Buddies Experience Fall Trout Fishing At Three Iconic NorCal Lakes

The following appears in the December issue of California Sportsman:

By Cal Kellogg

The air temperature had been hovering near freezing and the wind was pushing hard when we’d launched the kayaks three hours earlier. Now, the temperature had come up, but so had the wind speed. Whitecapped rollers trailing strands of foam buffeted our kayaks as the conditions went from marginal to downright dangerous. We were pedaling for the launch a good mile upwind, and we still had trolling gear in the water despite the deteriorating conditions.

My buddy Pete the sheriff – Harvard grad, military vet and one of the most enthusiastic anglers you’ll ever meet – was about 50 yards ahead of me and off to my port side. I saw him grappling with his hybrid leadcore rig trying to free the rod from its holder. Pete was hooked up with another big rainbow.

About the time I expected Pete to net the trout, his calm voice came over the radio clipped to the front of my life jacket.

“Hey Cal; I could use a little help,” he said. “One of the waves apparently washed my net and GoPro out of the kayak, and I don’t dare lean over in these waves and try to land the trout by hand.”

“Here I come,” I replied, simultaneously pumping hard on the kayak’s pedals and reeling up my line.

I slid in on Pete’s upwind side, stopped pedaling and readied the net. Fifteen yards; 10; 5; the rollers quickly pushed my large Hobie Pro Angler toward the starboard side of Pete’s smaller and lighter Hobie Lynx. At precisely the right moment, Pete reeled, brought the rod tip up and laid the fish out on the surface. I made the scoop.

With the hefty rainbow safely in the net’s rubber basket, I exclaimed, “Grab the hoop of the net and hang on!”

As soon as Pete had a firm grasp on the net, I got back on the pedals and brought both kayaks around until we were out of the troughs between the rollers and had the waves and wind to our backs, giving us a much safer and comfortable ride.

Pete worked quickly, popped the hook out of the handsome rainbow’s jaw, admired the fish for a moment and slid the trout back into the dark water unharmed.

Such was the scene at Eagle Lake in far Northern California on November 3.

PETE, A WASHINGTON STATE native, brought up the idea of a fall Northern California destination-style trout fishing adventure months before.

“What do you think of me coming down to California and kayaking a few trophy trout lakes with you in late October or November when the fall bite peaks?” Pete had asked.

I found the idea exciting. Big game hunters and bird hunters often plan trips to faraway destinations, as do saltwater anglers traveling to Mexico, Central America and even South America in search of sport. With the outstanding trout fishing available throughout California, it’s surprising more trout anglers don’t put together multiple-day destination trips to sample the incredible trout action the Golden State offers.

Once Pete and I committed to a week-long trip, the next questions were where and when we would fish. I wanted Pete to have a shot at both trophies and big numbers of trout, so I recommended we visit Eagle Lake for two days, Lake Almanor for one day and finish the trip with two full days exploring Lake Davis.

I knew Eagle Lake would give up some big, hard-charging rainbows during the first week of November. Lake Davis, with its shallow, nutrient- rich waters and huge trout population, would be our numbers lake.

“Almanor is the only wild card,” I told Pete. “I think you should experience Almanor because it offers some of the biggest browns and rainbows available in the north (of the) state, but it is also one of the hardest lakes to fish. If the bite is on, we could land something massive, but if the bite is off, we could just as easily get blanked.”

My assessment of Almanor turned out to be prophetic, but we’ll talk more about that in a bit.

WITH THE WHERE ELEMENT of the trip decided, a look at the calendar revealed there would be a new moon phase during the first week of November. While trout can certainly be caught during a full moon phase, it generally suppresses the bite to some degree.

Since Pete would be driving for upwards of 12 hours to reach California, we stacked the odds for success by settling on the first week of November for our trip. The moon would range from fully dark to a sliver-thin crescent.

After weeks of planning, text messages and phone calls, Pete and I met up in Susanville on the morning of November 1, grabbed breakfast and then made the hour-long drive to Eagle Lake. The weather forecast called for periods of wind, rain and snow, so we wasted no time setting up our camp near the Gallatin Launching Facility on Eagle Lake’s southern basin.

By the time we turned in for the night a stiff breeze had come up and the sky was spitting rain. When we got up just after dawn there was an inch of slush on the ground and the air temperature was hovering near freezing.

I was worried the launch ramp would be slick, but it turned out to be fine. Pete and I launched our kayaks without any issues and by 8 a.m. we were headed toward Miners Cove. There was a slight breeze, the sky was overcast and the water temperature sat at 52 degrees. In short, conditions were perfect.

The first fish on any trip comes as a relief because it confirms the trout are indeed biting. Our Eagle Lake “icebreaker” didn’t keep us in suspense long. Trolling a small orange fly I recommended, Pete had only been fishing for five minutes or so when his rod got slammed.

Eagle Lake trout are epic fighters, and when the water is cold, they exhibit a lot of stamina. Pete had the fish near his kayak several times, only to have it streak away on drag-spinning runs.

