Antelope Lake
Since I first moved to Susanville in 1972, I have been going with my family to Antelope Lake. Within the past 15 years, bass have been planted in it, as well as crappie and sunfish. The warm water fish do well in this lake due to the shallow weedy areas.
The bass originally grew very fast due to the large population of shiners and bullheads in the lake, and due to that fact, within a few years of planting they were growing rapidly, looking alot like footballs, with small heads and large bodies. Although there are still shiners in there, they have been reduced in numbers, and the bass have slowed down on their growth cycle and now look normal.
This lake has many memories for me, and now I fish it regularly even though the fishing pressure is, at times, almost too much. During the summer, jet ski's and water skiers take alot away from the quiet setting, and make fishing very demanding. Being very opinionated, I feel that there should be a horse power limit applied here. The lake is so small that even a small boat or canoe can get across in a short period of time.
In addition to the above mentioned fish, there are also some huge channel catfish planted in the lake. I have seen several while fishing for bass, but have yet to catch one. Some of the catfish caught up here have been 15-18 lbs. There are pictures at the little store near the Boulder Creek Campground at the west end of the lake.
Click on picture for larger version.
Here are a couple of German Brown trout caught by my late Brother-in-law. He caught them trolling a floating rapala, one after another. We couldn't believe the size of them, they both weighed out a little over 10 lbs. each. These fish were a real exception to the rule up there, most of the trout caught are much smaller than that.
In July, 2001, lightning started a fire southwest of the lake near Cold Stream. The day it started, we had several fires, but this one was not detected until the next day. Unfortunately, even though attacked agressively by ground and air resources,it grew rapidly due to the extremely dry conditions. This fire, named the Stream fire, moved quickly toward the lake and reached it before nightfall. The lake did act somewhat as a fuel break, and even though it jumped over it in many locations, firefighters were able to hold it on the south and west sides of the lake, for the most part. Due to this event, the areas along the dam, and back toward the Vista point were badly burned, and sadly will never look the same in my lifetime. I took some pictures off the Plumas National Forest web site, and you can see them here.
If you fish this lake you might see me in my little boat...
For some pictures taken at Antelope, click here.