It's the Terrible at Fishing radio show on Gold
Country Radio. Here's your fishing expert and
host, Michael Ruffino. Welcome back everybody
to Terrible at Fishing. I know, Terrible at Fishing.
That's a funny name for a show. Especially for
you to tune in. and find out about fishing. I
am the expert at being terrible. So this week,
beautiful week, starting to get the bug. I went
to the five fishing clubs meeting on Tuesday
and we had a biologist there for ODFW. His name
was Bill Tenniswood. And he had a wonderful presentation
on all the rivers and not all the lakes, but
we're going to talk about because I did ask about
them. Um, and the creeks and stuff like that.
His, his, um, suggestions and where to fish and
some of the fish accounts, you know, probably
wondering about salmon and steelhead. So we're
going to be covering. all of that in today's
show. And I am doing this before I forget everything.
I did take a picture of all of his slides. So
I'm looking on my little phone here, although
phones are not little anymore, and I'm going
to try to refresh my memory of all the things
that he mentioned. So let's talk a little bit
about some of the simple leaks around here. Before
we get into other areas like Lake County, so
I mean that's I'm not even sure Lake County is
not like Far East from us. I do believe and And
he said he made it sound like everything was
really really really really far away Yeah, okay,
it's east of Klamath so it's pretty far But we're
going to talk a little bit about Lake County,
as well as Klamath County. But let's talk about
Lake of the Woods. Around the perimeter, it has
perimeter thaw, you know, so from right along
the banks and then you've got sort of an open
area to the ice. So, but it still has, you know,
ice out on the majority of the lake. Fish Lake.
has more open water but still a lot of ice on
Fish Lake. So if you want to do some bank fishing
you probably can get some fish off the banks
at both of those lakes right now. He gave me
some wonderful information about Gerber Lake
and Thompson Reservoir. Thompson Reservoir is
one of those that they've been stocking really
really heavy. They expect a lot of great fishing
at Thompson Reservoir. Also, over at Gerber Lake
too. Gerber Lake is another great lake that will
spill over this year. The crappie are really,
really good there. It's a great crappie lake.
To be honest... I mean, there are two lakes I
like to go crappie fishing at, which is Emigrant
Lake in Ashland and Gerber Lake over here. If
you go south of Gerber Lake, there's Willow Valley.
Willow Valley will spill over too. I happen to
like Willow Valley, but if you go there, you
really need to understand that lake a little
bit in order to catch some really big bass. and
it's a great big bass lake. But there are certain
areas of that lake that are fantastic for big
bass. So we do have some really good fishing
just around here. Now they're actually spawning.
The bass are actually in spawn right now over
in Bonanza on Lost Creek. Lost River. Lost River.
Lost Creek. I always get them confused. But anyway,
in the hot springs there. So, there's some really
good fishing that's going to be hitting there
pretty good as soon as they spawn. So, it's really
a fantastic time. Like I said, we're starting
to get the itch, aren't we? So, let's go over
some of the things that I learned this week at
the Fly Fishing Club's presentation. So, at Lake
County, which is east of us. come to find out.
It's pretty, pretty, pretty far away. But, you
know, when we had our droughts from 20 to 22,
it pretty much dried up everything. So, in 23
and through this year, last few years, we've
had really good water, above average water years,
from 23 to 25. So, some of the eastern reservoirs
I don't even know what a rain shadow is, but
he mentions they're in the rain shadow. Some
of you probably know what that is. So Warner
Pond is one of those ponds that is doing really,
really well right now for trout. And it is a
very good pond. And also the Duncan Reservoir.
The good news is the bullhead, because of the
drought, it had dried it up all the bullhead
that people have planted in there are gone so
you don't have to worry about them it was spilling
over in 2023 and it's spilling right now and
they were stocked with fingerling and 10 inch
trout in 23 and 24 so the fishing there should
be hitting pretty good then there's heart lake
heart lake in 2022 was treated with rhodonin
and To remove all those brown bullhead catfishes
and rhodonone is Something that is common. It
removes the oxygen out of the water But it comes
back. I mean after the rhodonone does its work
really comes back and becomes a very good eco
environment for food for the fish and In 1955
Lake of the Woods was treated with it because
of the sucker fish and it killed everything in
Lake of the Woods in 1955. And look at Lake of
the Woods now. It's my favorite and probably
one of the best fishing holes you could go to.
