January 19, 2025 – Fishing the Forebay in January is usually slow. Cold weather, chilly water, heavy rains, and muddy conditions are the norm, but today was anything but typical. Maybe it’s because there’s something in the air—a feeling of renewal, like a rebirth of a nation. Or perhaps it’s special for a more personal reason: the birth of my second grandchild last week. Welcome to the world, Miles Gray Syn.
The day began foggy, but as I crossed the pass, the skies cleared to a perfect blue, and the wind was nearly still. At the launch, I met two well-equipped kayakers who stopped for a chat. They’d been fishing regularly over the past couple of weeks and reported solid success. Their setup featured spinning gear with white plastic flukes, which they used to troll the deeper middle sections. Interestingly, they were also targeting crappie.
I started near the powerhouse at the dam and landed two nice fish early. With the powerhouse running, I worked my way to the buoy line and focused on the edges of the rock wall current, a reliable spot in the past, but today it yielded no results. Moving downstream with the current, I found success in the tailout, where fish were more active. Spot-locking in the middle of the tailout, I cast a T14 Outbound Short fly line, swinging a small Clouser Minnow across the current. Every 5-10 casts brought a fish to hand. By the time the current slowed around 1:00 p.m., I had landed 17 fish from that spot.
With the powerhouse bite slowing, I shifted to the flats near Check 12, across from the water tower. Using LiveScope, I marked plenty of fish, but most of the stripers ignored my offerings. Eventually, I located a group of good-sized fish near some submerged tires. Jigging a small Clouser along the bottom finally convinced a couple nice fish to bite. By 3:00 p.m., I wrapped up the day with a total of 19 fish.
Not bad for a January outing.
Hard to believe that’s the same body of water that I saw this weekend, when it was cold and windy with very little sunshine. Nothing doing for any of the anglers along the shoreline of the Mederios entrance. Thanks for the report!