Monster Quest

The waters of Northern California’s Lake Natoma look serene enough, but there are monsters lurking out there…somewhere…

Monster rainbow trout, that is. Granted not a lot of them, but some legit beasts — most recently, a 27 pounder was pulled from the lake a couple years back and there have been other 20’s, including the 23 pounder caught on a bobber and worm by a young kid a few years prior.

Lake Natoma is a small reservoir that serves as the afterbay to much larger Folsom Lake, just upstream. And it’s Folsom Dam — the powerhouse turbines to be exact — that makes the trout grow huge here. Rainbows introduced as ruin-of-the-mill truck trout head up into the canyon above Rainbow Bridge…

…and park themselves just below Folsom Dam to gorge on ground up ponsmelt and other tatsy goodies that gut sucked through the dam. Since the dam is on Folsom Prison property, it’s off-limits to anglers so the closest you can get to the “Glory Hole” is the half mile of river above the bridge.

That’s exactly where VinMan and I headed the other morning, on our once every 5 years, whether we need it or not run to chase the monsters of Natoma.

You’d think that we’d get over to the lake more often considering the potential for greatness it provides, but we only seem to get a trip in every half decade. Part of the deal is that those big fish are rare and pretty random and seldom seen by anglers. Back in the early 1990’s it seemed like the fishery was more productive, but these days it’s pretty quiet.

Though I’ve been several times over the past 20 years, I’ve yet to get a big bite there — my only success coming from 12- to 14-inch bows. I guess I shouldn’t beat myself up too much..I mean, how much of a pattern can you dial in going every 5 years?

Anyway, we decided to give ‘er a go on Saturday, and pushed up into the canyon for a morning troll session.

We marked a few fish — nothing exciting, really, but on our second pass, I finally got that good takedown I’ve been seeking for so long…

On 30-pound braid and a striper plugging rod, the fish felt heavy — I instantly knew this was no planter ‘bow. He stayed deep, which didn’t worry me too much — I figured a giant football-shaped rainbow might not be the leaper that his smaller cousins tend to be. It was more of a king salmon, dogged-type of fight, the fish hanging well under the surface the entire time. If it sounds like I’m stalling a bit here, well…you’re right…because the instant before VinMan slipped the net under the fish, I caught a glimps of him and knew that it was going to be at least another 5 years before I landed a trophy rainbow at Natoma…

Seven pounds of pure heart-break! The worst of it was he fought waaaay better than any other squawfish I’ve caught. Normally, these things just roll over when hooked but this guy actually had me believing for a minute…Oh well, there’s always 2013!

Tagged as: california trout fishing, folsom dam, lake natoma, monster rainbow trout, trolling