Feather River, Horseshoe Lake

It’s Spring Break!

by Matt
Nice Average Horseshoe Lake Bass

One of the perks of working in education is that you get days off. It is officially spring break and the fishing has just gotten better. I have a few places planned to fish so I will be updating as I go. These places are the Yuba Goldfields, Yuba River, Ellis Lake, Horseshoe Lake, and possibly Butte Creek. The fishing will be great with warm sunny days like the ones we’ve been seeing for the past few weeks. I’m looking forward to it but until then I’ve been fishing the Feather River for steelhead and Horseshoe Lake for bass and catfish.

Feather River
There have been reports that the spring-run steelhead are in the system and from my own personal experience the days I went out I did see them but I did not catch them. I have been fishing in the morning and my guess is that the fish become more active mid-day when the water is warmer. I swung flies and nymphed but did not get any takes. The steelheading has been pretty tough this year and although the numbers are low the quality of fish is good. I would like to spend more time figuring out what works and what doesn’t but my focus this year was to get better at still-water fishing. I will have to put the Feather on hold.

Horseshoe Lake
I’ve changed and experimented with new techniques and figured out a system that works pretty well on the lake. It’s still tough but my success rate went from zero to one take to about three. Although certain flies work I want to tie flies that have an even better success rate.
I landed a nice 16” largemouth and lost another fish that was either a catfish or bass. This pond has some quality fish. I recall in late spring fishing the lake and hooking a fish that literally broke me off it was so strong.
I found some carp clooping but they were right literally underneath a tree. Tough casting. They were later spotted clooping in an area I could cast easier but I spooked them after the third cast. Tough fish. My guess is that they were clooping pollen. Looks like I’m going to experiment and tie some flies that look like pollen.

Ellis Lake, Horseshoe Lake

Turbid Waters and Bedding Bass

by Matt

This weekend I caught some fish. Although they didn’t take me into my backing the real task was to figure out what worked and didn’t work.

Horseshoe Lake
I’m still trying to figure out how to effectively fish this turbid pond. No clarity changes the game. After throwing a few small flies and a few big flies it was clear that nothing was interested. I saw fish jumping and cruising but didn’t have much luck hooking them. In the evening I saw what resembled a cruising shark in the shallows. My guess is that it was a big catfish or carp cruising around. I threw a few flies in front of it but no takes. I did manage to catch a small catfish on a fly that I had tied specifically for the lake though. I’m slowly getting the hang of it. Hopefully I will be able to catch fish more consistently when I’m out there.

First Catfish of 2015

Ellis Lake
The bass fishing has been tough and I haven’t quite figured out how to catch them when I target them out here. I did see a few bass sitting on their beds but they spooked as soon as I walked by. There is no use targeting these fish as they are twitterpated for the spawn. It also isn’t very nice to rip spawning fish off their beds as it is exactly the same as pulling trout of their redds. Just don’t do it.
The weather was beautiful but the only fish that were biting were the bluegills. They were eating bread chum and took whatever small fly I threw at them. Easy fun.

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Keep Calm and Fly Fish™