Lake Calaveras Redfish...

[LEXPRO]

I need to be in San Antonio monday morning so i figure i would book a half day trip to catch some redfish for tommorrow afternoon. Ill post a report when i get back. Those reds are pretty big there and ill take my Avet SX on a 7ft all star to put in the downrigger...

[LEXPRO]

Little overcast and windy but fishing was great. Fished with Lupe from southwest charters sunday from 330 to 730 and had a great time. Fishing there is different from any place ive ever been. There is a blanket of bait covering the lake and the trick is to find a spot marking big fish with no bait and dropping the downriggers to that depth. The transducer is mounted in the front of the boat and the 4 downriggers are synced. When you see them while trolling 2.5 mph you take the trolled baits (we were trolling spoons) to them. There is alot of redfish in that lake, some times they were bumping the downrigger lines they were so thick. We caught 6 reds that were in the low 20"s and kept three for dinner. Later that evening i caught 2 right at 33" and fat. We took pictures with those and returned them, although there is no maximum on the size. The AVET SX spooled with 20lb topshot on 50lb braid worked great and i put it on a all star gamefish special that was limber enough to work in a downrigger and both of the big reds were caught on my rod which was cool too. They were taking some drag and burning my thumb and the guide just loved the lever drag for trolling. I brought the 7ft OTI and Stella 8k in case we live baited but never did. It was 240$ and was worth it to get a pull from a big fish...

[LEXPRO]

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[Uncle Russ]

Thanks fro the report, LEXPRO. Here's what I want to know, though about fishing that lake: I am too lazy to rig all those outriggers and too cheap to hire a guide. So is it possible to just fish Calavaras the way everybody fished for everthing when I was a kid--by running out to a likely spot on the lake and tossing out about 8 rods baited with everything from soup to hay?

Also, how does the flavor of freshwater reds compare to the saltwater variety when you put them on the grill?

And finally, is the fight about the same?

Thanks,

Russ

[LEXPRO]

I saw alot of people fishing with bait but i was told 90% of them just catch catfish. The only guys cleaning redfish were guys with downriggers on the boat so i guess they were right. The best place to try with bait is on a place called the crappie wall that you can tie up to and fish next to. Lupe said the fish push bait up against the wall and you can catch them that way. The water is warm all year since its a cooling lake, it was mid 80's yesterday so the fish are active and strong. I havent eaten them yet so ill have to get back with you on that.