California Bassin

All the leaves are brown, and the sky is gray.
I've been for a walk, on a winter's day.
I'd be safe and warm if I was in L.A.
California dreamin' on such a winter's day.
-The Mamas and the Papas

I got tired of waiting for spring to arrive to British Columbia last week, so I phoned up my buddy Ryan to ask if he was interested in driving down to Northern California for some bass fishing.  While I was enjoying my spring break from my job as a teacher, I was doubtful Ryan could find time off from his as a dental technician but he was sick of waiting for spring himself.  After a quick look at the calendar, and a shuffling of his schedule, he was in.

We left Langley, BC towing Ryan's Skeeter bass boat on Thursday after work.  It was one of those crazy trips where you just want to get there, sleep be damned.  After hitting the road at 6:30 p.m. we plowed through Washington, Oregon, and Northern Cali until we reached our destination of Lake Amador, about an hour east of Sacramento at 10:30 a.m.  The temperature was a balmy 18 degrees Celsius and sunny. 

I was psyched to fish Lake Amador.  I had the luck to spend a few days on it back in 2007 when my dad and I did a March bass fishing trip through California and hit over a dozen lakes.  Lake Amador was clear, and we seen at least ten bass bigger than the biggest one I ever saw.  Some of them looked like watermelons with fins.  With another 5 years of experience added on, I was sure we could bag one this year. 

We spent some time on Friday getting set up and just basking in the California sunshine.  Because of this we didn't get on the water until nearly 3 p.m.  No worries, we still had Saturday and Sunday to fish all day.  We admired a 7 pound largemouth that sat in a tank at the Lake Amador resort, and listened to the story of a man who caught a 10 pound 11 ounce specimen a month ago on a jig.  That got us excited, and we rushed to put the boat in the water.

Within twenty minutes of fishing I hooked into a three and a half pounder on a stickworm, the first open-water bass I'd touched since November.  Man, did that feel good.  I took my time unhooking the fish and admiring its size compared to the dinky bass we caught while ice fishing. 

"Awesome," I thought to myself, "It's gonna be a good weekend."

The 3.5 that got things started.

We caught a half dozen more 1 to 2.5 pounders before dark and hunger came calling and we decided to call it a night.  Man, did I look forward to more fishing in the sunshine. 

But it wasn't meant to be.

A front rolled in and temperatures plummeted.  We woke up to 4 degrees Celsius on a day when it would barely reach 11.  The waters of Amador weren't as clear as I remembered, with about a foot of visibility.  The water levels were also about 6 feet lower than they had been 5 years ago, and the beautiful shoreline structure that held the fish before now lay high and dry.  

Saturday was looking to be a tough fish.  Murky waters and dropping water temps put the fish off of biting and we struggled to boat 6 fish by 3 p.m.  I could tell the excitement of bassing in California was wearing off for Ryan.  I turned on some tunes, we ate some leftover pizza, and plotted our next move.  We moved up a finger of the lake that had a few good looking overhanging bushes on the shoreline and started casting. 

Bang.  Two fish off one bush.   Bang.  Two fish off the next bush.  And so on...  We proceeded to catch about thirty more fish by dark, and a few others afterwards.  While they were all smaller than expected (1 to 3 pounds) our hopes were rejuvenated by the plethora of activity. 

They kept on biting after dark.

The next day we set a course for Lake Pardee, ten minutes southeast of Amador.  Pardee has some big largemouth, but it is even more famous for monster smallmouth.  Numerous fish in the 8 to 10 pound range have been caught from its waters, and we were stoked to try for our own lunker.  Unfortunately, boats registered outside of California aren't allowed to be on Pardee as we found out that morning, due to a fear of invasive species such as zebra mussels.  So it was on to nearby New Hogan Lake.

The water at New Hogan was much clearer, but also deeper and cooler than Amador.  The rains from the night before which had soaked the tent and dampened our supplies and our hopes, continued throughout Sunday.  At one point it was pouring so hard that a pool was gathering on my jacket brim and pouring down my neck in a steady stream.  And then there was the hail.  Air temperature had dropped all the way down to 7.  

Despite this we did boat a few fish on dropshotted Berkley shaky worms, and another on a jig.  Fishing was mostly slow though, and we headed back to Amador for hopefully another hot evening bite.  

The hot bite turned lukewarm as we pulled in only five fish in as many hours.  I had a solid fish break me off while dragging a spawning flat with a jig, and it jumped several times in an effort to throw it.  It was the biggest bass I'd hooked all weekend, but no 10 pounder.  Sad, but not devastating.  We packed it in and dried off in a local Chinese restaurant. 

Being total diehards, we decided to fish a few hours in the morning before heading out.  Ryan had to work early on Tuesday morning and we had a sixteen hour drive ahead of us to get back to Langley, but all hope was not lost.    That double-digit bass still swam somewhere in Lake Amador and we were going to fish our brains out for our three remaining hours to get her. 

I woke Ryan up at an ungodly hour.  He told me the fish weren't up, but I started getting the boat ready anyway.  Ryan isn't much of a morning person, and neither am I, but if there's one thing that can make me get up at the crack of dawn it's the prospect of catching a giant bass.  We headed out at 5:30 and were fishing by 6. 

I tied on a Jitterbug, a topwater lure I picked up for $3 at the local Walmart the night before.  The water was down to 54 degrees in Amador, and Ryan didn't think much of my chances of catching a lethargic Florida-strain Largemouth on it.  But I did.  The first March topwater bass of my life.  On my 29th birthday.  Awesome!

I might have still been half-asleep, but this bass wasn't. 

That was the highlight of the morning.  We caught a few more, including my first of the year on a Chigger Craw, before we had to pack it in.  We loaded the boat up and began our sojourn back to Canada. 

An hour later we stopped into a gas station to refuel and Ryan struck up a conversation at the pump with a local bass angler.

"Lake Amador?  Yeah, that fishery's no good anymore.  All the big fish are gone.  They started stocking it with bigger trout and the bass aren't eating them anymore, so they're not growing like they used to.  A five pounder is a big 'un out of there nowadays.  Clear Lake is where you shoulda been fishing, it's on fire!"

Me and Ryan exchanged looks. 

"Fall trip to Clear Lake?" Ryan suggested.

"Done."

Our spirits may have been dampened by the rain, but you can't kill a diehard's hope of catching a 10 pound bass. 

TEN COOL THINGS I LEARNED ABOUT THE LAKE AMADOR REGION

1.  There are lizards EVERYWHERE!
2.  There are also a lot of wild turkeys, deer, and turkey vultures.  We literally didn't go an hour without hearing a turkey gobble. 
3.  If you're ever in the area, eat at the Panda House.  It may have been the fact we were soaking and frozen, but I swear that was the best Chinese food I've ever eaten.
4.  It's on the boundary between North California and Southern California, so it's not as hot and dry and the south, but not as forested and rainy as the north. 
5.  The bass there eat the same stuff they do up here. 
6.  You have to pay to fish at every lake I've been to down there. 
7.  The Lake Amador Resort is the best fishing lodge I've been to.  Great place to have a beer after a day's fishing, even if the fishing isn't as good as it used to be.  There are fish mounts and pictures and even a tank full of fish that have been caught recently.  Catch a big one out of Amador, and they will put it in the tank for everyone to see.
8.  The average daytime high temperature for March is a balmy 20 degrees Celsius. 
9.  There is a trout hatchery right next to Amador, so it gets stocked with a staggering amount of trout. 4000 pounds on an average week, and 200 000 pounds per year. 
10.  Even though bass size has gone down, it's still a great place to get warmed up for another bass season in British Columbia.  We caught over 50 fish!