Kokanee And Smallmouth Bass Highlight Union Valley's Summer Fishery   By: Dan Bacher June 27, 2007 More Articles by Dan

Union Valley Reservoir, a Sacramento Municipal Utility District reservoir located at 4.900 feet above sea level in the Crystal Basin of the Sierra Nevada, features some of the largest and hardest-fighting kokanee found in the state. It ranks with Whiskeytown, New Melones, Indian Valley and Don Pedro as a consistent producer of hefty kokanee.

"You have got to come up to Union Valley and fish with me!" exclaimed Mark Damron of Get Bent Guide Service in an email to me. "I really got into them over Memorial Day weekend. The kokanee are already running up to 18 inches."

His daughter, Courtney Gaunt, topped the catches with two kokanee over 18 inches that weekend. Meanwhile, Ken Mathis of Ken's Custom Tackle also reported great action on kokanee averaging 12 to 14 inches, with his top fish this year going 19-3/4 inches long.

I replied to Damron immediately. "Put me down for Saturday," I told him. When the weather in the Sacramento Valley heats up in the summer, you can generally find me fishing in mountain lakes and streams above 4,000 feet, on the ocean or San Francisco Bay. I hadn't fished Union Valley in a couple of years, so I was ready to be "challenged" by its feisty kokanee.

I met Damron on the lake at the Sunset Boat ramp at 9:30 am; he had already been fishing there for several hours. "The fishing was red hot when I got here at 6:30 am," he said. "I've kept four kokanee and released a bunch of other fish. I got one fish around 18 inches near the boat, but it came off."

Unfortunately, the bite didn't hold up when we got back on the lake and began putting down our spinners, tipped with white corn, behind Sep's Sidekicks and 3/0 watermelon dodgers. We fished Damron's spinners and Bob Sparre's radical Glo spinners in a variety of colors at 35 to 45 feet deep, but caught only one 12 inch kokanee while fishing in this location.

"Let's go over to the powerhouse where the water comes in from Loon Lake," said Damron. Fortunately, the kokanee bite was much better over there. Over the next hour, we caught around 10 fish, keeping four landlocked sockeyes in the 12 to 13 inch range and releasing the rest.

The bite, if not smoking hot, was very steady and all of the fish were fat and healthy looking. Unlike some lower elevation lakes where many of the fish sport copepod parasites, you won't find any copepods on Union Valley's fish. The fish were so hot that at one point I lost three fish in a row, including one "monster" kokanee much larger than anything else we hooked.

The kokanee in Union Valley are a mixture of planted and naturally spawned fish. The Department of Fish and Game has stocked the reservoir with 25,000 to 50,000 kokanee fingerlings annually in recent years.

The wind made fishing increasingly difficult, so we both agreed that going back to the original spot would be a good idea. There we finished up with our last two fish, both fat kokanee in the 12 inch class.

"Union Valley produces kokanee as large as any lake in the state," said Damron. "I usually start fishing the lake in May, but the top time for size and numbers of fish is July into August."

Ken Mathis said he couldn't recall a time where fish in the 17 to 18 inch range have showed this early in the season at Union Valley. "I won't be surprised if we see 20 plus inch fish before the end of this kokanee season," he noted.

Mathis has been taking limits of kokanee while using his UV Pro Glow spinners behind blue/nickel dodgers. "Our largest fish have been caught on the strangest lures," he quipped. "Our biggest fish to date this season, the 19-3/4 inch kokanee just under 3 pounds, fell for a watermelon Wee Wart."

Smallmouth bass offer a sleeper fishery at Union Valley - and the population seems to be improving in size and numbers. While Damron and I were trolling for kokanee, we saw Ron Williams of Camino and Hayden Coit catching bass around the inlet and rockpiles in the Yellow jacket areas.

They drop shotted with smoke colored Robo Worms in 5 to 13 feet of water, catching and releasing 13 bass, including some in the 12 to 14 inch range, before we left the lake.

