While the big kokanee salmon and rainbow trout that this lake is known for draw most of the angling attention, the lake also features good populations of largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, channel catfish, redear sunfish, bluegill and crappie. Fishing is the main recreational activity on this lake, since boats are restricted to a speed limit of 10 mph, preventing water skiers and personal watercraft users from buzzing around the lake.

The 3,800 acre lake is located in the chaparral-covered hills on the eastern edge of Lake County. The Bureau of Land Management manages the Indian Valley/Walker Ridge Recreation Area that the reservoir is situated in, while the Yolo County Flood Control and Water Conservation District operates the dam and hydroelectric power plant below the dam.

The Department of Fish and Game, in cooperation with the California Inland Fisheries Foundation, has planted the lake with approximately 50,0000 kokanee every year since 1996, with the exception of 1999, when 24,600 kokanee fingerlings were stocked in the lake. The DFG also stocks Indian Valley with 9,000 pounds of Eagle Lake-strain rainbow trout every fall.

The lake produced hot kokanee fishing in 1999 and 2000, followed by slower fishing from 2001 to 2003. Jason McDaniel of Nevada City landed a 3 pound, 3 ounce kokanee at Indian Valley in 1999, but none that big have been reported since. The action for kokanee and trout rebounded this year.

"The kokanee and trout fishing has been excellent all season," said Mike Johns of Fairfield, before I fished with him for several hours on Sunday, August 29. "However, the kokanee action is winding down as the fish get ready to spawn. The fishing was at its hottest three weeks ago."

I was on the way from Fort Bragg, just the day after northern California anglers, family and friends held a memorial for Randy Fry, West Coast Director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance.

When I met Johns at 9:30 a.m., he and Teresa White had just boated four hefty rainbows to 3 pounds and one kokanee, as well as losing five others, in just 1-1/2 hours of fishing.

The lake was in very good shape, being only 30 feet from maximum pool. Although the Sierra Nevada suffered from a very dry spring this year, the west side of the Sacramento Valley received a surprisingly good amount of precipitation this season.

"My jet boat, Tytanic II, had some motor problems this morning, so we didn't get on the water until 7:30 a.m.," said Johns. "We're going to have to use my old boat, the Tytanic I, that I keep at the lake."

"Sounds great to me," I replied, "as long as it gets us on the water and back."

Johns, besides doing some contract work for the Yolo County Water District that owns the lakes, writes and emails a regular report on fishing conditions at Indian Valley. He obtains the information from anglers who fill out fish catch report forms after they fish the lake.

We began fishing in the cove near the south shore boat ramp. We put out two spinning rods, one with an Apex lure, tipped with white corn, behind a Vance's dodger at 55 feet and the other with a spinner, tipped with white corn, behind a Sling Blade at 35 feet. The fishing started off great, when I hooked and released a kokanee about 10 inches long. However, we had to wait another 45 minutes until we picked up another fish.

The fishing had slowed down from the morning's bite, but I still managed to boat my limit of two rainbows to 16 inches and three kokanee, including one male that was beginning to develop its spawning colors and kype, before we got off the water. Both the kokanee and rainbows were fat and healthy - and had none of the unsightly parasites that I have seen at some other foothill lakes.

"I wish you could have come up several weeks ago when the fishing was red hot," said Johns. "It was hard to put a lure down without getting bit."

"Hey, I'm not complaining at all," I told Johns. "I caught my limit of kokanee and rainbows in a short period of time - that's a good day of fishing as far as I'm concerned."

Besides, we were fishing in the late morning and early afternoon of a very hot day, the worst time to fish a lake. Plus, it was a full moon and near the end of the kokanee season.

While we trolled, Teresa, Trevor and Mike White also caught two quality kokanee. Trevor landed a 15 inch kokanee, the biggest I saw while I was up there.

Besides producing good fishing for trout and salmon, Indian Valley also yielded solid crappie action this year. Most of the fish are smaller "hand size" fish, but the lake occasionally produces slabsides to 3 pounds. C. Rollins bagged the largest crappie weighed in during recent years, a 3 lb. 1 ounce beauty, while fishing a crankbait.

"Both bank anglers and boaters catch crappie at Indian Valley, but the largest fish are taken by boaters," according to Bob Watson, who with his wife, Estela, runs the Indian Valley Store and other facilities on the lake. "Mini jigs and minnows are the best baits."

Unfortunately, some anglers still don't seem to acknowledge that there is a bag limit on crappie (25). A DFG warden cited one fisherman this year with 470 crappie.

Channel catfish provide a sleeper fishery at Indian Valley. The lake record stands at 39 pounds, but fish in the 10 to 20 pound range are caught every year. Catfish action is best for anglers using mackerel, clams and nightcrawlers at night. One of the best times to fish for catfish is when the kokanee are trying to spawn near the boat ramp at the south end.

Indian Valley has an excellent largemouth and smallmouth bass fishery, but most anglers who target bass here are pretty tight-lipped. An angler bagged two Florida-strain largemouths weighing 14 and 13 pounds in the summer of 1998, according to Watson.

The six mile long, one mile wide reservoir, completed in 1975 on the rugged North Fork of Cache Creek, provides long-term irrigation storage as well as reductions of flash flooding in Cache Creek. Besides fishing, the recreation area offers hunting, camping, bicycling, and hiking and equestrian use.

Wildflower enthusiasts can find pockets of the rare Indian Valley Brodiae and Adobe Lily in the area.

Two boat ramps are available, one on the south end and the other on the north end. For more information, call the Indian Valley Store, (530) 662-0607, or the Yolo County Flood Control & Water Conservation District, (530) 662-0265, http://www.ycfcwcd.org. For guided fishing trips, call Rich Tipton of Lucky Strike Charters, (707) 585-8050.