1/17/23

Lake Oroville

Bluebird day

Brisk 37 degrees

Wind at 2

Water temp: 47.5 to 48.5

Water clarity: Muddy to stained

Finally after 43 days of not being on the water, we had a break in the rain so I took my nephew Reno up to Oroville to see what the storms had done. The lake level has risen dramatically and you are now launching from the first ramp at Bidwell. Last time there in October we launched from the 3rd ramp.  So lake level is now at 789.28 feet, which is  110.72 feet from brim full.

Be careful out there as you navigate the waters. The lake is full of washed down wood debris. Lots of dodging out there, and I had to come off pad several times to navigate through some of the rafts up the Feather river arm and main lake. Yup I went North this time.

I think the high pressure system that came in after the rain threw things off up there, because it turned into a brutal day…and Oroville is never like that, we refer to it as a Bass Factory.

There are fish everywhere. Your sonar is filled all the time with hundreds of yards of Kokanee and trout, all mixed in with huge bait balls and bass. Most were suspended between 30′ and 50′ with some on bottom.  It didn’t make any difference where you stopped, your screen did not change. I’m talking about thousands of fish! We spent 7 hours beating the water with no results. Not even a bite!

We searched for shallow feeding bass with all the water coming into the lake, from 1′ to 45′ feet and those depths were bare of fish. We moved out to depths between 50′ to 70′ and there they were. We even found them at 138′. I threw 9 different baits and changed colors a few times. Reno threw 6 different baits from mine. With the cold water we fished extra slow and even spot locked on several spots to just work it over….but nothing! I’m not sure what’s worse, seeing them and not getting them to bite or not seeing them with the same results. This was a first for me at this Bass Factory.

I had some dock talk while retrieving the boat with several anglers and they too experienced the same thing. No one caught anything…not sure that made me feel any better lo

My suggestion is to let things settle down there and go back next month. In the meantime there is always Berryessa and Clearlake.

It was great being on the water no matter how it went!

RB Bass Angler

Mike Rogers