Lake Del Valle 2-13-11

[HiTechKoke]

The weather was just too nice to pass up this last weekend to get the boat out for the first time in 2011.... not to mention I needed to stir up the gas. So off to Del Valle Rachel and I went after her required Starbucks stop.. the price you pay for a teenager willing to get up at 5:30AM! Ok... I wanted my hot chocolate too!

The reports have been less than stellar for Del Valle trollers and even the bankies don't seem to be doing great from what I have read. We headed for Heron Bay right away and it took a loop and change of lures before I managed a planter at 10 feet on a spoon. We changed out a lot of lures and Rachel had a nice fight with a 17 incher which is all we dug up for the day.

For entertainment value a rental boat ran over our two surface lines and we were yelling at them for 30 seconds to stop as the braided line was spooling out. Amazingly the lures were recovered along with a tangle of braid we are still sorting out.

What was interesting is there were very large schools of very large fish down deep around the dam area. I took the underwater camera just for that purpose as I see this every year at Del Valle at this time but these marks were much larger than previous years. The problem is the visibility was such I could not get a video picture beyond 60 feet so I couldn't confirm what I believe to be a lot of big Stripers hanging deep. Now for a few photos... ignore that crazy Lowrance telling us it was 13 feet deep.

img_1453_std.jpg (72.56 KiB) Viewed 1138 times

img_1456_std.jpg (91.03 KiB) Viewed 1138 times

img_1459_std.jpg (90.97 KiB) Viewed 1138 times

img_1461_std.jpg (92.75 KiB) Viewed 1138 times

[Mark Damron]

Nice Kevin & way to take advantage of the nice weather!!!
We're sitting under a few inches of ice & snow right now and it's freaking cold out. Shook the snow off the "Duck" yesterday and started cleaning and organizing. I should get my riggers back from FW this week, first service of any kind in 4 years, gotta love them Cannon's!!! I'm hoping to be on the water soon either in my boat or hitch a ride with a certain somebody we all know to Oroville. Never fished the lake so why not go with someone who knows the lake better than anybody, right?? This "koke addiction" thing is killing me!! I'm getting all loopie, more than usual.
See ya soon,

Mark

[Mark Damron]

Nice Kevin & way to take advantage of the nice weather!!!
We're sitting under a few inches of ice & snow right now and it's freaking cold out. Shook the snow off the "Duck" yesterday and started cleaning and organizing. I should get my riggers back from FW this week, first service of any kind in 4 years, gotta love them Cannon's!!! I'm hoping to be on the water soon either in my boat or hitch a ride with a certain somebody we all know to Oroville. Never fished the lake so why not go with someone who knows the lake better than anybody, right?? This "koke addiction" thing is killing me!! I'm getting all loopie, more than usual.
See ya soon,

Mark

[Doubleheader]

Those look like striper marks. Al can you confirm that? If so, we need you for a striper eradication project.

[Al Millan]

Those look like striper marks. Al can you confirm that? If so, we need you for a striper eradication project.

Yup....they are stripers. And I know a guy who's been getting em. Small window of opportunity though. Early morning and sunset.

[HiTechKoke]

There are probably ways to counter those bite times....unfortunately they are reserved for the fouth of July!

This message brought to you by the "Save the Trout and Kokanee of Lake Del Valle Foundation".

[MrDwnRigger]

I agree they look like stripers. So Al you would treat them more like lake stripers than Delta stripers. I know one of the big things in the Delta is the tides, one reason I suck in the Delta haven't quite figured out the tide movements, where when and how, don't fish there enough.

I can catch stripers at San Luis and Hogan those techniques would probably work at Del Valle. Slow rolling a Procure pumped up shad/herring real slow through them might work. Or some river2sea V-joint through them.

I haven't fish Del Valle since before they started the inspections. Might have to give it a try one of these days.

Dave

[Al Millan]

Slow rolling a fat piece of shad may work.

[KingKonker]

My first post on the forum so please bear with me.
On the pictures of the LCX26c I noticed that the first display was 119 ft. and the next was 13.8.
The same thing happens with my LCX 25c and Lowrance has not been able to solve the problem.
Any suggestions/comments?

[MrDwnRigger]

The same thing happens with my LCX 25c and Lowrance has not been able to solve the problem.
Any suggestions/comments?

You could buy a Furuno, just joking. I think they all do it to some extent. Obviously the Lowrance thinks it sees something hard enough @ 13.8 ft that it thinks it is the bottom. Could be something on the rigger cable or it could be a temperature change or sediment. Sometimes you can turn it off and back on, change the sensitivity a little. Anymore, I don't let it bother me as long as I can see where the bottom is I'm okay.

Welcome to the board, been Fishin?

Dave

[KingKonker]

Thanks mr. downrigger,
I guess I will learn to live with it but it can be a problem when my shallow alarm is set and it changes.
Have slowed down for the winter and only been out a couple of times for catfish. Plan to get out on the lake Sonoma in a couple of weeks for trout.

KingKonker

[MrDwnRigger]

can be a problem when my shallow alarm is set and it changes.
KingKonker

KK,
It can be a problem if you used the shallow alarm. Probably one reason I haven't use mine in years.
I thought that's what the downriggers weights were for.

Dave

[KingKonker]

For sure MrDwnRigger;
Have had my boat slowed down several times with downrigger balls in the trees. Mostly while half asleep on a warm day (remember those days?)

KingKonker

[HiTechKoke]

Mark - It's getting to be that time for a Kokanee lure cleanup to re-tie and de Pro-cure the dodgers... This whacky weather has had us guessing whether it is winter or Spring. Cohos up North at Oro should be fun and especially with somebody that knows the lake.

King Konker - Usually when my Lowrance messes up it just blinks and while it cannot display the right depth it can display the right return of the bottom. This is the first time it got fixated on a shallow depth. One thing I can see is the voltage at the time was quite a bit lower from the other screen shot and I'm not sure why as I don't think the main motor was off at the time so usually my voltage is in the 13+ range as the battery is getting charged while trolling.

When I get the blinking depth issue it usually corrects itself within 5 minutes or I'll power off and on and usually that will do it. It's a bit annoying but it does seem like that happens a lot less with the current software update I put on a year ago.

Kevin

[KingKonker]

Thanks HiTechKoke,
I get my fishfinder back from Lowrance tomorrow and I will load the latest upgrades and see if that helps.
I will also do as you sugget and keep closer tabs on the voltage.

KingKonker