Bigger smallmouth are found in the reservoir. One of Mathis' clients landed a 3-1/2 lb. smallmouth during a trolling adventure last year, while a friend of Mathis showed him a photo of two bass weighing 7 and 5 pounds that he landed this spring.

Mackinaw trout are the trophy fish at Union Valley. Fishing for them isn't easy, but the rewards for those willing to put in the time can be superb. In March 2006, Dave Winters caught and released a giant mackinaw weighing 23 pounds, 7 ounces while trolling with Mathis.

2006 was a phenomenal year for macks, while the fishing this year has been much tougher. Nonetheless, one of Mathis' clients managed to nail a 22 lb. 7 oz. mack this spring.

"We had 3 to 5 fish days this spring, followed by a week where we didn't get any mackinaw," he said. "However, we still managed to release around a dozen fish over 20 pounds throughout the season, along with many smaller fish averaging 5 to 8 pounds. We also lost one fish right at the boat that was the largest mack I've ever seen at Union Valley."'

Mathis experiences the top mackinaw success in the spring while dragging his lures on the sandy ledges in 65 to 85 feet of water. He entices his macks with Double Flutter lures, Bettencourt Baits' triple jointed Assassins in kokanee and rainbow patterns, and frozen herring behind 10-inch dodgers.

During the summer, the mackinaw fishing is much slower, but Mathis and others catch mackinaw while trolling below the schools of kokanee as they start to suspend and form schools in the thermocline.

The lake is stocked with 6,000 pounds of rainbows every year, but the rainbow fishing is slower at Union Valley than Loon and Ice House reservoirs. The DFG plants at all three lakes will be doubled after the hydropower relicensing agreement between SMUD, PG& E and the federal and state agencies, signed in January, is implemented, since SMUD will be required to match the DFG plants.

The reservoir has a fair population of brown trout, but Mathis would like to see the DFG stock the lake with more browns to bolster the populations. If you want to catch browns, you should fish the other SMUD operated Crytal Basin lakes. The browns are very abundant in Ice House Reservoir, while good numbers of browns are also found in Loon Lake, Gerle Creek Reservoir and Junction Reservoir    

Union Valley Reservoir Facts  

Location and size: The conifer-lined SMUD lake is located on Silver Creek, a tributary of the South Fork of the American River, in the Crystal Basin Recreation Area of Eldorado National Forest. The reservoir, situated at 4,900 feet above sea level, holds 277,300 acre feet of water when full.  

Access: From Pollock Pines continue on Hwy 50 east 9 miles to Ice House Road. Turn north on Ice House Road toward Crystal Basin and travel 16 miles.  

Seasons: the reservoir is accessible year-round. Ice fishing is not recommended due to fluctuating water levels.  

Camping: Overnight camping is available at Jones Fork, Sunset, Lone Rock, Azalea Cove, Wench Creek, Yellowjacket, Wolf Creek, Camino Cove, and Westpoint Campgrounds.  

Boating: Boat ramps available at Sunset, Yellowjacket, or Westpoint.  

Bait, tackle and groceries: Can be purchased at Icehouse Resort on Ice House Road, (530) 293-3321. Gas, lodging, tackle, bait and supplies are also found in Pollock Pines and Placerville.  

Guide services: Mark Damron of Get Bent Guide Service, 530-320-2741, email Damronpilothill@aol.com, www.getbentprofishing.com; Ken Mathis, Ken's Custom Tackle, (530) 647-2306, ken@kenscustomtackle.com, http://www.kenscustomtackle.com; Dale Daneman, Dale's Foothill Fishing Guide Service, http://www.dalesfoothillfishing.com, fishpvl@wildblue.net; Kyle Neeser, Crystal Basin Tackle,?530-306-4113, fishon@crystalbasintackle.com, www.crystalbasintackle.com.  

Facilities Information: Pacific Ranger District, 7887 Highway 50, Pollock Pines, CA 95726, (530) 647-5415

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