The stripers have been boiling like crazy in several areas of Lake Del Valle.

Weather: water at the lake has been cooling down- ranging in the hight 50’s to about 70 degrees. The water surface temperature in the marina is 65 degrees.

Clarity of Water: The water is somewhat murky with green algae around the marina and clarity will increase as you get closer to the dam.

Hot spots: The hot spot has been by the lower narrows, swallow bay and by the dam.

What Bait to Use:
Stripers- Anchovies
Catfish- Chicken Liver, Anchovies, Sardines and Night Crawlers. Catfish tend to not be interested in any lures.
Trout- Power bait, Worms, have been working well. Trout also love lures such as Panther Martins, Kastmaster, Roster Tails, and all types of small Spinners. Trout Are still relatively slow due to the warm water.
Largemouth/ Smallmouth- Plastic Worms have been a good choice, another good choice is Jigs or Drop Shots, various spinners.
Crappie/Panfish-  Night Crawlers, Redworms, and little Micro Jigs have been working good as well.

Fish plant on 9/14 from Tsai Enterprises 600lbs. Catfish.
Fish plant on 10/29 from Mt Lassen of 1200 lbs. Trout

Al Hurwitz of Saratoga and Abbey Lev of Sunnyvale trolled Lake Del Valle on 10/28/21 looking mainly for smallmouth bass and striped bass. We trolled with a variety of Rapala lures and then switch to Panther Martin spinners. We trolled these lures 20 feet below the surface in 25-40 foot water cams. Scent was liberally applied. We caught one smallmouth in the afternoon on a Panther Marin 1/4 oz. Silver Blade Yellow Salamander pattern. The bass was caught on the western shore just North of the Marina.

The biggest surprise occurred in the morning with Al capturing a 12-15 lbs. Catfish trolling a J-7 jointed shad colored Rapala ( see attached photo) the fish were caught along the western shoreline opposite and between Heron and Swallow Bays. It is quite unusually to catch Catfish trolling since they are traditionally bottom feeders and the lure must be positioned very close to the fish’s head as it is trolled by. This fish have a tremendous and powerful fight on lightweight tackle, taking about 10 minutes to land. Its as photographed and released.

Otherwise fishing was slow even with seeing lots of fish on the sonar unit. The fish were stacked up along the western shore North of the Marina but could not be readily enticed to strike out lures. I think this sluggish actively is due to the large influx of delta water ( the lake is as high as it has ever been). This partial saline water influx produces an unstable situation for fishing, due to changed in properties of the fresh water and the potential introduction of algae ( algae growth is heavy now). All that said it was a beautiful day, with clear warm conditions and a surface water temperature of 63-64 degrees. The water temperature is becoming ideal for Rainbow Trout fishing with should start anytime now and will take as the lake water conditions stabilizes.

As always, the office and dock staff are extremely helpful in getting us on and off the water.