The weather at Del Valle has been cloudy, with the sun warming through the afternoon. Early mornings in the 50s with temperatures rising up into the low 80s by midday. Water temperature at the dock reads 66-69 degrees.

One of our regular anglers, Jeff Cooper of San Ramon sent in a couple fishing reports. Here are his reports:

When I hit the lake on Saturday morning with full cloud cover and a nice breeze, I knew it could be a special day. I started across the lake from the launch and flipped a small patch of reeds. A few casts in, I hooked a decent three-pound largemouth bass from the thick cover on a Rage Craw. I motored up the lake to the top side of the long stretch of reeds along the shoreline; rainbow trout were sailing out of the open water behind me. With excitement knowing a big trout-eating predator was after them, I dropped my flipping stick and picked up my crankbait rod. I made a long cast with a ½ oz Red Eyed Shad lipless crankbait ahead of the busting trout. After a few cranks, my rod loaded and I set the hook. Immediately my Lew’s rod doubled over and the speed spool began to scream! There was no stopping the strength of this giant beast. As line continued to disappear off the reel and starting to run dangerously low, I turned to trolling motor on high and set off after it. With the chase in full pursuit, every time I gained a little line, the fish would take it all back. Minutes started ticking by and my forearm was weakening from the sheer force of the weight. By now, the giant had drug the boat down the opening of the narrows. The fish stopped running as I continued to wind, regaining most of my line back at this point. I killed the motor, as the giant was ready to come up at the boat. It was the largest striped bass I had ever encountered. I quickly grabbed my net, which was dwarfed in comparison to the fish. Gently the monster entered into the bottom of the net, with over half its body outside. I laid my rod down to use two hands to hoist it up. The beast made a last ditch effort and tried to dive down through the net. Holding tight, it ripped me right out of the boat! Now I am treading water with an unhappy half-netted fish. We wrestled around as he is kicking, and I am manually trying to force it back into the net. Success! The only thing left is to hoist the heavy weight over my head to get it into the boat. (Not an ideal way of landing a fish!) Well, I managed to get it in and climb back in myself. I quickly fired up the gas moto and pulled to shore at the camping area where some kind bank fishermen helped me out. We weighed the striper at just over 22 pounds! They took some photos for me since my phone was in my pocket, and was now ruined! After a change of clothes, and some time to regroup, I headed back out and continued to catch some nice largemouth bass. You never know what to expect when you go to Del Valle, but this taught me to prepare for anything! So grab your gear and I will see you on the water!