It’s fall here at Shaver Lake, but you would not know it with our mid-60 days.
There’s not too much activity on Shaver now, but those who are going out are getting fish. My good friend and Camp Edison host, Craig Davidson, of Selma, continues to limit out on a mix of second- and third-year kokanee. Most are 13 to 16 inches. The third-year fish are near red, but he reports edible. Like humans, some kokanee mature later, some earlier. So, the third-year kokes he is catching are late bloomers. Craig has successfully been using Mountain Hoochies behind a Mountain Blade with corn for some time, but his latest venture had him using an Apex lure tipped with corn behind a silver dodger.
Other camp hosts, Wally and Sharon McElhinny, of Tollhouse, have been picking up their limits on a regular basis. Davidson and the McElhinnys are fishing right out in front of Shaver Marina to The Point and back at 25 to 40 feet down. The McElhiinys are using an Apex tipped with corn, behind an unweighted Mountain Flasher, with lead line out five colors. So, you can see that if you do not have a downrigger, you can still catch fish.
The trout bite in Stevenson Bay has been off and on. My neighbor, Rick, told me that he and a friend fished Shaver as we had reported and picked up little. He went to Stevenson Bay and other good trout areas. It’s that time of the year that one day they bite and the next they don’t. I think Rick hit a don’t day. But, he and his friend fished Courtright Reservoir and picked up five limits, keeping two limits, in two hours. The fish were 13 to 14 inches, Rick said. Good news there. If I were fishing Courtright, I would put a pole out with a Trout Buster, tipped with crawler, behind a weighted Mountain Flasher at 60 feet back. The other pole, I would take the weight off the Mountain Flasher and fish the same combo at 125 feet back. Just my theory!
I mentioned in my previous report that I would be fishing Pyramid Lake (Nevada) with my very long time friends Wayne Snell, of Clovis, and Keith Matsumura, of the Sunnyside area. We pulled my boat to Pyramid Lake on Oct. 7, and fished the following two days. What great weather we found. We had T-shirts on at mid-morning after a nippy early morning. The fishing was simply great as we limited each day with some very quality cutthroats. I had about a seven-pounder and Wayne caught a huge cut that we do not know the weight as it was photographed and released.
I can’t recommend Pyramid Lake enough regardless if you are a fly fisherman, lure tosser from shore or a diehard troller. This lake kicks out beauties. I have been fishing there for 36 years anywhere up to five times a season. We use about the same setup as Shaver: Mountain Dodgers on the downriggers and weighted Mountain Flashers on the side poles. The lure of choice is a U20 Flatfish, no bait. Because of the 60-degree weather and the water temperature at 60, we fished down further this time and got into some very nice fish. The slot there is 17 to 20 inch keepers and 24-inch and above keepers. We had maybe eight over 20 and under 24 that were released. If you want to learn more about Pyramid Lake, text me at 559-281-6948 or email me at dickchip@netptc.net.
My forecast for Shaver: probably decent to good second-year kokanee fishing through November. Also, trout will be on and off through November, but my guess is you will find more good days than not.