On the crank

[Bluegill Chaser]

Caught a couple on a Yozuri Snap Bean (smaller sized one) yesterday evening at Lake Alpine in Marin, here is one of them.

[JBplusThuy]

A couple is one more than we caught last weekend at Bethany :p It was really tough - crowded, a bunch of swimmers, including ones doing cannonballs off the dock 8 feet from where people were fishing, high winds, you name it. Our total for the day was one small bluegill released, one bluegill caught, and one hooked and lost. Methinks it's time to find another lake - too many people coming to Bethany now for the amount of good fishing spots.

For anyone in a boat, it's still great, and a couple guys came back from the far end of the lake with a boatload (heh) of big bluegill in their ice chest.

[JBplusThuy]

That got me to googling Marin lakes, and Stafford sounds/looks kind of nice, although I couldn't find any fishing report on it. Ever been there?

[JBplusThuy]

Went to Stafford Lake Saturday. The weather was beautiful. The fishing, well, that was another story.

So far as I can tell, the foot-accessible part of the lake is devoid of fish. Shallow and weedy, the kind of place where you'd expect to find some bluegill, but not a single nibble all day long. There's quite a bit of algae in the lake, and they've recently sprayed copper sulfate on that part of it; I'm guessing it drove the oxygen level down far enough that there really are no fish in that part of the lake. None observed, not even a single rising fish at sunset.

No boats, no float tubes, no way to get to the other side of the lake, which looks to have near-shore deep water.

And then there's the large resident population of Canada geese, which have the entire shore liberally covered with goose poop :-P At least there's a playground with a nice play structure, so the kids had something to do on a warm afternoon the weekend after the last day of school :-)

[Bluegill Chaser]

All Marin lakes are hike-in only and anywhere near the road gets hammered by other fishermen. If you want to fish the Lagunitas watershed (of which Stafford is a part) I'd suggest fishing Alpine, Kent, or Nicasio. Nicasio has the best quality of bass, but I guarantee you've never seen so many ticks on your person, and you need to brush them off every 100 yards or so. Kent has the most fish, but is the farthest hike in, Alpine is the medium between Kent and Nicasio, with alright numbers and size but definitely requires a little hiking to find quality fish. In terms of panfish in those lakes, I've had the easiest time catching Bluegill at Alpine, although there are tons of Crappie in Nicasio, and Kent does have redear (although they are super difficult to catch). If you're ever in the mood for a long hike to quality fishing let me know, and I'll show you around one of the lakes.

[JBplusThuy]

Sounds like it would be fun some time, I'm willing to strap my tube to my back and do some hoofing.

Father's Day we went out to Bass Pro Shops in Manteca, just cuz I'd never been to one and thought my kids would enjoy the big aquarium (they did) and all the mounted animals (they did). Very cool place, wish I lived near one :-).

We brought a couple rods along just in case and stopped briefly at Bethany on the way back, zero action again. Very windy plus 3 or 4 jet skiers not far away didn't help. I'm writing off Bethany for this year. It'd still be good from a boat, or maybe with a bike to reach the far side of the lake, but I have no boat and don't really want to bike a few miles around the lake, so it's out.

After leaving Bethany, we stopped at Clifton Court Forebay just before dark, where I caught a crappie in the slough next to the forebay before it got too dark to see. Some people fishing down the slough 50 yards or some from me caught about 20 bluegill between the two of them, and some people near them were also looked like they were doing well. Next time we may just go there.

A local guy from Manteca also showed me on his map a place north of Tracy a ways where 2 or 3 canals come together and said there's a sandy beach there and people in float tubes do well on crappie under the bridge.

Am also thinking of trying Contra Loma, since it has a swimming lagoon that the kids would enjoy. Ever been there?

Cheers,

Jonathan