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Our 43rd Year

Since 1982

Power’ s 2025 derby season opened at New Bullards Bar Reservoir. Fifty-nine boats and 154 registered anglers descended upon the lake eager to find out where the big kokanee were hiding. The questions everybody was asking right off the bat was: How big are the kokanee this year? This writer was lucky enough to fish the derby, and I can attest that the kokanee were running around eleven inches in length on average. The good news is that they are plentiful in numbers. Always check the regulations before fishing, but as of writing, the limit on kokanee is ten per angler at Bullards Bar. This special limit only applies to a few lakes in California where the kokanee are small in size, but big in numbers. This year I fished in Jim Brittain’ s fine North River boat alongside Jim’ s son-in-law Kyle Cobb. The three of us departed the Dark Day ramp well before light and slowly made our way up the Yuba River branch of the lake.

ast week I had the chance to experience the famous spring striper run on the Sacramento River. Every spring the stripers swim up from the delta to spawn in the upper reaches of the Sacramento River. The last few years the striper run has been extraordinary, just the opposite of the salmon runs. I contacted one of The Fish Sniffer’ s longest running advertisers, Pro Guide Robert Weese of Northern California Guide Service. Robert has been guiding on the Sacramento and Feather

Rivers since 1985, the year I started at The Fish Sniffer! He literally grew up on the river, living in the Red Bluff and Los Molinos areas for the last 50 years! Robert is a staunch supporter of all the river fisheries, and he is extremely knowledgeable, and frustrated, about all the problems facing the salmon fishery in the Sacramento River. Years of drought dramatically reduced the ability of the salmon to spawn, and worse, years of mis-management by the powers that be have been tremendously

Derby time didn’ t start until 6:30 am, so Jim took his time while Kyle and I got everything rigged up under the illumination of our headlamps. A dark blue slice appeared overhead, as twilight revealed the sky bracketed by black mountains on either side. We were in a narrow gorge somewhere up the Yuba arm of the lake. After more light appeared and fishing time kicked off, about five other boats in the general area zigzagged around looking for the first kokanee of the morning. We were not alone in feeling that the kokanee were not biting early! It was a waiting game, as clouds of fish appeared on the sonar under the boat. Slowly but surely, a few fish stared to bite. Around 8:00 am, full pandemonium broke loose, and we had a tough time keeping rods in the water. The first hot depth was fifty-one feet on the downrigger. The fish slowly pushed deeper, and after a while seventy-one feet was the strike zone.

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Kyle Cobb of Grass Valley shows off a pan-sized kokanee at Bullards Bar on Saturday, April 5. By the time this photo was taken in the early afternoon, the kokanee had pushed to over one-hundred feet deep within the lake’ s stunning green waters. While kokanee in Bullards tend to run on the smaller side, the ten-fish limit and fine table quality of the fillets makes it a solid destination for any Northern California angler.

Photo by Jack Naves, Fish Sniffer Staff

The crew with full limits of tasty striped bass. Photo courtesy of Robert Weese, Northern California Guide Service

FRESHWATER REPORTS Lake Almanor- American River................................ 9 Lake Berryessa- Bullards Bar / Englebright Lakes..... 10 Camanche Lake- Collins Lake................................ 11 Davis Lake- Don Pedro Lake................................. 12 East Bay Lakes Roundup.......................................... 13 Feather / Sacramento Rivers- Folsom Lake............... 16 Klamath / Trinity Rivers- Los Vaqueros Reservoir......... 17

New Melones Lake....................................................... 19 Oroville Lake- Pardee Lake......................................... 21 Prosser / Stampede Lakes- Rio Vista / Delta.................. 23 Lake Shasta- Truckee / Little Truckee Rivers................ 24 SALTWATER REPORTS Bodega Bay- Fisherman’ s Wharf-Berkeley Marina... 26 Monterey Bay............................................................. 27

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

GO FOR IT: Staff........................................................ 4 MAP FEATURE: Dan Bacher..................................... 14 SALMON UPDATE: Dan Bacher............................... 18 SPOTLIGHT ON CONSERVATION: Dan Bacher....... 25

Jack Naves fished Bullards Bar with Jim Brittain of Orangevale in Jim’ s North River. They caught limits of kokanee using Pro Troll downriggers. For rods, Jack used Kufa kokanee rods and Abu Garcia C3‘ Kokanee’ reels loaded with FINS 15-pound test braided line with a 50’ top shot of Trilene XT10-pound test clear. They trolled a variety of lures including Mack’ s Wedding Ring spinners behind Paulina Peak 4.5-inch gold-hammered dodgers at 1.1 miles per hour. The depths ranged from 51 feet to 105 feet deep.

Paul Kneeland fished Lake Shasta with John Brassfield of Foresthill in the Fish Sniffer 21’ Rogue Jet Coastal. They caught rainbow and brown trout to 25 inches and 5.2 pounds using a Rogue Rods 7’ 9” light action graphite rod with a Daiwa Accudepth low profile line counter reel loaded with 8 lb test P line. They trolled 3 inch blue / yellow Apexes and white / red dot Hot Ticket spoons behind Vance’ s cannonball flashers off the Canon Downriggers at 25 to 60 feet deep and 2.2 mph.

Dan Bacher fished for rainbow trout at Lafayette Reservoir. He used a Berkley Ugly Stik GX2 6’ 6” medium action spinning rod, teamed up with a Shakespeare GX235 spinning reel filled with 8 lb. test P-Line CX Premium Fluorocarbon Coated Line. He fished with Berkley Tequila Sunrise Power Bait on a # 14 Eagle Claw gold treble hook on a sliding sinker rig.