though.

[jayclarkflyfishing]

Frenchmans is free of ice and fishing.

Jay

[michaeln]

Weather forecast for the next few days is for high 60 to low 70 degree temps at Portola. Hopefully that will help get rid of some of that pesky white stuff.

[michaeln]

Well, I got a wild hair Sunday morning and drove up there to look for myself. It's still pretty well covered with ice, in spite of Sunday and Monday's warm temperatures.

I fished from 6AM to 9:30AM this morning at a big open area about 3/4 mile past Mallard, sorry, I don't know the name of the place, maybe between Five Tree Point and Lightning Tree. Lots of shallow water that goes way out there. I tossed wiggletails in cinnamon and olive on an intermediate line without so much as a bump. The water was really murky and cloudy and had lots of floating and suspended debris in it, to the extent that almost every cast I retrieved ended up with a fly covered with salad and sticks. It was pretty frustrating.

You could definitely fish that area with a float tube or a boat, but it would be kind of silly in a boat.

I took a bunch of photos and put them on my smugmug site at:

http://michaelnel.smugmug.com/galler...42032695_mheDx

Here's just one to give you an idea:



From what I saw, I am going to wait at least a couple weeks before going back, more likely in mid-May.

BTW, the west side road is completely snowed in, the east side is plowed as far as Mallard, after Mallard there are some random snow drifts across the road. I was able to get pretty far up the road in my low little Honda Civic, if you have a higher clearance vehicle you could go a lot further.

[michaeln]

Frenchmans is free of ice and fishing.

... and ugly as sin. I drove out to Lunker Point launch ramp there on Sunday, the place looks like it's on the moon!

Aesthetics of the place I'm fishing matter too much to me to go back to that place, no matter how good the fishing is.

Ugggh.

[michaeln]

Looking at the pics, they give the impression that the open water is much bigger than it really is. I would estimate that in the pic shown in this thread, the open water between the shore and the ice is something like 100 feet wide.