Went to Chabot this afternoon with Ryan ( Chabot Pro ). We fished from 1pm to around 5pm. Cold weather and clear skies + post front made things tough, although it sounds like from talking to Ryan that it's been tough as nails anyway there lately. We threw jigs, worms, trouts, silver buddy, cranks, all kinds of stuff. Ryan had one fish on, looked like about 2 or 3lbs on a deep little n crankbait. That was our only action for the day. I caught a trout on the silver buddy. Guess I gotta start racking up the skunk trips this year to make it so I get due for a decent day come spring. Water was very green, very cold, with lots of mossy crud floating on the surface. Lake level was down about 10 feet or so. We didn't have any followers or anything on the trouts.

Same thing here at Chabot from 11:30am - 4:30pm on a boat. After getting skunked using my float tube at Coyote on Sat, I decided to grab the portable depth finder, Generic Trout and my MS Slammer at Chabot on a boat. After trolling from the Marina to Alder Point, then to Bass Cove on the Generic Trout with no bites, I decide to switch to the MS Slammer. Trolled back with the MS Slammer from Bass cove to Racoon Point and the same thing.

While at Bass cove I tried fishing a few favorite spots with a carolina rig with an 9" worm and the only thing that I caught was frost bite. The water temp was 48 - 51 degrees with the outside temp not that much warmer. Dress warm and definately bring gloves.

Thoughts from using the Generic Trout for the first time:

I think I might put the generic trout on the side lines until the bass start to move to shallower water (0'-10') or closer to the spawning period. I'm also going to start using Trout Butter (mentioned in the Velvick video) as it should make the bait more attractive. One disappointment was that the clear coat started to come off in 2 small areas after 2 days of use. I'll have to find a way to patch those areas or recoat the bait with something that won't have a negative taste to a bass.

Question: Any recommendations on fixing the clear coat on the generic trout?

On the bright side, I was able to spend some time around the lake making notes from the readings on my depth finder and a map. Chabot seems to be a farily featureless lake, however I found a couple of new places with the depth finder that I normally wouldn't fish without it. Alder Point looks like a really nice area to the Generic Trout.

Question: Does anyone know if there's an underwater contour map of Chabot?

Side note for the Trout Fisherman: Almost all trout found on the depth finder were 5'-8' off the bottom in 17'-30' of water.

Vince
vince@theblankslate.com