Fish Sniffer Magazine Issue 4013 | Page 21

VOL . 40 • ISS . 13

FRESHWATER
July 9 , 2021
21
FRESHWATER REPORTS :
CONTINUED FROM PG 20
LAKE OROVILLE cont .
and other offerings . Anglers also continue to target largemouth bass during Tuesday night derbies at the Thermalito Afterbay . “ The water level came back up to normal and the fish got bigger ,” reported Jamey Sorenson at North Valley Tackle and Pro Shop after the latest derby .“ We saw a couple of dandies landed tonight , with a rare , for Tuesday nighters , repeat .. Steve Klein took first place again this week with a fat 21 ” fish ! Second place went to Ethan Leininger with a nice 20-3 / 4 ” fish .” Lake Oroville is holding 1,136,062 acre feet of water , only 32 percent of capacity and 39 percent of average .
- Dan Bacher
PARDEE / CAMANCHE LAKES
Troll Deep for Holdover Rainbows
IONE - . Trollers fishing with downriggers in deep water are hooking lots of rainbow trout , along with an occasional brown , at Pardee and Camanche Lakes . On a solo trip to Pardee to break in his new trolling motor , Robbie Dunhan of KokeMachine Guide
Service landed five fish , including four rainbows to 3 pounds and a 6 lb . brown . “ I trolled with Speedy Shiners at 30 to 50 feet deep in the main body ,” : he said . “ I caught the fish all over the lake , including the north arm , the middle of lake and the south end .” Dunham said kokanee fishing is extremely slow at Pardee , due to low numbers of fish . Pardee Marina is now located at Blue Heron and will be open 6 am to 7 pm everyday with all your camping and fishing needs , including an entire fleet of boats , kayaks , peddle boats and canoe rentals . Lake Pardee was last planted with 1,000 pounds of rainbow trout on June 11 . Lake Camanche is also producing limits of rainbows for trollers . On both June 29 and 30 , the two anglers fishing with Robbie Dunham bagged limits of rainbows before 9 a . m .
“ The fish ranged from 1-1 / 2 to 4 pounds ,” said Dunham . “ Those fish hit at 40 to 55 feet deep between the main river channel and the dam . You need to get in and off of the lake early , since the recreational boating takes over after 10:00 a . m .” Dunham noted that the reservoir is very low , with only the middle ramp at North Shore being open now . Lake Camanche is holding 186,700 acre feet of water , 45 percent of capacity and 61 percent of average .
- Dan Bacher
RIO VISTA
Black Bass Are Biting On Delta
RIO VISTA – Black bass fishing is going strong , while striped bass fishing is tough with the wind on the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta . Don Paganelli of Paganelli ’ s Bass Fishing Experience reported solid fishing on his latest trip to the Mokelumne River in the Central Delta . “ Two of us caught and released 12 largemouths to 4 pounds on that trip ,” said Paganelli . “ We hooked the fish while throwing poppers and other top water lures around weedbeds in the main chancel during the outgoing tide . The fish averaged around 2 pounds each .” Craig Newton of Willfish Bait and Tackle , Ron Retzlaff and his buddy reported catching six stripers total , including 3 keepers and 3 shakers , while fishing in the San Joaquin River on a very windy day . “ The stripers we kept ranged from 3 to 8 pounds ,” said Newton . “ We trolled with deep-diving Yo-Zuris in clown and red head / chartreuse colors . We fished the Sacramento River and Broad Slough also , but we didn ’ t hook any fish there .”
- Dan Bacher
SHASTA LAKE
Kokanee Bite Is Hot and Kings In The Mix
SHASTA LAKE – Rob Hower , avid fisherman , reports that Shasta as of July 2 it ’ s 126 ’ to crest and water temperature is 82-83 ° top water . The full moon played into the rainbow fishing a bit slower but it didn ’ t seem to bother the kokanee . We ’ ve been hitting the 100-111 ° and is now starting to push the fish down . We ’ re going down to 45 ’ -80 ’ for fish . I have not seen any shad in the marinas yet and we ’ re normally have them balled up . King salmon are also in the mix . The rainbows and brown ’ s have stomachs that are full of baby shad and big shad as well . Depends on the day which size lures are hitting best . Limits of kokanee are still being caught and it seems like they are starting to bunch up in certain areas . Locate one and most of the time you ’ re going to locate a lot . Paulina peak and Bear Mountain Tackle have been very productive . Big brown ’ s are still being caught on spoons . There are fires around Shasta so be aware of the fire tenders which are big planes coming down to the lake to scoop water up .

