Hit up San Pablo Reservoir with the kayak on 2/13/24. Launched about 7am. Plan was to work the 10-30ft water column. Ended up with 4 landed, 4 missed/lost.
WEATHER
Overcast, temps in the high 50s, light wind
WATER
51 degrees & stained. Unable to determine depth of visibility.
WHAT WORKED
First bite at 7:15am. Lassen Rainbow Trout hit the Orange/Gold Rapala J-7 at the mouth of a cove across from the boat ramp. Trolled at 1.8-2.0mph topline, 78ft of line out. Estimated depth of bait 3-5ft deep.
Caught another on Speedy Shiner, Watermelon color. After the first bite, kept trolling at 1.8 up to about Sandy Point. No other bites. Switched to a Speedy Shiner with 1/4oz dropper weight and started trolling at 2.5mph topline, 86ft back. Rainbow trout hit near the mouth of Scow Canyon in about 30ft water depth. Estimated depth of bait 2-5ft.
Worked back towards Sandy Point from Scow Canyon. After passing the mouth, switched to my BFS setup and started casting a Kana Fishing chatter blade with a 2” Kana Fishing Ballsy Stinger in Black body/Clear tail with gold flake color. Caught a rainbow trout before getting to Sandy Point.
Caught another rainbow at the mouth of Sandy Point on a small FHS dodger with a Kana Fishing 2.5” Grub-A-Dub in Watermelon trolled at 1.5mph as I was letting line out. Had about 30ft of line out when I got hit.
Caught a few more rainbow trout around 11am all on Thomas Bouyant 1/4oz spoons in Gold/Red and Blue/Silver, trolled at 1.6mph topline with 78-90ft of line out.
WHAT DIDN’T WORK
Flicker Shad 4 silver/black. No hits.
FireTiger J-7. No hits.
Trolled a Kana Fishing Crawler on a slow death hook behind a small FHS dodger. No hits.
Speedy Shiner in Red/Gold. No hits.
SUMMARY
San Pablo hadn’t stocked in at least a week (as far as I know). Not many fish jumping out of the water. Marked a lot of fish on the fishfinder. However, seems most were lethargic or uninterested in the baits I used. While most fish seemed lethargic, there were plenty of actively hunting fish working the top 5ft of any water column depth. The hot spot of the day was the mouth of Scow Canyon in water column depths of 20-50ft.
My buddy went back to San Pablo again on Thursday, 2/15/24. Action, hot baits, and hot spots were still the same. Assuming the weather pattern holds consistent, I expect the action to continue for at least a week.
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