It's been stocked with fingerlings, eagles, and
trophies of rainbow trout and to jump start that
fishery. So and then there's Hart Lake. Heart
Lake is fishing very good right now. And boy,
you showed me a picture of something like, I
think it's a saddest, biggest, fattest rainbow
trout over at Big Rock Reservoir. Now, Withers
Lake looks like a really cute lake. I got to
check this lake out. It's probably too far for
me to go, but Withers Lake, it looks... durable
and it is a uh you can't you know with withers
lake you can't take um a gas engine on that so
it's got to be an electric or a float tube or
something like that um blue lake uh is doing
really really well and you want to use those
blue lake damsels um they showed the inside of
one fish evident they like these little boogers
Cottonwood Meadows is hitting really big trout
right now. The Brook Trout and Rainbow Trout
over at Cottonwood Meadows. But April and May
is the best time to be fishing them. And then
October and November. Electric motors only if
you have a motor at all. So if you're flying,
fishing, use minnow patterns, midges, and damsels.
Excuse me to walk in river is doing very well,
too And he was really stressing site four and
I think it was site eight Let me look Yeah, site
four and site eight were really the game changers
on the Chihuahua River so he is a He gave us
a lot of really good pointers there Places to
fish in 2025 in Lake County is the Warner Pond,
Cottonwood Meadows, Heart Lake, Duncan Reservoir,
and Rivers End Reservoir, although there was
a trick to get in there because that's private
property, but you got to go upriver off of 33.
And there's, he says a largemouth bass is hitting
really good there. I'm going to have to check
this place out. I think we're going to get a
little adventurous this season. And, you know,
I want to do more river fishing. So the boat
won't be used every time I go out. Although,
you know, it is an inflatable. So, you know,
maybe I'll throw a kayak in there or something
like that, you know, and maybe we hit some of
these places. So now Black Drake hatches. That's
what you want to use. on, you know, the the Williamson's
River. The Williamson's is one of those spots
and that you want to be using black tree catches.
Also the Sprague. Sprague is doing really well
and the Wood River has gotten some really big
old giant beasts out of it. Now he did show,
it's a strange picture, you got to see it, Sun
Creek Burk Trout. He shows this giant brook trout
with a rat in it, or a vole. Yeah, he ate it.
Dude, I did not know trout ate rats. I know my
boys the largemouth bass do, but this beast…
I got a picture of it right here. He ate a rat.
They got little mouths. They eat a whole wool.
Anyway, you can catch those babies on those.
So if you want to throw out a rat, you know,
or something that looks like it, you could do
that. All right. So he had this big chart and
this is the spawning. They've got spawning here
and then fish counts. So The only area that was
really in the positive was Crystal Creek and
its peak count was 357 at Crystal Creek. So it
was the only area that was actually up in their
fish count. Now there are some honorable mentions.
You know Crooked Creek and its tributaries. The
total red count there is 445. It's about normal.
And then we had the Wood River, peak count was
242, as well as the Sprague River and Comic Con
Springs peak count was about 251. So again, not
up, but not bad for those rivers. The Williamson's
had a peak count at the moment 98. So Um, I,
you know, the lower Williamson is one of my favorite
places for red banded. Um, you could catch some
big, I mean, I have a video on terrible fishing
of me catching a 21 and a half inch, um, red
band in the Williamson's as a fantastic, beautiful,
beautiful, beautiful, um, beautiful fish. So,
um, but the Williamson's I think. It opens up
on Memorial Day, so Indy 500 hits, so does that.
But if you're an indigenishing fisher, whenever
you want. Remember too, Williamson's only allows
a single prong hook. They changed that a couple
years ago. and treble hooks are outlawed there.
So you don't want to be caught with treble hook
on your line. I made special bucks just for the
Wood River or for the Williamson's River. I've
never done the Wood River. Again, I'm going to
be exploring, you know, a lot of these areas
and I want to see how these rivers and creeks
actually fish. And since I'm learning how to
fly fish, it's just one of those things I'm going
to have to figure out and go ahead and do that.
