9/23/23
Sugar Pine Reservoir
Blue bird days 62°
Nights 50°
Slight breeze to 5mph
Water clear to 20′
Fishery is
rainbow trout, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, spotted bass, redear sunfish, bluegill and channel catfish
Boats allowed but only 5mph.
The Shirttail campground is nice but quite aways from the water and way to close together. The lake sits about 2300 feet and during the week days its quiet enough, but come the weekend it gets a bit noisy.
Unfortunately, Northern California is experiencing a lot of wildfires and the drifted smoke has saturated the mountains, so it made it hard to breathe.
The lake is beautiful and the water is clear and pristine. The lake has rainbow trout, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, spotted bass, redear sunfish, bluegill and channel catfish rolling about. To my surprise there is a paved trail that goes all the way around the lake, so access to fishing spots is not problematic but in some cases you have a very steep few yards down to the waters edge.
I didn’t bring any fishing gear, as for me it was supposed to be a relaxing 4 days, (I read 2 books) but my nephew Reno McDonald did so I buddied up with him to watch and give him fishing advice if asked for. He had limited fishing gear which was only one bass rod and one baitcasting reel, a few spinners, a rip bait and one lipless and some bottom gear.
Not knowing the lake we took a trail to the non camping side hoping to get away from the known pressure. The first thing he did was put on a drop shot with a caught grasshopper and then a roboworm and worked the grassy bottom for about an hour which produced no bites. Not going to lie, I figured he’d get something but not even a bite. With the wind whipped up and the sun low he went to the rip bait and worked the rocks and the banks drop off. Another hour, once again nothing. We decided to us the Lipless and run it above the grass and the last hour went by quickly with no bites. Needless to say we were very disappointed.
I stopped on the way back to camp and talked to a few fisherman and they said the same thing, not even a bite and they were using worms. It almost makes me want to go back and figure iy out….All most! With all that being said the day was almost perfect at 84 degrees, with a slight cooling wind and unfortunately enough smoke you can chew. I might take the girls back again only because its close by. It was a fun 4 days with campfires, whiskey and tons of food. If you get a chance it’s a great place to take the kids.
RB Bass Angler
Mike Rogers
