Recon trip for the 2021 trout opening weekend

[etucker1959]

On this particular trip I went on a solo mission. If wasn't like people who know me, doubted how good the Lake Wohlford trout opener would be. (So I had several other people interested in going with me.) The problem was, "I could not guarantee us getting to rent a boat" without getting there an hour before they opened? No one including me, wanted to be there at 5:00 am. (it's just too cold there at 5:00 am in the morning) So my plan was to arrive at the lake at 10:00 am and hope for the best, but settle for blazing my way through the bushes on the South shore if necessary! (nobody was up for that but me!) So when I got there right on schedule, they still had 6 motorboats left to rent. (so I rented one) I do want to say something important about their boat rentals. They are now renting all their boats everyday and even re renting the same boat on any given day. (In the past 2 years it was a mess!) So other then maybe a Saturday, you can rent a boat at any time you go there.

When buying my permit ($6 for us old farts and $9 for everybody else) I asked the new employee how was the fishing on Saturday? (I went on Sunday the 12th) He said it sorta picked up in the afternoon a bit. I asked him was their any hot spots and he said they were biting a little bit every where! Which means they were biting no where in particular! That's not exactly what I expected to hear, because they stocked 4,000 pounds of Rainbow trout for the opener. They did stock on Tuesday prior to the opener, so the fish had plenty of time to filter into any place where they wanted to go. The young man tried to be very helpful, but he didn't know who I was!!! Lol He said, "the hot baits were Rainbow Power bait and Pink Mice tails!) I almost burst out Laughing when he said that!!! He didn't know, "I was the best Damn bait fishermen in the Lake and that's not their favorite baits!" Me, Trixi and Racer X figured out the best baits last year and since their using the same hatchery. The fish will probably bite the same baits this year as they did last year. Remember we were a perfect 7 for 7 last year on Full boat limits on every trip! (including several real nice fish)

Disclaimers:

Lake Wohlford in my opinion is the best trout lake for quantity and quality and at a reasonable price in the Southern part of California. However, with that being said, "it turns muddy brown and poor fishing when it rains a lot!" This looks like this may be a pretty wet year! So call down there after a rain storm and ask them about the visibility of the water. If it's Brown, it's no Good!

I'm going to talk in a little more in general terms in my fish reports. I'm not going to give away all my secrets to Lurkers. But anyone can pm for exact baits and hot locations on any of my trips! I'm going to try to encourage more participation on this website! Otherwise it will die and I don't particularly like the other Facebook fishing websites.

On to the fishing.

Last year we found the best trout fishing area for us drifting in a boat. Was from the 2nd air ratter all the way to the buoy line in the East end of the lake. They can be anywhere in that general area of the lake. My favorite bait is just good old Power bait in the 2 secret colors. The fishermen were every where, but their was a little heavier group of boats on the North side of the East end all anchored up. So it left some pretty good drifting lanes in the middle and the Left side of the East end of the lake. For those who never fished Wohlford before it's a lake of 3 depths. The West end is the deep water to 35 foot deep. In the middle of the lake it's 12 feet deep and in the East end it's only 6 foot deep. So I started drifting in the 12 foot area going into the 6 foot area. I had no bites in the 12 foot area, but as soon as I got into the 6 foot area, I got my first bite and hookup! By the way this trout was fighting, it was no Tommy Cod size Trout but something nice. I put the net under this thing and it was all of 4 pounds. I then had another quick bite and missed that one and then drifted all the way to the buoy line with no other bites. I started my next drift closer this time and the wind blew me quickly into the South shore. I did pick up a fish on this short drift and it turned out to be my smallest trout of the day around 2 pounds. I set up my next drift a little more to the right this time and immediately got bit on another 4 pound trout! After a long fight and then having to re rig my pole, I went back and started my drift again in the same spot. This time I got bit on my biggest trout of the day at 4.5 pounds. The whole time I'm hooking these fish in the same spot, all 12 boats around me are just looking at my going Duh! (not one of them moved off their anchor) By the way, what were these other boats doing as I'm hooking fish after fish??? Practically nothing! I saw them catch 2 fish the whole time I was there between all of them! Now I just needed 1 more fish to finish off my limit. So I changed colors of Power bait and only cast 1 pole out. In 3 minutes I was hooked up again to finish off my limit with a nice colorful 3 pound trout. From the time I started fishing and to the time I was all done. It took only a little over an hour and half to finish my day with a nice limit of trout. Boy I wish I had some more people in the boat. (I could have caught 20 the way they were biting) Well that's what happens for people wanting a guarantee in fishing. The only guarantee I can give is, "I will do my best" to put us on fish. (which normally is pretty good!) Lol

I can see why they had kinda of slow opening weekend. It was all in the Math!!! They had 4,000 pounds of trout to work with, so instead of stocking 2500 1 1/2 pound trout. They stocked 1200 3-4 pound fish. Which is great if you're a good fishermen, but a bad idea if your fishermen suck and just throw their anchors in some random spot. (which most people did) Yes I know their bragging their going to stock 10,000 pounds of trout in the first 30 day's of trout season. But you want your opener to be good one, so people will want to come back. With 2 big storms coming in before Christmas, that will probably muddy up the lake pretty good. They missed a good opportunity to hook some more fishermen on how good Lake Wohlford can be. I know, it just means more bigger fish for me, "but I guess it's the Socialist in me talking now!" Lol

[chatmar]

On this particular trip I went on a solo mission. If wasn't like people who know me, doubted how good the Lake Wohlford trout opener would be. (So I had several other people interested in going with me.) The problem was, "I could not guarantee us getting to rent a boat" without getting there an hour before they opened? No one including me, wanted to be there at 5:00 am. (it's just too cold there at 5:00 am in the morning) So my plan was to arrive at the lake at 10:00 am and hope for the best, but settle for blazing my way through the bushes on the South shore if necessary! (nobody was up for that but me!) So when I got there right on schedule, they still had 6 motorboats left to rent. (so I rented one) I do want to say something important about their boat rentals. They are now renting all their boats everyday and even re renting the same boat on any given day. (In the past 2 years it was a mess!) So other then maybe a Saturday, you can rent a boat at any time you go there.

