# Lake Calaveras/braunig redfish



## JarettEverett (Mar 12, 2014)

Now that I have your curiousity, do any of you guys fish these lakes for redfish?

They have been stocking redfish in our local lake for 3 years now. So some of them should be good catching size by now. I've been trying to pattern these fish out for a year now and I have had no luck.

This is a powerplant lake but the plant only runs when they need more power to the city. With that being said, it's still a warm bodied lake. It's been in the 40's the past couple of days and the lake was consistently 65 degrees today. 

There are no contour maps for this lake and it is really flat and a sandy bottom. Very minimal structure. I've spent countless hours trolling this lake and only finding one school of something. And whatever they were, wouldn't bite. 

After all that time I realized there was a cooling pond that has a creek on it that feeds into the lake. There is no wall to keep fish from going up this creek into the cooling pond. So I figured all the fish would migrate in there for the winter. When I went today the power plant wasn't running so the cooling pond would be regular lake temp. So that kind of debunks that theory. 

With all that being said, I would be interested in hearing your tactics for braunig and calaveras. I don't know redfish well enough in general to pattern them out, then add that they are freshwater so patterns are a tad different. 


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## Sunbeam (Feb 24, 2009)

What are the forage fish in the lake? I remember back when Fairfield was an active redfish lake some of the 2coolers used the local tilapia as bait.
PM Meadowlark or Jackieblue 
. they were big redfish pros back then.


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## JarettEverett (Mar 12, 2014)

Sunbeam said:


> What are the forage fish in the lake? I remember back when Fairfield was an active redfish lake some of the 2coolers used the local tilapia as bait.
> PM Meadowlark or Jackyblue
> . they were big redfish pros back then.


That's the question I would like to know too.

There are no tilapia in this lake, I wouldn't think. I assume the crawfish are thriving. Lots of rock dam for the crawfish to hang out in. In the fall I'll catch a lot of bass using crawfish rattle traps. There's no grass in the lake but a lot or reeds.

I've seen shad flicker, so there is shad.

I also found freshwater shrimp in a near by like so I'm curious to know if there is any freshwater shrimp in there as well.

Brim population seems to be doing ok.

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## Deer30 (Feb 25, 2014)

Lots of Tilapia in both lakes along with shad!!! lots of shad!


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## photofishin (Aug 7, 2009)

JarettEverett said:


> Now that I have your curiousity, do any of you guys fish these lakes for redfish?
> 
> They have been stocking redfish in our local lake for 3 years now. So some of them should be good catching size by now. I've been trying to pattern these fish out for a year now and I have had no luck.
> 
> ...


I beg to differ on the contour maps. Get a Navionics Hotspots chip or go to fishingstatus.com and you'll see all the contour you want. It does look like the upper portion of Calivaras is missing contour but most of the lake is mapped.


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## fieldsfishing (Aug 10, 2014)

Good bit of contours on those bodies of water looking at the sonar chart 1ft contours.


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## JarettEverett (Mar 12, 2014)

photofishin said:


> I beg to differ on the contour maps. Get a Navionics Hotspots chip or go to fishingstatus.com and you'll see all the contour you want. It does look like the upper portion of Calivaras is missing contour but most of the lake is mapped.


I'm not fishing those lakes. Those are just other lakes with freshwater redfish. The lake I do fish that has them in there as well doesn't have contours on navionics.

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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

They eat the crawfish like candy. Use the biggest you can find and even peel some and gob on the hook.
A crawfish pattern crank bait and some diver cranks that run different depths, probably fire-tiger pattern too, will do the trick some days.
Frozen shrimp is an easy go to bait when others are hard to get.


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## fieldsfishing (Aug 10, 2014)

Being a saltwater/backwater marsh angler, I would be interested in hearing how the redfish act in these lakes... what depths are they in, drops, humps, etc, how they move, etc... Pretty neat.


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## flex (Jan 8, 2018)

They used to be in a lake near waco until they closed the plant. Never had any luck targeting them other than getting hit by one occasionally bass fishing a rattle trap or spinners.

Good luck. Hope you figure them out! 

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## big D. (Apr 10, 2010)

Iâ€™ve tried Calaveras twice for reds and hybrids. I wanted to catch each of the species on the same trip and compare the fight.

I was skunked twice and will not be going back. 

The guides troll downriggers all over and I did see some guys tie up to the wall and cast inside toward the plant catching fish.

Iâ€™ve also heard that the fish move to the dam rocks in the spring and can be caught casting gold spoons. 

I covered the entire lake and fished live, dead and artificial baits with nothing to show for it. In fact I never graphed a school of fish.

I did catch a mix of shad, tilapia, and sunfish in my cast net.


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