Well, the kids have returned to school and things are settling down at Shaver Lake. Agreeing to a limited three trips a week with my wife Diane, I abused it with 10 trips in the past two weeks. The reason is simple: gotta get the kids’ fishing trips in before school starts. Fortunately, the kids found the fishing at peak time.
Families like the Manley family, from Kingsburg, followed by Jeff White and his family, Don Fairchild, of Fresno, his son in law and grandsons, and Rick, Bob, Kristin and Mike Giubbini, of Paso Robles, all limited on feisty kokanee.
We are targeting The Point to the dam at 45 to 90 feet down for the kokes. Today, it is still holding up in that area. The kokanee are all in a pre-spawn mode and are taking on a slight color. We have had great success with my pink or orange Mountain Hoochies or Koke Busters in orange, tipped with scented corn behind Mountain Blades. Using my Mountain Ball Trolls was exceptionally successful in front of our tackle. No, I am not trying to sell tackle, they just plain work. You can buy my hoochies at Ken’s Market or Shaver Lake Sports in Shaver. All other tackle can be found at Valley Rod and Gun in Clovis or Fresno Ag Hardware as well as the Shaver locations.
The trout bite is good in the Stevenson Bay area using Trout Busters in orange and green or orange and chartreuse. You tip them with crawler and corn and have them follow a weighted Mountain Flasher at 20 to 24 feet deep. We have been lucky to catch two exceptionally nice rainbow trophy trout this past week. Bob Hatmaker, from the central coast picked up a nice fat five-pounder at The Point and Julie McFarland, from San Jose, nailed a 4.5 pounder in Stevenson Bay. The trophies were missing in action for a couple weeks and boom they returned.
I don’t expect much boating activity over Labor Day weekend. Since school reopened, things have been quiet – great for us fishermen. My fishing forecast for Shaver is good kokanee fishing into mid September and fair to good trout fishing into October. The trout seem to congregate near inlets in the fall, meaning Stevenson Bay and the Boy Scout Cove will be our primary fishing spots in September. I think I will close for the winter at the end of September.
If you have any questions or suggestions, give me a text at 559-281-6948 or email me at dickchip@netptc.net. I love hearing from my fellow anglers on the lake.