Paul Clouse, Ted Cribari, and Al Hurwitz trolled Lake Del Valle on 7/17/25, looking mainly for Smallmouth Bass. We caught a few fish initially by the Heron Bay  Dam area rock wall, including a nice near 1-pound Bluegill pictured here.

Then after a prolonged hiatus, we trolled into a small cove along the eastern shoreline of Swallow Bay. It was there over the course of the day that we picked up 7-8 more Smallmouths, including this nice 2-pound Smallie.            

Near the end of the outing, a fairly sizable Smallmouth in the 2-3 pound range struck our lure, but spit the hook after a brief tussle  jumping about 1.5-2 feet in the air. The Smallmouths were feeding intensely on tiny Threadfin Shad, which they often regurgitated at boat side when being netted. We tried to “match the Shad hatch” by using feathered 1/4 oz spinners (RoxStars and Joe’s Fly) to hook these fish. The lures had scent applied and were trolled 16-21 feet below the surface in 20-30 foot water columns at a speed of 2.1-2.3 mph. The lake level is high, with excellent clarity, and a surface temperature of 77-79 degrees.

A beautiful day with a light breeze accompanied by good fishing as well!

We’ll be back next week and thank all of the staff for their excellent help.

All the best,
Paul Clouse, Lafayette 
Ted Cribari, Los Gatos
Dr. Al Hurwitz, Saratoga