Lake Alpine
Alpine is still red hot for numbers of bass on the dropshot, the jig, small crankbaits, and rip baits. Big fish have also been caught on swimbaits, bulky jigs, 10+ inch worm, and bit top water baits, but there is only a short window of time to do this from about 6:30 to 8:30 am and then again at dusk.
Lake Pheonix
Phoenix is kind of quiet right now. Some guys are reporting fish up to 6 lbs but it’s not my best pick right now. That’s not to say it’s dead though. If you live nearby, or you just love that area by all means fish. Best bets are 6 lb line dropshotting with 3”-4” Natural color soft plastics or shakeyhead jig with 4”-6” finesse worms. When the afternoon wind picks up try a white double willow 3/8 oz spinnerbait right under the surface. The swimbait guys are getting a lot of followers, but the bite is pretty dead.
Lake Kent
Kent is fishing much like Alpine but the best bets are crankbaits, football head jigs, and 6”-7” Texas rigged Senkos. Also the water levels are so low that you can do yourself a huge favor by photographing, sketching, or remembering all the structure that is high and dry so you can dominate when the water levels top out in spring.
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4 users responded in this post
How does one access (as in get to) these lakes? I lib in Sonoma county and looking at the maps on basscraft is tough to interpret. Also, any good points to fish from shore, as I don’t have a boat?
Hoe does one get to Lake Kent or Alpine?
Hey mpanas - sorry for the delay in responding. For Alpine the Marin Municipal Water District website has good overall directions here - http://www.marinwater.org/controller?action=menuclick&id=296 - although at the point where you talk about staying on the paved road at the end of the directions, what you want to do is at the point where the paved road starts to curve to the left, you will notice that you can instead continue straight ahead on a gravel road - once on the gravel road just follow to the end (only a few minutes drive) and you’ll find yourself at the foot of Bon Tempe Dam. Walk about 700 yard walk along the dry lake bed and that will get you to the water (water levels are low right now). No need for a boat - in fact no boats allowed or even body contact on this lake since it’s a water reservoir.
For Lake Kent you take the same directions to Fairfax, but instead of turning left on Bolinas Road you stay on Sir Francis Drake and keep going straight through West Marin, you pass Woodacre, San Geronima, and then Forest Knolls and finally to Lagunitas. The tricky part is that there are no real indications that you are close to the lake. But you basically park on the side of the road on Sir Francis Drake at Papermill Creek Bridge - it’s basically just a spot where Sir Francis Drake crosses the creek. From there you follow a fire trail down to the lake.
I hope this helps!
Joe
Joe,
I nailed some really nice fish up at Kent on 5″ wacky rigged watermelon seknos. I finally figured out how to fish them. I wasn’t being patient enough. One fish, five pounds, one fish just under. Less than an hour fishing, right at twilight.
Kyle