Calaveras lake fishing?

[Clay C]

So I love just 20 minutes from Calaveras and hardly ever fish it, every time o go I hardly ever catch anything. I've caught a few reds and cats on bait, one red on a spoon and a few strippers on trolling lures. Does anybody have some solid tips on producing fish in this lake?

I hope you released those strippers. They look tasty but usually aren't good eating.


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[Eagle19]

I was part of the Cali Cat Yaker Plastic Armada. I fished with an ol'timer who could draw the contours of the lake on a napkin from memory. Showed me how to fish that lake. Now that it's getting warmer, I would paddle across the cove. We mainly fished for catfish, Reds were fun accidents.

The limit of reds took 30 mins for me to fill. Took me longer to paddle across and get anchored than limit out. I caught these in front of a charter boat with clients and they were trolling way too close to me. After I strung up the 3rd, I heard a lady say, "Maybe we should ask him what he's using, he just got here and has a limit". Was trying to stick it out for catfish but shortly after another near pass, a red hammered my bait and off for another sleigh ride, but I broke him off on purpose.

I mainly used live tilapia, whole small shad, cut shad, shad gizzards (if you can find them) and head on shrimp. The guy who taught me how to fish Cali used cut carp all the time.

I you are on Facebook, join 210 Fishing. Always someone posting about being out there.

Were you catching the reds on tilapia? We have freshwater redfish in my local law but nobody really knows about it or how to catch them. I haven't found much about calaveres on tactics to catch reds. Do you know how freshwater reds typically pattern?