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Los Vaqueros Reservoir

Fishing Los Vaqueros Reservoir

Los Vaqueros Reservoir is a beautiful reservoir, set amidst towering turbines and golden rolling hills. In between Livermore and the Central Valley proper, it can be a long drive from the Bay Area but can provide excellent fishing at the right times. It is stocked with trout by the DFW, and the local management plants trout and catfish. Native striped bass and largemouth bass also provide opportunities. See reports.

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About the Lake

There are two main access points to Los Vaqueros. The first is from the south — by following Los Vaqueros Road, you’ll eventually get to the marina, where bait can be purchased and boats rented, and a parking lot provides a starting point to the southern half of the lake. The other alternative is Walnut Blvd from the north, which will put you right by the dam.

Typically, the southern side is the more popular access, as the fish are stocked in the “South Cove”. From South Cove to the marina, fishermen do well for trout and catfish, especially if you get the timing right after a plant. However, it can be very crowded, and the shore can be lined shoulder to shoulder with fishermen. It can also be quite windy on this side, so bring a jacket.

By following the Los Vaqueros Trail north from the marina, you can get some access to more peace and quiet, that dramatically increases the deeper you go into “Cowboy Cove”. A couple of spots along the trail here can provide consistent action on striped bass and trout. Keep walking along the trail, and you’ll eventually get to an oddly beautiful part of the lake, where flooded old trees provide cover to a wide variety of shorebirds. The water is shallow here, but it seems that the trout can congregate here at the right times.

Flooded trees at Los Vaqueros

Flooded trees at Los Vaqueros

If you start from the northern side (or if you’re willing to walk long enough from the south), you’ll eventually get to so-called “Peninsula Cove”, where you’ll get access to a similarly quiet side of the lake. If you’re fishing deep enough into the stocking season, fish will have made it over from South Cove and the fishing can be quite good thanks to the lack of pressure.

One alternative to all this hiking is renting a boat from the local concessionaire (no private boats are allowed). With a boat, you can not only fish all of the above areas, but you can also fish “Howden Cove” and other spots on the eastern side of the lake that are closed to shore fishermen thanks to the wind turbines. This again can make for good fishing, even without a recent plant.

For the striped bass, seems like the bait of choice here is cut anchovy.

There are also some big largemouth bass in this lake — you can hunt them down in the less fished areas. Your classic bass baits should do the trick.

Notes

The management charges both a $6 parking fee and a $6 fishing fee. Expensive, but can be worth it if you can find the fish.

Check out my Bay Area trout fishing guide.

For the trout:

Powerbait Micetails

A piece of soft plastic infused with Powerbait flavoring. These days, I far prefer micetails over Powerbait, as I think they have a bit of extra attraction in moving water. Additionally, micetails are way less messy than the Powerbait, and you don't leave random floating pieces of plastic dough floating in the lake after you're done fishing. To make sure they float, use a size 8-10 mosquito hook.
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Mini jig, 1/16 or 1/32 oz

A small tube that can be twitched in the water to entice wary trout. Keep your rod tip high, and wiggle the lure in the middle of the water column. Can be very effective, especially if you can see the fish. Can be hard to cast far, unless you're using very light line (2 - 4 lb)
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Acme Kastmaster, 1/8 oz

One of my favorite lures for trout fishing, very useful for covering a lot of water and finding where the active fish are. It's a very aerodynamic lure that can be casted quite far on light line. I've had the most success on stop-and-go, erratic retrieves. Use gold Kastmasters on sunny days or in murky water. Use silver Kastmasters on cloudy days or clear water. Kastmasters can be somewhat expensive - South Bend also sells Kastaways which are somewhat cheaper but can't say I've personally used them.
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Panther Martin, 1/16 oz

A classic trout spinner. I like a retrieve with many erratic jerks with these spinners, to let the blade flutter as much as possible. Traditionally the gold blade with black body and yellow spots has been the most effective for me, but the other colors should also work.
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Powerbait

The classic trout bait. I typically use micetails in favor of Powerbait these days, but sometimes the original dough will work when nothing else will. Take a small bit of the dough, and mold it around a size 16-18 treble hook on a sliding sinker rig. Cast the bait out and just let it sit. It can smell kinda bad, so be ready to vigorously clean your hands afterward. I've linked the garlic flavor, but the corn and original scents work just as well. I personally don't think the color matters a whole lot, but some people swear by chartreuse.
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Thomas Buoyant, 1/4 or 1/6 oz

A Kastmaster alternative. It casts a somewhat smaller distance, but the spoon has a slightly different fluttering action that seems to sometimes entice more hits.
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For the bass:

Yamamoto Senko

A must-have soft plastic for bassing on the West Coast. I usually fish these wacky-rigged - basically just sticking the point through the thickest part of the worm without any weight. Cast it out and repeatedly jig it, letting the Senko flutter back to the bottom. It seems to work quite well on the heavily pressured lakes in the Bay Area. Green pumpkin is traditionally considered the best color.
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Strike King Spinnerbait

Spinnerbaits are my favorite lures for covering water when bass fishing, as not only do they provide a lot of action and noise, but they also are relatively weedless compared to other hard baits. Honestly the brand doesn't matter too much here - I've linked the brand-name Strike King lure here. Like other lures, stop-and-go retrieves are the way to go.
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Hula Popper

Poppers are my favorite topwater baits - there's just something so appealing about the way they chug and spit water on the surface, and the way bass attack them so aggressively and visibly. Brand doesn't matter too much here again - I linked the classic Hula Popper. Keep your rod tip low to the water, and repeatedly jerk the lure. You can also "walk-the-dog" on good poppers by repeatedly wiggling the lure in a particular direction, once again with your rod tip close to the water. Your popper will start darting side-to-side, creating action that no bass can resist.
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Disclaimer: the above purchase links are mostly Amazon Affiliate links that help me keep this website running. I use all of the above products every time I go fishing.

Recent Reports

Before the Ball at Los Vaqueros

31 Dec 2024

Happy New Year everybody! We saw that the local management had stocked trout on the 30th, so we decided to make the drive over to do a bit of exploring! We started our day at the South Cove, throwing micetails and Kastmasters. However, it was very crowded and the fishing was slow — over the 2 hrs we were there, we didn’t see anyone catch a single trout. As a result, we decided to head up into Cowboy Cove, and hopefully try to track down some holdover trout that might be a little less lockjawed. There was a bit more life here — we saw an eagle catch a trout, a couple bass surfacing, and a few fishermen catching stripers, but the fishing was similarly slow.

A skunk of a day, but Vaqueros is always pretty enough to make it worth it.

After a long day at Vaqueros

After a long day at Vaqueros

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