Pete looked pretty satisfied when he slid the 2.5-pound chromer into the net. He had no idea the trout was only average for Eagle Lake. There was a lot of excitement and plenty of surprises in store for Pete on his first day at Eagle.

The orange fly trolled in the top 8 feet of the water column proved to be the best offering, but we also hooked some fish on orange Trout Trix Minnows trolled in the same depth range.

Pete caught several trout throughout the day, and it seemed like each one was a little bit bigger than the last. When we downloaded the video Pete shot, he announced several rainbows to be the “fish of the day,” only to catch an even larger trout later on!

While Pete and I didn’t land any true Eagle Lake trophies in the 5- or 6-pound class, we did see a handful of fish beyond the 20-inch and 4-pound marks.

When we staggered up the launch ramp at 4 in the afternoon, tired and cramped from a day of hard pedaling, we were aware we’d experienced a very special day of trout fishing.

HAD PETE NOT BEEN a very experienced boater and kayaker, I would’ve called off fishing at Eagle on the second day due to a strong wind out of the northeast. It was blowing around 15 knots when we launched and was pushing 30 when we made it back to shore around 11 in the morning.

Despite the big wind and whitewater-capped rollers, we hooked a number of quality trout. While the fishing was great, it was an expensive morning for Pete. At some point, waves breaking into Pete’s kayak washed a box of trout spoons overboard, along with his landing net and attached GoPro Camera. If you snag a net and camera at Eagle Lake, you’ll know where it came from!

After a quick trip to Walmart in Susanville for a new net, we set a course for Lake Almanor. Rather than set up camp for a single night, we opted to stay in a hotel in Chester. The next morning, November 4, we arrived at Lake Almanor’s Canyon Dam Boat Launch just after dawn. The conditions at Almanor were perfect and we marked plenty of fish, but we just couldn’t get them to go. They wouldn’t even hit a threaded nightcrawler!

When 11 a.m. rolled around, I suggested we pull the plug at Almanor and head for Lake Davis. It is only about a two-hour drive and if things went smoothly, we’d be able to set up camp and get in a couple hours of fishing before dinner.

Pete agreed, so we pedaled hard for the ramp and wasted no time driving over to the community of Portola. We checked in at J & J Grizzly Store and Campground, which we would make our headquarters for the remainder of the trip.

WE HAD THE KAYAKS on the water at the Mallard Cove Boat Launch by 2 p.m. and headed to an area north of the island pulling the same orange flies and soft plastics we’d used at Eagle Lake.

The water temperature was 48 degrees at the warmest part of the day, and the trout were enthusiastic. In two hours, we boated 11 rainbows in the 14- to 16-inch class. I got lucky and landed the largest trout of the day when a beautiful 20-plus-inch brown blitzed my trolling fly pulled just a few yards off the shoreline.

“We are going to kill the trout tomorrow,” I told Pete as we ate dinner that evening. “I suspect the water will be a lot colder in the morning, so they might be a little lethargic to start off with, but the bite should build all day long.”

After a tasty hot breakfast on the morning of November 5, we dropped the ’yaks into the water and slowly pedaled offshore toward the island.

“The trout at Davis aren’t as selective as the trout at Eagle, so don’t hesitate to expand your lure selection a bit. I’ve done well here on spoons and Mag Lip plugs, in addition to the flies and soft plastics I usually run,” I told Pete, knowing he loved to pull Mag Lips.

With the water temperature registering a chilly 43 degrees at the ramp, I didn’t expect the bite to get going until the sun got on the water, but to our delight we started banging rainbows right away. We each had several fish by 10, including a pair of 20-plus-inch ’bows.

As the day went on, the bite continued to intensify. Pete deployed an orange Mag Lip and nailed a 3-plus-pound rainbow after lunch. Not wanting to be outdone, I put on an orange Metal Head trolling fly and got a fat 3-pounder of my own.

I have no idea how many fish we landed that day. We certainly had 40 fish between us, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the total was north of 50. By any measure, it had been an epic session of kayak trolling, with constant action and several big rainbows in the 16- to 22-inch class!

WE HAD HIGH HOPES of finishing our trip on a high note on the morning of November 6, but overnight a vicious north wind came up. Not only did the 30-plus-mph gusts make kayaking difficult, but the pressure change associated with it put the trout in a funk. Pete ended up getting blanked, while I finessed six rainbows and a brown to the net while trolling my lucky orange Metal Head fly tipped with a small piece of nightcrawler.

Despite the tough action on the final morning, we both agreed that the trip was a major success and we are already planning a repeat adventure next fall.

We experienced the raw reality of fall in the Sierra, enduring wind, rain, snow and frigid temps. We relished the warm sun in the afternoons, took in the fall colors, made cocoa and other treats during breaks on remote shorelines, had a lot of laughs and caught big numbers of colorful trout.

We safely released all the fish we caught. We wish them a peaceful winter and look forward to trading punches with them once again in 2025! CS

Editor’s note: Cal Kellogg is a longtime Northern California outdoors writer. Subscribe to his YouTube channel Fish Hunt Shoot Productions at youtube.com/ user/KelloggOutdoors.