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Anglers finding big success — and big trout — on Lake Amador

Stacy Barawed landed this gorgeous cutbow trout at Lake Amador during a January trolling adventure.
Stacy Barawed landed this gorgeous cutbow trout at Lake Amador during a January trolling adventure.

IONE — Weekly plants of huge trout from Lake Amador’s on-site fish hatchery have boosted the trout catches on the reservoir since the New Year began.

Stacy Barawed, host of Stacy Goes Outside on YouTube, got a chance to sample the trout action at Amador recently when she caught an 8.06-pound cutbow while fishing with Gary Bush and Eric Carrillo on Gary’s brand new Hewescraft from Boat Country in Ripon.

“We were trolling at 2.5 mph in the dumping rain around the mouth of Jackson Creek when the fish nailed our orange and gold Speedy Shiner on the downrigger at 14 feet deep,” Barawed said. “We used a Lamiglas X11 rod spooled with P-Line braid and fluorocarbon to hook the fish. We caught a total of seven fish that day.”

Trollers fishing lures and bank anglers tossing out PowerBait are both catching trout at Amador. “Just make sure to fish in the top 10-feet of water,” Lee Lockhart of the Lake Amador Resort advised.

Seven hundred pounds of cutbows were released, half by the dam and half by the spillway, on Jan. 5, including 100 trout tagged for the lake’s derby. On the next day, the resort planted 525 pounds of Amador Golds, making for a total of 1,225 pounds last week.

Patrick Moore caught the Big Fish Record for January to date, a 10.78-pound cutbow, while dropping Power Eggs near Jackson Creek on Thursday. Yeng Vang of Stockton caught the second largest trout to date weighing a whopping 9.62 pounds.

Other successful anglers include Marium Mundy, who had the battle of a lifetime on a fly rod when he reeled in a 9.16-pound cutbow on Friday near Rock Creek, and Leilani Roper from Oakdale, who landed a 7.85-pound trout on a gold Colorado lure from a boat on Saturday.

Corey Murdock Loomis won December’s big trout season pass giveaway with the 9.32-pound trophy cutbow he reeled in on Dec. 30.

Finally, Paul Thompson III caught his personal best trout by the spillway after fishing at the lake for years. His rainbow weighed 10.56 pounds, but he was not in the derby.

The lake level is now only 10 feet from full and the surface temperature is 50.5 degrees. The water clarity is 6.5 feet of visibility. Information: (209-) 274-4739.

Lake Camanche rainbows: Weekly rainbow trout plants from Mount Lassen Hatchery continue to go into Lake Camanche on the Mokelumne River. 1,200 pounds of trout, 5-20% of them trophy-sized, went to the North Shore ramp on Jan. 7, according to the Lake Camanche Recreation Company.

A whopper: Giant rainbow trout caught in diversion pool below Oroville Dam

During the previous plant, a total of 3,300 pounds of rainbow trout went into the lake, including 900 pounds into the Trout Pond and 2,400 pounds at the North Shore Ramp.

A 9.21-pound rainbow and 2.8-pound bass topped the catches in the recent Fish Fest at Lake Camanche.

Edgar Duhaylungsod of Stockton won the trout division in December with a 9.21-pound rainbow. Ivan Yang caught the second biggest trout, a 9-pound rainbow. Matt Brown led the black bass division with a 2.8-pound bass.

Robbie Dunham of Koke Machine Guide Service is finding excellent fishing while trolling at Lake Camanche. His latest two trolling adventures each produced limits of quality rainbows.

Lake Camanche is holding 191,270-acre-feet of water, 46 percent of capacity and 77% of average. The lake level is 199.62 feet in elevation. Information: (866) 763-5121.

West Delta sturgeon: Sturgeon fishing in the West Delta and Suisun Bay has been tough lately. Gary Chaffee and his buddy caught and released a 55-inch sturgeon at Buoy 9 south of Grizzly Bay on the latest trip by Zack Medinas of Gatecrasher Fishing Adventures. The fish hit salmon roe in 20 feet of water. Information: (925) 497-7171.

On the Delta: 8-year-old lands hefty white sturgeon on Sacramento-San Joaquin River

Captains Medinas and Virginia Salvador will present a seminar, “Pursuing Delta Sturgeon,” at 4 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 20, and noon Sunday, Jan. 23, at the ISE Sacramento Show at Cal Expo: Information: sportsexpos.com.

Contact Record Correspondent Dan Bacher at danielbacher53@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on The Record: Lake Amador fishing: Anglers finding big success, big trout