Any California Boaters on here?

[dzeppos]

So glad I ordered my galvanized custom trailer in May - should have it by beginning of next month - plan on doing some ocean boating in SoCal as all of these low lake levels are reducing our options.
Just keeping fingers crossed for Shasta next week. . . . .

Demo

 

[JetboatBrad]

I grew up near the delta and am a proud Delta River Rat. The Delta is great for jet skiing but not overnight camping IMHO. Once I got into boating I started checking out all the lakes I could. Here are my thoughts.

Shasta, great if you rent a place on or near the water but I haven’t noticed any great boat camping areas. It is a big lake though so those spots may exist and I may have just missed them. Also far, it’s at least a 4 hour tow.

Berryessa, some good close camping spots at Spanish flat but not many of them. The cabime at markley cove were nice but expensive, now mostly gone, destroyed by wild fire last august. The only other good option maybe steel marina which has RV and tent camping spots.

Don Pedro, I like it but no dogs allowed and most camp sites are a up a hill from the water.

lake mcclure next to don Pedro, lots of ev and tent camping near the water. Dogs allowed. The southern end has one entrance, basically a 10 mile drive after you get through the gate. Both roads in are long, windy and sometimes thin. The lake is close to town, well the southern part of the lake is.

Modesto reservoir, really small and almost half of it is restricted to fishing / no wake mode only but the camping spots are on the water and since its usually shallow jet boats rule, not likely to see any big prop boats out there and most boaters into wake sports fo for deeper lakes. It’s also close to a town, no dogs allowed and if you are unlucky the neighboring land owners will be fertilizing their crops while you are there.

new lake hogan and Comanche, camping near the water like don Pedro, a few marinas, hogan also has the only group camping spot that I know of. Both are nice.

oroville, it’s far near what’s left of the City/town of paradise which burned to the ground a few years ago. It’s far, get on the 99 north, get off at the end of 99 and drive even farther at less than highway speeds. I don’t know about the tent camping but they have floating barges with heads, fresh water and shade that you can rent. If tent camping sucks the town is right outside the front gate along with an Indian casino so a hotel room is definitely an option. You can also rent a slip over night at the lake so you don’t always have to pull your boat out of the water.

I visited clear lake but not boated there. What’s nice is you can rent a house on the water. Not sure about tent camping but heard that the lake stinks at certain points of the season because of the algae.

that’s it for me, I’ve been to several others on and off the attached list but none with close tent camping that I’m aware of. I would like to boat at Tahoe but know it’s a pita to get to and heard it can be a pita to get on with all the inspections and such. lake pardee is next to Comanche but you can’t swim or jet ski there only boat and fish. Pretty sure you can call there but not certain. I almost forgot, under Lake Tahoe is a huge reservoir called union reservoir, the water is cold but you can camp next to it. Beware of the bears and bring everything you need because it’s 30 miles north of placervile the nearest town.
lake Tulloch and Folsom are small may be you can camp there but I wouldn’t. They are the only ca lakes that I know of other than clear lake that you can buy lake side property on.

if you haven’t already done so consider taking a weekend run from the antioch or area up to old Sacramento. The guest dock rents for$1.50 per night per foot and is fronted by the embassy suites hotel on one side and old Sacramento on the other. No tent camping although you may be able to do so nearby but it’s still a good time which involves boating.

let me know if you are planning any group trips this season and I may be in if I’m welcome.

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Awesome post. I learned a lot. I’m in Tahoe now and yes a lot of pita. You can launch for as little as $25 and there is a mussel inspection requirement but there are, no appointment/drive up sites and takes about 20 minutes. It’s a nice big lake and is pretty awesome in the mornings especially and dusk. It can get pretty windy and whitecaps occasionally. There are a ton of lakes around here that are great. Donner lake has the same requirements but is nice too. Bass lake down by Yosemite is cool. There’s a lot of not too expensive resorts that have cabins for not too much. Rollins lake is good in Colfax but small. I’d like to get together with all the NorCal Jetboater’s if there’s ever a get together. I’m gonna try some of the lakes Ronnie was talking about.

