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Fishing in the City Map Feature

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Our 43rd Year

Department of Fish and Wildlife ( CDFW ) offers ‘ Free Fishing Days .’ On these days , you can fish without a sport fishing license . These opportunities provide people who don ’ t normally buy a fishing license each year a casual , low-cost way to try fishing . Per the CDFW website , all fishing regulations such as bag and size limits , gear restrictions , report card requirements , fishing hours and stream closures remain in effect . However , there are two days each year when anyone can fish without purchasing a fishing license . On ‘ Free Fishing Days ,’ every angler must have the appropriate report card if they are fishing for steelhead , sturgeon , or salmon in the Smith and Klamath-Trinity River Systems . Be sure to check the latest regulations for any updates ! This year , the ‘ Free Fishing Days ’ fell on two Saturdays : July 6 and

Since 1982

he heat of mid-summer is not when most folks think of good trout fishing in our lower elevation reservoirs . But it has been my experience that the Best trout fishing in Lake Shasta is in late August ! John Brassfield and I headed up to Shasta on a warm Tuesday afternoon . We stopped at our cabin at Sugarloaf Cottages in Lakehead to unload some gear , then launched the Fish Sniffer Rogue Jet Coastal 21 . It was about 2:30 in the afternoon and the air temperature was only 92 degrees , which is pretty cool for Shasta in August . We didn ’ t expect too much of an afternoon bite with the water temperature at 82 degrees , but were pleasantly surprised . The water level was only down about 40 feet from full , which is wonderful for this time of year . We headed down the Sacramento arm of the lake to Waters Gulch and started trolling right over the main river channel towards the dam . I knew from past experience in August , that most of the trout would be deep and over the river channels in over 300 feet of water . We put on Speedy Shiners , Humdingers and Silver Horde spoons behind Vance ’ s cannonball flashers at 80 to 90 feet deep . We had trolled about a half mile before John got our first hit . The fish fought hard all the way to

Lee Kubiak of Elk Grove shows off a limit of tasty kokanee at Lake Pardee on Saturday , August 31 . These mildtasting landlocked sockeye salmon can be smoked , teriyaki grilled , or breaded and fried using your favorite recipe .

Photo by Jack Naves , The Fish Sniffer

August 31 . Since my sister Rachel Kubiak ’ s family are not avid anglers , I invited them to join me on Lake Pardee for the license-free day on August 31 . Rachel , along with her husband Lee and two daughters Leah and Emily , met me at the Lake Pardee ramp at 7:30 am . We loaded up and shoved off the boat for the Mokelumne River arm of the lake . Each year during late summer , kokanee salmon stage in the deep holes at Lake Pardee downstream of where the Mokelumne River enters the lake . The locations known as

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A trolling sunrise at Lake Shasta in August ! Photo by Paul Kneeland , Fish Sniffer staff

the surface and then jumped twice ! After a spirited fight , I netted a very fat 19 inch rainbow that weighed 3 pounds . We continued trolling down the river channel and got a bite or trout every 15 minutes or so . We didn ’ t see any big marks on the graph , and only the occasional small bait ball , but we had fairly constant action . There was no rhyme or reason , except the fish were all very deep . We quit at 6:30 with 17 trout landed , including a 3 pound brown and several

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FRESHWATER REPORTS American River - California Delta - Eagle Lake ..... 12 Eagle Lake .............................................................. 13 Folsom Lake ........................................................... 15 New Melones - Lake Tahoe .................................... 20

Trinity River - Truckee / Little Truckee Rivers ........... 22

SALTWATER REPORTS Berkeley / Fisherman ’ s Wharf .................................... 23 Bodega Bay - Half Moon Bay .................................. 25

Where ... When ... How ...

GO FOR IT : Staff ........................................................ 4 MAP FEATURE : Dan Bacher ..................................... 16

Ernie Marlan fished Lake Lopez in his 22 ’ Skeeter Bay Boat . He caught several crappie and some bass while using ultralight gear that included a Wally Marshall Speed Shooter Combo with 4lb test line . The bait of choice was a Mr . Crappie Slabalicious

Paul Kneeland fished Eagle Lake with Brian Garcia of Alta and Ron Nedved of Colfax in the Fish Sniffer 21 ’ Rogue Jet Coastal . They caught Eagle lake rainbows to 22 1 \ 2 inches and 4.5 pounds using a Daiwa DXS 8 ’ light action IM-7 graphite trigger stick rigged with a Daiwa Lexa 100 Line counter reel loaded with 8 lb test Yozuri Hybrid line . They trolled chartreuse / red dot Silver Horde Kingfisher spoons and red dot frog Speedy Shiners off the Canon Downriggers 15 to 30 feet deep at 2.4 mph .

Sheldon Bright fished a private lake in Sacramento County and caught 20 + largemouth bass up to 5-1 / 2 pounds while drop shotting 7 ” Robo Worms in the Aaron ’ s Magic color presented by a Daiwa Fuego LT / Bass Pro Shops Johnny Morris Spinning combo spooled with 6 lb Yo-Zuri Fluorocarbon line .