Eagle Lake Best Fishing Locations Depths
EAGLE LAKE FISHING REPORT
9-19-23
FISHING SEASON CLOSES THE LAST DAY OF FEBRUARY 2024
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First and Foremost: the West side Osprey Management Wildlife Area from Pelican Pt to Shrimp Island and from Christie to Wildcat & above is closed to motorized vehicular traffic.  Signs were burned in the fire, but that doesn’t mean the area suddenly is no longer a wildlife area with motorized vehicles restricted below the border road.  It is ok to walk in from the boarder road until March 15th.  It is closed to all foot traffic and motorized vehicles from 3-15 to 9-15.  In between Sept and March, walking access is permitted.  Ranchers have a permit for moving cattle.  Check USFS topo maps.
 
FISHING SEASON CLOSES THE LAST DAY OF FEBRUARY 2024.

9-19-23:  Fall temperatures are feeling great even if just a hint!   So come prepared, temps will be cooling down in a few days and warming up slightly next week.    Surface temps of the lake reacting and mostly holding between 65 and 68F.  A “freeze frame” often appears during the transition.  It takes a while for 55ft + of water to cool down uniformly.  But it’s coming!! 

We’re still finding nice limits basically between 12-18ft.  Finding a few on toplines and trolling flies this week too, while a buddy found nice limits at 25-30ft deep.  I’m only finding chubs at that depth.  But the chubs are waning off the walling a bit now.  But we do have trout moving and milling around and mixed up with them.

We’ve caught fish in many locations but still leaning to the west side this week off Wildcat Pt area.  Running leadcore the most consistent catching depth has been 2.5 to 3.5 colors in the water.  We’ve also run the east side.  We’ve caught some dandy trout off the east side up to Eagles Nest and Miners, but it’s been on one day and off the next…but it’s a good option.  1/4oz red/gold Thomas Buoyant and 1/6oz gold/red, 1/6oz red/copper.  Size didn’t matter 1/4 and 1/6oz.   Small silver rapala’s and flicker shad (4M) are knocking out limits, also working well are fire tiger patterns…rapala’s … single or double jointed, little cleo, needlefish and T. Buoyant (best under dark skies or cloud cover so far).  White/pearl needlefish, orange/brass or copper 1/6oz speedy shiners, red prism needlefish, white/pearl or white with pink or hint of orange Baby Simons.  Rubber minnows are also working as are hootchies.  So basically, there’s a lot of lures working right now. 

But, if the skies are dark or cloudy, we may need to use something small and white (needlefish and rainbow runners), dark such as black or firetiger or yellow/red dot frog patterns and even a metallic perch color patterns). 

Fish move all the time as do the baitfish schools…especially when there’s a change in the weather.  We are seeing some fish moving towards the north, but seem to be holding close to deeper water for the moment.  They may move up to the Youth Camp at any time but so far, I have not seen a trout up north just yet.  The water temps have been about 3 to 4F cooler than the south basin since 8-21.  However, they also heat up much faster during the day. The trout don’t seem to care much for the rapid rise and fall just yet.

We do have bait balls on the west side, massive bait balls.  Basically from Merrill to Christie in the bay and off AssDragger but over the depths 25 to 45ft of water. We’ve had to wait for the bait to rise….so watch the pelicans.  We’ve had a few 2lbers we’ve kept rather than kill by throwing back, but mostly 3 to 4 3/4 +lbs. 

The fish are gorging on the new minnows, small (very small) rapala’s can rip some lips.  The size of the bait that the trout are feeding on is now quite varied between 1″ and 2-3″.  I wouldn’t hesitate to toss in a 2″-2.5″ rapala or flicker shad now.   Size won’t matter now.