All right, so we're going to take a break here
and then we're going to go into what the biologist
said about the dam removals and where to fish
on the Klamath when it opens up. and what their
counts are thus far. You might not be surprised,
you might be surprised. So stay tuned and please
support Community Radio and the station and hey,
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locally. Welcome back everybody to Terrible at
Fishing for the second portion of our show this
week. Well, we've been talking a lot about cold
water fishing in that first segment and I love
cold water fishing. I love warm water fishing.
I just love, I mean, later on in the summer,
we're going to be top water fishing. And that's
just fun. But, and it's fast, it's exciting.
It's visual, visually pleasing. But this time
of year, and I use the word seducing, that this
time of year, it's slow. It's methodical. It's
got to be romantic. This is between you and that
fish in the water. And you've got to romance
them a little bit. You've got to entice them
a lot a bit. And yes, you can catch warm water
fish in cold water. But I will tell you something
about warm water fishing or warm water fish in
cold water. They're very, very lethargic. That
means and they're not real aggressive. But the
bass, they're gonna be coming up here pretty
soon in order to lay their eggs and spawn. And
they're coming up and they're very, very hungry
because during the winter months, they were at
the bottom of the lakes, these deep bodies, without
feeding a lot. So they're coming up, they gotta
hit, they gotta feed really, they gotta feed
a lot. in order to make up for that winter. And
then they're going to be sitting on top of their
beds in order to hatch their eggs and guarding
their eggs. So this is an interesting thing.
So in the first part, we talked about trout and
salmon and how we need to seduce them. Well,
this time of year, we're also going to be working
the bass and The bass this time of year are going
to be hitting not hard baits but soft baits and
We're going to be working bigger baits now with
the cold water fish. We're working finesse all
right, but with I'm pulling this jig out. And
with the bass, we're going to be working much,
much bigger because, well, bass are hungry and
they need to gorge themselves in order to set
themselves up for their spawn. So usually I like
a shaky head Jig The one I've got in my hand
is a black and blue Three -eighths of an ounce
shaky head. It's a swiveling Jig and it's a five
-aught hook Much bigger hook when we were talking
earlier, which are you know 10s 12s 14s or even
18s? Because that's for trout. Now, we're working
a jig with a 5 -ot hook. And we're going to add
a soft plastic onto it. There's lots of different
soft plastics we can add to this. Claws, creature
baits, things like that. Or even paddle tails.
And we're going to go with a sort of a green
pumpkin with red flakes, blue flakes. And we're
going to put that onto this jig. And then we're
going to just toss it out there and we're working
the bottom. We want to attach this so it's weedless.
We want to skin hook it. So we're putting this
on there and then we've got a skin hook on it.
we're just putting that we're tucking the tip
of that hook into the body of this bait and we're
going to drop it down and we're going now you
could use a paddle tail you could use a Senko
um whatever you want you know i i do like paddle
tails also a really good bait to use is a ned
rig ned rigs we usually We'll skin hook that
too and we've got a mushroom headed jig and we'll
just drop that down. Now the nice thing too about
that is that we could go very very very finesse
and again it gives more life to that. I also
like the paddle tails in the heavier and bigger
hooks because it also has really good life to
it as we bounce it off the bottom. So now we've
thrown this thing out there and we're working
sort of a drop -off area and a point. So if there's
in your water body a point, this is as the fish
come up from the bottom, these warm water fish,
They're going to be traveling up onto this drop
off to a point. And they're going to feed and
they're going to dive back down. So it's very
transitional for a warm water fish to work for
you to work a cold water body. So they're going
to come up. They usually come up to a point.
on a lake and then dive back down. So we're going
to be working this thing up onto a drop -off,
up to the point, and then back down. By doing
this, the fish are going to come up. They're
trying to gorge themselves because they know
an inversion is going to happen in a month or
so. And they're trying to belly themselves up,
really fatten themselves up. in order that when
they do come up, they're going to be nesting
on hard surfaces in shallow water out of current.
So that's where they nest. And this time of year,
Shasta Lake is just awesome. Although I don't
fish California anymore, but Fat Shasta Lake
actually has a highway of warm water fish. And
when you look at the fishing chart, depth chart
on them, you can actually see a highway. And
they will come up and there's so many points
that they come up and those are just high quality
fishing. on all those points. And then what ends
up happening is that the warm water fish will
retreat into coves in the shallow area with hard
packs, usually rocks, pebbles, even wood. They'll
put their eggs on and within about a three feet
of water. I do not fish. I do not bed fish. I
don't bed fish. A lot of guys do, and gals, bed
fish, but I usually let them have their time.
