You can be on the water all day without seeing more than a handful of other boats. Winter patterns can vary with the water conditions but some methods produce day after day. Splitshotting worms in winter is a good bet. Shad patterns also work well with Blue Ghost, Purple Ghost, Morning Dawn and small minnow imitating reapers catching fish. Fishing can be good with spoons in the winter with fish being found suspended off steep walls and by following creek channels out of the coves.
Spoons can be any size from three-eighths oz.
Another pattern that provides good fishing action from October through January is a spinner bait. The water in the lake can become extremely cold in winter due to the fact that it's supplied by snowmelt from the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Take precautions when fishing in the winter and be prepared if you are ever unfortunate enough to fall into the water. One other hazard of winter fishing is fog. When the lake is low in the winter months there can also be many submerged hazards that may or may not be marked.