Most all the hook ups were caught at 1.7 to 2.2mph and up to 2.5mph.  We’re approaching water temps that may require a bit faster speeds.  Sometimes it matters and a reason we vary the speed often (once we drop to the 50’s we’re moving pretty quick).  We’ve covered basically anywhere from 5ft to 20ft depth this week. The best bite has been later in the morning but that changes all the time & one reason we get out early just in case.  Make a lot of turns as that helps your lures cover about 10ft more of the water column.  Fall is coming sooner than later so get ready.  Also, when trolling thru the bait balls, its pretty common to find one on your hook.  They mess up the lure function so check your lines periodically and the weeds are increasing (which is a normal fall occurrence).  I repeat, check your lines often.  Trout are NOT vegetarians.

Tui chub adult schools generally show differently on the scope than the trout do.  Trout are more solo images whereas the tui chub stack up as a big blob 7 to 47ft deep.  Trout will mostly show singles, doubles but rarely in massive stacked schools (40ft thick) and at depths where O2 is too low…such as below 40ft in this lake until mixing gets going in fall/winter as temps drop and it’s all the same and these trout head to shallows over depths …. That begins around 65F surface temp.  With fewer grebes for predators (avian flu last fall/winter really took a toll on the grebes) and a massive hatch this year of chubs, I’m hoping this year doesn’t bite us in the butt in a few years. But we are seeing a good hatch of baby grebes from what remains so that is definitely a blessing. We’ve seen a lot of 4’s so that’s really good. 

Leadcore: 2  1/2 to 3 colors IN the water depending on speed.  Speeds varied this week, but all in all 1.7 to 2.5mph   It can vary just a little but yesterday was best at 15ft or 3 colors at the reel, day before just a bit more, and the following day a bit higher.  LoL.  21-25ft deep bought us a big tui chub but it fought well.  LoL. 

Trout remain scattered on the west side, depends on where the birds are holding.  Wildcat to Christie has been fishing pretty good, but often a later morning bite that finishes up the limits.  East side has trout but getting thru the chub walls are challenging but it’s a mixed bag of big trout and tui chubs on the east side and locations change daily and by the hour and willingness of the trout milling around. This is actually a signal for fall.

I have had several one hit wonder colors for lures…. Copper/red, rainbow trout patterns, perch colors.  Baby Simon’s nickel/chartreuse and orange.  Orange goldfish.  Flicker shad from a kayak has been deadly (2″ rainbow trout or silver 5M & it gets right to the depth under drag).  Fire-tiger under the right conditions.  The trout still seem to be leaning towards something with red or orange & gold/brass on it for trolling. BUT, I ALWAYS KEEP WHAT HAS BEEN WORKING IN THE WATER AT THE CATCHING DEPTH BECAUSE…EVERY TIME IT’S PAID OFF AND FILLED THE BOAT. 

Bait fishing under bobbers has been slow since the drought years hit. Mostly, folks are switching to bobbering nymphs from fly rods, which is more successful since the drought.  I do think it has a lot to do with the food supply and the dissolved oxygen keeping the trout moving around. Plus the leech population has suffered from the drought.  Funny what a fish knows…they don’t deplete a natural food source like humans do.  LoL.  That has happened every year the lake is below 5097ft (Jay Fair and I were part of a curiosity study in the 90’s in which the lake had dropped to 5097 and our job was flipping rocks and monitoring belly scraps for leeches.  We found that loss of habitat affected the leeches at 5097ft…and that’s about when the bait bite shut down.  Might consider bringing bait up to troller depths or freeline and babysit the drift. I’ll be trolling.

Also something to note for weekend warriors.  Bandwidth and cellular internet.  When all the campers show up, cell signal and internet goes way down. The whole lake is affected by this so you’re not alone and your phone isn’t broken. Stop and enjoy the outdoors, fishing, friends and conversations around the campfire!  It’s okay to be free from your devices.  Calls work, but loading doesn’t.  It’s not your phone….it’s our towers being over loaded.  This affects my ability to receive data such as texts.  Might get something days later or not at all. 

