SACRAMENTO - If you like to catch big, bold rainbow trout or black bass, now’s the time to hit the waters of Lake Berryessa. Just ask Nate Kelxh of Big Nate’s Guide Service.

“Today I had returning clients Pastor Sean, Gil, and Parjeet out in Berryessa and they absolutely hammered them,” said Kelsch after a recent trip to the reservoir. “ I spoke with Sean yesterday. as the weather forecast wasn't looking good, and he opted to go for it ‘No matter what’ so I devised a game plan for the storm and in.”

“To no one's surprise, we were the only boat on the lake as the wind was blowing, the rain was coming down, and there we were right in the middle of it,” he explained. “Time to knuckle down and get on the fish!!! Good thing we went because it was lights out fishing. My crew scored three big limits of beautiful rainbow trout and 1 extra for me) 3 bass, a slab crappie, and a monster Sacramento pike minnow before lunch. We even landed all four fish during quadruple hook-up.”

“If you aren’t running the Trigger Spoon, Trigger Spoon Jrs and Optomizer Jrs from my Catch America fall/winter packages, you are definitely missing out on what you should be catching,” he continued. “Today we ran all of them as well as some stick baits smothered in Chrome Killer Scent from 16 ft down to 60 ft and had success at all depths. Speeds were between 2.4 and 3.1mph.”

After another trip, Kelsch reported, “This morning I had Bob, Christine and Kevin out on Berryessa for some more red hot huge Eagle Lake trout action and this group absolutely crushed them. They scored limits by 10:30 a.m. It was hard for me to keep all the rods in the water!”

“We had fish flying out of the water from 40 ft down to 3 ft in the air, Trigger spoon Jrs, Trigger spoons and stick baits led the charge from 15 ft to 45 ft, again smothered in Chrome Killer Scent on the new Big Nate's Trolling Rods.,” he concluded.

The spoon bite for largemouth, spotted and smallmouth bass is going strong at Lake Berryessa. Don Paganelli of Paganelli’s Bass Fishing reported catching and releasing between 20 and 25 bass while using Blade Runner Spoons at Berryessa on a recent trip.

“We even caught some trout while spooning at 40 to 50 feet on the main body of the lake. The fish were2 all nice and fat feeding on shad. We had lots of hits and misses, but that’s spooning. Get out while it lasts,” he urged.

On his latest fishing adventure, Paganelli reported, “Lake Berryessa smallmouth bass along with spotted and largemouth bass joined the party for some spooning action. Fish are showing from 40 to 50 feet and are still feeding on shad. We moved around a lot on this day trying to locate better fish.”

Reclamation now requires all boats launching at Lake Berryessa to participate in a seal program to prevent the spread of invasive golden mussels. All vessels wishing to launch at Lake Berryessa will be inspected, according to the Bureau of Reclamation:

A red quarantine seal will be applied for 30 days during which the vessel will not be permitted to launch. Vessels that have finished the 30-day quarantine may return to the lake and have the seal removed by authorized staff and will be allowed to launch.

For questions about this new protocol and vessel decontamination, contact BOR-Berryessa@usbr.gov.

Lake Berryessa is holding 1,358,787-acre feet of water, 85 percent of capacity and 118 percent of average.