Antelope Lake is nestled in the Plumas National Forest northeast of Quincy. At 5,069 feet in elevation, the lake has 931 surface acre feet with 15 miles of shoreline and a maximum depth of 63 feet. It is home not just to rainbow trout (the California Department of Fish and Wildlife stocks it on a regular basis with Eagle Lake rainbows), brown trout, and Kokanee salmon, but to warmwater species — smallmouth and largemouth bass and several types of panfish.
Antelope Lake is an impoundment formed by the damming of Indian Creek and has a number of other small streams running into it — Lone Rock Creek, Boulder Creek, Lost Creek, Antelope Creek, and Little Antelope Creek. It has both protected coves and open water, and its many weed beds are fish-food factories. The lake, though, is difficult to wade, so personal watercraft, prams, or larger motorized boats are the best way to fish it. The majority of the fishing occurs around the weed beds and in the deeper water.
The best times of the year to fish Antelope Lake are in the spring and autumn, when the water is cooler and the trout are spread throughout the lake, especially in the weed beds and along willow shoreline, eating terrestrials and damselfly nymphs. On a trip this past spring, we caught fish even the middle of the day. In the summer, however, it is better to fish the lake at low light, from dawn into early morning hours and again in the evening.
My best flies over the years for Antelope have always been subsurface: damselfly nymphs, midges, and Callibaetis nymphs in the spring, leech imitations and dragonfly nymphs fished deep during the summer months, and small baitfish fry patterns in the fall. During the spring and summer, I have experienced great f lying ant hatches at the lake. Usually,
the ant hatch is on the south side. With its steep banks and with the help of the wind, ants are pushed right into the water to waiting fish. All the species are there for this feast. Bass big and small, trout and at times bluegills all enjoy an ant dinner.
Fishing Access
Antelope Lake is easiest to f ish from the Antelope Picnic Area (which charges a day-use fee), the signed fishing access areas at Lunker Cove and Guiney Point, via boat from the Lost Cove boat ramp, and from the lake’s campgrounds (although you can’t park there if you’re not camping). If you’re using a personal watercraft, consider focusing on three locations: the Antelope Picnic Area, Lunker Cove (also called Lunker Landing on some maps), and Guiney Point. All have great water, and are all on the shallower north side of the lake — the deepest water there, between 20 and 27 feet deep, is nearly a hundred feet from shore. The deepest part of the lake overall is the middle, directly opposite the Lost Cove boat ramp. There are picnic tables and a restroom facility at all three of these access points.
Willows line much of the bank at both Lunker Cove and the Antelope Picnic Area, but they have good weed beds, and on a recent fishing trip, my wife and friends and I marked many fish on our fish finders and landed lots of smallmouths and largemouths from 6 to 15 inches long. The bass were very healthy and fought very well.
The Guiney Point access area is on the south side of the lake. There is a nice cove right at the bank, with two rocky points at the entrance of the cove and some big rocks around the bank with drop-offs right next to them. This cove gets deep quickly — within 50 feet from shore, the water depth is 24 feet deep. On our trip, we called this Baby Bass Cove for all the 5-to-7-inch smallmouth and largemouth bass we caught there. We landed many rainbow trout, too, mostly planted fish from 14 to 16 inches long. They fought well and appeared to be Eagle Lake rainbows in good health.
Fishing Antelope Lake
On our recent trip, four of us fishing individually from personal watercraft experimented with different rigs and different flies, and finally settled on trolling flies and fishing indicator rigs deep. My wife, Kirsten, was trolling with an intermediate sinking line and a 5-foot, all-4X fluorocarbon leader on a 5-weight rod, with a standard size 8 olive Woolly Bugger with black hackle and a couple strands of pearl Flashabou in the tail. Behind that fly, 18 inches or so, she fished one of my Lance’s Swimming Black AP Nymphs, size 10. (See the sidebar.) The fish loved both of them, especially the AP Nymph. She landed many bass and a couple of trout on it. She was fishing it 20 feet deep with a very slow troll.
The rest of us were fishing flies beneath floating strike indicators. I was fishing my indicator rig on a dead drift about 13 feet deep in water that was 22 to 25 feet deep, and my fish finder showed that trout in small pods were cruising about 15 or 16 feet down. The fish ate and ate, and didn’t just move the indicator — they pulled it down two or three feet. I started with a Thurman’s Swimming Balanced Leech in black and red, size 8, but I think the fly was bigger than the bass I landed on it, so I switched to a smaller size 10 Swimming Balanced Leech, It drew no hits, so I went even smaller, with Micro Balanced Leech in olive, size 14. After that, the game finally was on. In all cases I was fishing a 4X fluorocarbon tippet, which didn’t seem to deter the fish.
