I don’t offer guiding services nor do I do seminars any longer.  I want you to catch a fish using your own toys.  You don’t make the trip all the way up here for nothing.  You probably would like to catch a fish and a limit or possession before you head home.  I want you to catch that fish and it isn’t that hard if you know what to do, where to go & how to set up your lines.  I don’t drink by choice, so you won’t generally find me in bar.  I don’t attend functions, dinners or bingo due to being mobility impaired.   I don’t believe in hustling you to take you fishing for “work” as “hustling”  is unethical behavior and my standards are higher than that.  I guided in the 1980’s and 1990’s with and for J Fair and started Golden Bear Guide Service named after my two golden retrievers Bear and Goldie. 

We lost Jay Fair on Dec 29th 2016.  He was Mr Eagle Lake and will remain that for eternity.  He will be missed by many.  Glenn, Jays son, passed away in spring 2018. Arctic Fox will continue the Jay Fair trolling flies series and I’m the one tying up all the Jay Fair fly trolling toplines.  We’ve made a few changes to insuring 100yrds of 20lb braid backing and the lines fit on a level-wind reel with 245-260 yard capacity for 14lb test.  Some include Diawa Millionaire 300 series or Abu Garcia 6500 series reels.  We are bringing back some of the vintage Jay Fair patterns we developed in the 80’s and 90’s so some of your old favorites will eventually and once again be available at trollingflies.com.  I was very fortunate that Jay took me under his wing in the late 1980’s and I began guiding trolling flies for him.  Not too many people can make that claim of having fished with and for the best.  He also taught me to fly fish.  Although I do a lot of things his way, I do a lot of my own way too.  I began fishing this lake in the very early 1960’s so I have well over 60 years on this lake.  I fish just about every method needed at the time, but my love is flies, trolling or casting.  But, I’ll troll what ever I need to to catch fish. I don’t use down-riggers because I have never had to.  I do have them, get em wet once a year and if I have a bunch of family out, I can get more lines in the water. Eagle Lake fishing methods can be seasonal and have a lot to do with the conditions of the lake at the time.  Fall is by far our best part of the fishing season. I don’t catch and release once surface temperatures exceed 68F. Our trout just don’t do well.

I do not nor have I ever tried to sell myself as scientists nor do we pretend we know “everything” scientifically about Eagle Lake.  Our website contains the scientific information from the government.  We don’t compete with other guides, stores or anyone else.  We simply fish and know what’s going on…and for the most part, many others are left in the dark. Due to this being a blog I can certainly interject my opinions, thoughts and insights.  I’ve found that the government only tells you what they want you to know.  Not what is really happening. 

I have many seasons under my belt when it comes to fishing Eagle Lake.  I have countless thousands of hours on the lake, caught many thousands of Eagle Lake trout every season and have seen this lake through many different phases and circumstances in which the variables constantly change.  Adapting to those changes and anticipating the trout behavior to them is my specialty.  Teaching others is my honor…when the dad comes up to me and thanks me for helping him catch his kid a big trout, my job has been done! 

I also take pride in the victorious battles against governmental pollution because we DARE TO CARE. What we don’t care about is the financial security of the polluters, their social ranking or whether or not they like us. Eagle Lake and protecting her for the future is my main concern. Doing the right thing in Lassen County comes with a price, if we worried about that, nothing would get accomplished.  1)The removal of the creosote barriers from the immediate watershed that were dumped purposely by LNF to leach out creosote for three years before they were to be burned.  2) No longer are people allowed to pour dishwater or wash their hands at the drinking water faucets where the drainage was not into the sewage disposal system…until 2008….it drained into the creek channel and was called “intermittent springs”.  As of 2010 the intermittent flows of Merrill Creek were nice and clear….better than in the last two decades…maybe the massive amount of “iron algae” and iron bacteria were not “natural” after all.  3) LNF sewer ponds would be the same for years to come unless we began taking photos of the rotten pond liners with rocks puncturing the liner from below.  Had we not been correct in our observations, these things would not have been addressed.  Why the good old boys wanted to pollute the main source of their income is beyond me. Currently we are working to help restore a native spawn of trout & stirring the pot to get water back in Pine Creek. Too many years of diversions has assisted in the lower lake elevations.  Currently we are working on the nutrient loading from cattle grazing on the lakeshores.  We are working with the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board and are assisting in water quality testing and sample collections at our own expense.

I am a Chico, California native. My family has fished this lake since the mid 1940’s. I was dragged up here by my parents Joe and Jeanne Williams since infancy. We fished many different methods and never had a problem catching our limits of large trout. 

I grew up fishing Eagle Lake in particular and have been doing so for the last 60+ years. I’m told that I could reel in a fish before I could walk, but you know how parents talk about their kids. I was disabled as a child and couldn’t walk until I was nearly 2yrs old…and residual problems from that exist although multiple back surgeries, knees and others have taken me out of a working role.  I take pride in knowing the lake and like to share my knowledge in hopes of teaching people to respect the area and what effort it takes to maintain the fishery. You wouldn’t believe how some folks treat this area when they come up on a vacation. We literally pick up 3 to 4 garbage bags full of litter including beer cans, off the shoreline on any given year. We hope those folks stay away.  Since we can’t haul heavy loads, we take smaller bags and just take more walks as time and energy permits.

My roots go slightly deeper than that though, my uncle, John Williams paved both Eagle and Merrill Campground originally and also repaired banking issues that came up after the first paving of County Rd. A-1 (from Susanville). After that we had nice campgrounds to stay in.  (Uncle John also started up the outlaw race cars and built the race track in Chico CA.  He was inducted into the Chico Racing Hall of Fame in 2012.)

The lake was open to fishing year round during those years. It didn’t matter that it was winter, we just wore more clothes. We spent nearly every weekend and hunting season at the lake. Both my sister and myself were good students and thought it was great to get out of a few days of school during hunting season. We were very fortunate to have grown up fishing and hunting here at the lake. We feel that we had the best years of Eagle Lake in the days when it wasn’t so well known.

Randy Aubrey has nothing to do with anything on this website.