Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3620 September 15-30, 2017 | Page 16

14
Sept. 15 - 30, 2017
MAP FEATURE
VOL.36 • ISS. 20
Rucker Lake features good spring, summer and fall fishing for largemouth bass, along with some brown bullhead catfish and green sunfish.
Photo by DAN BACHER, Fish Sniffer Staff.
F
Fuller and Rucker Lakes: A Unique
Fall Trout And Bass Adventure
uller and Rucker lakes are located
at similar elevations and feature
comparable conifer-studded northern
Sierra Nevada scenery, but their fisheries
couldn’t be more different.
Fuller, situated at 5341 feet above
sea level in the Yuba Gap region, is a
popular cold water fishery supplied from
a canal from Bowman Lake. The lake of-
fers top-notch rainbow and brown trout
fishing in the spring, summer and fall for
bank fishermen, float tubers and boat-
ers. Even during the heat of the Sierra
summer, the surface water temperatures
are relatively cold.
Just a little over a mile away, Rucker
Lake, situated at 5499.5 feet in elevation
in a Sierra meadow, is a shallow, warm
water lake supplied with water from
Rucker Creek that drains Blue Lake. Its
weed-lined waters feature not just
a large population of scrappy
largemouth bass, but brown
bullhead catfish and green
sunfish.
Both Fuller and Ruck-
er are natural lakes whose
water levels were raised when
PG&E
constructed dams on them in 1970-71.
Both Fuller and Rucker are also the same
size – exactly 69 surface acres.
Ted Samford, retired fishing guide
and PG&E ditchtender, first made me
aware of the fine rainbow and brown
trout fishing available at Fuller Lake and
the excellent bass action on tap at Rucker
Lake when the Fish Sniffer staff had a
trip to Spaulding over 20 years ago. After
I experienced a slow morning of trolling
at Spaulding, Samford recommended
bank fishing Fuller for a couple of hours
after we finished a barbecue.
I had a great time catching rainbows
on lures and bait and I was impressed
by a couple of anglers who brought in
a bunch of browns while trolling flies
throughout the lake.
I love making an annual shore fishing
trip to these two lakes, since I can have
a ball catching trout and bass the
same day. I have caught my limit
of rainbows several times while
fishing at Fuller, while I have
experienced some epic bass days
at Rucker.
I have experienced my top
action on trout at Fuller while fish-
ing 1/8 oz. Kastmasters, rainbow
Power Bait and nightcrawl-
ers.
Fly fishing is ex-
cellent here also. One
fisherman on one of
my m