Riverfront Regional park fishing (windsor CA)

[BacklashPro]

So i have to go on a week long family vacation with the in-laws. Yaaaay. But Im bringing all my gear and I have the green light to fish whenever I want. The only body of water near windsor (with the exception of clear lake about an hour and half north) that I see is riverfront regional park.

anyone fish these lakes? Or know of any good fishing in the area?

[longshot]

There are fish in the ponds but it isn't very productive as it was anymore just like any good place to fish the word gets out and the meat hunters move in.
Lake Sonoma is about 30 min drive from there. Great Lake to fish especially if you like to night fish.
Good luck and have fun.
L.s.

[Stratos278]

just drive a little bit South to Santa Rosa and hit Spring Lake. Absolute TOADS in that pond!!

here's a link with some info:

http://parks.sonomacounty.ca.gov/Get_Ou ... _Park.aspx

This lake does not allow gas motors, electrics are OK. If you do bring a bass boat, just leave the big motor raised up out of the water and use the trolling motor. Kickboats and 'yaks are also a good bet

[Stratos278]

There are fish in the ponds but it isn't very productive as it was anymore just like any good place to fish the word gets out and the meat hunters move in.
Lake Sonoma is about 30 min drive from there. Great Lake to fish especially if you like to night fish.
Good luck and have fun.
L.s.

I assume you are going to be bank fishing? If so, shoreline access at Sonoma can be difficult. The only really accessible areas are around the main launch, the Marina, or Yorty Creek.

[BacklashPro]

just drive a little bit South to Santa Rosa and hit Spring Lake. Absolute TOADS in that pond!!

here's a link with some info:

http://parks.sonomacounty.ca.gov/Get_Ou ... _Park.aspx

This lake does not allow gas motors, electrics are OK. If you do bring a bass boat, just leave the big motor raised up out of the water and use the trolling motor. Kickboats and 'yaks are also a good bet

that is 15 minutes from where I am staying so that sounds nice. How is the shore access there? Any suggestions on what to use? Im used to so cal lakes so I usually use the whole gambit. Small drop shots with 4lb flouro up to 10 inch swimbaits on 65lb braid.

[Stratos278]

I personally haven't fished that lake, but a lot of the folks in my Club have. I will try to pick some brains tomorrow during/after our tourney on Sonoma. in the meantime, here's a link to the Western Bass lake info page for Spring Lake:

http://www.westernbass.com/ncalifornia/ ... id=0000169

Hope this helps

P.S.
Don't pay any attention to the lake map the link brings up, that is for some other Spring Lake, in Iowa. But the reports section is valid and should give you some idea of what works.

[drdetroit3]

Spring Lake has some toads, it only has 6" of visability now, have not fished it in a while but plenty of shore access. Senkos, dropshot, jig, I would get bigger line tho!!

Good luck

[BacklashPro]

Spring Lake has some toads, it only has 6" of visability now, have not fished it in a while but plenty of shore access. Senkos, dropshot, jig, I would get bigger line tho!!

Good luck

awesome thanks for the intel. I see a little lake to the west of it that looks like it once connected or something.. is that fishable?

[OU812]

The lake to the west is Lake Raphine, and it is fishable, known more for trout, but I'm sure there are bass there. Spring lake is the go-to lake over Raphine though. If you are fishing from shore, there is plenty of access, bring mosquito repellent! Most boats are small kayak/tube floaters, but like a previous poster said you can take a regular boat, just only a trolling motor, no outboards or anything like that. Lots of people at Spring lake, there is a path joggers use to run around the lake, lots of people.

The Riverbend lakes have lots of lillypad cover, limited bank access, it is great if you have a canoe or kayak, no regular boat launch(maybe a rooftop rowboat would be ok)

Rumor is a world record largemouth was caught at Spring Lake .

http://www.flwoutdoors.com/fishing-arti ... 51GuHko9jo

[BacklashPro]

Man spring lake is tough. Fished it two days now and can only manage a dink here and there
. Biggest one being about 1lb. Lake is super shallow, no matter how far out I cast it seems I can only get down about 10 feet. Makes finding drop offs, which are crucial in this heat, near impossible.


I have used everything, senkos , drop shot worms, spinners, crank baits, frogs, whopper ploppers, flukes on scroungers, Texas rigged sweet beavers craws and hogs and finally lake fork magic shad.

The magic shad was the only thing that worked, if you could call it that. 3 fish in 8 hours. So I'm guessing they just aren't biting? The heat?

[OU812]

My best luck came on carolina rigged grubs in crawdad colors, or senkos. Are you in a boat or fishing from shore?

[BacklashPro]

My best luck came on carolina rigged grubs in crawdad colors, or senkos. Are you in a boat or fishing from shore?

Shore

[OU812]

We usually fish the south and west sides of the lake. There is a finger that goes into the lake from the north side, the east side of that finger is shallow and weedy, deeper on the west end of the finger. I saw a guy get a 3lb bass on a live night crawler on the west side of the finger. I've always thought about renting a little row boat from the concession on the east side of the lake, never done it tho'.

There's a little lake off fountaingrove parkway at a little park called Nagasawa Park. I believe the lake is Fountaingrove lake. I've caught a couple there too, but shore access is limited. There is a boat ramp there, but best for a small canoe or something.

[Brianberndt93]

I've fished at all the places you guys have talked about. Fountain grove has a lot of smaller fish. The average size is from 1/2lb to 2lbs. The best way we have found is dropping senkos in the weeds and topwater. Lake ralphine has nice bass but never seen anyone catch one. I've gone to spring lake and caught one fish when I was younger and that was it. About 8lbs. We were just playing around in the middle of the lake. Riverfront is a lot of fun. You really need a boat to fish though. Average is about 2-3lbs.