May 22, 2023.  Life is good when you can spend more days fishing in local waters than working at the office  throughout the week. After a couple of days fishing The Sac and Oroville Lake, I decided to explore the Forebay today due to high winds at the lake. The water in the Forebay is gradually warming up, ranging from 65  to 72 degrees. There is some noticeable current flowing out of the Mendota Canal, while the powerhouse is only at a trickle now.  Although the visibility is not great, it is still better than that of the Sacramento River.

Given my limited fishing time of a couple of hours, I decided to change fishing spots if I didn’t get any bites within half an hour at a particular location. Consequently, I moved around quite a bit today. I encountered some sizable schools of stripers, particularly around the powerhouse and in the deeper middle section of the lake, reaching depths of 30 feet. However, I had trouble finding any stripers that were willing to bite. I did manage to catch a few Smallmouth bass, but it seemed like every striper in the lake was ignoring my flies. Nevertheless, it was encouraging to see some weed growth, even though they are still concentrated in the lower half of the water column. The high water levels appear to be delaying the usual growth patterns in the Forebay and Lake. Typically, by this time of year, the weeds would have already reached the surface. Unfortunately, if there was a hungry striper in the Forebay, I certainly didn’t come across it. Next time, I’ll opt to fish at the lake instead.