Del valle 1-1-13

[CRABBY]

Good work buddy,you guys did better than most,a nice striper an bow isn't bad for a day of fun.......Don

[JPFX]

After all the back and forth, we decided to go Del valle today. Launched at around 8:45 and as some of you warned, it looked like there was a ton of debris in the water. The color was that of chocolate milk. There was 1/2 dozen shore anglers but I don't know how they were doing it...it looked like the debris was pushed up solid to the shore-line, and about 50' thick. The debris for us cleared out within a few minutes of trolling, as we headed to the dam. The water clarity was the only issue. Tried trolling kastmasters, nedlefish, wedding rings w & w/o dodgers for not a single hit. After about an hour, my rod flung out of the downrigger clip which was at 11' deep. I was 200' out using small crome flashers with 1/2 a crawler. By the fight I was experiencing, I was expecting a good 5, 6, maybe 8 pound rainbow. I was actually dissapointed when we pulled in my 20" striper. Nothing else for 2 hours. Stopped and anchored in the middle so we could lite up the BBQ. I used 1 rod and dropped a treble hook down directly below the boat and instantly had nibbles but nothing took. My buddy dropped hi down with orange PB and within 1 minute had a taker that nearly took his rod over the side of the boat. A second later and we boat a nice 19" rainbow. We stayed and dunked bait for the next 1 1/2 hours without a single nibble. Decided to head in after that. Beautiful day even with the occassional cloud cover.
As far as the water considitions go, like I said the water is brown and although it looks like the lake is full of trash, it is very trollable. We did not have to clean debris off any gear during the trip. Ran over a log or two though...
Thanks everyone for the help.