6/11/23
Lake Oroville
Cloudy with sun
83 degree day
Wind 5 to 10
Water temp 72-76
Well Chris Perez and I decided to take our summer Oroville Fishing trip early this year and go for numbers and have some fun.
We got on the water late around 9 am. As we pulled up to the spillway launch ramp, we were both pleasantly shocked to see the lake full and when I say full, I’m talking about 36 inches from the overflow of the Emergency Spillway. Other than when the dam broke in 2018 I have not seen the lake this full in over a decade.
We launched and took off to the Foreman Creek area looking for our first number count. The baits that were productive for us were Jerkbaits, drop shots, neko rigs, spooks, IMA Baby Stick and Spinnerbaits. We pulled up to our first spot and Chris picked one off with a jerkbait on his second cast. Typical Chris, he had 10 fish in the boat before I even got bit. We were using the same lure but my color was the KVD color and obviously wasn’t working. I began to get frustrated, as I know this lake well and after all it’s Oroville!! Well I switched colors and then I started hooking up and it was game on.
After fishing the Foreman area, I wanted to take Chris up the Middle Fork, as he hasn’t been up it very far and I’ve been to the back, as far as your boat will take you, with my wife Tracy. We fished along the way finding fish from 1 to 2 feet in depth all the way to 10 + feet, but I’m pretty sure we got a few on reaction baits that came from deeper, with gin clear water.
We stopped at almost every little creek that was still pumping water into the lake and caught them at every stop. In one inlet alone we caught about a Dozen still using drop shots and Jerkbaits.
The old adage of “Never Leave Fish to Find Fish” doesn’t apply to Oroville. We got on plane cruised to the back where there is a huge waterfall that was coming out of the mountain and fished its inlet, but found the water temp actually dropped from about 76 degrees to the mid 50’s and it was freezing COLD and the current was ripping. We threw jerkbaits up in the fast water where we couldn’t go any further and Chris caught an 18 inch Rainbow Trout. Nope, we let him go like all the bass.
With thunder clapping and huge clouds forming we decided to move back to mainlake to finish our day. We fished the North bank of the bay by the Dam and the cove near the ramp, while watching a lightning and thunder show where we just came from. The Spillway launch cove also produced for each of us and that’s where Chris picked up a top water “monster”, with an IMA Baby Stick. I tried with the spook but they weren’t having it. Could be the chop made it unseeable. I did hook up a double in this nay on a jerk bait…that was fun!
We approached the launch dock to let me out to get the truck and trail and Chris cast out across the other dock and hooked up with another bass. I think he did it either to show off with the two girls on that dock or he was just rubbing it in.
All and all it was a fun day with 53 bass caught and released. All about 2.8 lbs and under….mostly under lol. Oroville is always a fun lake to take the kids fishing because you know they will catch something! So go Build some memories!
RB Bass Resource Anglers
Mike Rogers & Chris Perez
#rbbass
#westernbass
#therodglove
#TNTBAITCO
#dobynsrods
#Xzonelures
#monsterfishingtackle
#IMA #G-Ratts Baits
#OptimunBaits #GalaxyGraphics
#Gonefishingmarine
#NMCBN
#FrenzyBaits