Eagle Lake RV park has off sight cabins too so be sure to contact them at 530 825-3133.  Kenworthy’s have 2 large homes for rent 209 470-2350 or 209 810-3024; If you’re a property owner renting your cabin out, let me know.  I won’t advertise for realtors for free but I’ll help the individual property owner.  Also check the Eagle Lake CA facebook page, I see some individuals have some cabins. New number for Bob Williams cabins 530 919-3995. There are a couple realtor’s taking on a handful of cabins.  You can text or email me for some phone numbers.  I’m not the cabin rental business. If you have a cabin listed for vacation rental, perhaps you or your realtor should advertise these to those coming up to the lake.  Campers, the Eagle Lake Marina Store is open their number is 530 825-3454.  They now have fishing licenses available.  We are fortunate to have a crew running things that have been here for years & know what Eagle Lakers need.   Just give em time…things don’t always work after two winters down.  And infrastructure they need to get back to normal is still being worked out.  We just want them back next year too. 

For now I’ll be sticking with gold/red and red/gold colors & throw in a little copper on the buoyants, have some needlefish & flicker shad or rapala’s too.  Sure catch lures at the ready.  Metallic watermelon needlefish can work as well as T. Buoyants if that’s what you have in the box.  For some reason, the gold/red and red/copper & gold/red Thomas Buoyant works best for me in the greenish tint to the water. They have worked well under overcast skies and choppy stirred up water.  I carry both sizes at all times.  Sure Catch Red-dog (medium DJ) or small red-prism needlefish, white/prism needlefish, red-dot frog, perch also seems to do well (especially through tui chub bait balls).  

For trolling flies, No brainer…tui chub minnow or redside shiner/sucker minnow, orange, olive, brownAll around best, cinnamon or darker brown or black (smidge of red) leech patterns if overcast are the standards (we do run trolling flies of downriggers (use small action disc) and leadcore).   Colors will depend on water color and visibility and cloud cover/clear sky.  Orange is pretty much an Eagle Lake standard.  Red has been good for drought years and low water, tui chub or minnow patterns are seasonal & it’s the season now. All around best is great for overcast skies and cloudy water conditions.

Rapala’s can hold their own quite often and now is a good time to run small raps…shoot for silver black, fire tiger, gold/black, rainbow trout and German brown…1 1/2″.  My favorite stick is the flicker shad over rapala’s 4M and 5M.  True diving depths, rattles and slow ascend. Rainbow Trout, silver and fire tiger are my faves. Don’t hesitate wondering if a Rainbow Runner will work.  These can hold their own out there.  White, orange, red…even black. 

You can waist a lot of time chasing fish you see on the depth finder or visuals but if you aren’t using what they are rising for, it’s all for not…all I do is keep my lines at the biting depth…even through the lulls in the bite.  That’s where you will find the next fish.

There’s still plenty of rock piles that are natural and not marked or buoyed. GPS maps don’t have all the humps and bumps that pop out of nowhere.  Just be careful if you venture to new waters.  I mark high spots all the time.  I have over 400 rock piles marked & still marking and I don’t have them all.

SHORE/FLY FISHING:  Shore fishing hasn’t produced too well but water temps are starting to cool down some.   But we’re going to be seeing a change now which may bring fish in closer for the morning run. Casting lures can work from shore too.  Cast-masters seem to do well and fly pretty far on a cast.  Good old reliable night crawlers and power bait can also do some damage. Small jigs (olive and rust best for early season, black/red later season).  Shore fishing will pick up pretty soon, as the trout have also been known to come in and pound minnows along the quiet shoreline when you least expect it.  Minnows can be suicidal and beach themselves to escape trout …. so its always advisable to watch the water no matter what.  I keep my eye on the birds too….count them.  They often can get minnows roiling along shore….but if the birds are up or resting, there’s something else chasing the bait….3 guesses and the first two don’t count as my dad would say. The trout are living in the same water temps out from shore, so it can be a matter of timing.  But in general, water temps need to drop to 65-68F and lower, solidly before we start seeing some movement into the shallows on a more frequent basis. It’s coming but we can also see it hold in place for a couple weeks & sorta freeze frame.  But it will be a good fall regardless.

