Fishing Notes:
Union Valley. The "Everyman's Lake" Of Crystal Basin
By Dan Bacher

Union Valley Reservoir, located in the gorgeous Crystal Basin of the American River watershed, is one of those Sierra lakes that seems to have something for everybody, an "everyman's lake" including planted catchable rainbows, trophy mackinaws, abundant kokanee, wild brown trout and even a fair population of smallmouth bass

Located at 4,900 feet elevation in El Dorado National Forest, it is a popular camping and fishing spot for anglers from the Sacramento and San Francisco Bay areas. From Union Valley, it is a short drive south to Ice House Reservoir and a longer drive north to Loon Lake.

Union Valley was created as part of the Upper American River Project, a series of hydroelectric power plants in Crystal Basin, by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District. SMUD and the U.S. Forest Service cooperatively manage the facilities.

I remember my first visit to Union Valley when I was 10 years old; I was on a Boy Scout camping trip and caught five rainbows fairly quickly in the morning while fishing salmon eggs from the bank. It wasn't until 35 years later, on July 29, when I went to the lake again, this time with Chris Dunham in the Fish Sniffer's 16 foot Lund boat. I had heard for several years about the big mackinaws that are caught in the lake.

Mackinaws are the big predators of the lake, with fish in the 10 to 20 pound class taken every year. The lake compares with Donner Lake as a trophy mackinaw fishery, but it doesn't give its secrets up easily, according to Stafford Lehr, DFG fishery biologist. The reservoir is planted regularly with mackinaw fingerlings; this year the DFG planted 1,000 mackinaw in the lake.

Jim Brittain of Sacramento, who caught a 24-1/2 pound monster mack at Union Valley last year, piqued my interest about the reservoir when he called me about a recent trip to the lake that produced two macks I weighing 10 and 15 pounds. Before Chris Dunham and I made our trip, he advised us on how to catch the macks.

"During the summer, your best bet is to fish in the afternoon from noon until 6p.m.," he advised. "Troll M-2 Flatfish for the larger macks and nightcrawlers behind flashers for the smaller macks at around 100 feet."

"It doesn't really matter what to use for them as long as you drag the bottom," added Brittain, who also uses Rebels for the macks. "I've used frog, silver/blue lures and other patterns and have caught fish on all of them. However, you want to fish as slow as you can. The fish are found all over the lake, particularly in the fingers."

It was a warm summer morning when we arrived at the lake and launched the boat. Our strategy was to fish for rainbows and kokanee in the morning and then try for mackinaws in the afternoon. We looked for Bob Simms of the KFBK Outdoor Show, who was planning to fish Union Valley the same day. However, we couldn't find him, so we decided to go up to the lake's powerhouse, where Simms advised us to fish for rainbows.

The fishing started out promisingly as we trolled to with the Mercury 50 hp four stroke motor. The powerhouse was running, as evidenced by the swirls of water near the powerhouse. We put down two rods, both with nightcrawlers behind flashers, and I hooked up a scrappy 13 inch rainbow on the first pass. On the next pass, Dunham also got bit, but he didn't land the fish. We made two more passes, but the water stopped coming out of the powerhouse, so we decided to go near the dam to look for Simms.

Rainbows provide the most consistent action at Union Valley usually. The DFG planted the reservoir with 8950 catchable rainbows weighing 5,700 pounds this year, so lots of fish are available.

Simms, who had got there the night before, was fishing for kokanee, but had only caught and released three small rainbows so far when we located him. "I got a concentration of kokanee corralled here," he said. "If I get them to bite, I'll shout for you to come over."

We wanted to catch more rainbows, so he advised us to troll at 15 feet deep along the dam. He had found good action on a mixture of planters and holdovers during a previous trip while trolling chartreuse/silver 1 inch Apex lures and a #1 Needlefish with a red head, chartreuse body and silver tape.

However, while fishing around the dam for an hour, we didn't hook up any more fish. We saw Bob release a 14 inch mackinaw and a 9 inch kokanee, but that was it. We also saw Ed and Jason Ritchie jigging for mackinaw near the dam with Gibbs Minnows. Ed caught one 2 pound rainbow, which turned out to be the nicest fish we saw all day.

At 12:30 p.m. we went to fish for mackinaws, along with several other boats. The wind was howling, making it increasingly difficult to troll. We heard reports of several anglers catching small mackinaw, but we never actually saw anybody catch a fish while we trolled. We saw rainbows on the graph at 15 to 30 feet and mackinaw from 65 to 140 feet, but neither species wanted to bite.

Kokanee can be good at times for anglers trolling Sockeye Slammers, Ted Bugs, Cripplures, Wedding Rings and other lures. "Usually by June anglers are knocking the fish dead, but this year the fish are still spread out," said Bob Simms. Union Valley kokanee are known for their exceptional size; fat fish in the 17 to 20 inch class were taken here last year. The DFG planted the reservoir with 50,000 kokanee fingerlings this season.

Smallmouth bass are a sleeper fishery for anglers at Union Valley. The main problem is the lake's outstanding water clarity. "The water is so clear that you have to finesse the fish. The big fish are very hard to catch; you'll catch 15 undersized fish for every keeper," advised Simms. "Use small 4 inch worms with dart heads or Caroline rigs while splitshotting in open water. In the weedy areas, use Tiny Texas rigs with 1/16 ounce heads."

The lake has four boat ramps at Jones Fork, Peninsula, Yellowjacket and West Point near the dam. Camping is available at the Fashoda, Jones Fork, Sunset, and Wench Creek, Yellowjacket and Wolf Creek campgrounds. No store or marina is located at the lake, but the Icehouse Resort has fishing tackle and groceries available.

For camping and other information, call the El Dorado National Forest, Crystal Basin Recreation Area, Pacific Ranger District, (530) 644-6048. Fishing information on Union Valley and other Crystal Basin lakes is available by calling the Icehouse Resort (530) 293-3321.

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