Lance’s Swimming Black AP Nymph
Andre Puyans, one of the greatest fly tyers, fly fishers, and gentlemen I have known designed this fly. AP stand for “all purpose,” and the pattern was intended to impressionistically imitate a wide variety of aquatic nymphs in streams and rivers. I tie the fly the same way Andy did, I just make the deer hair a tad longer so it swims in the water while trolled or stripped in on a sinking fly line. This is also one of my go-to flies on Lake Almanor and has been productive in many Western states in still waters.
Materials
Hook: Mustad 3906B, size 10 to 14
Thread: Black Danville Flymaster 6/0
Weight: 12 turns of .015-inch lead-free wire
Tail: Black deer hair fibers
Rib: Copper wire, size BR
Abdomen: Black Mercer’s Buggy Nymph Dubbing
Wing case and legs: Black deer hair fibers
Thorax: Black Mercer’s Buggy Nymph Dubbing Black
Head cement: Sally Hansen’s Clear Nail Polish
Tying Instructions
Step 1: Place the hook in the vise, wrap 12 turns of .015-inch lead-free wire, and move it toward the eye, leaving a gap an eighth of an inch back from the eye.
Step 2: Start the thread in front of the wire weight and wrap back and forth over it until the lead-free wire is secure.
Step 3: Cut and clean 15 to 18 deer hair fibers. The deer hair should extend three-eighths of an inch past the hook bend. Tie them in right behind the leadfree wire, then wrap the thread back over them until you get to the bend of the hook, keeping the deer hair on top of the hook shank.
Step 4: Return the thread to the previous tie-in point, tie in the copper wire behind the lead-free wire, then wind back over it to the bend of the hook.
Step 5: Dub a body with a nice taper until you get to the middle of the leadfree wire. Rib the dubbing with the copper wire, tie off at the end of dubbing, and trim the excess. Leave the thread hanging at this point.
Step 6: Cut and clean another 15 to 18 deer hair fibers. The deer hair should be same length as the body and tail combined. Cut the butts to length and tie it in on top of the hook shank where you left the thread hanging, binding it down back until you get to the back of the lead-free wire.
Step 7: Dub and wrap an even thorax. The dubbing should end right at the front of the lead-free wire.Step 8: Bring the deer hair up and over the thorax and secure it in front of the wire. Split the deer hair into even bunches and tie it back on each side of the nymph. Whip finish and add head cement.
— Lance Gray
Trolling Antelope Lake
Trolling the lake with f lies can be very productive, and is thus worth additional discussion. I know what you’re thinking: “Trolling with flies?” Well, the late Jay Fair made a career out of trolling flies, and if you do it right, you can catch a lot of fish. You don’t even have to change your rod. I use a 9-foot 6-weight, and it’s perfect for trolling. You do have to have a reel or spool loaded with a trolling line. The basic objective is to get the fly or flies down to the level where the fish are holding and then keep them there while moving your watercraft forward. The line I use is built to Jay Fair’s own specifications and is available from Arctic Fox Trolling Flies. It is called the Top-Line. It has a floating running line attached to leadcore head. You can troll it fast or slow. You can also fish it on a downrigger, if your boat has them. (If you know how to build lines, you can craft your own.) Similar commercially available lines from the well-known line manufacturers might also work well. If you have one, give it a shot.
When trolling, I use a short leader, 4 feet of 10-pound-test fluorocarbon loop-to-looped to a 40-pound-test monofilament loop that I attach to the lead-core head with a Nail Knot. My favorite fly for Antelope Lake is Jay Fair’s Trolling Fly in olive, tied on a size 4 straight-eye hook. It has a couple of pieces of copper Flashabou in its marabou wing. I suspect the rainbows and browns think it is a baby perch. Another fly that has caught fish trolling is a standard black Woolly Bugger, size 6, with a little flash in the marabou tail. I have a friend who also swears by a brown Woolly Bugger with red flash in the tail.
