LAKE CONDITIONS: Lake Camanche's current elevation is 208.2 feet above sea level, a drop of .6 feet this week. The lake will drop slowly this week.??There is currently no water flowing into Lake Camanche and water is flowing out of Lake Camanche at 343 c.f.s. The surface water temperature at the marina has warmed up to 79 degrees. The Sechi reading for water clarity down to 20 feet.

TROUT: Trollers continue to find great trout action at Lake Camanche, especially those who get on the water early, or late in the day. Camanche regulars Dick Garlinghouse and Bob Roth, both from Rancho Murrieta, had a great time during the week. They caught 10 trout, up to 3 ?? pounds, while trolling with flashers/nightcrawlers. They were trolling near Hat Island and the dam, and were down between 25 to 35 feet deep.

Another group of Camanche regulars from Ceres had a super night of fishing last weekend. Larry Carrera, his sons Lorengo (age 9), Julian (age 11), and Pepe Coria, caught 4 limits of trout, one crappie, and 2 bass while fishing overnight near the dam. They had 35 pounds of trout, with the big trout at 5.5 pounds. They were anchored in about 35 feet of water, and were using nightcrawlers and Power Bait. They hooked a big trout that night, and lost the fishing rod overboard. The next morning they hooked a big trout again, and when they reeled it in they found it was the trout they caught the night before, with the fishing rod and line still attached to the fish. They got the rod back, and put the trout in the ice chest. Way to go!

Another group of Camanche regulars also had a great time last Wednesday night while fishing at Dike 3. Don Maierhofer, Kurt Seagle, and nephew Jon anchored overnight in 45 feet of water, and caught 3 limits of trout, from 2- 5 ?? pounds. He said most of their fish came from 25-35 deep. They dropped a submersible light down under the boat, and had all their fish by 11 p.m. Don said that there is nothing better than catching big fish, while hanging out with your family.

Legendary Nevada fisherman, Steve Nish, was at Lake Camanche on Thursday with a friend. They took a pontoon boat out to the dam to relax for the afternoon, and decided to fish for trout for a few minutes while they were relaxing. They anchored near the dam in about 35 feet of water and dropped Power Eggs down to the bottom, and Steve caught 3 fine trout, including a beautiful, fighting 3 ?? pound rainbow that played Steve for about 10-15 minutes. All fish were caught in the afternoon, and all in about 90 minutes.

BASS: We have rescheduled our annual bass plant for this coming Monday, July 23rd. The fish truck will be arriving at North Shore Camanche about 12 noon, and we will be happy to have any volunteers with boats that will be willing to help us take buckers of bass fingerlings to different areas of the lake. If anyone is willing to help us with the bass plant, please contact Eldon, at North Shore Marina at 209-763-5166. We will allow any volunteers to have a free day on the lake for the day of the bass plant, as well as giving all volunteers another free car/boat pass for any other day they would like to come back to Lake Camanche. We will be providing free lunch to all volunteers (courtesy of Raley's Supermarkets in Elk Grove), and we appreciate all of the people who are helping to make this a fun event.

Dan Maboloc, from South San Francisco, reported that he had a very mixed day of fishing last weekend. He had 3 nice bass on his rod that all got into submerged trees and broke him off. Then he landed one nice bass on a drop shot Magic Worm. He also caught 2 nice catfish at 4 pounds each, and another 3 pound trout. The catfish and trout were all caught on mini crawlers, up the river.

CATFISH:Local Camanche regular, and catfisherman extraordinaire, Dean Wade, has been catching a lot of nice catfish this week. On Monday he went out and caught 9 fine catfish, up to 6.5 pounds, and caught 3 like that a couple of days before that. He fishes in the main lake, in the coves and bays, in about 20-25 feet of water. He likes the rocky areas, and always uses mackerel for bait. He caught all of his fish from 6:30 a.m. to 11 a.m.