24 April 25, 2025 VOL. 44 • ISS. 4
FRESHWATER REPORTS:
CONTINUED FROM PG 23
RIO VISTA / DELTA
Rickey Acosta of Feeding Frenzy Sportfishing. Capt. Rickey has been doing both some striper trolling and sturgeon fishing of late. He’ s been taking his customers mainly on the San Joaquin River trolling San Andreas Shoal, Santa Clara Shoal, off Eddo’ s Marina to the Antioch Bridge for limits of stripers. Capt. Rickey continued to tell me that the outgoing tides seemed to be producing more for him using deep diving lures. If Capt. Rickey isn’ t trolling for stripers with his clients, he’ s sturgeon fishing with them. He told me that he’ s searching for sturgeon mainly by graphing the Middle Grounds to the Horseshoe in 25 to 35 feet of water until he locates a school of them. On his most recent trip he had 12 hook-ups and released 7 at the boat using salmon roe, If you would like more information about the California Striped Bass Association( CSBA), go to our website( www. striper-csba. org). You will be able to access all the information related to the 4 CSBA Chapters. New members only pay $ 25, that includes a one-time $ 5 initiation fee. After the first year of membership the annual dues are only $ 20. Your membership helps to strengthen our mission to protect striped bass and our fisheries. Some Chapters will give you a free gift just for joining. The Isleton-Delta Chapter gives all new members two free Isleton Chapter decals and a Chapter hat as a thank you for joining our Chapter.
- Ken Baccetti, President of the California Striped Bass Association
( CSBA), Isleton-Delta Chapter.
LAKE SHASTA
Bass off the hook, Trout a little slow
The spring bass bite is in full swing at Shasta Lake! According to Phil’ s Props in Redding, fishermen are catching bass all over the lake as the fish are in pre-spawn. Best depths are very shallow, anywhere from 0 to 30 feet deep. Best areas are shallow points, and also in the back of coves near flooded willows and other trees. Largemouth, spots and even smallmouth are hitting just about anything that is thrown at them, including swimbaits, grubs, senkos and even small crankbaits. Color doesn’ t seem to matter much, with fish being caught on bright greens and pinks, as well shad, pumpkin and brown colors. One tournament angler showed off an 8 pounder last week, with most fish in the 2 to 5 pound range. Trout fishermen have seen the bite slow down in the last week or so. They are still catching some nice fish, with lots of the recently planted german browns in the bag, as well as rainbows, in the 15 to 20 inch lengths. Most of the fish are
14 year old Bentley Stover of Rough and Ready shows off a nice limit of stripers caught near the Clarksburg Boat Ramp.
Photo courtesy of Joshua Stover still being caught shallow, from the surface down to 30 feet or so. Rob Hower reported that many of the fish are feeding on the black ant and termite hatch that is going on. When he sees the hatch, he runs smaller spoons at 1.5 to 1.8 mph near the surface. Otherwise he is running pink, copper and gold Thomas Eels and also Speedy Shiners and other spoons at 2.4 to 2.7 mph on planer boards and down to the 30 foot depth with both leadcore line and downriggers. Rob said he hadn’ t seen any shad balls lately, but they should show up as the water temperature rises. The water level is still rising and the lake sits about 6 feet from full pool as of press time. The water temperature is in the high 50’ s to low 60’ s depending on time of day and where in the lake you are. Trout can be caught working the lake arms and coves, trolling lures such as Speedy Shiners, Mag Lips, Hot Ticket and other spoons. Trolling from 2.4 to 3.0 mph can trigger bites when the fish are a little shy. The Bureau of Reclamation says that the lake will be raised to 7’ from full pool then releases will start in early May. Because of the high water, the lake has a lot of floating debris, from pine needles to 8 foot long logs, so be very careful when traveling around the lake.
LAKE TAHOE
Mackinaw on the bite in springtime weather
Kim at Tahoe Sportfishing said the fishing has been consistent the last few weeks. Some trips have been cancelled because of windy weather, but it looks like the weather will be much nicer in the coming weeks. They are running both morning and afternoon trips when the weather allows. The morning trips are averaging 8 to 15 mackinaw per trip, with the average size being 2 to 5 pounds. They did have a nice 15 pound mack caught and released last week. They have been fishing mostly in the south end of the lake. They are primarily slow trolling minnows at depths between 100 and 200 feet. They expect the fishing to improve as the weather gets better and warms up this spring.- Report courtesy of Tahoe Sportfishing
TRUCKEE / LITTLE TRUCKEE RIVERS
Use High Water Fly Fishing Tactics for Big Trout
TRUCKEE- We are now in the early stages of run off here on the Truckee and its tributaries. Flows are on the rise and likely won’ t drop again until mid-to-late May.
What does this mean for fishing in the area? Well, first off, it means you should certainly keep fishing. A lot of anglers get intimidated by high water, while we can’ t necessarily blame you, the fact is the fish can’ t leave the water and they have to keep eating. In this week’ s Truckee River section of the report, we will talk about tactics of fishing during spring runoff, which we have said many times over, is one of our favorite times of the year to fish the river. When fishing during spring runoff, people often see the river as being too large and hard to fish. While it’ s true that the river is larger, it also makes the fishable areas smaller. This means that the areas that fish can hold in are fewer and it makes it easier to know where they may be. This evens the playing field. Think about sections of the river that you’ ve been to during the summer that are slow, deep, and may otherwise not hold trout most times of year, other than during the occasional dry fly hatch that pushes fish back into the slower water. These sections of“ frog water” are where you would be looking to fish when the flows come up. You should also target the inside bend of sweeping turns, eddies alongside fast water, or just areas of slow-moving water near the banks. The latter will really be the best during peak flows of 2k or more. High flows also often mean diminished water clarity. Turbidity is another aspect of runoff that gets a bad rap. Yes, less than a foot of visibility is certainly not great, but a bit of color to the water will make fishing heavier tippet and larger flies more effective. Heavier tippet and larger flies( I. E. larger hooks) mean higher odds of landing those Truckee River trophies. The increase in flows also dislodge the larger meals such as stones, worms, crawdads, and eggs making fish feed with reckless abandon. Fish slow water, use 2x-3x tippet, add a good amount of weight and you’ ll find fish, trust us! The flows on the Little Truckee River are great right now, sitting at 150 CFS today. The fishing out here has been excellent using both dries and nymphs. At 150 CFS, Euro nymphing is a really fun way to fish this river and can be incredibly effective. 6x fluorocarbon can be very important when nymphing paired with small size 16-18 perdigons, worms, eggs, midges will be great options right now. The baetis have still been the dominant dry fly hatch right now, but we are also seeing winter stones and skwala stones. We’ re just a few short weeks away from seeing the single most important bug of the summer, the PMD.
- Miles Zimmerman, Trout Creek Outfitters.