Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition 3804 Feb 1-15 2019 | Page 23

CONTINUED FROM PG 18 SHADOW CLIFFS LAKE cont. trout on a lure. Miquel, Michael, and Jonathon and family from San Jose caught a big stringer of trout along the shoreline. Please note boaters must be 100 feet away from the fish tube, swim ropes and the boat docks. Trail Closures: The third dock is only accessible via the levee trail. The trail between the second and third dock that runs alongside the lake is Jose Contreras caught a 5-1/2 pound trout from the dam while using closed until further notice. PowerBait at Collins Lake. Reports on bass Photo courtesy of COLLINS LAKE RESORT, Oregon House. success from the Arroyo Del Valle Ponds remain scarce during the cold Shasta is currently 85 feet from the top and weather. Fishing in the ponds is restricted to boaters are advised to use caught because catch and release, barbless hooks, artificial there is floating wood on the lake. lures, float tubes only. SMITH/CHETCO RIVERS SHASTA LAKE Chetco Produces Most Consistent Steelhead Action Bass & Trout Bite Despite Cloudy Rising Water REDDING - Lake Shasta has come up significantly over the past 6 weeks and continues to rise about two feet per day as of press time. In the short term this rapid rise has been a mixed blessing for anglers. The water in the lake is murky, but due to warm storms the surface temperature isn’t overly cold at about 52 degrees. The bass bite is hot with these conditions and trout fishing is productive too. Trollers working Shasta in search of trout are hooking rainbows to 4 plus pounds but they are working for these fish. The most successful anglers are trolling bright colored spoons and minnow plugs at medium and fast speeds. Areas that feature inflowing water are producing the best. Working the river arms as opposed to the main body is a good bet because you’ll find the cleanest water in the arms. Bass anglers describe very good action on spotted bass that range up to 3 pounds. Six inch worms teamed with darter heads are the offering of choice, but spoons are working too. The bass are holding on rocky structure in both the main lake and lower ends of the river arms. BROOKINGS - If you want to hook some fresh winter steelhead, now is a top-notch time to head to the Chetco River. “Most drift boat guides are reporting 1 go 3 steelhead per day on the Chetco,” said Phil Desautels of Phil’s Smiling Salmon Guide Service. “Yesterday Phil Olbert of Gladstone, Oregon, hooked two steelhead, landing one hatchery hen while fishing with me on the Chetco. On the previous day, James Cooper of Oakland put a 9 lb. hatchery steelhead in my boat.” “We’ve been fishing yarn and roe in the section from the Ice Box to the Social Security Hole,” Desautels stated. “Every fish we’ve put in the boat lately was a hatchery steelhead.” He noted that plunkers fishing in the early morning hours are picking up some quality steelhead on the Chetco on Spin Glo/roe and Spin Glo/nightcrawler combos. “One guy landed two steelhead while using a Spin Glo/ nightcrawler combo,” said Desautels. “The Smith River has been hit and miss for steelhead,” said Desautels. “One day it’s good and the next day it’s not.” - Dan Bacher CONTINUED ON PG 23 Black Bass ers Tim 1st Pros! To D AY OR N IGHT G UIDED T RIPS L EARN S HALLOW T O D EEP W ATER T ECHNIQUES LARRY HEMPHILL Guide & Instruction Service Northern California Lakes ( 530 ) 674–0276 Licensed & Bonded www.lunkerlarry.com www.thefi shsniffer.com/hemphill Fish Lake Tahoe! 3204 5 hours DaiLy Trips 90 $ All Gear Provided (800) 877–1462 • Discounts for Cash • • Large or Small Groups • Group Discounts • Gift Certificates Over 50 Years Experience on The Lake P.O. Box 488 Carnelian Bay, CA 96140 For years and years I learned how to sharpen knives the hard way, by guess and by golly; in other words, experience. Of course, in order to properly practice, I even took the extra step of buying knives just to have something with which to practice. I would take the knife, dull it, then attempt to sharpen it. This was just like when I was learning how to tie knots, by buying a cheap 1/4lb. spool of line and constantly tying knots, cutting them off, then tying it again. Freehand sharpening is not the easiest thing to do, as it takes a steady hand to hold a knife at a precise, consistent angle to the stone. Even harder is being able to hold the same angle on both sides of the knife. Inevitably, there are all sorts of random scratches on the sides of the knife, the edges are wobbly, one side is uneven with the other, and all sorts of other cosmetic mishaps occur. It’s all a part of getting a knife sharp. And per- haps, for an everyday utility knife, that is good enough. But then, as my love for knives grew, I began to purchase more and more expensive knives; knives with mirror finishes, knives with very thin, very sharp edges, and knives that were so cos- metically beautiful that any stray scratches would certainly detract from their good looks. What would I do to sharpen those knives? As I scrounged around the world of knife sharpeners, I very soon discovered that most of such devices are simply junk. Sure, they