First and foremost, be sure you bookmark the East Bay Fishing reports and planting calendar. Note that the "week of", means just that--they never plant on the day listed.
https://www.ebparks.org/recreation/fishing/anglers-edge-online

The EBRPD plants are My Lassen rainbows. They get so large because the fishery soaks the eggs in warm water to sterilize them. The meat is salmon pink from the brine shrimp in the feed (not a salmon/ rainbow hybrid). The DFG plants are a mix of rainbows and lightenings (see second pic).

There is a $5 fee for daily pass.

Lead weights are prohibited at some lakes (eg Quarry ponds in Fremont). They used to trade out lead for steel at the kiosk but I don't know if they still do.

My personal favorite is Don Castro... lots of My Lassen plants (up to 15+ lbs) in a small pond and it's only 7 minutes from I-580. I would much rather be sitting on the dam/dock than sitting behind the wheel waiting for the car in front of me to move 5 ft!

My buddy's favorite is Temescal for the same reasons. I've never fished it because the dock that he fishes from doesn't have a rail.

Lake Chabot is also quite productive. It's relatively deep, with a lot of shore access. They also rent boats and allow kayaking. Raccoon Point is good during nautical twilight (it's a long hike so I recommend a bike). For trolling, I fish the bank across from Raccoon Point down to just past half way to the dam.

If you're targeting cats try the South Bank near to the dam. Nightcrawlers and anchovy seem to be a good choice of bait.

For Del Valle the East shore is good--hike towards the dam as far as you care. Boat fishing is better... Trolling by the dam and in the narrows.


Since all of the EBRPD lakes are planted from one hatchery, the same bait/lures work for all of them.

For bank fishing:

Power Bait on a #10 treble, 10-14 (depending on water clarity), 5/8 ounce slider. I carry three flavors of Power Bait... two poles get Garlic Chartreuse, third pole gets Green Pumpkin, and the forth gets Bubblegum or Rainbow (I fish with my son--both of us have 2-pole licenses) Most of the regulars dip their bait in cods liver oil with garlic powder. Spit works great too.

I also carry a color assortment of Mouse Tails. Nightcrawlers work too but I usually don't use them except early in the planting season or afterwards (for a mix of trout and cats).

The wire loop that's attached to the 12 guage shell is what I made to hang on the slack between the bottom two guides. They go on and off a lot easier and don't twist up in the wind like a bobber does. I use a 12G shell because I've given away so many that I had to hang something unique in order to tell which poles were mine.

For casting from shore: See attached... I've caught fish on all of the ones shown. In there are:
Rooster Tails
Kastmasters
Crocodiles
Blue Foxes
Panther Martins
Mepps Anglia
Rapalas -- In order to get any distance on my cast, I snap on a hookless Kastmaster to my main line then attach 24-30" of leader ahead of the Rapala
Homemade -- flasher from a trashed rooster tail followed by two small kastmasters.
For some reason I missed putting my Krocodiles in for the picture. 5/8 oz in silver, blue, gold and flat black.
I throw flat black during nautical twilight hours or when the water is dirty. I've spray painted quite a few lures.

For trolling: Most use a Cast master out behind between 75-100 ft with no flasher/dodger. I've caught far (10X) more and much bigger fish using a jointed Rapala (see left side of pic) 30" behind a 5" dodger. My best performers have been the Rainbow and Brown Trout patterns.

Hope this helps. Hit me (PM) up if you want more info.

If you make it to the dock at Don Castro, tell the dock rats "Doug and Matt miss 'em".

Go out and get some!!!
PapaD

You're probably wondering, "What do pigs have to do with fishing".

Actually, more than you might think. Pig lung makes great catfish bait (wrapped in spawn net). More importantly it is how pigs were preserved before refrigeration and how I store my bait.

In the trunk of my car I have a jug of squid (and sometimes shrimp) that I bought over a month ago, a jug of crawfish, a jug of cut anchovies that I bought several months ago, a jug of whole Shad/Shiner/Bluegill that I bought several weeks ago and chicken liver that I bought since over 8 months ago. None of it has seen a refrigerator or freezer. None of it stinks. All of it looks like I just thawed it out. It's also a lot firmer.

I fish a lot in order to avoid traffic but never know in advance where (or what bait to pack). Could be the ocean, the bay, one of several lakes, the aqueduct or the SJR Delta.

I also have a 5 gallon bucket in my garage that I started filling in September with fish heads, carcasses and scraps (crab season opener is next weekend). I'll top it off with any meat that's freezer-burned.

I use the same technique that my grandfather did to preserve the pork from the pigs he raised and butchered. He would throw the cut meat into an oak barrel and cover with salt brine.

I make my bait brine before I buy my bait. For a pound of bait, I bring 1 quart of water to a boil, pour in 1 cup plain table salt, turn off the heat and let cool.

I halve my anchovies--heads get used 1st. If you want to fish them whole, use in the first week. Frozen Shad and Shiners get a squirt of brine shot down their gut using a turkey injector. Live bait goes in alive (they swallow the brine--no injection necessary). Squid goes in frozen. Crawfish (dead ones from my trap) go straight in.

When I throw in the bait I usually say "if it's good enough for Granny's pigs, it's good enough for bait" Hence, the title.

The chicken liver gets dry brined. Drain the bloody juices, cut in to bait size pieces and mix in 1/4 cup (for the 1 lb/pint size container) garlic salt.

Although I haven't tried it yet, I'm sure it would work for low tide baits (barnacles, mussels, crabs, etc.).

After brining for a day all of the baits firm up. I absolutely hate magic thread and now never have to. I can often fish multiple days with the same piece of bait (bait hook and leader go into the jug at the end of the day).

The only time I've had bait go bad is when I left it in the car in 95° weather (140° inside the car). When that happens, I put it in my crawfish/crab bait bucket.

It also frees up space (and aroma) from your lunch box.

One additional benefit is that the brined bait leaches when it goes into the water (on the hook) leaving a scent trail that cats and stripers can follow up to the hook. You can actually see a slick trailing behind the brined bait that you wont see with fresh.

It's cheap and easy to do, will save you a lot of money, help you catch more fish and, most importantly, make your wife happy (no more bait in the freezer).

Like Mikey says, "Try it, you'll like it".

Go out and Get Some!!
PapaD

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Description of picture:
Shad and anchovies are from my crab bait bucket (probably bought 4 months ago). Four plus week old squid that got left in the car for 3 days before it went into the brine when I forgot to make calamari.
The whole anchovy shows what happens if you don't halve them (or shad if you don't inject them).