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Welcome to Goodwin Lake!
"Experience Cold Water Fishing Year-Round"
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The Pleasanton Fly Fishing Show is located at the Alameda County Fairgrounds. Enjoy 3 Days of Seminars, Casting Demos, New Products, Fly Tying Demos and Classes.
Learning Center: FREE Fly Fishing Instruction at the IFFF Booth. Learn basic fly casting, fly tying and knot tying. International Fly Fishing Film Festival: Friday, 2/20 at 6:30 p.m.
Hours
Friday: 10:00 - 6:00
Saturday: 9:00 - 5:30
Sunday: 9:00 - 4:30
Enter to win 2 FREE NIGHTS at our Goodwin Lake Vacation Rental - Door Prize or at our Booth Drawing!
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Sunday, 10/12 (Gunter): Hooked 6 rainbows and landed 5 from 4:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.
Friday, 10/17 (Gunter): Hooked 6 rainbows and landed 5 from 18" to 20" from 4:00 p.m. - 6:45 p.m.
Saturday, 10/18 (Gunter): Hooked 5 rainbows and landed 3 from 19" to 20" from 10:15 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Thursday, 10/23 (Bob): Landed 4 - 17" and 3 - 15"
Saturday, 10/25 (Bob): Landed 4 - 21", 17", 16" and 15"
Saturday, 11/01 (Gunter): See Article Below.
Sunday, 11/02 (Gunter): Hooked 3 and landed 2 - 17" and 18", within 800' of westerly floats of Goodwin Dam
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Roy, I really appreciate you taking the time to show me some introductory fly fishing lessons out at Goodwin last Saturday!! I wish my legs wouldn't have been hurting from all the walking I did during the work week so I could of stayed out with you longer as the fish I did catch on the fly rod gave me so much joy. I just need to give up the spinning reel and embrace the fly rod. Being on the water on the float tube is such a wonderful experience also as all you can hear are the sounds from the lake and an occasional noise from your paddling (well maybe more than occasional from my paddling). Thank you so much for letting me borrow all the gear and letting me go out with you once again. I hope to get the opportunity for another lesson and to spend some more time with you as I enjoyed your company while the ladies were out enjoying their time together.
Our trip was wonderful although we had to work harder than ever to land fish as opposed to our trip in early August and then back in January of this year. The fish were very aggressive in August and were not shy to literally attack my lure selections. This trip the fish seemed very cautious and it took changing lures and technique to start landing fish. A very small Panther Martin with a silver blade and a black/yellow body was what worked. Fished very, very slowly. Another lure that worked was a Rapala X Rap in rainbow trout color. The smallest size they make. This lure slowly sinks and almost suspends itself in the water. Again very, very slow, hardly reeling at all once It got down to target depth around 10 feet. Most strikes came after a twitch, twitch, followed by letting the lure just suspend.
I caught a total of 6 rainbows in the 17 to 20 inch range. Most in the 17 inch area. I caught 1 eight inch young rainbow (not a planted fish). I also caught a bass that was about 14 inches. I lost 4 fish, one of which was a very nice fish that I saw with my polarized glasses coming out of a thick weed bed to snatch my lure and I wasn't paying attention and failed to set the hook properly. A couple fish that I lost made some nice air acrobatics and then shook the hook out. I had many follows while trying to figure out lure selection and technique. Thanks.
Mike S., Riverbank
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On Saturday, 11/01, my chores around the lake house had been completed, and I finally had time for a full day of fishing. It was an incredibly beautiful day, bright sunshine with a high temperature of about 74 degrees. The lake's surface temperature was 61, warmer than it had been all summer. There was only about 500 CFS being released from Lake Tulloch.
When the westerly breeze produced a slight chop on the water, I started fishing about 10:30 a.m. and took a rest at 3:00 p.m.; then fished from 4:30 p.m. to dark at 6:00 p.m. All of my fishing was to the east of the lake house.