may work for certain HOW TO Trophy Boats 21 The Art of Sharpening Knives, Part 2 FRESHWATER REPORTS: 3019 2319 Feb 1-15, 2019 FRESHWATER VOL.38 • ISS. 4 (530)546–4444 E-mail: bigmack-2@att.net • www.mickeysbigmack.com knives, but there was always a limit to how sharp they got a knife, and if your knife’s sharp- ening angle didn’t match the sharpener’s, well, there was no good news on that front. Long story short: I was looking for a knife sharpening system that 1) accommodated a wide variety of knife styles, 2) precisely adjustable as to edge angle, 3) required no electrical hookup, 4) avail- able with a variety of grits, and 5) simple to use. My search ended when I looked into the Wick Edge sharpening system, which I bought for myself for Christmas. It uses an inge- nious system of “stones” (actual- ly diamond sharpeners) on guide rods that can be adjusted to the 1/2 degree. Other systems use ceramic or water stone type abrasive materials, but these wear quickly and have a short lifespan, some with as few as a hundred sharp- enings. I have read accounts of some Wicked Edge blocks lasting into the thousands of sharpenings because they use diamonds for the abrasive ma- terial, so although it may initially be expensive, they do last for a long, long time. In addition to having available a variety of grits from 50 all the way to 1,000, they also have extra fine ceramic stones, and strops that will polish down to 3.5 microns! The Wicked Edge can’t sharpen all knives, but will do very well for what I see as 95% of the knives I own, and I have lots of knives. If you enjoy really nice knives (as I do!), look into the Wicked Edge sharpening system. Goo- gle it, YouTube it, Amazon it ... you know how to look things up! SALTY TIPS by Steve “Hippo”Lau By Cal Kellogg After one or two casts, I move downstream a few feet and repeat. This approach works best in streams that are reasonably open that allow me to cover the water thoroughly and quickly. I still use Rapalas on brushy streams, but in general I use crankbaits and boomerang shaped plugs more. Since heavy brush prevents you from effectively walking and casting you have to cover a lot of water from each opening in the brush. To accomplish this I, tie on a crankbait and pitch it out a few feet into the middle of the current and close the reel’s bail. The plug will immediately swim to the near bank. I allow it to work there for several seconds and then begin feeding it line a foot or two at a time, giving it plenty of pauses to sit and work in the current. It’s amazing how many trout will dart out from under the bank and absolutely slam the bait. If crankbaits don’t produce in this situation I tie on Mag Lip or Flatfish and fish it the same way. When bank fishing lakes or reservoirs my plug selection doesn’t change. Key locations to fish are points and anywhere water is flowing into the lake. These areas should be thoroughly worked via fan casting. In lakes where the main forage is shad, I like to employ crankbaits and boomerang plugs most of the time. If pond smelt are on the menu slender minnow plugs tend to work better, but of course this is just a general rule. In reality minnow plugs work just about everywhere fish swim. And now we come to trolling. One of the reasons I really like minnow plugs and crankbaits for trolling is that they are baits that I can work quickly. Typically, I troll them from 2.5 to 4 or more miles per hour. These continued from page 16 baits work equally well when top lined or trolled from leadcore or downriggers. When top lined, you’ll want the plugs at least 150 feet behind the boat with 200 feet being preferable. If I’m kayaking, I shorten things up and run 60 to 100 feet back. Also when pulling them behind a downrigger you can shorten up significantly, although I still like to keep them at least 50 feet behind the ball. With leadcore, the distance behind the boat determines the depth. If fast trolled plugs don’t do the trick, breakout the boomerang shaped Flatfish or Mag Lips. Flatfish work best when pulled from 1 to 1.5 mph. Mag Lips can be worked faster, they dive deeper and feature a rattle chamber. Let’s wrap things up by considering color selection. All things being equal I like to run with natural colored offerings like rainbow trout or black over silver. When the water is murky that’s when you might consider breaking out the firetiger and hot orange colored lures, although I’ve caught plenty of trout in murky water with natural colored baits. And there are always excep- tions when the bright stuff works in crystal clear water. I get a lot of photos working at the Fish Sniffer and a lot of huge trout are landed in crystal clear lakes like Pardee, Almanor and French Meadows on bright orange Rapalas. When folks ask me, what works at Lake Pardee for example I tell them I’d mess around with grubs, Crip- plures and Uncle Larry’s spinners tipped with worms, but add that I’d have an orange Rapala in the water all the time. I tell them they probably wouldn’t catch anything on it, but there is always the chance that they’ll be the next person to pull a 10 plus pound brown out of the lake on one of those crazy orange and gold plugs!