Fly Fishing: Depending on location, olive, brown, black woolly buggers or jigs.  Orange and olive scuds, may-fly imitations, midges (black/olive/grey and various nymphs work well.  We use small minnow imitations (#8) from a tube or kayak and if timing is right, pound em.  It all depends on the water temps & what the food supply is doing.  Fly fishing will turn back on once water temps begin to drop for fall.  DFW has posted the catch and keep recommendation to preserve the fishery thru the heat of the summer months. But when fall drops in, our fish are going to be big this season.  It’s coming…still need a boat to access the outer rock piles. Stay tuned.

 
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With reduced trout planting and smaller trout the drought years, the tui chub have explosively reproduced and have pretty much taken over the lake in 2017.   Yes, we have caught them in fall and winter months but mostly they are deeper than the trout & we don’t have to get that depth to get to the trout.  I am not sure if they are surviving my release.  ;-/ It’s going to take a heck of a lot of trout to put  a meager dent in the minnow population and the stage two tui chubs are too big and protected by guardian chubs and the trout rarely even target the 5 to 7″ chubs.  Fewer and smaller trout in this lake is not the answer.   DFW is now increasing our allotment….even though the water levels and quality is the same as it was when they reduced us by 60% in 2015. It was estimated that 100,000 fish were planted in 2022 fall.  Pelicans initially got the first several truck loads due to 1) high water temps and low oxygen on the first loads. 2) too shallow for too long of a distance.  However, DFW began using a long net to push them out to deeper water and volunteers kept the pelicans scattered & that proved highly beneficial considering the conditions….pelicans got less free food and the lake got more fish.  It is a never ending process with the pelicans.  We actually saw to pelicans going after a young bald eagle before mom and dad and uncle Eddy from Circus grounds came to the rescue.  Kinda upside down predator thing but I do have more respect for pelicans as predators when seeing them go after a bald eagle.  Now with improved artificial spawning showing a stronger fish, we should see better growth rates and more eager minnow eaters.  We did get some extra trout in 2021 due to other lakes not being able to be planted and hatcheries running out of room…that was a bonus.  As with nature, some foods dwindle and others take off in changing conditions of the lake.  The trout change their diet, often by choice and availability rather than necessity.  The level at which they lay in the heat of the summer as been a necessity the last few years for dissolved oxygen rather than cooler water temps. Since 2017 we’ve had a brief thermocline form up, then just washes out and the trout have come up into 72F water just for enough oxygen.   2022 did the same thing in mid July. Our trout have evolved to sustain warmer water temps which have been natural in this lake in summer months, however, it can also have it’s affect on them after a long battle at the end of the line.  Releasing trout in summer has always not been a good idea.  DFW posted the catch and keep recommendation in early June, so there’s some issues.  Wait until we cool off come fall.  I have also caught Tahoe Suckers and Red Sides to 20″ but release these special fish alive, they are a critical part of the lake for cleaning things up.  They don’t compete & we need as many vacuums in the pond as possible. The algae has taken it’s toll on the lake the last few years.  Eagle Lake Guardians are currently working on that issue.  When a problem occurs, generally it’s later in summer.  The lake is being extensively watched and monitored this season by the State water board and clean water teams.  The only current posting for caution has been Spalding area and bay.  If the State finds any issues, we’ll be sure to let you know.  At this time the monitoring of the lake will proceed as planned. (Of course it has been supposed to be monitored as per grazing plans by USFS, however that doesn’t appear to be the case)  Volunteers now involved and trained….and the State will take the credit.  LoL.

