Weather: 65 degrees with blue bird skies
Water Temp: 52-54 degrees
Water Clarity: 6’-8’
This past week fellow RB Bass angler, Ryan McGinnis and I set out for a day of fun fishing at Folsom Lake. In some of our more recent trips to Folsom Lake the bigger bites were coming from areas up North or near the dam. On this day it would be no different. We started off in an area near the dam that usually holds bait around this time of year so we started by throwing reaction style baits. I was able to land a couple of solid fish right off the bat by throwing an A Rig and Ryan was able to catch a solid 4lber on a bladed swimbait made by Wicked Weights.
We fished the main body for an hour or so until about 10AM with no real success. We weren’t marking a ton of fish or bait so we decided to make a run up north. We pulled up to our first spot and were able to mark a solid pod of fish in about 20’ of water. I was able to catch a healthy 3lber right off the bat throwing a jig and Ryan was able to catch another nice little chunk of his own. The bite slowed down so we backed off this spot and ran to our next spot which was a long tapering point with a considerable amount of chunk rock on it. We were marking the most fish we had seen all winter when I decided to pick up the A-Rig again and on the first cast I get slammed. I proceeded to catch a solid 3.5 lb spot followed by another 3.75 spot. Seeing that the A-Rig bite was on Ryan picked up his rig and began tossing it when a 4lb largemouth unloaded on it. We were in the juice! The next hour or so would seem like every cast we were catching fish. It started with the A-Rig, but we were catching them on jigs, dropshot, small swimbaits, and some soft plastics.
After the bite had started to wind down we made our way further up north and while we weren’t able to dial in on any patterns we were able to catch fish in about almost every area we stopped in on this day. It was just one of those days where the fish were feeding like crazy on just about anything you threw at them but overall I had the best success with the A-Rig and a Jig in Canopy Grenades PBJ jig while Ryan had most success throwing the Willow bladed swimbait and a black and blue football style jig also by Wicked Weights. When it came time to weigh in our best five for the day ended up with a solid 17.10 lbs.
Whether it was the postal front, the warmer temps or the considerably warmer water temps for this time of year one thing was for sure which was that everything lined up perfectly on this day as it was apparent from the beginning of the day to the very end that the bass were actively feeding and they were not tight to cover or hugging the bottom like they had been doing in our previous outings earlier in the week. It appeared that these fish were no longer spread out but were back to being grouped up and roaming in search of food. The Northern portion of the lake appears to still be holding the better numbers and better quality of fish which can be caught on an array of reaction baits as well as jigs, tubes, bladed swimbaits and your usual soft plastics.
If you have a chance to get out on Folsom I wouldn’t think twice about it.
Jim Vretzos
