Fishing Resources within 100 miles of Stanford

This is a compilation of e-mail suggestions from Redwood members for good places to fish in the area. Suggestions were compiled January 2006.

A map of Santa Clara County's parks

Since you're a beginner you'd probably want to start with a "stocked
lake." There's one such body of water between San Jose and Morgan Hill, just east of highway 101, and probably 40 miles south of Stanford. It's been there for years, but I've never actually fished there. It's right next to the freeway, on the eastern side. You can't miss it.
Good luck!

There is a pathetic commercialized fishing place along 101 towards Gilroy (a lake in coyote creek I think, that they stocked with fish). You can see it from the freeway, it's on the right if going south.

Hey,
Try the percolation ponds in los gatos (right near the intersetion of highway 17 and 880), or stevens creek reservoir. I think they might stock steven's creek with trout this time of year. Percolation ponds often have people fly fishing in them. Might be ok for bass in the spring. If you want to drive a bit further, San Pablo Reservoir in the east bay has good
fishing for all kinds of fish; they even rent boats. Hope that helps.

Lake Berryessa is one that some of my family often goes to, but you can
basically drive up to that lake.

I should be working but now you got my mind on fishing. There are many reservoirs in the bay area that make good trout and bass fishing. Some are close. Two of the most productive are Anderson Reservoir and Coyote lake around Morgan Hill.

A good place to learn about local fishing is on Fish Sniffer. You can get a complete list of Santa Clara County parks with fishing online.

There are many reservoirs in the East Bay too but some are closed seasonally for fishing. You can go to their website at http://www.ebparks.org/fish.htm. The most definitive site is the
CA Fish and Game site at http://www.dfg.ca.gov/. It also lists stream and lake closures and licence requirements.

If you want to fish for fun,these are good places to start out. As far as tackle and gear, I suggest you go cheap. K-mart, Big 5 and Sportmart all have cheap rod and reel combos. For most bay area lake fishing you'll need a medium weight rod about 6 - 8 feet long and 6 to 8 lbs test line.

I don't fish in the Bay Area often because I don't like lake fishing too much. Trout fishing in Northern California or the Sierra's is usually from April to October. The drives are longer but there's generally less people and I like stream fishing better.

Still if you got to fish, try to the places above.