Complaints from fin trimming to catching should go to the local department of fish and wildlife biologist in charge of managing this lake. Just because our low number of anglers are catching some fish, it isn’t the masses we would normally see.  Gone are the days of 30-50 fish C&R.  Paul Divine Biologist:  Paul.Divine@wildlife.ca.gov  530 254-6363, Redding office Supervisor: Andrew Jensen Andrew.Jensen@wildlife.ca.gov 530 225-2300  SEE TROUT PLANTING AND MARKINGS FOR YEARS PLANTED HERE.  100% OF THE PLANTED FISH ARE NOW MARKED BY FIN TRIMMING.  No contingency plan, over population of tui chub and no plan for those either.  God forbid what this year will bring after the chubs spawn.  Quite a few fish had no fins at all, just his tail to maneuver.  Sad case.  We have caught hundreds of these mutilated fish this year in particular. Plus a lot of split tails.  Last fall, lots of dorsal fin and 1-3 missing anterior and pelvic fins missing.  The dorsal fin trim or mutilation may be a brood stock trim.  We have been known to get some old broodstock fish planted in fall as they are from eggs collected here at the lake.  We don’t receive the second generation anything or sterilized triploids.  If it was anglers marking, there would not be so many and most are all very close to the same size.  If it is DFW (see fin trimming note from DFW), I would say they are mostly mutilating these fish now and freeze branding was much better for the fish.  If you get a nice one that you may want to have mounted, good luck as it will be somewhat mutilated when it comes to the fins and tails.  Not a trophy trout to be proud of, that’s certain.  15 years ago we had a fly fishing group that would trim or notch fins/tails for 3 days of fishing.  This group hasn’t been here for a long time.  Personally, I don’t know any angler here that mutilates our trout.  DFW won’t admit to it but definitely marks fish planted every year.  Does one escape marking? On occasion.   This is being done so that in the future, a native (native spawn) fish may be fully finned. LoL  probably decades from now or not in our lifetime.  Cows come before native spawn, lake elevation and water quality issues apparently.   In the mean time, the hatchery raised/farmed fish might just swim in circles.  LoL.  Freeze branding didn’t handicap the fish like cutting off an arm two or their “legs”  LoL.  But when a fish only has a tail to use, that can prohibit some typical feeding patterns in this lake.  Like rock flipping and rooting out the snails from the gravel bars.

Trout come and go with catching and mortality of release during the fishing season as this is a hatchery maintained lake.  Adult Tui chub have no predators except pelicans if they can see them in shallower water and the chubs live over 32 years.  They stay in the lake regardless and rarely close enough to the surface for the pelicans or eagles and are very wary of the osprey.  The young of the year have only pelicans, grebes, loons, seagulls, terns and a few other birds to worry about, but the trout had always kept them in check until the severely reduced planting allotments kicked in.  The juvenile chubs have very few predators but the pelicans can get on them during certain times of the year.  Pelicans can only reach 3 to 4 ft down, so they have to target shallower fish. The trout mainly only target the hatch of the current year, although only rarely we encounter a 4-5″ chub in the belly of a fish over 5 lbs.  Tui chub are now highly concentrated in the lake.  They are often found in low dissolved oxygen range in the lake and the bottom of the stacked school is often below 40ft, they aren’t nearly as affected by low DO or algae blooms as the trout are.  Our trout are rarely below 40ft even on the warmest of waters.  The dissolved oxygen is generally too low to hold them.  Chubs don’t need as much as the trout do.  Note that chubs are in the super family of carp.  That tells ya something right there.  And the way they school, they can blacken your scope. They are a protective species of their own, even though they don’t run in the same schools.  The adult spawner’s protect the juveniles and the juveniles protect the young of the year and separate again in fall.  They appear to be well over populated and   Do chubs eat their young even though they go into a protective mode? Yes, when opportunity knocks. But the chubs are not a predator species, have no teeth and smaller mouths, in general, plankton feeders so they can compete with the trout for food sources.

