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Dry Falls

2K views 21 replies 13 participants last post by  Islander 
#1 ·
Any recent DF reports? Planning on heading over later this week.

MB
 
#2 ·
Not a true report . . .but about a month ago I stopped by the overlook. Lake was as low as I've ever seen. The entire southwest end was a mud flat and it appeared that the launch closest to the outhouse was unusable. There were about a dozen boats on the water. Good luck and I'm interested to hear your report.
 
#5 ·
The buzz word for the water over here is Odessa Aquifer. It's been drawn down for a while with more water being used for irrigation than what's replenished. That's why Castle lake is down, Wilson Creek has a bunch of dry creek bed and other little waters are down or non-existent. I fished Wilson Creek for trout back around 1990 and it had good running water. I explored the same area last year and there was dry creek bed. No water, no trout. More water demands in the last 25 years.
 
#12 ·
I traveled,through the rain and mixed snow an rain on Thursday, destination DF. The pass was crap but it quit when I hit Eburg.

Fished DF on Thursday. Took a bit to get set up, first day is always like that. Hit the first fish on type VI with a rabbit fur zonker, couple of other hits. The fish that I hit on this was one of the smaller ones so I could have just been at their depth. Had quite a few other bumps, smaller fish(?). Moved into the north shallow bay, no love there. Went back to "goose poop rock", in the channel by the island. Hit a couple of nice fish there. Moved to the south bay and hit a couple more fish down about 10'. Moved to the area below the observation area and fished towards the reeds, a couple of more fish to be had there. Except for the one on the zonker, all these others were on either the red SJW worm black snocone. I WAS ONLY ONE ON THE LAKE!

Ran into the state park area manager - Sun Lakes & Steamboat, a contractor and a local fly club guy. Due to the low water, there is some interest in improving the north launch area (the south launch is unusable). Not an easy project with wetlands. The water was as low as I have ever seen it and another 1-2 feet will make it darn near impossible to launch at the traditional sites. Some discussion whether the draw down last year on Banks affected the H2O level at DF, hmmmm. The other alkai lakes east of DF pretty much dried up.

On to Saturday. With the mixed success on Friday, I pondered heading home. Wait, traveled 4 hours through crappy weather to catch just a few fish, tent camp in the 30 degree temps - gotta at least try. Besides, I had to pick up a bat detector that I set on the island. I picked up the detector and set to do a bit of bobber fishing. First cast, take down, one fish to the net. Next two casts, take down. Hmmm, looking good. I stayed in one spot and ended up with 10 fish by 0900, and left with 20 to the net at 1030. There were some misses too. This was all on bobbers, 10' down. So, to answer the question, yes, you can fish below an indicator in the fall / winter.

One other float tube guy showed up just as I was leaving. That was the only other person I saw on the lake.

The fish were healthy, except for one snaky guy. Small guys, 10-12' are feisty, most were in the 16 - 18" range, all bows.

Done on the dry side for the season. Always nice to make one more late trip.

Sorry for the length of this, I'm not usually this wordy - long drive and a couple of toddys.

Safe travels to ya - And thanks to all the veterans and their families.

MB
 
#17 ·
Ed - duh.... - Good one

The bat detector is used to hear the echolocation signals to determine what bats are in the area. You can record their signals and
'make" them discernible as to what bats are around since their signals cannot be heard. It is interesting stuff.

Screw he fishing - lets talk about bats. I didn't catch any bats.

You guys re funny.
 
#19 ·
This is a follow up on the bat detector.

No bats detected the first night in Sun Lakes State Park.

On the island in Dry Falls:

First bat was a canyon bat - Parastrellus Hesperus - Used to be known as "evening bat" since they were often the first one out flying.

At 1751 - California bat - Myotis Californicus

At 1803 & 2118 - Little brown bat -Myotis Lucifugus

At 1903 & 2118: California bat again.
 
#21 ·
My brother in law works for Cascadia Research and is one of the local bat experts. He actually found the nursery colony under a pier at Woodward Bay in Olympia. He provided the bat detector. Who knows, it may even end up in the Oroville area.

It was interesting that a pair of peregrine falcons made a nest in a tree - which is unsual - by the colony, and they would hunt them at dusk when the females headed out for the night foraging. Too bad for the pups when mom didn't come back.
 
#22 ·
When I first moved to the Island I went to a Bat Seminar. The woman who put it on had a "bat detector" and we used it to find some in the area. I later looked into getting one but if I remember they were pretty pricey. We have a bat house I made up on the southern side of our roof. They come back every year and "hang out" until it gets cold. Most likely Small Browns as best I can tell. They migrate like some bird species. I have the the pieces for another bat house if your interested Rick.
 
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