Jenks Lake recon

Since I was in the vicinity for research, I went over to Jenks Lake to do a recon for possible weekends fun, as well as getting the stats.


May 9, 2012 recon results:

The lake has shrunken from the previous 10.2 acres to roughly about 8.9 acres of surface water. Small amount of water still flowing in from the local creek due to underground spring.

Wind blowing from northeast to southwest at max speed of 5mph.

Air temp at 89°F, and water temp at 71°F at surface down to 1ft below surface.

Lake conditions remained that the lake is still impaired by bacteria (fecal coliform and ecoli) and possible pathogens due to the drainage from upper Big Bear Lake icemelt, mixed with the local's dwellers' septic run-offs. Best not to ingest any water or splash water into your eyes. Make sure to wear wader! You don't want the bacteria to enter into your body via the urinary tract or anal canal.

Several huge bass, between 17" to 22" have been sighted near the fallen tree at the west side. Trout get stocked just a few weeks ago. Quite a few hand size trout was spawned all over the place. Plenty of holdover exceeding 12" spotted near the surface taking down floating bugs.

Green sunfish and bluegills were all over the shallow sand beds, size between 1" to 4". Deeper locations revealed panfish between 4" to 6" all over the place. Not seeing anything exceeding 6".

Baits used and tried by the locals around the lake's shores: Nightcrawlers. Powerbaits are not working. Salmon eggs are not working. Plastics are not working.

Best flies to make and use: white dry flies, using #23 hook, floating at surface. Red and black ants no longer than 1cm long and 0.5cm wide. Small black soldier flies no more than 1.5cm long, with 2cm expanded wingspan.

Thanks for the info

Thanks, Asian Guy. I was just thinking about going up there in a week or two. Since I don't own waders, I guess that's out.

great report. Thanks for the detailed update.



I think fishslayer is going there this weekend.

whoa.. boatload of info there. I don't understand some of it, but lots of detail. Thanks!

Sounds to me like the only bait to use should be something else the fish are getting a lot of. I will leave that up to your imagination.

Awesome post man cat wait to get up there...... I got me a custom trout swimbait comin just for them mountain bass thanks to clayton from cl8. This guy makes some of the best hard swimbaits!!!

Underwater spring, how deep is the water in that area..? If it's deep enough, that could be a prime spot at a certain time of the year for most all of the species..

There are veins of water spring throughout the Big Bear mountain, where the snowmelt run-off accumulate then drain throughout the year. There are 7 springs I know of continually drain into the small creek that feeds directly into this lake. Unfortunately, the depth for this lake is shallow, less than 20 feet even when the flooding occurs. The temp for this lake can spike pretty high, and the algae bloom explode. The lake has very minimal maintenance, so, fish death can range from a handful to 3/4 of the lake. With the high nutrients entering into the lake too, it's extremely hard to tell when the lake will belly up until winter hits.

flyfishingfool wrote:great report. Thanks for the detailed update.



I think fishslayer is going there this weekend.

NEXT week, maybe Friday...

Is the parking lot open? Last year it was by this time.

Not until June 1. A new lake service is taking over, and delayed the opening date from May to June.