Siskioyou and Lakin Dam July 2-4 w/pix

[Gmoney]

Now that the vacation is winding down I got a few minutes to recap the fishing adventures. We got in a few more days of fishing July 2, 3 and 4 and it ended with a bang!

July 2nd my lil girl and I decide to head around Lake Siskiyou to the camp grounds and the fishing dock. The water levels are up very high so some of the areas I wanted to hit up might be a lil rocky for kids. got to the dock around 7 and immediately it was game on....they stocked browns the day before and there were tons of fish still swimming close to our spot. The first hour was extremely good...we landed at least 10 between the two of us with all of them being cookie cutter pan fry sizes. All were released as we were looking for just a couple of bigger models. At around 9:00 the bite died completely...no matter what we did, we couldn’t get a bite. By 11 the wind was picking up so we called it a day. We took lots of pictures but when I got home there were only a couple on the camera....no clue what happened

July 3rd we had the same game plan only this time it was with my boy. We decided we were going to keep anything around 12" so we could taste a few fish before going home. We managed only two between 7 and 9 and the schools from the day before were long gone. We gave the 2 fish to a mom and her son. My boy and I tried out a new parking spot near the damn that I had never seen before....looked new. We fished for about an hour with nothing to show but a couple of dink smallies. We still had a blast today. This place is great for family fishing

Late on the 3rd I met a couple of kids that told me about hitting a couple of 20" browns back on the McCloud River. Time was limited on the 4th so I got up around 5 and was on the road heading for Lakin Dam. I had never been there before but it is just past the falls areas discussed in the first report.
I was there shortly after 6 and my jaw was wide open.....what a place. It looked more like a man made nature center with some nice walking paths, lots of signs detailing the vegetation and wildlife, and one path heading to the damn.

I started on the lower side of the damn for a wide open bite for the first hour. All browns in the 8-10" range. Not that I was getting bored, but I wanted to find some bigger fish so I relocated to the top of the damn. This spot was hotter than the first one. It was wide open for the next 2 hours. Everything I tossed worked...just needed different speeds and presentations. I used crawlers and crickets for just a few minutes to start then switched to everything else in my tackle box and it all worked. rooster tails, power worms, power eggs, spinners, kastmasters, mini- jigs, lip rippers, and z-spoon (this was the most fun until I lost it with one bad cast). I have no idea what the total count was for three hours but somewhere in the range of 50 with the largest fish going about 12-14". At one point I looked up and spotted a group of deer (5 or 6) watching me from about 30' away....I have no idea how long they had been there. As soon as we made eye contact they boogied as fast as they could. There was one point when I was watching one of the schools go by chasing my lure then I noticed a dark shadow that looked to be about 3+ feet long. as it got closer it got thicker and thicker...my heart was racing as now I knew the big guys were here...WRONG....turned out to be an otter of some type. I thought there were beavers here but this looked just like the otters in the zoo - heh
He came up and looked at me then played around for awhile then left to go play on the other side. For the entire 3 1/2 hours I never saw another human. this place was sweet....if only I could find the bigger fishies. Next year I will bring the family here so they can do the nature walks while I head up river in search on the big browns. although it is a great place to fish I don’t think I would be very relaxed with young kids fishing near the shores or damn.

one of the signs had some really cool info about the native redband trout that can be found north of the damn. many years ago they stopped stocking any rainbows above the damn because they didn’t want cross breeding with the redband. browns can be planted north of the damn because there is no worry about the hybridization (is that a word?). the batteries died after the first picture so I added the one of the damn with my cell phone.

I think I may have found my new favorite place to fish....I cant wait for next year to start exploring further above the damn

VERY IMPORTANT!!
Special thanks and props to our firefighters. we were in some towns like Paradise and Magalia for some personal stuff and even made it to one of the fire camps. What an organized fight these guys are waging. we saw trucks and crews from OC, LA and Riverside Counties. The smoke lightened each day we were here.
THANKS THANKS THANKS for all they do!!

Hope everyone has a great week
G$

[troutdog]

Aweome pics and play by play G$....sounds like you had a most excellent vacation. Dodgers/gints this weekend....game one Blue!


TD

[Troutman65]

Sounds like great times with your family. Thanks for sharing on FNN.


TM65

[Fisherman57]

Great report and very cool photos!
Thanks for sharing!

See you and your family at "Legends II" !
http://fishingnetwork.net/forum4/showthread.php?t=18720



57

[Badfish2]

Noice! Thanks for the pictures

[one_leg]

Gmoney, you need to tell me all about it. You can do most of the talking.

[pineapple express]

wow....!!! simply beautiful northern cali.
big mahaloz fo sharing G$. loved your report....!!!
great pix too.
PE

[steve092]

Trout and bass!

Looks like a great time!

[one_leg]

Greg, beautiful pics. Thanks for the post.

O_L

[sky]

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