GONE FISHING continued from page 2

around . The ability to have few , if any , tangles when a fish was hooked up was amazing which lead to a great hook up to fish landed ratio . Watching Scott and Jr work together I thought of two words . Urgency and chemistry . To watch them move urgently to make sure a fish was landed was pretty amazing . They worked well together and had very good chemistry which means that each knew their responsibilities and knew what the other was going to do . Simply put , their professionalism and fishing ability turned potential chaotic situations into a controlled and enjoyable situation . You are probably wondering what kind of chaos could there be while fishing on a boat ? Well , when you have twenty three anglers trolling for salmon you can have multiple situations happen that can turn ugly fast . For example , when an angler is hooked up and the fish wants to take you from one side of the boat to the other . There are many lines in the water and if you don ’ t act quickly you will probably get tangled with multiple lines and ultimately lose the fish . I will tell you that these two deckhands made each situation feel like they were in complete control which lead to a very enjoyable experience . Now , let me tell you about the amazing salmon fishing . Fishing started off very good and it didn ’ t take long to get the first fish on the boat . The bite was very consistent and it seemed like someone was hooking up every fifteen minutes or so . At times , there were doubles and maybe a triple hook up once or twice . The fish were hitting the deck so I asked Scott how many fish we had on the boat . He replied , “ we have around twenty keepers in the box !” Did I mention that this was at 9am ! I make sure and try to learn something when I am fishing . There is a lot more than just putting your bait in the water and hoping a fish bites . I did learn a couple of things on this trip . The first thing I learned “ running our baits ” helped to get bites . Running your baits was explained to me as checking your bait every 10 minutes or so . Usually , checking your bait is to make sure that you don ’ t have weeds on your bait and to make sure your bait is fresh . What I didn ’ t realize not only are you checking your bait for those reasons mentioned above but your are moving your bait into a variety of water columns . If every angler on the boat does this , not at the same time but with a coordinated approach , there is a lot of bait movement and action that the fish can ’ t handle and it often provokes a bite . Try and visualize twenty three anglers constantly moving their bait into a variety of water columns . It seems pretty logical that a school of salmon would be attracted to all these baits moving . It was obvious that when one of the deckhands said , “ run your baits ” and we listened it seemed like we got a bite in the next few minutes or so . One other thing that I learned that a school of salmon will often follow the boat and running your baits keeps these fish biting . In fact , one angler got a bite when letting his line out after checking his bait and another angler got a bite when starting to retrieve his line to check his bait . The bottom line is that you want to keep checking your bait and keep the bait moving . Personally , when I see a salmon it seems like I have to take a moment and consider the journey it had down river to make it back to the ocean . I
also find myself guessing the age of the fish . I often wonder is that a fish that would return to spawn this year or would it return next year ? I definitely check to see if the fish is missing its adipose fin . A missing adipose fin means it a hatchery fish . A salmon that still has their adipose fin intact is a wild salmon . Both wild and hatchery salmon had an amazing journey to make it back to the ocean . We finished up the day with boat limits ! Pretty amazing since there were 23 anglers on the boat and the limit is two each . It took me several years to get back on the ocean to chase salmon but I will tell you that I hope to book another trip soon and experience this amazing fishery that is close to home . The New Eldorado III is a new boat in the fleet and owned by James Smith . If that name sounds familiar it is because he also owns California Dawn and is a legend in this industry . I will tell you that the New Eldorado III is fast and it is comfortable . We had a little bit of wind to start the morning which made it a little rough on the water . The New Eldorado III cut right through the waves providing a smooth ride to all 23 anglers that were on board . At times during the trip the swell was pretty big as well and this 55 foot catamaran pontoon style made for a very smooth ride in the open ocean . The boat is really fast since it is powered by two twin catapillar engines and it is also very spacious with a giant cabin and wide aisles around the boat . If you would like to experience great fishing , a great crew , on a amazing boat book a trip with the New Eldorado III . You can find them online at berkeleycharterboats . com or give them a call at 510-417-5557 .