Although I took 3 rods aboard my Fat Cat, I only caught fish on my 9' 6 wt. rod with a 50' Rio T-11 sinking line to a 9' 8 lb. P-Line fluorocarbon leader plus a 4' 8 lb. dropper attached to the eye of the first fly. The flies I used were 3 patterns of Hale Bopp Leeches, size 10 hook, black, wine and brown (with an orange tail), and also a Denny Rickards brown leech size 10. Usually, the brown leech was used in combination with one of the Hale Bopp flies.
I also put a split shot size BB about 6" in front of the terminal fly with the idea that it would cause the fly to undulate between trolling twitches or 6" strips during retrieve.
I started catching fish immediately and by 3:00 p.m. had hooked 14 and landed 11, not a bad day already, except no rainbow was bigger that 16" and most were smaller than 12" down to even 4". Despite naysaying guides who have opined that rainbows would not spawn in Goodwin Lake, here was proof positive to the contrary! The little guys were bright, great color, fairly fat and some even still wore juvenile bars.
Back in the water at 4:30 p.m. I was certain that I could hook 20, but by 6:00 I had only hooked 18 and landed 14, including an 18" rainbow.
Truly a great day of fishing, and a sure harbinger of more big fish when the little guys grow into big guys.
Roy Gunter, Owner
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We enjoyed our first fishing trip to Goodwin Lake in late December 2014. Roy's tips and prior fishing report archives were quite helpful. We caught fish using both deep trolling and indicator methods. The former was a more consistent producer, as we caught fish throughout all periods of the day.
We fished mainly in the upper section near the convergence of where water spills down from the Goodwin generators (on the north side) and from higher up on the dam (on the south side). This upper section fished most productively on Sat. Dec. 27th from mid-morning through early afternoon for the indicator method. I think this was aided by the fact that the dam operators were running the generators that time of day so there was a slight current from that end of the dam. We could cast and dead drift our rigs through promising runs. In the following two days we caught very few fish using indicators the same time of day, and the generators were not running.
On Sat. we marked fish from 6' - 20' deep, and saw some midge adults flying over the water. So we suspended some patterns we'd used for Pyramid Lake under an indicator (Maholo Midge on the point fly, zebra midge on dropper) with the bottom dropper fly being about 7 feet from the indicator. It was interesting that the fish were hitting size 10 flies (typical for Pyramid) even though the naturals were likely much smaller. We also caught fish using size 16 midge pupae.
Water temperature all three days was consistently 55-57 degrees. In late morning (usually not until 11 am) a 5-10 mph wind would kick up from the west. The trout we landed ranged from 12" - 18", with one lost "hog" estimated at 24" that flopped out of the net before we could get a picture. (groan)
The Stanislaus strain of wild rainbows are some of the most beautiful 'bows anywhere -- lots of spotting, rich red or purple lateral rainbows, and even some in darker spawning colors.
As mentioned, the deep trolling (or casting and retrieving) method using T11 or T14 tungsten lines consistently produced fish, although during this time in winter the bites were spread apart. Following Roy's tips, we fished downstream from the Spanish style mansion, and had action on both sides of the lake. Productive colors for the seal or crystal buggers were black, brown and burnt orange, with each fly's tail and body containing some flash or sparkle materials.
We had a great time at this Goodwin Lake rental and hope to fish there again during a warmer time of the year!
Bill, Peninsula Fly Fishers
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During the months as noted, rainbows were reportedly caught by Roy Gunter or guests using these flies with either a heavy "sinking" line or with an "indicator" under a floating line.
