Trolling

Between fish stocks in the south bay , I took a trip to Lake Chabot before the rains next week muddy up the water. I got a late start arriving at 11:30 am. Geared up the lead core and started to troll. No fish finder as there was a lot of suspended matter which mess up the screen. It took all of ten minutes before the first hook up. The fish hit a Kopper target shad. Ten minutes later another bite, this time a spinner and worm combo. What is strange is that this was the only hit on a worm. I changed to another trolling lure. Lake Chabot is a strange lake to troll in that the fish seem to hit lures which look like minnows. The spoons which work on other lakes do not work as well as minnow baits.

The fish continued to hit all day long as long as we stayed in the lower half of the lake. Nothing toward the dam just wind and sun and noisy geese. Ended up with nine fish caught . All released except a 2.5 lber to eat and unfortunately a 5.2lb whopper which swallowed a J9 broken back rapala in gold red. The fish was bleeding so badly that it would not survive, bummer. I try to snap a picture and release all trout over three pounds. They are spawned out breeders and do not taste as good as the smaller ones.

All the fish were caught on four lures. AJ5 gold broken back Rapala, a Kopper target shad, a shad rap in fire tiger and the biggest three caught on a J9 gold red broken back Rapala. I guess that the bigger the bait the bigger the fish worked this day. Although
My biggest trout a monster 14lber. was caught on a one and a half inch crank bait!