When buying my permit ($6 for us old farts and $9 for everybody else) I asked the new employee how was the fishing on Saturday? (I went on Sunday the 12th) He said it sorta picked up in the afternoon a bit. I asked him was their any hot spots and he said they were biting a little bit every where! Which means they were biting no where in particular! That's not exactly what I expected to hear, because they stocked 4,000 pounds of Rainbow trout for the opener. They did stock on Tuesday prior to the opener, so the fish had plenty of time to filter into any place where they wanted to go. The young man tried to be very helpful, but he didn't know who I was!!! Lol He said, "the hot baits were Rainbow Power bait and Pink Mice tails!) I almost burst out Laughing when he said!!! He didn't know, "I was the best Damn bait fishermen in the Lake and that's not their favorite baits!" Me, Trixi and Racer X figured out the best baits last year and since their using the same hatchery. The fish will probably bite the same baits this year as they did last year. Remember we were a perfect 7 for 7 last year on Full boat limits on every trip! (including several real nice fish)

Disclaimers:

Lake Wohlford in my opinion is the best trout lake for quantity and quality and at a reasonable price in the Southern part of California. However, with that being said, "it turns muddy brown and poor fishing when it rains a lot!" This looks like this may be a pretty wet year! So call down there after a rain storm and ask them about the visibility of the water. If it's Brown, it's no Good!

I'm going to talk in a little more in general terms in my fish reports. I'm not going to give away all my secrets to Lurkers. But anyone can pm for exact baits and hot locations on any of my trips! I'm going to try to encourage more participation on this website! Otherwise it will die and I don't particularly like the other Facebook fishing websites.

On to the fishing.

Last year we found the best trout fishing area for us drifting in a boat. Was from the 2nd air ratter all the way to the buoy line in the East end of the lake. They can be anywhere in that general area of the lake. My favorite bait is just good old Power bait in the 2 secret colors. The fishermen were every where, but their was a little heavier group of boats on the North side of the East end all anchored up. So it left some pretty good drifting lanes in the middle and the Left side of the East end of the lake. For those who never fished Wohlford before it's a lake of 3 depths. The West end is the deep water to 35 foot deep. In the middle of the lake it's 12 feet deep and in the East end it's only 6 foot deep. So I started drifting in the 12 foot area going into the 6 foot area. I had no bites in the 12 foot area, but as soon as I got into the 6 foot area, I got my first bite and hookup! By the way this trout was fighting, it was no Tommy Cod size Trout but something nice. I put the net under this thing and it was all of 4 pounds. I then had another quick bite and missed that one and then drifted all the way to the buoy line with no other bites. I started my next drift closer this time and the wind blew me quickly into the South shore. I did pick up a fish on this short drift and it turned out to be my smallest trout of the day around 2 pounds. I set up my next drift a little more to the right this time and immediately got bit on another 4 pound trout! After a long fight and then having to re rig my pole, I went back and started my drift again in the same spot. This time I got bit on my biggest trout of the day at 4.5 pounds. The whole time I'm hooking these fish in the same spot, all 12 boats around me are just looking at my going Duh! (not one of them moved off their anchor) By the way, what were these other boats doing as I'm hooking fish after fish??? Practically nothing! I saw them catch 2 fish the whole time I was there between all of them! Now I just needed 1 more fish to finish off my limit. So I changed colors of Power bait and only cast 1 pole out. In 3 minutes I was hooked up again to finish off my limit with a nice colorful 3 pound trout. From the time I started fishing and to the time I was all done. It took only a little over an hour and half to finish my day with a nice limit of trout. Boy I wish I had some more people in the boat. (I could have caught 20 the way they were biting) Well that's what happens for people wanting a guarantee in fishing. The only guarantee I can give is, "I will do my best" to put us on fish. (which normally is pretty good!) Lol

I can see why they had kinda of slow opening weekend. It was all in the Math!!! They had 4,000 pounds of trout to work with, so instead of stocking 2500 1 1/2 pound trout. They stocked 1200 3-4 pound fish. Which is great if you're a good fishermen, but a bad idea if your fishermen suck and just throw their anchors in some random spot. (which most people did) Yes I know their bragging their going to stock 10,000 pounds of trout in the first 30 day's of trout season. But you want your opener to be good, so people will want to come back. With 2 big storms coming in before Christmas, that will probably muddy up the lake pretty good. They missed a good opportunity to hook some more fishermen on how good Lake Wohlford can be. I know, it just means more bigger fish for me, "but I guess it's the Socialist in me talking now!" Lol

Like always great report ETucker. Since it rained pretty hard yesterday how long do you think it will take for the water to clear up atvWohlford? I am one of the lucky few who know what are the hot and lucky secret power bait colors. Just like we know what is the best catfish bait that anyone should be using. That is why you always said that you like to zig while others are zaging when it comes to fishing. Pay attention folks Etucker does not run a Chicken Sh.. Operation!

Rc