January: Black Wooly Bugger/sinking
February: Maribou jig/sinking; Maribou jig/indicator; black Wooly Bugger wrapped with green copper wire/sinking
March: Jay Fair black wiggle bug/sinking; grey Callibaetis/ indicator; black nymph/indicator; black punk perch/sinking; grey/brown jig/indicator; black Wooly Bugger/sinking
April: Rickards burnt orange Seal Bugger/sinking; pheasant tail flashback/indicator; hares ear/indicator
May: Copper John/indicator; hares ear/indicator; black Wooly Bugger/sinking
June: Black Hale Bopp leech/sinking; Rickards dark brown leech/sinking; black Wooly Bugger wrapped with green copper wire/sinking; Rickards grey Callibaetis/sinking; black Hale Bopp leech/sinking
July: Black Wooly Bugger/sinking
August: Black Wooly Bugger/sinking; Rickards brown Seal Bugger/sinking; black Seal Bugger/sinking; black Zebra midge/indicator; Copper John/indicator
September: No reports
October: Black Angora Streamer/sinking; Perch fry/sinking; Heean nymph/indicator
November: White leech/sinking; Rickards dark brown leech/sinking; Hal Bopp leeches (black/brown/wine)/sinking
December: Maholo midge/indicator; Zebra midge/indicator; midge pupae/indicator; black Crystal Bugger/sinking; brown Seal Bugger/sinking; burnt orange Seal Bugger/sinking
Owner Roy Gunter's Comments:
In many ways 2014 flies were the same flies which were effective in 2013. (See Report in 4th quarter 2013 Newsletter.) However, white flies effective in April and May of 2013 caught very few fish in 2014, only a few in one trip in November.
Although black continued to be the dominant color, at least from my experience, smaller leeches such as the black Hale Bopp Leech #10 hook was dominant for most of the year. It should be noted that the Goodwin record 33" rainbow was caught on a Jay Fair black wiggle bug.
The other consistent performers were: black Wooly Buggers and Seal Buggers, red Copper Johns #10 and #12, hares ears, and grey Callibaetis #10 and #12.
In addition to the Hale Bopp leeches #8 and #10, in black, wine and brown (with orange tail), a new star performer for me was the Denny Rickards dark brown leech #8 and #10. This has become one of my go-to flies, often outperforming the Hale Bopp leech on a dual fly hookup.
I am unaware of any rainbows caught on dry flies in 2014 although there were a few caught in 2013.
My friend, Steve Rudzinski, President of the Santa Cruz Fly Fishermens Club, was the champion fisherman of 2014. On March 8th he landed a 33" monster rainbow. I later accused Steve of importing a Monterey Bay salmon for a photo op.
Whether you are fishing with a sinking line trolling/stripping or with a floating line surface skimming the shallows or indicator fishing, the absolute key to successful fishing at Goodwin is knowing your depth and keeping to 16' or less. A depth finder such as a Hawkeye (approx. $70) or Humminbird Fishing Buddy (approx. $120) is absolutely essential.
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We offer a 20% discount to all fly fishing clubs that sponsor a fishout at Goodwin Lake. Discount is good year-round. Please have your fishout person contact us.
Also, please tell your fellow fishermen to sign up to receive this quarterly email Newsletter by texting the word "GOODWIN" to 22828 and following the prompts.
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Owner Roy Gunter is an avid fly fisherman. He and his wife Daneen purchased the Goodwin Lake property in Sept. 2010, renovated the home and property, and started renting the vacation home in 2011 focusing on renting to fellow fly fishermen and sponsoring Club fishouts.
Fishing on Goodwin Lake:
- No live bait
- Private waters
- OPEN YEAR ROUND
- Barbless hooks only
- Water 45 - 64 degrees
- Fishing license required
- Use float tubes/kick boats
- Catch and release all Trout
- COLD WATER YEAR ROUND
- Catch & keep Salmon & Bass
Public access to Goodwin Lake is only through Goodwin Lake Vacation Rental, a fully furnished 2-bedroom 2-bath home. The use of a 16' aluminum boat with trolling motor, canoe, 7' pontoon kick boat and 2 kayaks are included with the Rental.
WITH ADVANCE NOTICE, ROY GUNTER IS AVAILABLE ON THE WEEKENDS TO TEACH GUESTS HOW TO FISH GOODWIN LAKE FREE OF CHARGE --- He wants you to catch wild Rainbow Trout!
FOR ADD'L. DETAILS AND AMENITIES ON GOODWIN LAKE VACATION RENTAL, VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT:
daneengunter@yahoo.com
rgunteriii@yahoo.com
831-809-0316 Roy's cell
831-809-4155 Daneen's cell
831-484-2509 Home
831-648-8822 Office
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