 

[dzeppos]

Shasta Lake-
I thought I'd chime in on my recent trip to Shasta Lake where we houseboated and took our boat for some water sports.
First of all - great lake. Even though it was down to 33% capacity, we still had a great time.
Launch ramp situation was pretty bad - down to maybe 2 ramps for the entire Lake - going through some mode and make shift dirt. Glad we had 4WD on the launch ramp and going down.
As much as it could have been a shit show when we launched, it was orderly and the boaters proficient and patient.

Regarding the houseboat -Shasta Marina at Packers Bay- very nice people, and they tried to do their best. The houseboats themselves were clean (we got a nice Thoroughbred 16 person boat) -and pretty nice.
Boarding and loading your equipment involved going down a 1/3 mile dirt trail - but at least they had helpers in Polaris 4x4 to help carry your bags/provisions down. With the lake so low, they did their best to accommodate guests.

Once underway, we could see how beautiful Shasta Lake is - especially if full. Water temp was between 81F and 83F. There was some smoke haze from the Oregon fire (like 100 miles away - amazing how far it carries), but after the first day, the winds shifted and air quality was good.
We were told to avoid some of the other river arms and stay only on the Sacramento River arm because of old tree stumps that were not removed when the lake was originally created. With the water levels so low, there was a real risk of hitting them. That's right - you could be doing 30mph in 40 feet of water and out of nowhere, hit a stump. Not good.

As such, it limited our exploration of the lake but because it is so big, we were able to do a lot of exploring, both water sports, (wakeboarding, water skiing, wake surfing) and even some hikes to some really cool waterfalls.

Happy to share details to anyone looking to go there.
A few comments/issues:
1. Houseboat generator was lousy. This was a newer houseboat, and very nice. Generator broke 4 times on the 4 days we were there. It couldn't run more than a few hours without shutting down. The only good thing was that in each instance, a technician boated out to our location within 2 hours each time. The bad thing was at 90F temperatures, it was impossible to cool down the houseboat.
I've houseboated 5 other times, and never had this issue, both with AC or a generator that couldn't run for more than a few hours.
2. The Marina told us not to run the Generator at night, because of carbon monoxide poisoning. I get the danger, but that's why the houseboat has like 10 monoxide detectors, and the generator is outside. I never heard you shouldn't' run them at night???!? I think the generators hadn't been serviced well during the past year (Covid seems to have impacted maintenance on different industries) - and the generator would have never made it though the night.
Still - the marina was really nice about and even gave me a credit for all of our gas.

3. What other marinas are good and what other experiences people have had up there staying for a few nights. The lake is awesome, and we plan to go back some day.

Anyways, great trip and a great end to our northern California boating season.. I've included some pics showing how pretty (and how low) the lake is.

Demo

 

[Ronnie]

Thanks for the write up @dzeppos . my bother and I keep talking about doing a house boat family vacation but the “in season” cost of $1500 per night , three night minimum at bridge bay marina on Shasta Lake has kept us from committing so far anyway. One thing is certain because of your post, if I ever rent a house boat I will bring my own generator.

 

[dzeppos]

Yes - it was $1400 a night. (Even more expensive than Lake Powell). They have these super basic cheap houseboats at $300-$400/ night at another marina - but they look pretty 'rough'. There's another Marina - forget the name, that also has boats. No way around it - very expensive. But doesn't seem like they can't find renters, as its sold out since April/May for the entire summer.
One other weird thing was an infestation of yellow jackets -like 100s of them anywhere you went. I think because the lake levels are so low, that you are 100s of feet away from the forest (Yellow Jacks supposedly don't hang out in forests) really strange - must have gone through 3 cans of wasp spray as we couldn't eat outside without 20 yellow jacks jumping on your plate. Still - great trip - look forward to it again.
So many great lakes up in NorCal to explore . . ..

 

[OrangeTJ]

IMO, nothing beats renting a house on Lake Tahoe and boating in that amazing water. We have been doing this for 8 years now and it is far and away my favorite boating destination. Yes, it gets rough in the afternoons and you definitely need to pay attention to the wind and weather. However, when the conditions are good, it is just so insanely beautiful! The key to making the hassle of inspection and launching for Tahoe is to spend a good chunk of time there - we typically do 10 days at a time - with your boat at a dock at your rental or slipped in a marina.

 

[dzeppos]

Lake Tahoe is definitely on radar for our next trip when go back to Northern Cal! (Although it may give an excuse to do the ribbon delete if I do more high altitude boating).