You never know about the fishing in Calaveras. One day you can't take them off the hook fast enough and then the next day, not even a bite. Many times during a fishing trip,I have had them biting like crazy and then suddenly nothing. Sorta like it was all planned, but you would think that 10% wouldn't get the word to quit at a certain time. I guess that's why they call it "fishing" and not "catchin".
Roger

Seems to be alot of folk in here from San Antonio, I am as well and have been looking for somebody to go fish Calaveras or Braunig during the week sometime. I have a boat and I am willing to take out a couple of you all with me sometime. Sounds like almost everybody in h ere knows of a hot spot or two...Anyone interested let me know. The boat I have is an 18' Pontoon (FYI) Again if anybody would like to hook up and go throw a line in for Bass or cats let me know.

I gave calaveras a try Thursday morning, very slow for cats. I did manage to catch 2 reds drifting with live tilapia. Those rascals were huge ! Everytime I thought that they were about to give up, they'd clean my reel again. After I had finally whipped them, getting them into the boat was another thing. I use a device that locks onto their lips and then you can (try) to pull them into the boat. After all that, I turned them loose. Had a great time, just wish the cats were hungry.
Roger

I went Tuesday and Alex went on Thursday and we both did good on the rip-rap by the railroad on shad. Get this-neither of us caught a fish until 10:30 even though we both started at daylight. All of a sudden, they turned on. We were both fishing shallow under a cork. I caught 18 and Alex got 14.
I had been doing fairly good in the upper end but the Tilapia netters roar in and the catfish scatter.
Jess

Made it out this morning. It was a pleasant morning with overcast, and a cool light breeze. Fished the rip rap with cut shad under a cork, and had steady action up until the wind laid at arount 10:30. Caught 12 and also kept four of those big bluegill. I've got to say this was the best morning to be fishing that I've had since last spring. They weren't jumping into the boat by no means, but enough action to keep your interest, and pleasant temperatures, it just doesn't get much better!

A side note: I caught about five 12" footballs, that were largemouth bass. Seems they may be about to make a comeback. I've been catching small ones quite a bit lately, near the reeds.

You just never know when they're going to bite. It seems that the more you go, the luckier you get. Works the same for deerhunting.
Roger

Got to agree with you on that Roger. I depend a lot on reading the reports off the forum. Sure beats the old newspaper fishing reports we used to use years back. Shoot I might have done a lot better fishing them old bass tournaments if I'd had access to a TFF forum back in the 70's. We just have it too easy now days! What's nice about this forum is you can get your fishing fix, and know what's going on even if you can't make it to the lake. Thanks to all the valuable info you guys provide.

Hey FishnGonz...That's a very generous offer, but I seldom ever know I am going fishing until the night before. It's very hard for me to put together a planned fishing trip. I can't help but wonder how I ever found time to work before I retired. If I can give you any ideas, just give me a yell.
Roger

If you find the fish, what you were using will catch them. Shad works good too, but liver, worms and shrimp along with stink bait will catch channels at Calaveras all day long. You just have to locate them. Try the overhangs under the shady areas where trees overhang the banks. Fish shallow.

When some of you get the chance, fish Braunig at night, opposite side of jetties, between lighted areas. Anchor just out of the light (quietly) and cast shad or punchbait out parallel to the jetty. The action is pretty steady. When that peters off, troll around the jetty with shad or punchbait under a cork and spot fish near rocks and shaded areas. This always produces plenty of 4lb+ fish for me.

Well we went to Calaveras this past thursday night for a few hours, the fish were not biting at all, the wind was blowing a bit and we were just out there relaxing. My oldest was using his rod with a lure and using my younger boys rode with a nightcrawler, nothing was hitting, my boy takes the rod w/ lure out and goes over to tell me something, when suddenly you here a "PLOOOP" sound from the back of the boat, I instantly knew what it was, I grab the spot light and shined it in the corner and sure enough, the rode that had the night crawler on it for the past hour and 1/2 with no action was now being dragged across the lake by an unknown rod thief......my guess would be a rather hungary catfish that just hooked and pulled it right out of the boat. My oldest just stood there in disbelief....Saying " I can't believe that just happened" and that was the action for the night.

Forgot to mention, I may be taking a trip out to Calaveras Tuesday morning if anyone is interested in jooining me. Could use some pointers on where to go and what to try.....Let me know if anyone is interested in joinng me ! Just drop me an email

Gonz: Do you have a castnet? If not, you really need to get one. Catch your shad around the boat dock launch area before daylight or around the crappie wall and railroad bridge is good to catch bait. It's just something about fresh shad those cats can't resist. I tried some fresh shrimp, and only got one bite, and that was probably a bluegill. Fish shallow about 2' below a cork and use whole dead shad or cut shad, and you will catch catfish. If you fish around the reedbeds and the rip rap, I almost guarantee you'll catch a few. I'm assumming you don't have a trolling motor so anchor for a while and if nothing takes your bait after about twenty minutes move just a short distance down the bank. Once you catch a fish, you should be able to catch several more from the same area. Give it a try! And good luck!

The weather report for Tuesday is favorable, with mostly clouds, and wind from 6 to 10 with gusts to 16 later in the day, with chance for late thunderstorms. Check this link!
http://wwwa.accuweather.com/forecast-hou...=6&metric=0

Braunig is without a doubt a good night fishing lake. Easy to find your way around, and well lighted, landmarks. Never forget one night long ago, me and a friend spent a night fishing for cats, and finally crashed around 3 a.m. I heard a blood curdling scream from the back of the boat, followed by unprintable curse words. My fishing partner wrapped the line around his big toe so he would be awaken when he got a bite.....Darn near severed his big toe. Just shows what too many little brown bottles will do. He landed that 8# cat, bloodied toe and all!

Excuse me while I go get a towel to clean the sprite I just coughed up off of the moniter.
Me and my dad used to fish Calaveras as a kid into my teen years, the early to mid-80's. We used to fish what sounds like you guys call the power lines.when you enter the lake you go right. We had a 4-wheel drive Dodge. And I can remember alot of hairy trips down those muddy roads that we were crazy to even try to get through. It was always well worth it. We would wade the hydrilla & cattails for bass. I remember days that we would catch 40 bass in a day. We didnt realy even know what we were doing then, Just pitching worms into the openings in the weedline . When we got bored with that there was a solid flat rock in the water about 12 foot round that we would set up lawn chairs on in about 2 feet of water in the summer. We would catfish, and have little handlines, catching perch that you could see off of the white rock bottom in the yellowish water. I can see it like it was yesterday. PARADISE!!! With all of this talk about Calaveras, I have got to make that trip soon.