06/07/26
Summer is upon us and the mid and high elevation lakes are all open for business. Kokanee and trout are readily available for those ready to hit the water. Best bet for good size Kokanee are Shasta, Whiskeytown, Berryessa and New Melones. Oroville is putting out some very nice Kings with fish in the 8-10 pound class landed this week. Always a chance for a nice Rainbow there too. Another bonus at Big O is they had dropped the inspection requirements. If you are looking for a combo Koke/Trout trip, Donner has been fishing well for small Kokanee and Lakers with a few rainbows and browns mixed in. The lake produced a 14 pound buck brown this week.
Had a chance to volunteer at a few events over the last month to get kids out fishing and honor our veterans. Both experiences provided firsts for the anglers we hosted. A big shout out to Jon Swaney for volunteering his boat, time and expertise to these efforts. I served as the deck hand and got to enjoy smiles on faces as we put our anglers on their first or biggest fish. We started out at the TKO event at Collins Lake. Take Kids Outside did an amazing job organizing the event that provided opportunities for disabled kids to get out and experience the lake. The volunteer pool was pretty impressive with many familiar faces, Jerry Lampkin, Kevin Brock, Shawn Rainsbarger, just to name a few.
After gathering our angler Austin and his parents, Jon and I headed out to see what we could entice to bite. We trolled speedy shiners and rapalas towards the power lines and were rewarded with a nice bass that put a smile on Austin's face. With little else taking our offering we head out of the narrows and change tactics to dodger/worm and dodger/spinner combos. Eventually we hooked and landed a nice rainbow that landed on the deck. It was then that we learned this was Austin's third time out fishing and the first fish he had caught. Always a good feeling to get a youngster out and on their first fish! Austin needed a break so we dropped them off at the dock at 10:30, and headed for home. If you ever get a chance to volunteer for an event like this, it is very rewarding.
The next trip was to the Rec 4 Vets Stampede event to take veterans out to catch some Kokanee. The day started out with 37 degrees and foggy at the rally point. After a quick captains meeting and safety briefing, we were assigned our anglers, a father and two sons, all vets, and we hit the lake. With Jon being an Air Force Vet, I was honored to be surrounded by those whose service makes it possible to have the freedoms we have. The fog stuck around for a while as we trolled through schools of Kokanee for half an hour with no action. It turns out we had plenty of action, the Kokanne are so small this year you couldn't see the hits. Checked baits and reeled in two hitchhikers and two with no corn. Once we made adjustments for little fish, it was easier to tell if something was there. It is disappointing when your anglers can't tell if there was a fish on the line or if they were just reeling in gear.
We stayed the course and landed 12 Kokanee and had as many long distance releases. As the fog lifted, the bite improved, and we finally had a fish pull off the downrigger. Turned out to be a 22" cutthroat that gave our Kokanee gear a run for its money. We 
learned it was biggest fish our angler Robert had ever caught.
We packed it in and hit the ramp at 11:00 to get fish cleaned and enjoy the BBQ that Rev 4 Vets provided. Always a great be in a group of veterans and experience the comrade.
A little bit on the Kokanee size at Stampede. As many of your are aware, the Kokanee fishery at Stampede has been on the decline for the last 5 years. This is a result of competing interest, the CDFW desire to have plenty of fish to take eggs from, pitted against anglers desire for a quality Kokanee fishery. Stampede is the sole location that CDFW uses to gather eggs to supply Kokanee for all of California. So they over stock and underestimate the natural spawning population to hedge their bets. The result is an overabundance of very small fish, 8-9" hens with eggs in our creel, with insufficient food supply. CDFW has started a program to identify the natural spawn population vs. planted by planting adipose fin clipped fish in 2025. Out all the fish caught by 13 boats, none were fin clipped, which makes sense as those fish won't be big enough to catch until next year. I appreciate the effort that CDFW is making but reserve a healthy dose of skepticism that any meaningful policy changes will come out of it. The CDFW bureaucracy has demonstrated how slowly the gears of change turn. In the meantime, another once flourishing fishery is in decline.