As is the case with fly fishing in general, presentation is the key to catching fish when trolling. The place to troll at Antelope Lake is in “the channel.” The channel is located due south of the Lost Cove boat ramp and runs east to west for about five hundred yards. When the lake is at capacity, the deepest spot in the channel is 63 feet deep. In the spring, the lake will be fuller than in the fall.
Also you can use a fish finder to look for fish hanging out in a thermal — a patch of cold water layered in the water column. If I see fish at 35 feet, that is where I want my fly to be when trolled.
The more line you have out and the slower your watercraft is traveling, the deeper your fly will go, so to reach the fish, you need to play with both the length of the line and your speed. In my boat, to reach a depth of 25 feet, I need to have 45 feet of line out of the rod tip, with my boat traveling at a snail’s pace, 1.5 miles per hour. This is my benchmark with my boat and line. Yours might be a tad different.
Something for Everyone
At Antelope Lake, there is a fish for every fly fisher, and there are lots of lakeside amenities, including three campgrounds, a store, and a public boat ramp. The campgrounds include Boulder Creek, Lone Rock, and Long Point Campgrounds. The store is located between Boulder Creek and Lone Rock Campgrounds. The store is stocked with all the usual items — ice, bait, and so on (but they don’t sell fishing licenses). The public boat ramp is at Lost Cove, approximately and a two and a half miles southeast of Boulder Creek Campground on the north shore. It offers restrooms and picnic tables in the shade next to the water.
Check out Antelope Lake. It’s a great lake for beginners, children, family, fly club retreats, and, of course, seasoned fly fishers.
If You Go…
To reach to Antelope Lake, from Greenville on Highway 89, travel south 5 miles to County Highway A22. Turn east, go 16 miles to Indian Creek Road, then turn north and go 10 miles to Antelope Lake. Or from Janesville, take Plumas County Road 208 for 4 miles, Forest Service Road 28N01 for 9 miles, then turn right on Forest Service Road 28N03 for 2 miles.
From Susanville, on Highway 36, go east 4 miles to Highway 395 south, continue on Highway 395 for 9 miles, turn right onto Lakecrest Road, then immediately turn left onto Janesville Grade Road and continue for approximately 9 miles. At some point the road’s name changes to Forest Service 28N01. Turn right onto Forest service Road 28N03 and go 1.4 miles. Bear left toward Fruit Growers Boulevard. Continue on Fruit Growers Boulevard for 3.5 miles to Antelope Lake.
Once at the lake, the Antelope Picnic Area has a paved road that will take you to a day-use area that has plenty of tables and restroom facilities. The day-use fee is $10 per vehicle. The road to Lunker Cove is quite steep at the intersection with Fruit Growers Boulevard. I would recommend taking only high-clearance vehicles down this road. The road to the Guiney Point access area is a well-maintained dirt road down to a landing with multiple picnic benches and a restroom facility.
The campgrounds have no pull-throughs, but some of the camping spots are big enough for big diesel-bus RVs and large travel trailers. There are no hookups for recreational vehicles, but there is plenty of shade in the campgrounds. Lone and Boulder Creek Campgrounds are located on the north side of the lake off Fruit Growers Boulevard, nestled down at the lake front, with many campsites right on the water’s edge. Long Point Campground is located on the south side of the lake and also offers large camping areas, some right on the bank of the lake. Sites can be reserved by calling (877) 444-6777 or online at www.recreation.gov. The Lost Cove boat ramp is a large, two-lane concrete launch that offers a boat dock in the middle. It has many picnic areas and a large parking lot. There is a $10 fee to launch boats. A paved road runs from Fruit Growers Boulevard to the launch.
Don’t be surprised to see the Plumas County Sheriff’s boat out on the water at Antelope Lake. If you use a watercraft, make sure that you follow all boating regulations. Safety is paramount.
The Department of Fish and Wildlife regularly plants Eagle Lake rainbows in Antelope Lake. The planting schedule website is https://www.nrm.dfg.ca.gov/ FishPlants.
The Antelope Lake Recreation Area is in the Mt. Hough Ranger District. The district office is located at 39696 Highway 70 in Quincy, and is open 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. For more information, phone them at (530) 836-2575 or go to https:/cid=11230.
The nearest fly shop is Sierra’s Fly and Tackle, at Lake Almanor. Phone: (530) 596-3820.
For examples of Arctic Fox Trolling Flies and Jay Fair trolling lines, visit http://www.trollingflies.com.
— Lance Gray
