Indian Valley Reservoir is one of Lake County”s treasures. The lake offers excellent bass fishing, catfish, crappie, the occasional trout and by next year the kokanee fishing should kick into high gear.
I visited the lake Tuesday to check out the bass fishing and was pleasantly surprised. First off, the lake is nearly full and launching at the dam is easy. The road going into the lake is a bit dusty but not in bad shape. I wouldn”t advise trailering a large bass boat because of the dust. The campgrounds at the dam are clean and there were at least five different groups camping there.
What really surprised me were the number of bass. I took my underwater camera and found schools of bass everywhere. They ranged from 10 to 50 feet in depth. The water was crystal clear, which made viewing the underwater camera a breeze.
I spoke with several fishermen and a couple had caught trout but no kokanee. They caught the trout by using downriggers and trolling. The kokanee were stocked two years ago and again last year. These kokanee are now only about seven inches long but by next summer should be 12 inches.
Kokanee reach maturity at three years and few live past four years. The trout are Eagle Lake strain and were stocked three years ago. These trout have been known to reproduce in the lake. In the past the Department of Fish and Game stocked the lake each November with adult Eagle Lake trout but hasn”t done so for a couple of years.
The hot lure for the bass was a jig worked along the riprap at the dam. The bad news is the bass were skinny, which means a lack of food. The lake had threadfin shad by the millions a year ago. There were also at least 1,000 western grebes feeding on the shad as well as osprey. On this trip we didn”t see any shad, only one grebe and two osprey. Apparently the shad had a major die-off last winter. Overall I would rate the trout fishing as so-so, the bass fishing as fair to good and no kokanee. Actually, this would be the perfect lake to kayak or float tube. Cartop boats are also popular. The scenery around the lake is nothing short of gorgeous.
The bass fishing at Clear Lake as well as the catfish action is drawing most of the attention. The bass action is rated good but not great with the guides reporting their clients averaging about eight to 10 fish per day. Most of the successful fishermen are keeping on the move until they locate fish. The top lure continues to be a jig fished slowly. Senkos are also working as are crankbaits. With a couple of exceptions the topwater action has been slow. One problem has been the algae bloom, which has created problems for the fishermen.
Fishermen are being advised to check their water intakes on their outboards throughout the day to make sure they aren”t plugged with algae. Several fishermen reported their engines have overheated because the intakes have been plugged.
Catfish action has improved around the lake. Ken Taddie of Indian Beach Resort in Glenhaven reports his guests have been doing very well fishing for catfish from the resort”s docks. Bass are also being caught. The crappie action has been poor. The same applies to the bluegill fishing.
No local waters were stocked with trout this past week. At Upper Blue Lake the trout action has been very slow and many of the fishermen have switched to bass fishing,which has been very good. Float tubers have been doing very well on bass in Lower Blue Lake using jigs or Senkos.
Ocean salmon fishing out of Fort Bragg has been very good on some days and only fair on others. Most of the party boats are averaging about a fish per rod. The bottom fishing has been excellent and limits are common.