For a few weeks, they're going to be sitting
on their beds. And if you do bed fish, I mean,
it's hard to get them to hit, but by bed fishing,
you really gotta release them. Get them back
onto their beds. Please, catch and release. I
catch and release anyway but with bed fishing
you want to be able to get them back onto their
beds rather quick and let them do their thing
because we want more bass. Also the nice thing
about hatching is that it creates food into the
water and a lot of people will say well match
the hatch. What does that mean? Match the hatch.
Well, matching the hatch means that you're going
to throw what the fish are feeding on. Well,
I do do that, but I also go, I make baits. You
know, this time of year I'm making baits and
my best baits in cold water and or inverted water
Because what ends up happening is that when lakes
and water bodies invert, it clouds up the water.
And it's a good time to see, obviously, where
you lose clarity in the water. It gets cloudy.
That's an inversion. That's what happens. Inversion
is the best time to throw dark baits. It's the
best time to throw a dark bait. And by throwing
a darker bait, the fish are able to see profiles.
Also, you can hear that knock. It's a low, deep
knock. That knock is an alarm system. It's the
siren. I'm just all over this analogy, right?
The knocking of a bait is sort of the siren's
call to the fisherman, or to the fish in this
case. And we want to draw them towards us in
a very seductive way. And putting an ox, you
know, bearings inside a bait for fish is a great
way to call them to the bait. And having a darker
bait, it allows you to present they are able
to see it in a profile. A light bait, you know,
bright color baits in inverted water, they don't
work very well because they don't see the profile.
And in order to see color, okay, you need light,
right? You and I, we can't see color unless there's
light. In the dark, everything's black and white.
In fact, Really hard to see anything in the dark,
right? But in dim lighting situations It's you
lose color, but you still have contrast and that's
what you have to put in the water when it when
lakes are inverting and I Love black and blue.
I mean ask any fisherman black and blue baits
in the spring work really really really well.
And as I'm creating baits, I'm focusing a lot
this time of year in those darker contrasting
baits. So I've got color shifting, you know,
dark green baits. I've got blue on black and
black on blue baits. And these are the baits
I'm creating right now. If you throw jigs with
worms, on it, or even whether it be a Senko,
a creature bait, or a Ned rig, you're going darker
baits. You're going black and blues. This is
the time of year to go with that. Black and blue,
purple and black, things like that. That's what
you want, because we're about to see an inversion,
but we also want to catch as much as we can this
time of year. remember no matter what you're
throwing you're going to work it slow really
really slow slow and purposeful this is a slow
dance all right this is Lionel Richie you know
and you're just working the slow dance but as
soon as they hit you've got to get ready for
Johnny B Good You know Chuck Berry is gonna,
you know, the DJ is going to switch records and
you're going to boom go into You know a rockin
time That's the fun part of fishing this time
of year it just is so you know in the first segment
we talked about You know cold water fish. Well,
warm water fish can be caught this time of year
and but you still have to go slow and methodical.
You just gotta, because those fish are going
to go after bigger baits, warm water fish are
going after bigger baits, but you have to present
them in a very slow, methodical way and get ready
to set the hook. This is another reason why you
have to have really good hooks. You gotta have
sharp, sticky hooks. Alright, sticky, you can
tell a sticky hook by just putting your finger
on it. You know, if it sticks to your finger,
you got yourself a good hook. And that's what
you need. A lot of times you will buy a bait
and it doesn't have a very good hook. So you're
going to swap the hook out for a really good
hook. I use fluorocarbon leaders or fluorocarbon
this time of year and I use Gamakatsu hooks or
even beast hooks. but the Sixth Sense also makes
a really really good hook. I don't know what
brand hook they use but they use a really good
hook and you want it to be really sticky so when
they hit it you can set the hook easily. I hope
these pointers help you this week but go to the
lakes you can launch your boats and you can have
a really good time out on the water for cold
water fishing. You guys take care tight lines
to all of you and we'll see you guys out on the
water I hope. That was Terrible at Fishing, the
radio show with fishing expert Michael Raffino.
Check out Terrible at Fishing on YouTube and
tune in next week for the next episode and more
great fishing tips. Terrible at Fishing, Fridays
at 7pm on Gold Country Radio.