TUI CHUB INSIGHTS:   The chubs scope differently than the trout do and are pretty easy to determine on your screen.  Generally, they stack up and are very thick in zones of the lake that have dissolved oxygen levels too low to support trout.  When spawning in the depths in early summer, they can also form a 5ft thick layer just above the bottom in 30-40+ft of water.  Mostly, any large stacked school  or blob of fish that the top is at 7ft and the bottom is at 47f+t are NOT trout. We caught some chubs 22″ long in 2016 and again in late July 2017, my biggest in 2018 has been 21″, 2019 20″.  Huge monsters for chubs so they are doing very well….maybe too well considering the biomass and fewer trout being planted.  With a little more spawning habitat back for the chubs up north, we saw another prolific hatch of chubs up in the northern basins this year.  I believe their population density is going to bite us in the ass if it hasn’t already.  I see this becoming a very bad problem for this lake now.  People don’t come here to catch trophy tui chubs.  Catching them will become very prolific in late July and August and quite possibly through Sept. This has happened again 2019. They resist arrest quite well, but you know when you have a chub over a trout pretty quickly. Chub dive deep and fight you under the boat, are tail thusters opposed to head shakers.  Chubs don’t stay on top and cross from side to side, stay pretty much in the line straight behind the boat.  Trout will stay out and up higher, run side to side, charge the boat after figuring out that peeling out line isn’t working.  Then, once at the boat, the battle really begins.
 
Tui chubs are in 3 separate and distinct schools.  Here’s how I classify them.  Stage 1: Adult spawner’s. We have two schools.  One school spawns in the northern basins and the other doesn’t leave the south basin.  During the dry years up north, we had one year of lower spawning rates due to habitat loss & the northern spawner’s not knowing where to go to spawn in the south basin.  But the next year they had it figured out and our tui chub spawn took off with a vengeance.  We had little to no grebe nesting 2011-2016 so the tui chubs had very few predators to keep the young of the year in check for 4+ years.  These are now all in stage 2 juveniles and rarely targeted by trout, too large for a grebe and now very wary to pelicans.  Stage 2: The nursery or juvenile population. (Several years worth that are protected by sub adults I call guardians).  I have seen these “guardians” rush out of the school and slam a passing trout like a linebacker.  Which is pretty brazen for a fish with no teeth, little to nothing protecting their brain, and half the size.  But numbers count and generally there is more than one guardian rushing the trout.  Stage 3: Young of the year.  This is what the trout target.  When the adults spawn they can form a thick line protecting the beds before they disperse.  Once the young of the year complete the hatching cycle (which can last through August/September and begin in May) we can see the schools of stage 1 and 2 form walls protecting the young of the year minnows.  Generally we will see the minnows in closer to the shoreline, the nursery juveniles outside of the young of the year and the adult spawner’s outside of the nursery.  It really is something to see.  I call it “walling up” and it generally begins around late August/Sept just as there is a hint of fall in the air.  It appears to me that the walling up is the chubs way of protecting their species from the trout.  If we have chubs in those numbers, the trout either find their way into the young of the year schools, or they move on to a different food source until the chubs disperse and relax. We can literally smell the tui chubs when near massive numbers.  As they transpire, they release a gas, especially the young of the year when in dense schools.  So follow your nose come late summer and fall.  Look for pelicans in large groups as well as a boiling on the surface.  Out over the depths, the trout push the minnows up to within reach of the pelicans.  So we often follow the birds when we see that.  2017 and 2018, the pelicans are following us.
 
