Early season fishing can be fantastic “if” you’re in the right area, and at the right depth. Right now we are catching most of the fish in very small areas where the bugs are hatching from the bottom of the lake.

If you are bait fishing, Pautzke’s Salmon Eggs and Fire Bait are working great right now. I saw a couple of nice limits of trout caught from Juniper Point last week. The fishermen were using just a single Pautzke’s Salmon Egg on their hook. Pautzke’s Fire Bait in Chartreuse and Pink has also produced several limits at Stanfield, Juniper, and the dam.

The fish are shallow early in the day, so don’t cast your bait very far off shore until about 7:30 or 8:00 am. Then after the sun is high in the sky, the fish start heading for deeper water; as deep as 22 feet during the middle of the day. Don’t spend more than an hour at any one spot if you’re not catching fish, because the next place you try might mean a lot of action! You have to fish 2 to 4 pound test line because the water is very clear right now!

Trolling is absolutely fantastic! Again, early in the day, the fish are shallow, and you can catch them at 1 1/2 to 2 colors of lead-core fishing line. During the middle of the day, I’m hooking fish as deep as 4 1/2 colors (22 to 23 feet).

In the last couple of weeks the best colors of Luhr Jensen Needlefish have been Red Dot Frog, Fire/Pearl, Pearl bikini, and Brass Bikini. Thomas Buoyant’s top colors have been Hot Pink, Gold, and Gold/Red trolled as slow as you can go! Thomas Cyclone Spoons in the same colors plus Watermelon have also worked well. If you just want to target the big “holdover” fish, tie on CD-5, F-5, and Husky Jerk Rapala’s and Thomas Buoyant’s. Fish the Buoyant colors mentioned above and Rapala’s in Gold/Black, Brook Trout, Purpledescent, and Hot Steel.

Start off shallow at 1 1/2 to 2 colors early. Then as the sun moves higher in the sky, keep fishing your lures deeper, some days having to go 4 1/2 colors to get a bite.

Just like shore fishing, I’m catching trout all over the lake right now, but in small area’s of the lake. Troll different places in the lake until you start catching fish, then really work that area hard!

Curt Dills
FishBigBear.com

Nice Stringer of Trout