Lake Braunig Redfish from the Bank

Hi all,

I would like to try fishing for Redfish from the bank...except I have no idea what set-up I will need, baits..etc.

Any suggestions appreciated.

Not sure about Braunig, but I used to fish Calaveras a long time ago for catfish. People that fished for Reds there would use large surf rods and cast out live shad or crawfish in the deeper channels. I'm assuming Braunig would be similar to Calaveras.

Last time I was out at Lake Calaveras, the guys on the banks were catching consistently with powerbait. Those lakes are out of rotation for us though, because the entry fees are about as high as they are for Sea World.

I went last month. Don't remember what the charge was but didn't think it was overly expensive. * $8 according to their web site.

Back in the 90's I worked at both Braunig and Caleveras as a park ranger for SARA. Caleveras produced more redfish from the banks. Only spot I could land reds at Braunig were at Redfish point. Even with a surf rod, I would wade out to chest deep water and chunk out a live crawdad.

Ok, thanks.

I can try Calaveras just as easily. Any recommendations there?

Same concept at Calaveras. My best luck was closer to the dam bank fishing.

Went yesterday at sun up and fished the top arrow on your map. Used shrimp and fishbites on my 10' surf rod using 5 oz weight and double drop rig. Caught my first red!....about 10 inches long.... haha!

Regarding that location (known to some as the "horse shoe" to some), we were right on the western tip casting straight out as far as we could. Reeling in, we got a lot of hangups and lost a few rigs. Early on, my partner hung into something pretty big and strong but when he got to within about 10-15 yds of the bank he got hung up. The fish was still pulling but he couldn't get it loose so had to break the line off. Moving to the north side worked out a little better with no hangups but we didn't get any fish.

The only thing I can come up with is to use different shaped weights...we had pyramids on from a previous surf fishing trip.

Congrats on your first red!! Not sure what the hang ups are all about. I don't recall ever getting hung up on that lake anywhere. Could be rock in that area. In that case, I would use a rounder weight and possibly raising the hook off the bottom.

Thanks! Went back this morning but using bank weights instead of the pyramids we used last time. Still lost 3 rigs to hangups about 30-40 ft off the NNW area, right where the point of your arrow is, when reeling in. Both times we were using double drop rigs. So we picked up and moved to the North side and no more problems. Today we caught much larger fish. I caught 2 in the 18"-19" range on my 7' Star rod with 15lb braid. Even though we couldn't keep them it was still fun fight.

I don't have any idea what the patterns are for these fish at Calaveras but it seems like most guys just launch their bait out and let it sit for hours.

Talk to the park rangers or hang out at the boat ramp and chat it up with the guides. They may provide some helpful info since you're not in a boat and no threat to them.

Haven't seen any park rangers on my last 3 trips. Do they even have them anymore?

No idea. I assumed the people that run the check in area were park rangers. Could be wrong. Been many years since I worked there.