When fishing, I try to avoid the stacking adult tui chub as well as the nursery chub.  Generally the trout will be further away from the chubs or outside and above the chub school.  If you’re in the chubs, that’s all you’re going to catch.  Easy to determine on your line. Personally, I don’t really care what you do with them, they provide food for the trout for winter, but I think we need more trout to keep the young of the year in check. Once in the juvenile grouping, the trout don’t generally even attempt to eat them.  We have a lot of chubs.  You’ll see what I mean pretty soon.  2017 and 2018 I could troll 7 miles one direction and catch chubs 4 at a time.  A waste of time.  We never used to catch them trolling, only on bait under bobbers.  So when trolling and catching tui chub 4 at a time? Can’t drag a line for more than a few minutes before a chub is on? Can’t get 4 lines in the water before a chub takes the first two in the water?  What does that tell you? LoL.  We also have Tahoe suckers (grayish with darker back, small nodes on the lower fins).  Seasonally they can be modeled green back with reddish stripe, late summer they can be a little more on the yellowish green back.  A treasure and rarely seen by anglers.   Please release these in good condition if you catch them as their numbers are low and they are a special species to this lake that don’t complete with the trout. Speckled dace (a minnow that only grows up to remain a minnow).   Generally seen taking harbor near the transom of an anchored boat and various sizes from small to 1- 1 1/2 inches at most.  Mostly in family units from smaller to larger and 50-100+ individuals is a big bunch. 
 
Various zoo-plankton’s and other microscopic food sources have also become very prolific to the point of fowling lines and down rigger’s…and when thick enough, can plug jet pumps.   The biggest change in the fishing occurred in less than one year.  From catching and releasing tons (20-40+ per day) of 2-3+ lb fish to being lucky to get one or two was a dramatic shift in Eagle Lake in less than one year.  Finding trout in the middle of summer at 17 to 20ft deep at 73F water temps is pretty unnatural but that’s where they were in 2016-2018 when surface temps were above 70F.  We may have seen some 4+lb fish but their numbers being caught were few and far between…lots of 2 to 3 ½ lbs as usual.  This fall we have seen a handful over 5lb but on average, be happy with a 3 1/2lb.   Over 55 years of eating these trout, the best quality of meat comes from a 2-3lb trout.  Meat of the bigger trout of 4 +lbs is generally grainy, mealy and softer.  Everyone wants to catch a big fish, but the quality of the meat is not nearly as good as smaller fish.  I rarely keep a fish over 4lbs for eating myself unless it’s damaged or water quality issues prevent me from wanting to release it.  To me, it is a waste if it doesn’t eat as good as a smaller fish but I will smoke it.  In warm water months, it’s not unusual to see meat that’s softer in a few fish.  Note that under new regulations, one can’t fillet fish on the boat even if bringing back all the carcasses and guts to throw away to avoid long waits at the fish cleaning sink.  I’ve been pulling my boat out and filleting in the boat in the parking lot when lines are long or simply come home to clean em.  Bypass so to speak. By the way, creel census is completely volunteer.  One doesn’t HAVE to have their fish measured or weighed.
 
© Content of this website is copyright protected 2003-2023 by Valerie Aubrey. Any reuse of the content must simply be authorized by asking.  Unauthorized use or lack of crediting content will be considered for legal action.  We often see our report summarized in other publications with no credit to where the info came from.  As a note, I do leave in some spelling, grammar and punctuation errors in and seeing them in other publications is a dead giveaway.  LoL! Opinions on this site are not necessarily the opinions of our sponsors or people we work with.  Our opinions are based on over 55 years of fishing Eagle Lake and nearly 30 years of living here full time and fishing several days a week till the end of December.  Through the El Nino’s of getting 24ft of snowfall and through several droughts.  We have been there and done that.  We know that a lot of the local county info on the lake elevation in the past has been doctored due in part to not having an official actually checking lake elevations in the 1990’s.  In 1993 200 residents of Spalding witnessed the lake rising nearly 8ft from the local snowfall of 24ft over that winter.  Despite our efforts when the lake chart was updated a few years later with incorrect numbers “to make the chart look historically accurate” not actually accurate, it remains inaccurate during those years as there was no water master.  Our explanation from BOS was “No one will know when you are all gone”.  So we don’t believe everything that Lassen County says nor other government agencies.  That is the honest to God truth and there are still many of us old timers around that know that.